Most of school soccer was elsewhere.
And but, as then-No. 7 Penn State started to fray beneath the Rose Bowl glow, televisions all over the place tuned in — to a winless UCLA staff that hadn’t led for a single second abruptly roaring forward, daring the soccer gods to imagine the unimaginable may maintain.
Towards each purpose it ought to have crumbled, an 0-4 staff with no head coach and neither coordinator detonated a season’s value of frustration in a single afternoon. UCLA lit a fuse and by no means appeared again throughout its 42-37 Saturday shocker beneath interim head coach Tim Skipper. However that shocker was engineered by Jerry Neuheisel, the quarterback-turned-assistant coach-turned “offensive play caller” who may simply have blue and gold in his bloodstream.
Jeff Faris, the second-year head coach of FCS program Austin Peay, was knee-deep in engineering an upset of his personal Saturday, toppling undefeated West Georgia lengthy earlier than phrase reached him concerning the Bruins’, and Neuheisel’s, sorcery.
Faris’ offensive coordinator, Quinn Billerman, sidled as much as him with an ambiguous query that hung someplace between disbelief and marvel.
“Man,” Billerman stated, “did you see what occurred with UCLA?”
“No, what?” Faris responded.
“I used to be shocked when he informed me UCLA received,” Faris informed The Athletic. “I stated, ‘That’s so superior!’ And to attain 42 in opposition to them (Penn State) … wow.”
Faris and Neuheisel — son of former UCLA participant and head coach and broadcaster Rick Neuheisel — coached collectively as assistants through the Chip Kelly experiment in Westwood. That’s when Faris first caught on how “sharp” and “artistic” Neuheisel was. When Faris took the Austin Peay submit for the 2024 season, Neuheisel inherited his tight ends. The baton go felt pure, the 2 having already cast a simple friendship that appears to come back normal with working alongside Neuheisel in Westwood.
“He’s like Mr. UCLA,” Faris stated. “Everybody on that campus is aware of Jerry. He’s an excellent recruiter and he’s received nice private abilities, however it’s his ardour for that college that shines by way of.”
Neuheisel joined the Bruins as a walk-on quarterback in 2013 and authored his first act of wizardry within the 2014 season — coming off the bench in Arlington, Texas, to rally UCLA previous Texas, a comeback so electrical his teammates carried him off the sector.
A Bruins lifer by way of and thru, Neuheisel by no means strayed far. After a season chopping his tooth as Texas A&M’s offense high quality management coach, he was lured again dwelling — first as a graduate assistant beneath Kelly, then climbing rung by rung from receivers coach to tight ends coach.
He had the chance to go away UCLA this offseason to turn out to be the OC at UConn for his previous coach in Westwood, Jim Mora, program sources informed The Athletic, however opted to stay at his alma mater.
After which, this week, after years of devotion to the Bruins, destiny handed him the play sheet.
JERRY NEUHEISEL
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF pic.twitter.com/vKi18i1XPa
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) October 4, 2025
Former Bruins vast receiver Theo Howard, as soon as mentored by Neuheisel, posted throughout Saturday’s sport that his previous place coach had spent years lobbying for a shot to name performs on the Rose Bowl.
So when the headset was lastly his — simply 4 days earlier than dealing with the nation’s then-Tenth greatest protection, Neuheisel handled sleep like a luxurious he couldn’t afford. He stated he snoozed three hours in 4 days, misplaced within the hunt for an ideal script.
“He went straight to work. We used each single hour and second and minute you may probably use all the way in which as much as kickoff,” stated Skipper. “I simply love the work ethic and the endurance he had. And the fellows, man, they actually reply to him. …You’ll be able to see real love and perception.”
For a program that hadn’t held a lead all season and averaged 14.25 factors a sport, the transformation bordered on absurd. The identical roster that plodded by way of 4 video games performed prefer it had been unshackled.
Collectively, Skipper and Neuheisel first sparked that perception Friday, inside a late-night offensive assembly at UCLA’s campus.
“Final night time, I knew we had an opportunity,” Neuheisel stated after the victory. “It was essentially the most enthusiastic 0-4 staff you’d ever seen in your life. Then, impulsively, you get this delusional optimism, like, ‘We’d have an opportunity at this factor.’”
Earlier than ever assembly Neuheisel, Faris was a 5-foot-11 defensive again at Duke, taking orders from the identical defensive architect Neuheisel outdueled on Saturday: Jim Knowles, who can also be the nation’s highest-paid defensive coordinator, cashing in $3.1 million yearly.
“When you informed any coach three days earlier than the sport that you just’re gonna be the offensive coordinator,” Faris stated, “it’s not like you may go to your complete repertoire of performs at different locations since you’ve practiced a sure means the entire 12 months, so to attain that many factors like that’s mind-boggling.”
Jimmie Dougherty, a former UCLA passing sport coordinator and vast receivers coach, might relate. Now Washington’s OC, he as soon as shared the UCLA places of work with Neuheisel, then a graduate assistant, each buried in Kelly’s playbook and chasing alternative.
As his Huskies mounted a miracle 24-20 comeback at Maryland, Dougherty was clueless concerning the miracle brewing in Southern California. The information reached him on the staff bus, Doughtery someplace between astonished and proud.
“I’m positive he’s (Neuheisel’s) performed it out in his thoughts many occasions so far as considering, ‘If I ever received to name it, that is what it might appear to be,’” Dougherty stated. “Nonetheless, fairly wild calling performs in your very first time in opposition to a protection like Penn State.”
Core reminiscence unlocked 🥹
UCLA’s new OC Jerry Neuheisel celebrates along with his spouse 💙 pic.twitter.com/4Tmj4jdwd6
— Yahoo Sports activities (@YahooSports) October 4, 2025
Actually, each nook of Neuheisel’s previous had purpose to smile Saturday.
Kevin Sumlin, the previous Texas A&M head coach who first employed Neuheisel, had his personal sport to observe along with his son Jackson engaged on Maryland’s workers. However the Jumbotron stole his gaze each couple of minutes, flashing landing after landing as Sumlin watched his protege’s masterpiece unfold.
“His character actually helps. The gamers discover,” stated Sumlin. “You might see it on his face when watching him on the sideline. He was having such time. He was precisely what they wanted. He’s smiling, laughing, smacking guys on the again.”
That pleasure, Sumlin stated, flipped one thing within the Bruins locker room. UCLA had trudged by way of the season because the nation’s 112th-worst offense. However beneath Neuheisel, the strain lifted. The tempo quickened. The sideline loosened. The gamers got here alive.
Sumlin noticed it clearest in Nico Iamaleava, who ran for 3 touchdowns Saturday to turn out to be the Bruins’ first quarterback to attain the feat since 1978. With Iamaleava buried beneath months of criticism and stress, Sumlin stated Neuheisel unearthed one thing looser, freer and unmistakably enjoyable within the QB.
“Have a look at how (Iamaleava) performed,” Sumlin stated. “He was lights out, like a very completely different man. He was free for no matter purpose. He appeared just like the quarterback that everyone thought he was again in highschool.”
The Bruins’ forever-grinning Goldilocks breathed life again into the Rose Bowl, the type it hadn’t felt in years. UCLA’s offense lastly moved with rhythm. Pleasure was injected again into the playbook.
Neuheisel referred to as the performs — the flawless performs — and concurrently referred to as again the enjoyable, the religion and the sensation that UCLA might nonetheless be UCLA.
“Most coaches don’t lead campus excursions. He leads all of them,” Faris stated. “Every time former gamers come again, they at all times wished to see Jerry. He’s an establishment there. Couldn’t be happier for him.”
(Picture: Luke Hales / Getty Photos)
