Neuheisel leads UCLA football tight ends
It’s a Wednesday night in mid-January.
The NCAA football season ended weeks ago.
College football players are just starting voluntary workouts and most football coaches are enjoying some much-needed R & R.
Not Jerry Neuheisel.
Making his way through the Phoenix airport, the UCLA tight ends coach is between visits with potential recruits, on what he calls the never-ending hunt for future Bruins – an exhilarating chase that takes him and his colleagues coast-to-coast during the winter months.
“Everyone thinks coaching is black and white,” explains the fourth-year Bruin gridiron mentor. “That you sit around and draw up plays or implement playcalling.”
And while the Xs and Os are a part of his responsibilities, Neuheisel says fans don’t always understand the myriad hats college coaches wear.
“Whether it be recruiting, fundraising, coaching on the field or becoming a defacto academic advisor for students,” he adds, “you become whatever you need to become to help students find success on and off the field.”
A member of the first graduating class of UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies’ Transformative Coaching and Leadership (TCL) program, Neuheisel joined the Bruins’ football staff as a graduate assistant following a fruitful career as quarterback at UCLA and in Japanese pro ball.
He enjoyed a short stint at Texas A&M as the Aggies’ offensive quality control coach. But his personal ties to Westwood eventually pulled him back to Southern California, with former head coach Chip Kelly tapping the son of another former Bruin head coach, Rick Neuheisel, to mentor wide receivers.
Now working alongside his fourth head coach at UCLA, DeShaun Foster, the younger Neuheisel has worked with a variety of leadership styles over the years.
Recruited as a player by his father, he never actually played a snap for his dad, who was replaced by Jim Mora (now head coach at UConn) his freshman season.
“Chip is Chip. Coach Mora is coach Mora. And my dad was my dad,” Neuheisel says.
“But from all of them, I think I’ve learned to be who I am.”
That authenticity, he says, is non-negotiable for coaches.
“In Pete Carroll’s book, Win Forever, which we read as part of the TCL program, he talks about how he tells all of his young coaches that when push comes to shove, you can’t fake it,” Neuheisel says. “I have a room with 18 guys who all have distinct personalities.
“And it’s been great for me to learn how to find a balance with them.”
Elevated to his current coordinator role following several years as the Bruins’ wideouts coach, Neuheisel leaped at the opportunity to join the TCL program when it was launched in the fall of 2019. Seeking to improve his leadership skills, he gravitated toward courses led by some of the most successful coaches in NCAA history, including softball legend Sue Enquist and Pac-12 Coach of the Century, Valorie Kondos Field, the gymnastics mentor Bruins endearingly call Miss Val.
Learning alongside current student athletes as well as mid-career professionals, rich discussions unfolded as his classes tackled sensitive topics head-on.
“TCL prepares you to have conversations with people with whom you don’t agree,” Neuheisel explains. “In football, you don’t necessarily learn how to have those hard conversations.
“But to be in a room with people from all the different sports worlds, you’re forced to learn and you’re forced to take their perspective and collaborate.
“Everyone had strategies and stories and it became this really cool melting pot and mix of ideas. I’ve never been a part of something like it where everyone not only participated, but felt compelled to participate.”
One unexpected nugget came from a roundtable discussion with softball players in Coach Enquist’s class:
“They were talking about a recovery protocol in softball, where they’d purposely mess something up so they’d be prepared for how to respond in a game if something went wrong,” he says. “I’d never heard of that. And it was something our football team actually adopted.”
Watch a UCLA football game now and you’re likely to spot players wiping their hands in a downward motion across their chests.
“It’s a physical cue,” Neuheisel says. “They’re wiping away the last play and resetting.”
As the collegiate football landscape continues to shift in new directions, with new Name, Image and Likeness rules in flux in addition to a bustling transfer portal, Neuheisel views the chaos as a challenge.
“If we expected college athletics to be stagnant, we should’ve gotten into a different business,” he says. “At the end of the day, though, football is football and it’s still 11-on-11. That part isn’t changing.”
The best thing about being a college football coach? Neuheisel says it’s the bonds he forms with players.
“Running out of the tunnel on gameday in front of thousands of people or making a call on 3rd-and-10 when a game is on the line is the coolest thing in the world,” he says. “But my favorite part of coaching is the players and the relationships you get to build with people.”
“When you see someone struggle and overcome an obstacle or when a student has a goal and you see them reach it after persevering for such a long time…what can be better than that? You get to enjoy their success with them.”
A nine-time UCLA Athletic Director’s Honor Roll member and four-year Pac-12 All-Academic honoree, Neuheisel followed his UCLA football playing career with a stint in the Japanese X League with the Obic Seagulls. He and his wife, Nicole, reside in Los Angeles.
Learn more about UCLA’s Transformative Coaching and Leadership Master of Education program.