For some reason, only one of two stories I wrote about the Lobos new offensive coordinator Bob Toledo got posted on our Web site last week. So here's the text of it in case you missed it.

His love of coaching brought Toledo back into the trenches

By Iliana Limon
Bob Toledo's prolific offense once made him a very big fish in college football's most elite pond.
So how does a coach with a rock star r‚sum‚ find himself playing second fiddle at the University of New Mexico?
"Miami," Toledo says ruefully.
It can all be traced to one turning-point game, the moment his career shifted from untouchable man on the rise to untouchable man marooned on a golf course.
Toledo took over the UCLA Bruins program in 1996 and quickly became a star in Westwood, a coach who made a basketball school care about football.
His team made mincemeat of rival USC and rattled off 20 straight wins until a fateful showdown with unranked Miami in December 1998.
"It was a hurricane and the beginning of the end," Toledo said.
Future NFL star Edgerrin James posted the best game of his young career and led the Hurricanes to a 49-45 win that knocked UCLA out of contention for a national championship.
Toledo can still rattle off some painful stats, including 35 missed tackles, that harpooned the Bruins' dream season.
He also endured the first of many off-the-field spats that would distract fans and players from the game he wanted to take center stage.
Numerous UCLA players, black and white, wanted to wear armbands in support of those fighting the elimination of affirmative action in California's higher education system.
Toledo was irked when former sprinter Tommy Smith, who is famous for raising his arm in protest of the mistreatment of blacks in America during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, spoke with the team about the power of making a political statement in a high-profile, nationally broadcast game.
"I just didn't feel like the football field was a place to make those kinds of political statements," said Toledo, whose family is originally from Spain. "I was with them and against ending affirmative action. I would have marched all over campus with them to prove it, but this wasn't the place to bring it up.
"I don't think that cost us the game. It may have been a distraction, but that's not why we missed all those tackles."
A sense of defeat and disappointment, however, infiltrated the Bruins program, which fell on hard times amid heightened fan expectations.
Toledo's players started piling up off-the-field indiscretions, including assault charges, drinking-related violations and misappropriation of handicapped parking passes.
"I think we rebounded and had a young team in my last year that did very well, but the perception that our program was struggling was all that mattered," Toledo said.
UCLA Athletics Director Dan Guerrero took over in 2002 and put an end to the Toledo show, telling the coach he wanted his own people to lead the football program.
"He listened to the negative stuff on talk radio and on the Internet, which is something you absolutely cannot do," Toledo said.
He applied for other jobs in the three years that followed, but schools that once would have traded anything to have him wouldn't return his calls, he said.
Toledo was eager to get back in the game when UNM head football coach Rocky Long, during the offseason, offered him a chance to run the Lobos' offense.
"I knew since I was a kid that I wanted to coach because I loved sports, and I love being around people," he said.
"I coached a Pop Warner team while I was in college because I loved teaching so much. That's really why I'm here. This isn't a steppingstone for a big comeback. I just want to share everything I know about the game with young players and coaches."
Despite some dark days at UCLA, Toledo said he still hasn't lost his aggressive touch on offense or ability to connect with fans.
"You have to be true to yourself," he said. "One of the biggest things I've learned is that you can't listen to anyone else because the negativity and second-guessing out there can only bring you down. Play the game your way and whatever happens, happens."

And here's the link to the other Bob Toledo story that did get posted on our Web site in case you're curious about that one now too.

Posted by ilimon at 12:13 PM | Permalink