Video: Neuheisel 'apologizes' for UCLA's tough nonconference schedule
LOS ANGELES – College football scheduling doesn’t happen overnight; games are often planned years in advance. For example, UCLA has already announced a home-and-home series with LSU… for 2021 and 2024.
[Related Watch Jim Mora on Pac-12 Networks' Football Media Day Special]
So even though this is Jim Mora’s third year as the Bruins' head coach, the non-conference schedule his boys face in 2014 isn’t his doing. He has former UCLA head coach and current Pac-12 Networks analyst Rick Neuheisel to thank for his three non-Pac-12 regular-season opponents.
He didn’t exactly make it easy on Mora, either: At Virginia at 9 a.m. Pacific time (Aug. 30) and at Texas (Sept. 13) aren’t games to take for granted.
“I’m sorry, because I was the one to agree to that Texas game," Neuheisel said to Mora on the air at Media Day on Thursday. The comment drew a laugh from both coaches.
"They said ‘Hey, they want to see if you want to play Texas,’ and I said, ‘I just wanted to see the stadium,'" Neuheisel said.
Watch the rest of the clip to listen to the head coaches talk about preparing for cross-country road trips, like the one the Bruins have to open the 2014 season, and a backup quarterback in which Neuheisel has a smidgen of interest.