Donahue Bows Out At Ucla When Opportunity Knocks, Coach Becomes Broadcaster

Saying the timing was right and he couldn’t pass up a great opportunity, Terry Donahue resigned as UCLA’s football coach Monday to take a television job.

Donahue leaves as the all-time leader in victories at UCLA and in Pac-10 games against conference opponents.

“A dream of mine is coming to an end,” Donahue said at a campus news conference attended by his wife and three daughters. “It’s a very emotional decision for me, but one I felt had to be made.

“It’s been a wild and wonderful ride. It’s been more than one person should ever get in a lifetime. This is really not based on anything like burnout, being fatigued, not enjoying the job.

“This has nothing to do with that. This has to do with an opportunity that came. Opportunity comes when it comes.”

Donahue, 51, will work as a football analyst for CBS. His first game will be the Hancock Bowl on Dec. 29, and he will also work the Fiesta Bowl between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Florida on Jan. 2. College football returns to CBS on a weekly basis next season.

UCLA will play one final game under Donahue, in the Aloha Bowl against No. 11 Kansas in Honolulu on Christmas Day.

Donahue has been the Bruins’ head coach for 20 years and only three other current coaches have put in more years at one university - Penn State’s Joe Paterno (30), BYU’s LaVell Edwards (24) and Nebraska’s Tom Osborne (23).

UCLA hopes to have a new coach by the first of the year.