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Head Coach Bob Toledo

UCLA head football coach Bob Toledo was fired Monday, two days after the Bruins (7-5, 4-4 Pac-10) finished the season with a 48-27 loss to Pac-10 champion Washington State (10-2, 7-1).

UCLA ends 2002 tied for fourth place in the conference, and will play without Toledo in the SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 5.

“I felt a change in leadership was necessary,” said first-year UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, addressing the media Monday.

Ed Kezerian, the assistant director of Academic Services, better known to those outside the program as the guy waving a towel on the sidelines, was named interim head coach until the end of the Las Vegas Bowl.

“I did not want to create a situation where going into next year the first transgression that one of our kids may have, or the first bad call a coach would make, would dredge up some really negative things in this program,” Guerrero added. “Our student-athletes didn’t deserve that.”

Toledo, 49-32 in his seven years as UCLA’s head coach, put together a 20-game win streak but has gone 24-24 in the last four years and presided over such off-field scandals as the misuse of handicapped parking placards, DeShaun Foster’s extra benefits suspension, Cory Paus’ DUI, and a summer of fighting incidents.

After UCLA’s loss to Washington State on Saturday, Toledo said that he felt one of the reasons he should be retained was that he had a young group of talent to work with. Yet, that very fact may have been part of his undoing.

“We have a great young team. I felt it was important if I was to make a decision about this program that I do it now,” Guerrero said.

The 52-21 loss to USC – a year after a 27-0 shutout to the Trojans – may have been the last straw.

“We want every one of those games to be competitive,” Guerrero said. “What is important in the last two games (against USC and WSU) is that our players were prepared and played hard and what that shows is the gap between our program and those two programs that exist. We need to close that gap.”

Kexerian, who played at UCLA and served as an assistant coach from 1982-1992 is not UCLA's final solution.

“I am here to support and facilitate administrative things, not to coach,” said Kezerian. “Having been at UCLA in so many capacities, this is the icing on the cake for the next two weeks."

Offensive coordinator Kelly Skipper and defensive coordinator Phil Snow will be in charge of bowl practices and the game plan for the Las Vegas Bowl.

Players had positive words about their coach after they were informed Monday morning of the decision. Their greatest concern was with what will happen to the assistant coaches.

“I bet you if Cory doesn’t get hurt, we win a couple more games and we don’t have this conversation,” senior defensive end Rusty Williams said.

“Everybody is bummed out. He’s a great coach and I wish him the best,” junior defensive tackle Rodney Leisle said.

Toledo expressed interest in coaching UCLA in the SEGA Sports Las Vegas Bowl, but Guerrero felt it would not be in the best interest of the program.

“I came to UCLA with class and dignity and I will leave with class and dignity. I have nothing but great things to say about UCLA,” Toledo said in a statement.

UCLA will not promote from within and began a national search today. According to Guerrero, he has not contacted any candidates but he has been contacted by several interested parties.

Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, University of Washington head coach and former UCLA quarterback Rick Neuheisel, former Minnesota Vikings and Stanford head coach Dennis Green, Denver Broncos assistant coach and former UCLA receiver Karl Dorrell, Chiefs assistant coach Greg Robinson, Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris, Colorado coach Gary Barnett and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz all have been rumored to be possible candidates.

UCLA will have to buy out Toledo’s contract and deal with a market where head coaches are often paid over a million dollars per year.

“We certainly understand what the market is,” Guerrero said. “We will make every effort to make it an attractive offer.”

Toledo had six years remaining on his contract after a contract extension last year from then-athletic director Peter Dalis. The contract buyout consists of one year of the full salary of $578,000 and five years at the base salary of $153,000. There have been rumors that various boosters offered to buy out the remainder of Toledo’s contract.

Toledo was the first football coach fired at UCLA in 40 years.

“The tough part of this whole thing was it was Bob Toledo, and he is a good man,” Guerrero said.

“We want to have a national caliber program here, certainly top 25 every year,” he added.

The Bruins last finished in the Top 25 in 1998 when they were ranked No. 8.

“If you think about the program in the general sense and what we are trying to accomplish it is all about having the right environment,” Guerrero said. “In the final analysis it was not a healthy environment.”

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