What’s the Deal With Toledo?

To the untrained eye, while Bob Toledo’s life might not exactly be a fiesta, it is still very much roses.

He says he’s happy. He says he has absolutely no prob lems with his UCLA bosses. He says he’s thankful they are working out a new contract to keep him here the rest of his career.

Underpaid but overwhelming for a second consecutive season, Toledo remains quietly on the sidelines, arms folded, easy smile, seemingly content.

Which is exactly how he looked before he sent Cade McNown out for a pass against Oregon State.

And before he ordered Freddie Mitchell to throw one against Texas.

And before he used the swinging gate against Miami.

UCLA fans who think they’ve seen Toledo’s best trick plays, they haven’t seen anything yet.

If the university doesn’t make him at least the equal of the highest-paid football coaches in a conference he has dominated for two years--and do it shortly after the Rose Bowl--the guess here is that he will do a reverse right out of town.

Three NFL teams have called.

One major college team has also had the nerve to call, which shows you the national perception of Toledo’s $453,000 salary.

Funny, but Steve Spurrier never gets calls from other universities.

Of course, he annually makes about $2 million.

This is not to say that Toledo has won the games, or brings in the revenue, that would account for the sort of money paid Spurrier.

But couldn’t UCLA pay him, uh, well, uh, as much as USC pays Paul Hackett?

Or Arizona State pays Bruce Snyder?

Or Washington State pays Mike Price?

A UCLA athletic department that has been notoriously slow to meet the monetary demands of the coaches that help make it rich and famous needs to change gears, and fast.

Toledo has never been hotter, never more in demand, perceived as a coach whose offensive mind and easygoing personality could work in both the AFC and SEC.

And the Bruin football program, for the first time on the verge of sustained greatness, has never been more in need of continuity.

Losing Toledo, plus losing McNown, equals several years of lost hope.

Is Toledo still learning and growing after only three years as the boss? Obviously.

He has been criticized here for poor fourth-quarter game management, for not involving himself enough with the defense, for running too many trick plays usually favored only by the desperate.

But what he has done for his team and this sports community--giving both a reason to start paying attention again on fall weekends--makes it imperative that he not be allowed to walk.

But maybe that’s only me.

During a Friday conversation with Toledo about his contract status, he not only refused to make threats or demands, he wanted to make one thing clear.

“I am not greedy, I’ve never asked them for anything, and I’m not asking now,” he said. “On their own, they came to me, said they’re going to take care of me, and I’m sure they will.”

But the thing is, they haven’t yet.

Apparently the UCLA muckety-mucks are talking, and will increase his salary for the second time in less than a year, and will increase the length of his contract past its current 2003 expiration date.

But will they increase it enough?

Toledo understands a UCLA coach will never make millions. He recently turned down an opportunity to coach at Oklahoma for $800,000, so it’s not about piles of money.

He also understands that UCLA can never monetarily match the NFL. Considering he has told a couple of pro teams to keep his name quiet until he sees what happens here, that’s also not his focus.

What his friends say Bob Toledo wants, although he’ll never say it publicly, is what most of us want.

If we’re working as hard and succeeding as much as that guy in the next cubicle, then we feel we should be paid as much as him.

This is not about a guy in another department, or another business, or another country.

This is about a guy in the next cubicle.

In Toledo’s case, that would be the Pac-10.

By most estimates, including all outside income, Toledo is currently the ninth-highest-paid coach in the conference.

A conference in which he has lost one game in two years.

Think about that.

Toledo is also making less than the $475,000 being made by Steve Lavin, who coaches UCLA basketball.

And, hey, you don’t see the football team in black uniforms.

Think about that.

Worst of all, the coach of a program in the same town that Toledo has beaten for three consecutive seasons is making an average of about $300,000 more than he is.

Hackett, the highest-paid coach in the Pac-10, is averaging $750,00 during a five-year deal ironically negotiated by the UCLA alumni-filled office of Leigh Steinberg.

Even if Toledo is not about money, he is about respect and perception and, well, Hackett’s deal might irk him a little bit.

Yes, USC is a private school and can pay more.

But considering UCLA’s football coach is paid from funds generated entirely from the football program--and considering Toledo has brought in a ton of money with tons of wins--it is almost the same thing.

Doesn’t Toledo have an obligation to remain until 2003? Under the law governing California state employees, not really.

Of course, UCLA gave him his big chance, and morally he might feel obligated to stick around.

But after taking the job as UCLA’s fourth pick and last option--and at least momentarily turning the nation’s most traditional basketball school into a football school--it seems he has more than fulfilled his part of the deal.

Part of the problem--and I thought I would never write this--is that Toledo doesn’t have an agent.

“Agents only upset people,” he said. “I negotiate my own deal. I have a great rapport with [Athletic Director] Pete Dalis, and I don’t see any problems there.”

Neither, perhaps, did Jim Harrick, until he complained publicly about UCLA money and fell into the sort of hot water from which he never emerged.

With nobody to do the dirty work, and Toledo unwilling to dirty his hands with any of it, this could erupt into something ugly without even the involved parties realizing it.

One day, he’s visiting with recruits from the Valley.

The next day, he’s in Philadelphia signing a contract to coach the Eagles.

Black armbands all around.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com