Rick Neuheisel is officially back coaching and doing it in Pac-12 territory to boot.
The former UCLA, Washington and Colorado head coach was named on Friday as the new head coach of the Alliance of American Football’s Phoenix franchise. The group is part of a new upstart, developmental spring league and the franchise itself will be playing their home games at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe -- where Neuheisel grew up and attended high school prior to playing with the Bruins in the 1980’s.
Phoenix fans are in for a treat! @CoachNeuheisel officially announced as head coach for the #AlliancePHX team with all home games played at Sun Devil Stadium pic.twitter.com/RR9rSxcEqM
— The Alliance (@TheAAF) May 18, 2018
Neuheisel won’t be the only former college coach involved in the AAF, as former Oregon State and Miami head coach/recent Utah assistant Dennis Erickson is helming the Salt Lake City franchise while the old ball coach himself Steve Spurrier is running the show with the Orlando franchise.
If you’ve ever been around Neuheisel, you might have heard him speak about the fun times he had during his brief pro career with the San Antonio Gunslingers of the USFL but now it seems like he’s coming full circle with a similar spring football league. Unlike the USFL back in the days however, the AAF is not directly competing with the NFL or college football and is focused on playing in the spring.
Neuheisel is only 57 so perhaps if this AAF audition goes well for him, he could have yet another go around as a potential college head coach once again after being mentioned for several openings the past few offseasons.