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Here's the situation in Westwood: Rick Neuheisel is back from Cabo, Rocky Seto has been resoundingly vetoed, and Randy Shannon reportedly has an offer from another school. Bruins Nation tries to make sense of the myriad swirling storylines surrounding the strange fact that we're approaching the middle of February and UCLA still doesn't have a defensive coordinator on staff. The newest rumored candidate: Kentucky DC Steve Brown.
Brown's openness to leave Lexington has come about after UK coach Joker Philips demoted Brown to a co-defensive coordinator position, bringing in another defensive assistant as a co-coordinator with playcalling responsibilty. Members of our sister SBN site A Sea of Blue has some thoughts on Brown and his performance at Kentucky; a fanpost written during the past season calling for him to go, but with a number of comments defending - or at least explaining the performance of defense under Brown's tutelage.
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Judging by those thoughts, it looks that Brown was able to turn around a very bad defense and make it into at least an average/slightly above average defense in the four years that he has run the defense (he had been Kentucky's defensive backs coach the four years previous).
There have been several other coaching roster moves since we last saw Neuheisel on signing day; more information on those changes is available at the above link. Stay tuned to Bruins Nation for all the latest news on UCLA's coordinator search.
The UCLA football program could be charitably characterized as "tumultuous" of late, but the search for a new defensive coordinator has been an unusually dramatic one even by those standards. Any relief Bruins partisans may have felt at the December ousting of the abysmal Chuck Bullough had largely ebbed by the time National Signing Day came and went with no replacement candidate signed or even announced. Randy Shannon was floated as a possible replacement candidate, but ultimately passed over for a familiar face: Rocky Seto, a Pete Caroll assistant at Seattle who's been on his staff since the 2004 season back at USC, was announced last week as the next Bruins DC.
This went over in our UCLA community about as well as you'd expect:
Some of the lines we are hearing as "justification" for this mangled mess is that this guy is a Pete Carroll Jr. Think about that for a minute. Think how many key strokes have been spent on this blog and all over UCLA boards in last few years exposing his program. Think about all the moral righteousness from the UCLA community about not ever wanting to be like USC. Now folks are being asked to swallow the line that this Seto guy would be a mini-Carroll? Sorry. No can do.
And so it was that the #VetoSeto campaign was born. I spoke to a concerned alum this morning who detailed a remarkably widespread and concerted grassroots effort that revved into place with alarming speed over the past week:
BN unleashed a "#VetoSeto" campaign using its Twitter, Facebook accounts, just overwhelming UCLA's athletic department, which very well could have played a key role in offline organizing leading to reservations conveyed to Rick Neheisel and the athletic director during the week of national signing day.
UCLA fans took to social media platforms to publicize the rhyming slam, boosters cornered athletic department staffers at Signing Day press events, and lo! Over the weekend, the L.A. Times reported the offer (if there ever was one) mysteriously vaporized:
Seto, as assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks, was offered and accepted the job Tuesday night, but the offer was rescinded the following day, according to the person close to the negotiations. The person said that no reason was given other than UCLA officials decided to go "in another direction." UCLA officials claimed Saturday that no "official" offer had been made.
Was our own Bruins Nation community responsible for this sea change? Certain four-letter major media outlets are speculating as such, and to hear the details of the community effort that went into the Seto Veto, it's not that farfetched. The power of the internet as a scattergun scream machine is never to be underestimated, and Neuheisel doesn't have much cred he can afford to fritter away on such a widely loathed hire.
All of this by way of saying: It's February and UCLA doesn't have a defensive coordinator. Clock's ticking in Westwood.
For more on this story and for all your UCLA athletics news, visit Bruins Nation and SB Nation Los Angeles.
Joe Tresey Hired As UCLA Defensive Coordinator After Tranquil, Bizarre Search
Joe Tresey has been named UCLA Bruins defensive coordinator, ending a strange, weeks-long quest that involved trips to Cabo and UCLAnonymous rejecting a potential hire. Hey, whatever it takes to find your guy.
Tresey has served as defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bearcats and South Florida Bulls, and as the defensive backs coach for the UFL’s Omaha Nighthawks. He’s also coached at Georgia Southern and Akron.
Head coach Rick Neuheisel on the hire of Tresey:
Randy Shannon was thought to be a potential Bruins hire, and despite his rejection of Maryland’s offer, he might’ve considered joining Westwood.
Feb 15 4:46p by Jason Kirk - 0 comments