Colorado’s Neuheisel Adds Panache To Big 12

He golfs. He skis. He sings ballads to the strumming of his own guitar.

Take away his law degree, and he still could say he taught the class of the NFL, having instructed a guy by the name of Troy Aikman on UCLA’s offense.

But, no, Rick Neuheisel does not list his main occupation as resume-builder, Troy-maker or Renaissance man.

The Big 12 Conference, however, certainly can list Neuheisel as an asset.

Not until two days after the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl will Neuheisel, the Colorado coach, have held his job for a full year. But the fact that he wants to keep it will give the Big 12 - set for an official launch this summer - an extra air of distinction.

Neuheisel’s recent withdrawal of his candidacy for the coaching job at UCLA, his alma mater, should be counted as Big 12 football victory No. 1. Neuheisel, 34, will bring a twist to the conference’s coaches’ showroom, which will have its share of vintage models, from country classic Spike Dykes to Lincoln fixture Tom Osborne.

We’ll start with the premise that Neuheisel does not appear to be your traditional college football coach. But then, he did not have the average college football playing career.

He walked on at UCLA and eventually outgunned Steve Bono for the starting quarterback job four games into Neuheisel’s senior season (1983) before earning Rose Bowl MVP acclaim in 1984.

Neuheisel, in Dallas on Thursday to prepare for the Cotton Bowl date with Oregon, said a walk-on never forgets, and the experience of making a team in such fashion provides lasting resources.

“I think it teaches you patience,” he said. “It enhanced my belief that you never quit what you start. That helped me make the decision to stay at Colorado.”

After he coached the Buffaloes’ quarterbacks and receivers for a season, Neuheisel succeeded Bill McCartney as head coach last Jan. 3.

Neuheisel, whose 9-2 team will play 9-2 Oregon in the Cotton Bowl, said it would not have been in character for him to switch jobs so soon. But turning down what he called “dear friends” at UCLA was painful.

“I thought about it for awhile,” he said. “You don’t get very many opportunities to go to (coach) your alma mater. But I represent a great university. And I want to be a part of something new.”

Yes, he said, the new Big 12 helped influence his decision to stay with the Buffaloes.

“All 12 (teams) have rich traditions,” he said. “With the Big Eight and the cream of the crop of the Southwest Conference - Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M - it brings in major Texas enthusiasm.”

And he will bring some of his fundamentals to the new league. Not all of his strategies could be called conventional. On Wednesday, he took his team skiing and captured some of the not-ready-for-Val-d’Isere performances on film. And he composed a Cotton Bowl song and sang it on his TV show. He tells true stories, including the one about how three of the players on the Aikman-led Bruins team that won the 1989 Cotton bowl met the women they ended up marrying during their bowl week in Dallas.

His youth has made it easy for him to relate to players. And his resume has made many parents say something like, “Show us where to sign.”

But you could tell Neuheisel, rosy-cheeked and blond, gets a little tired of all the attention directed at how young he is. He looks as if he should be yodeling in a grassy meadow or competing in Punt, Pass and Kick. But he shrugs philosophically about his constant description as a young head coach: “It beats being talked about as an OLD head coach,” he said with a laugh.