On the same day it was confirmed Rick Neuheisel will be out as UCLA’s head coach following the Pac-12 title game, the Los Angeles Times reported that Boise State’s Chris Petersen would be the first potential candidate the Bruins would target. In fact, the Times reported athletic director Dan Guerrero was expected to take a trip to Boise in an attempt to woo Petersen.
I, along with most others, felt that there was little to no chance a football program at a basketball school such as UCLA would be able to pry Petersen away from the Broncos. Apparently, that was a correct assumption.
ESPN.com‘s Joe Schad reported early Friday morning that UCLA has been told that Petersen will not be a candidate for the Bruins vacancy. If Schad’s report is accurate, this would mark the second time Petersen rebuffed the Bruins; the last time the UCLA job opened up, Petersen was approached by UCLA but ultimately turned down the opportunity after speaking to the school.
The news that Petersen had reportedly said “thanks, but no thanks” to the Bruins yet again comes less than a day after BSU announced its new athletic director. Mark Coyle was officially introduced Thursday as the successor to Gene Bleymaier, and made it perfectly clear what Job One is ahead of his official start date in early January.
“My No. 1 goal is to keep Chris Petersen at Boise State University,” Coyle, who comes to Boise from Kentucky, said.
“We had a good conversation this morning. He has raised the bar and how do we help him move the needle. He and I will have more conversations. This place attracts me because of the athletic excellence and because of the academic excellence. He’s the one that proved it can be done here.”
With Petersen presumably out of the running, it’s unclear which direction Guerrero will now turn. Houston’s Kevin Sumlin has been mentioned as a possibility, but he’s also been heavily tied to the Arizona State opening and is now being rumored as a top candidate to replace Mike Sherman at Texas A&M. Cincinnati’s Butch Jones and former Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti are also reportedly considerations on some level.