UCLA Fires Neuheisel: Will Tom Cable be the Next Head Coach?

The UCLA Bruins did the inevitable on Monday, and announced that head football coach Rick Neuheisel will be fired after the Oregon game on Friday.

The former UCLA quarterback was 21-28 in four seasons as the Bruins head coach. His best record with UCLA was in 2009, when the team finished with a 7-6 record.

Now the search is on for a replacement.

According to sources cited by ESPN, there is mutual interest between UCLA and former Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable. Currently, Cable serves as the offensive line coach for the Seattle Seahawks.

The Bruins are known for pursuing coaches who have been affiliated with the university. Cable was an offensive coordinator at UCLA under Karl Dorrell in 2004 and 2005.

Cable, 47, was hired as the interim head coach of the Raiders when Lane Kiffin, who is currently the head coach of USC, was fired by now-deceased owner Al Davis in 2008. Cable held onto the job for two more seasons, and led the Raiders to an 8-8 record in 2010, which was their best season since 2002.

After his firing, Cable was hired two weeks later as an assistant at Seattle under Pete Carroll, who coached USC for several seasons.

Though Cable would seem like a good fit for the Bruins because of his background in college and the NFL, the California-native has been involved in ugly personal issues. Outside the Lines, an ESPN investigative sports program, reported in Nov. 2009, that Cable was accused of physical abuse against two ex-wives and a former girlfriend.

Prior to that report, Cable was accused of punching assistant coach Randy Hanson, and shattering his jaw, at the Raiders training camp in Napa in 2009.

Former UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, and current head coach of New Mexico State, has also been mentioned as a candidate for the Bruins opening.