\u201cNo matter what happens,\u201d Neuheisel said in an interview with The Times, \u201cas long as you\u2019re around him you have a smile on your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Noel Mazzone, then the offensive coordinator at UCLA, looks across the field during a game. <\/p>\n
(Don Liebig \/ UCLA Athletics)<\/p>\n
The latest call came from the longtime apprentice to his mentor.<\/p>\n
With the Bruins sputtering toward an 0-4 start, Neuheisel spoke with Mazzone about possibly returning to Westwood to assist with the offense. Just like he routinely had when he was UCLA\u2019s offensive coordinator a decade earlier, Mazzone cultivated the necessary intelligence, learning that Neuheisel would be promoted from tight ends coach to playcaller before Neuheisel did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in the car, I believe, the next morning and he was here that evening,\u201d Neuheisel said, \u201cand it was on to try to beat Penn State.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beat Penn State they did, reviving an offense and a team<\/a> that have become the talk of college football. UCLA\u2019s average of 40 points in its two victories has nearly tripled its previous output during that winless start, spawning reminders of the offense the Bruins ran under Mazzone with Neuheisel as a backup quarterback from 2012-15.<\/p>\n That was just the start of a winning combination.<\/p>\n Not long after they had parted ways at the end of their four seasons together in Westwood, Mazzone reached out to Neuheisel, convincing him to give up playing for the Obic Seagulls of Japan\u2019s X League so that he could help Mazzone in 2017 during his second season as Texas A&M\u2019s offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he gave me the call and said, \u2018We\u2019re going to the SEC, we\u2019re going to College Station, Texas,\u2019 \u201d said Neuheisel, who had long known he wanted to become a coach, \u201cI didn\u2019t even ask questions. I got the next flight home.\u201d<\/p>\n Quarterback Jerry Neuheisel looks to pass the ball during UCLA\u2019s game against Texas Longhorns at AT&T Stadium on Sept. 13, 2014.<\/p>\n (Ronald Martinez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n After making the 22-hour drive from Los Angeles to College Station, Neuheisel stayed at a hotel for a week and a half while searching for a place to live \u2014 even though he hadn\u2019t been formally hired.<\/p>\n All that mattered was that he was back with his mentor. Now they\u2019re together again, only the roles have been reversed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just the first time in my life he\u2019s actually had to listen to all my ideas,\u201d Neuheisel said with a chuckle, \u201cso I have enjoyed the turning of the tables.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only a few weeks ago that Mazzone reconnected with two other former UCLA quarterbacks.<\/p>\n Getting together with Brett Hundley and Mike Fafaul in the Phoenix area to watch some football the weekend that UCLA lost to Northwestern to fall to 0-4, Mazzone and his onetime players let Neuheisel know they were thinking about him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey sent a picture from the bar that they were watching us play,\u201d Neuheisel said.<\/p>\n What they didn\u2019t tell him was that they were already considering the possibilities for the 68-year-old Mazzone, who was then the offensive coordinator at Saguaro High in Scottsdale, Ariz.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, we weren\u2019t doing so great,\u201d Hundley said of the Bruins, \u201cso we were joking that Mazzone would probably be back at UCLA.\u201d<\/p>\n A coaching lifer, Mazzone had made more than 20 stops at the high school, college and NFL levels by the time he agreed to hop into his car and return for his second stint with the Bruins after the team replaced departed offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri<\/a> with Neuheisel.<\/p>\n Several days later, after hurried preparations and some playcalling debut blunders such as Neuheisel fumbling with the button on his headset that allowed him to talk to his quarterback, UCLA scored on each of its first five drives on the way to a 42-37 victory over then-No. 7 Penn State<\/a> that qualified as the upset of the college football season.<\/p>\n Jubilant players hoisted Neuheisel onto their shoulders in a scene reminiscent of his greatest moment playing for Mazzone and coach Jim Mora, when he came off the bench to lead a comeback victory over Texas in 2014.<\/p>\n UCLA quarterback Jerry Neuheisel, top, is carried off the field after UCLA\u2019s 20-17 win over Texas on Sept. 13, 2014, in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n (Tony Gutierrez \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n About a half hour after beating the Nittany Lions, his hair still soaked from the water players had sprayed into the locker room air, Neuheisel revealed what it meant to share this new memory with one of his favorite mentors.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have coach Mazzone here has been honestly one of the coolest things ever,\u201d Neuheisel said. \u201cTo have him helping with the quarterbacks, to have us to be able to bounce ideas off of him, awesome. Awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n In some ways, the circumstances weren\u2019t that much different when they met.<\/p>\n Neuheisel was the new guy, just trying to prove himself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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