There is nothing worse than following a team that doesn’t show up, doesn’t match up against your crosstown nemesis, and above all, doesn’t meet expectations.

Follow dismal season after dismal season with the restoration of pride and a new mindset, and all seems right in the world. Check out what’s going on at UCLA.

Karl Dorrell was dismissed from his head coaching duties in mid-December, and after a long, thorough, tedious search, UCLA alum Rick Neuheisel was introduced as head coach.

The introduction was long-awaited, emotional and exciting. Talk is cheap, but Neuheisel promised to get the job done, promised to work every hour of every day to be the best football team possible, promised to get going the minute he set foot off that podium. Bruin fans and supporters looked up with one eye open. “Okay, sounds familiar,” they thought, remembering Dorrell’s introduction seven years before after Bob Toledo was fired.

But any doubt is quickly disintegrating. Neuheisel secured top-notch assistant and defensive coordinator Dwayne Walker after turning down more money elsewhere, and yesterday, made an even bigger move: the hiring of Norm Chow, former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator.

I don’t mention the fact that Chow called the shots during USC’s title runs in 2003 and 2004, or the fact that he’s coached three Heisman Trophy winners and six first-round draft picks simply because I am a supporter of Bruins football.

I mention it because teams should aim at the Bruin model when rebuilding. Neuheisel paid much more attention to recruiting his coaches than he did current recruits who may have chosen to walk after Dorrell’s firing. He went after the biggest assistant coaches, those that are proven and respected, because that’s what brings legitimacy to a program.

USC experienced their success because Pete Carroll assembled one of the best, if not the best, coaching staff in the nation. Since, much of the Trojans’ “struggles” have been blamed on USC’s depleted staff, and you wonder just how nervous Carroll is at this very moment.

Unfortunately, the media labels a program. Some are portrayed better than others, lucky or unlucky, but when you bring in two guys that are respected assistants, you are changing the whole culture. Coaches bring change. Players do not.