Runnin’ with the Pac
Bull reports on league happenings last week
By: Lotti Bull, 2 August 2002

According to press reports around the league, the following took place in the Pac-10 last week:

• Rick Neuheisel faces the NCAA on August 9 in Philadelphia to answer questions relating to his alleged 51 secondary recruiting violations while coaching at Colorado from 1995 to 1998. Neuheisel says that he was not aware he was breaking any rules and that the incidents were inadvertent on his part. Nueheisel is alleged to have made illegal contact with recruits twenty-three times during the May evaluation period. As a self-imposed punishment, he says he will not evaluate recruits in future years during the month of May. Coaches may watch recruits, but not talk to them in May. *
  
  

• How come Cody Pickett, flew first class to Los Angeles for Pac-10 media day and Heisman Trophy candidate Jason Gesser flew coach? Both were on the same plane.




• According to Ted Miller (Seattle P-I), “Gesser teased Pickett about wearing his Rose Bowl ring, noting Pickett had the "W" on the ring facing the wrong way. Pickett observed that it sure was nice to have one.” Washington plays Michigan (“M”) to start the season. Was Pickett trying to tell us something?




• How come the Pac-10 media picked Washington State to win the league championship, tabbing the Huskies second, while the ESPN/Coaches poll ranks the Huskies ninth and the Cougars fourteenth in the country? 





• DE recruit Jordan Reffet, SAT problems, is expected to grayshirt for the Huskies, entering school in the winter quarter. Recruits Dashon Goldson and Demar Baisy also failed to qualify.





• USC recruits Darnell Bing and Manuel Wright have not qualified to play this season, but USC is not expected to rule that they are ineligible at this time, not wanting other schools to lure them away.





• On a sad note, Marv Goux, longtime USC and Rams' assistant coach, passed away last Saturday. He was 69 years old and died of cancer.





• Rick Neuheisel and Bob Toledo, who battled during the negative recruiting war--hurling barbs at one another--played golf together in Phoenix not long ago. Rumor has it that a PGA official with rules book in hand followed them around the course. No secondary rules’ violations were noted.





• According to Chris Dufresne (The Los Angeles Times), “The good news was Wednesday's Pac-10 luncheon didn't turn into a food fight."





• WR Bobby Wade, Arizona, pleaded innocent to misdemeanor battery charges stemming from a fight outside a Scottsdale nightclub. His next court appearance is September 6.





• Transferring from Washington, defensive back RayShon Dukes is headed to Western Illinois, while senior running back Jelani Harrison is going to Montana.




• WR Junior Brignac has decided to play for California after initially saying he wanted to play for Washington. He signed with the Huskies in 1996 but decide to play professional baseball.



• The Pac-10 will send its sixth-place team to the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose to play the second-place team from the WAC.

Ciao, Lotti

* Editor’s note: Nueheisel left Colorado to coach Washington in January of 1999. At that time, a news article--believed to be from the Portland Oregonian (January 1998)--concerning a recruit's visit prompted the NCAA to warn Colorado of possible recruiting violations. In the article, the story included a photo of Taylor Barton, Rick Neuheisel and two Colorado assistant coaches, which is a rules' violation. A reporter and photographer accompanied Barton, out of Beaverton, on his recruiting visit to Colorado. In July 2001, the NCAA notified the University of Colorado of its investigation involving recruiting practices.