Football kaleidoscope: the coaching carousel

There’s actually not that much to report on the UCLA coaching search, except:

>> Washington State will hire Eastern Washington head Coach Paul Wulff, a former WSU center from 1989 who was an honorable mention All-American. That lets out current UCLA interim head coach DeWayne Walker, who was rumored as a candidate for the position.

>> Auburn offensive coordinator Al Borges, who was Bob Toledo’s offensive coordinator at UCLA in the glory days of Cade McNown, resigned today. Head Coach Tommy Tuberville has been unhappy with the offensive output of the Tigers. Borges helped Auburn to a 13-0 mark in his first year in 2004, but the team is 101st in the nation in total offense this season and his offense scored two or less touchdowns in six of eight SEC games. Could he be a candidate for the UCLA job? Not likely; he’s never been a head coach on the collegiate level, a qualification that seems to be a prerequisite.

>> For those beating the drum for former Bruin quarterback and Colorado and Washington head coach Rick Neuheisel, consider this: In his two seasons working closely with head Coach Brian Billick as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, the Baltimore Ravens were 17th in the NFL in total offense last season (with a 13-3 team!) and down to 25th this season with a 4-9 mark. However, it’s worth pausing to consider what anyone could do with Kyle Boller at quarterback after Steve McNair went down with injuries.

>> There are lots of rumors and no facts regarding Fresno State Coach Pat Hill as a possible replacement for Karl Dorrell. However, Hill’s resume shows a good fit for UCLA. He’s from Los Angeles, obviously has head-coaching experience at the collegiate level, has been a consistent winner at a school with no obvious recruiting advantages, has a fine Academic Progress Report score for his team of 950 (UCLA’s was 925) and has a background in offense, primarily with the offensive line. In 11 years at Fresno, he has had only two losing seasons and seven seasons with eight or more wins.

>> Former coach Dorrell apparently has spoken with officials at Duke about their vacant head-coaching position. If Dorrell were to be hired there, it could relieve a substantial portion of UCLA’s liabilities to him depending on his new salary terms. Former Duke Coach Ted Roof was paid about $500,000 per year and Dorrell would command more. Dorrell is owed about $2.05 million from UCLA, to be paid over the next two years, but parts of those payments would be reduced dollar-for-dollar by what he is paid in another job.

Beyond the coaching search issues, good news for sophomore fullback Trevor Theriot, who was placed on an athletic scholarship today. Theriot was UCLA’s starting fullback all season after Michael Pitre was injured during fall camp.