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Rick Neuheisel will not return as UCLA football coach next season, but will coach in the Pac-12 title game, the school said Monday.
Offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Mike Johnson will take over as interim coach after Friday's title game, while a national search for a permanent replacement will begin immediately, the school announced.
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero was expected to hold a news conference at 5:30 p.m. ET at the J.D. Morgan Center on campus.
"Decisions such as this one do not come without a great deal of heartache," Guerrero said in a prepared statement. "However, it is apparent to me that a move was necessary at this time in order to give UCLA the best chance to enjoy the success that we all desire."
The Bruins (6-6, 5-4 Pac-12) are representing the Pac-12 South in Friday's title game at Oregon (No. 9 BCS, No. 8 AP) because USC, the division champion, is ineligible. The Trojans (No. 9 AP) emphasized that point on Saturday, routing their city rivals 50-0.
The Bruins are currently eligible for a bowl game. But should UCLA lose at heavily-favored Oregon on Friday, they would become ineligible because of a losing record and the Pac-12 would have to petition the NCAA on their behalf for a waiver.
Under Neuheisel, the Bruins are 21-28 over four seasons and had finished higher than eighth in the Pac-10 before this season.
Although he has posted significant victories over Tennessee and Texas, Neuheisel's tenure has been marred by inconsistency and some of the biggest blowout losses in school history, including Saturday's embarrassing loss at USC.
Neuheisel nearly lost his job earlier this season after UCLA was involved in a bench-clearing brawl against Arizona during a nationally-televised Thursday night game. UCLA lost that game, 48-12, but Neuheisel got new life when the Bruins won their next two games and qualified for the Pac-12 title game. The loss to USC, however, was the final straw.
Alumni and boosters began losing faith in the direction of Neuheisel's program after the loss at Arizona and began immediately calling for his removal as coach.
After the loss to USC on Saturday, the following was posted on the Twitter page of Casey Wasserman, one of UCLA's most influential boosters: "Only thing worse than losing is apathy about losing...UCLA Football can't be that way, and it didn't used to be..."
Quarterback Kevin Prince, before learning of Neuheisel's firing, said that the team would try to stick together while rumors swirled that Neuheisel would be fired.
"We don't have a choice but to ignore it because things like that can kind of tear us apart and that's the last thing we need right now is to be torn apart as a team so we've just got to continue to stick together and keep that noise out if we can," Prince said.
Neuheisel said Sunday that winning five conference games and advancing to the Pac-12 championship game should be enough for him to keep his job, even if the Bruins backed in to the conference title game.
"I was told that we need to move the needle and if the needle moved that we would be fine and I'd get to continue along my five years of my five-year contract," Neuheisel said. "We have won five conference games as opposed to three last year. We have won the right to represent the South in the conference championship. We've certainly had some unfortunate evenings where things haven't gone our way, but I think the program is headed in the right direction."
Source: AP