Rick Neuheisel was the coach of UCLA football from 2008-11, which just so happens to be the timeframe in which Justin Combs committed to being a Bruin. Earlier today, on the SiriusXM radio show he co-hosts, Neuheisel (who still claims to have a "pulse" at the university) dropped a few interesting nuggets on Monday's events. But first he admitted that Justin probably wouldn't even be playing there if Diddy wasn't his dad:
"When you’re weighing the assets of what a youngster can do for your program, there’s no question (being Diddy’s son) had something to do with it for me. Justin is a great kid. His problem was his size. He’s not big enough to be a dominant player. Could he be productive? Yes. The fact his father was an influential guy played into my decision to go ahead and offer him."
He also gave a brief story about what it was like to give Diddy and son a tour when he was selling them on the school:
"I took them on their campus tour. A half-hour into it, (Diddy) asked me who I was. He said, ‘Tell me what you do, Rick.’ I said I’m the head football coach here. He said, ‘You’re giving us the tour?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, this is my school. This is where I went. I want to give you a feel of what it’s like to be a student."
Then he went into detail about what may have sparked Monday's kettlebell-swinging incident in the first place:
“Justin had missed some workouts prior to this and had said to Sal [Alosi] that he was doing workouts with his dad’s private trainer. There are discretionary workouts and mandatory workouts. The NCAA has a window of time. Discretionary workouts, he missed, which he’s allowed to — they’re discretionary. He had said he’s working out with his dad’s trainer... Justin looks a little out of shape, and there was something said. He was actually removed from the workout. (Diddy) got the report from Justin and marched over."
Originally it sounds like UCLA was going to sweep the whole event under the rug (this isn't exactly good publicity for any of the parties involved, after all). But due to the pesky video evidence the cops decided to proceed with the arrest (for the record, Diddy and his camp are claiming self defense):
“What I learned was they were going to let this go, because the UCLA folks didn’t want to press charges. But when the campus police arrived on the scene, they looked at the film.”
If true, that doesn't sound like great news for Diddy's side. Of course there's always the chance Neuheisel isn't as tapped into UCLA's pulse as he says he is.
[via Coachingsearch.com, Bruins Nation]
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