Rick Neuheisel's final game is a triumph of effort and class

On a night that defied the direst of predictions for his 31-point underdogs, Neuheisel's Bruins didn't quit and didn't fall apart in a loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game.

UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel watches a replay on the video screen as he argues a call with an official during the Pac-12 Conference championship football game against Oregon on Friday night at Autzen Stadium. (Don Ryan / Associated Press / December 2, 2011)

From Eugene, Ore. -- The single screamed word cut through the cursed jeers, the biting cold, the caustic final moments of a UCLA football coaching career.

Rick Neuheisel, pumping his clenched fists and staring at the wet ground, shouted the solitary syllable Friday night after Nelson Rosario made a one-handed touchdown reception in the final two minutes of the Pac-12 Conference championship game.

The grab finalized the score: Oregon 49, UCLA 31.

That "boom" was another word for goodbye.

Neuheisel walked off the Autzen Stadium field as a loser for the 29th time in 50 UCLA games, as a coach who had been fired four days earlier, as a lost cause fulfilling his final obligations with a final defeat.

But on a night that defied the direst of predictions for his 31-point underdogs, Neuheisel departed with a triumph of effort and class.

His Bruins didn't quit. His Bruins didn't fall apart. They were outgained by more than 200 yards and they were outmanned at seemingly every position, but they fought until the end, finishing with a 94-yard touchdown drive that included a fourth-down conversion and ended with that boom.

Neuheisel celebrated, then he mourned.

As the game ended, with his eyes red and full, Neuheisel walked off the field hugging and thanking players and family members, pausing longer to clutch oldest son Jerry. Coaching until the very end, he grabbed future starting quarterback candidate Brett Hundley, embraced him for several long moments, then whispered into his helmet.

"He told me what work I needed to do in the off-season to get better," Hundley said. "But that's what he always does, coach."

Before entering the locker room, Neuheisel stopped one last time and tipped his white UCLA cap to members of the UCLA band, his tears starting to flow as he disappeared into the night.

"Walking off the field knowing that I don't know when I'm doing this again is an emotional thing," Neuheisel said. "I tried hard to harness it, but I was not always successful."

In his previous four years at UCLA, Neuheisel was a coach who seemed to lose his players at the oddest times. But on his final night, he found them.

There was Patrick Larimore intercepting a pass and returning it 35 yards for a touchdown that tied the score early, his run including the breaking of a shoulder tackle and a somersault into the end zone.

"I think we could have easily laid down and given in to everybody's predictions," Larimore said. "But I feel like the team, as a whole, played with a lot of energy, a lot of effort."

He added, "Being able to play under [Neuheisel] has been truly a blessing for me, and I know it has been for the rest of the team."

Then there was Kevin Prince, hitting Rosario on a 37-yard touchdown pass off a flea flicker in the second quarter, crumbling in pain after being clobbered in the fourth quarter, then returning to lead that final touchdown drive amid fans screaming for the Ducks to hold.

"Just want to thank Coach Neuheisel for giving it his best effort these past four years, and I'm going to miss him," Prince said.

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