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These are heady times for Rick Neuheisel.
He has rebuilt his resume, if not entirely his reputation. Rising from assistant high school coach to NFL offensive coordinator isn't too shabby even if it is with the points-challenged Baltimore Ravens. Five long years after the NCAA Tournament pool gambling scandal at Washington, you figured Neuheisel was still radioactive. Hot to the touch for any AD who even thought about bringing him back to the college game.
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| All the ugliness that ended Rick Neuheisel's stint in Washington is now behind him. (Getty Images) |
He's a winner. Ask the NCAA and the University of Washington. They might not call him that exactly because both entities had him by his sun-kissed blond hair a few years ago. Neuheisel reacted by lawyering up, showing little contrition and suing not only his employer but the NCAA.
They both settled. That, folks, is a huge win.
It also figured to stain him for life. Until now. You've got a guy on TV -- name of Lou Holtz -- who was Petrino x 10 during a job-hopping career. He left NCAA investigations in his wake. He even jumped from the NFL to Arkansas after 13 games. What comes around, lisps around. Holtz is now being paid to pronounce sentences on guys like Petrino.
Classic.
We've come full circle, people. With Neuheisel, you want a guy on your sideline who has a lifetime .688 winning percentage and has banked millions in that settlement money while loopholing U-Dub and NCDub-A back to the Stone Age.
I'm not sure if he is even in the right profession. Where does Slick Rick fit best, managing a two-minute offense or managing a start-up hedge fund? I don't know about you, but I've got $10,000 laying around that I'd take my chances with signing over to the man right now. He didn't exactly lose money in that tournament pool. Neuheisel is probably the only guy who could invest in Dubai in September and deliver a BCS bowl by December.
Neuheisel should be hired by somebody -- right now -- primarily because he's available. At least one agent has been working the phones trying to get the guy another college gig. Word on the street has circulated far and wide that Rick wants back in. Ravens coach Brian Billick has given his blessing, saying his OC could leave before the season is completed. In other words, the opposite of Arthur Blank and Petrino.
Georgia Tech reportedly interviewed Neuheisel during its process. Georgia Tech! SMU might have, too. SMU! Check out this Duke message board with a petition urging AD Joe Alleva to interview Neuheisel.
Duke?
Those aren't exactly renegade programs. Someone somewhere must have thought this thing through and figured the statute of limitations had run out. That, or compared to his peers, what he did just isn't that bad.
