Guerrero: "We brought Rick Neuheisel home"

Rick Neuheisel was formally introduced as UCLA’s new head football coach in what was billed as a news conference, but was just as much a pep rally with more than 160 people in a room that was set up with 70 chairs.

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero was an enthusiastic as anyone had ever seen, saying "Today we have another opportunity to celebrate. We brought Rick Neuheisel home."

He also joked about the deliberate pace of the hiring process after Karl Dorrell was excused on December 3: "I want to thank all of you for your patience as we went through this thing. I looked in the "How to Hire a Football Coach" manual and for some reason, it didn’t say you had to do it in three days, five days or ten days or whatever.

"I can assure you with the highest degree of confidence that we did come up with the right decision. We are thrilled to death to have Rick Neuheisel back at UCLA. We’re forever grateful that he accepted this position and we’re looking forward to what the future will bring."

He then surprised everyone by handing Neuheisel a copy of his no. 10 jersey, which was instantly donned by Neuheisel’s middle son, Jack.

After the session ended, Guerrero added two points in response to questions:

>> "There’s a mitigation clause" in Dorrell’s agreement that would reduce what the university owes him on a dollar-for-dollar basis by what he might be paid in another coaching position. There have been published reports in Texas that Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak – who coached with Dorrell at Denver – may consider him for the position of offensive coordinator.

>> As to UCLA’s ability to pay enough to keep assistant coaches like DeWayne Walker and others, Guerrero said "We’re giving him [Neuheisel] the resources to be very competitive in the marketplace and I don’t think that’s an issue for us to be honest. Not at all."