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LOS ANGELES ? Rick Neuheisel arrived for work on the UCLA campus Monday morning to find a group of protesters' tents propped up beneath his second floor office of the Morgan Center.
The UCLA athletic department office complex was surrounded by security guards and barricades because of concerns about protesters storming the building to disrupt a board of regents conference call. The building's conference room was the police command center.
It was in the midst of this surreal setting that Neuheisel walked into UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero's office. Less than 24 hours earlier, Neuheisel insisted UCLA had "moved the needle" enough during his tenure to stay on the job for the 2012 season. Guerrero didn't agree, firing Neuheisel after he had four seasons at his alma mater to try to deliver on his promise to return UCLA to national prominence.
Neuheisel will coach the Bruins in the Pac-12 championship game at Oregon on Friday night. UCLA offensive coordinator Mike Johnson would serve as an interim coach should the Bruins play in a bowl.
"This has kind of hit me between the eyes here a little bit," Neuheisel said of Guerrero's decision.
Maybe it shouldn't have. Guerrero weighed firing Neuheisel after the season since a bench-clearing brawl marred a prime time television 48-12 loss at Arizona on Oct. 20, but Guerrero held off making a final decision.
"I wanted to give Rick the opportunity to see if he could turn this around," Guerrero said.
But shortly after returning home late Saturday night following USC's 50-0 romp against the Bruins, Guerrero decided he had seen enough.
"The bottom line is the last two years of his tenure here we're very similar to the first two years and that just wasn't moving the needle enough," Guerrero said.
Two days after a 50-0 loss to USC, Neuheisel was gone.
"I thanked Dan for the opportunity," Neuheisel said. "I don't need reasons and all that kind of stuff. Certainly when you're the UCLA coach, you'd like to play better against USC. I know that. We had our chances, but when you lose in the fashion we did, that's a difficult pill to swallow."
Guerrero informed Bruin players via Twitter around 9:45 a.m. Monday and then met with 30 to 40 players in person at 11 a.m.
"How many of you came to UCLA to go 6-6?" Guerrero asked the players.
"Not one of them raised their hands," he said.
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