Neuheisel builds trust, CU offense
By Mitch Sherman *
Senior Editor
Rick Neuheisel has been there.
It doesn’t matter where. He’s been
there. He’s been everywhere.
Colorado’s new head coach is 34
years old. He has never been a head
coach; he has never been an offensive
coordinator. But when it comes to
relating to his players, Neuheisel is
never lacking in experience.
“I am uniquely qualified to handle
every problem,” Neuheisel said. “I’ve
been a walk-on. I’ve been a guy with
out a jersey. I’ve been a guy without a
locker. I’ve been the guy that was the
last guy on the plane to games.
“I’ve been a fifth string, fourth
string, third string, second string and
first stringplayer. I’ve been a guy who
came in to win a game. I’ve been a guy
who was booed out of a game. I’ve
been a Rose Bowl MVP at the end of
it.
“There’s nobody who is going to
walk into my office with a problem I
won’t understand, because I know
exactly what it feels like.”
The second-youngest coach in col
lege football, Neuheisel succeeds 13
year Colorado coach Bill McCartney,
who resigned last November after re
building the Colorado program.
Neuheisel was hired by McCartney in
February 1994 as a receivers and quar
terbacks coach.
An undersized walk-on quarterback
fromTempe, Ariz., Neuheisel climbed
the depth chart at UCLA in the early
1980s, eventually leading the Bruins
to a 45-9 win over Illinois in the 1984
Rose Bowl.
He played two seasons in the USFL
and part of one year in the NFL before
the players’ strike in 1987 led him to
coaching.
He was hired at UCLA as a full
time assistant and coached quarter
backs until 1990, when he became the
Bruins’ receivers coach.
While coaching at UCLA
Neuheisel attended law school a
Southern Cal. He graduated in 199(
and was sworn into the Arizona State
Bar Association in 1991.
“The people of Colorado have beer
terrific,” Neuheisel said. “They have
gone out of their way to make me feel
wanted and appreciated, and obvi
ously when you replace a guy like Bill
McCartney, some people are going tc
wonder why.
“But it’s very exciting for me. I am
consumed by the thought of being
ready for the first game.”
When Neuheisel was hired, he
promised McCartney he would stay in
Boulder for at least three years. That
way,Neuheisel said, quarterback Koy
Detmer would have only one position
coach for the remainder of his time in
Boulder.
Detmer, who started for the Buffs
in 1992 against Nebraska, redshirted
last year. Meanwhile, Neuheisel trans
formed Kordell Stewart into one of
the nation’s premier passers.
Now that Stewart is gone, Neuheisel
said fans would see a more mature,
wiser Detmer — a result of the
quarterback’s close relationship with
his coach.
Neuheisel’s ability to connect with
Detmer is representative of his kin
ship with most of the Colorado play
ers.
“Once you build that trust with
your players, you can ask them to do
anything,” Neuheisel said. “And
they’ll do it. And it isn’t just football.
You can ask them to go to class, and
they’ll go. You can ask them to do all
the basic things a student-athlete is
supposed to do.”
This year, he has asked his players
to change defensive alignments. The
Buffaloes are switching from a 3-4 set
CU dumps red ban,
lessens NU rivalry
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
For the first time since 1982, people
are walking down the street in Boul
der, Colo., wearing red clothing.
Bill McCartney, Colorado’s foot
ball coach for the past 13 seasons, is
gone; and so is the state’s self-im
posed ban on anything resembling
the University of Nebraska’s colors.
When McCartney arrived in Boul
der, he designated the Comhusker
matchup as Colorado’s “red-letter
game.”
Each year, the Nebraska game was
written in red ink on the Buffaloes’
schedules.
Rick Neuheisel, Colorado’s new
coach, has lifted the ban. The Huskers
no longer make or break Colorado’s
season.
Senior center Bryan Stoltenberg
said too much emphasis might have
been placed on the Nebraska game in
the past.
“The coaches are not going to make
the game bigger than life for us,”
Stoltenberg said. “They realize that
each week we have a tough opponent.
That’s not to say that any emotion
from the players or drive from the
players is going to be any less.”
m
“The coaches are not
going to make the game
bigger than life for us. ”
BRYAN STOLTENBERG
Colorado center
Stoltenberg, who has never beaten
Nebraska in his three years on the
Colorado team, said the coaches from
McCartney’s staff now would prob
ably admit they stressed the Nebraska
game too much.
“But you look at every season,”
Stoltenberg said, “and the winner of
that pme goes on to be the winner of
the Big Eight and goes on to play for
the national championship.”
Nebraska’s national title last sea
son was the second by a Big Eight
team this decade. Colorado shared the
championship with Georgia Tech in
1990, which was the last year the
Buffaloes beat Nebraska.
Colorado has not lost a conference
game to any team other than Nebraska
since Oklahoma defeated the Buffa
loes 17-14 on Oct. 22, 1988.
Mitch Sherman/Q|L
Colorado’s Rick Neuheisel faces the Big Eight media for the first time as Colorado’s head *
football coach.
to a 4-3 defense, an alignment that
emphasizes speed and pursuit of the
ball.
Neuheisel said he was apprehen
sive to change anything about a team
that last season finished 11-1 and No.
3 in the nation.
“The kids really embraced the
change,” he said, “and it obviously
requires some position changes.”
The 4-3 defense, Neuheisel said,
will allow the Buffaloes to pose a
better challenge against quick of
fenses.
Last year, playing a 34 against
Nebraska’s option attack, Colorado’s
defensive weaknesses were exposed
and the Buffaloes were almost help
r—" 1 ■■ ...
“Once you build that trust with your players, you
can ask them to do anything, and they'll do it. ”
RICK NEUHEISEL
Colorado football coach
less in certain situations, Neuheisel
said.
The passive style of defense hurt
the Colorado offense, too, because die
offensive linemen didn’t become ac
customed to facing aggressive defen
sive sets. The offensive line was used
to playing against the softer 3-4 in
practice.
“We weren’t ready,” he said.
“Nebraska’s defensive ends went
around our linemen like we were in
quicksand. But now that we are play
ing that against ourselves in practice,
we are going to be ready. I don’t know
if we’11 block that guy from Nebraska
yet. I can’t tell you that, but I know we
will have practiced against it more.”
I----—
- -• - --
WR 21 RaeCarruth 6-0 180
WR2 James Kidd 5-8 160
LT 66 Clint Moore 6-3 290
LG 63 Heath Irwin 6-5 290
C 64 Brian Stoltenberg 6-2 280
RG 65 Chris Naeole 6-4 285
RT 78 Melvin Thomas 6-3 285
TE 88 Matt Lepsis 6-5 255
WR 80 Phil Savoy 6-2 190
QB 14 Koy Detmer 6-1 170
TB 5 Herchell Troutman 5-6 190
PK 17 Neil Voskeritchian 5-9 160
DE 59 GregJones 6-4 240
DT 90 Aaron Marshall 6-2 250
DT 94 Kerry Hicks 6-6 260
DE 95 Daryl Price 6-5 255
WLB 23 Allen Wilbon 6-0 220
MLB 16 Matt Russell 6-2 235
SLB 33 Ron Merkerson 6-3 240
CB 4 Elton Davis 5-9 175
SS 3 Donnell Leomiti 6-0 205
FS 15 Steve Rosga 6-1 205
CB 8 TJ. Cunningham 6-0 190
P 28 Andy Mitchell 6-2 195
DN graphic
Colorado
1995 Schedule
Date: Opponent
Sept. 2 at Wisconsin
Sept. 9 Colorado State
Sept. 16 Northeast Louisiana
Sept. 23 Texas A&M
Sept. 30 at Oklahoma
Oct. 7 Kansas
Oct. 21 at Iowa State
Oct. 28 Nabraska
Nov. 4 at Oklahoma State
Nov. 11 at Kansas
Nov. 18 Iowa State
DN graphic
Mr. McCartney is out, ‘Rick’ is in
as Colorado Buffalo team develops
From Staff Reports
As a 34-year old head coach, Rick
Neuheisel knows he is not going to be
viewed the same as Tom Osborne,
Bobby Bowden or Lou Holtz.
However, at this point, Neuheisel
said, he doesn’t want to be compared
to any other coaches.
“I’m Rick,” he said. “That’s who I
am. People call me Mr. Neuheisel.
No, that’s my dad. I need to be me.”
And if his players refer to him by
his first name, that’s fine, too.
Neuheisel said when he was first hired
as an assistant at UCLA, Bruins coach
Terry Donahue was concerned about
the players calling Neuheisel by his
first name.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Neuheisel
said. “Ifl feel it’s a challenge or a front
to authority, then it will bother me.”
Neuheisel admitted that the added
responsibility of being a head coach
would probably cause him to age
quicker.
“Being in charge of everything is
difficult, but it is fun to handle,”
Neuheisel said. “I’m still waiting for
the day when I walk into a recruits
home and I’m older than the parents.”
Neuheisel also had to clear up re
ports about a party he held at his
home. He said about 200 people at
tended the gala, including assistant
coaches, custodians and police.
Neuheisel said police were called
out and asked him to turn the music
down at his place. He said he obliged.
“I wouldn’t call it getting busted,”
Neuheisel said. “We just turned down
the music.”
