LOS ANGELES — Rick Neuheisel returned to UCLA in December 2007 with dreams of taking his alma mater – a “scrawny” team with significant financial challenges – to the promised land.

But even then, the challenge appeared insurmountable from the outside looking in.

The former Bruins head coach said his former players, “undernourished” and primarily living off campus, were not fond of the meals catered by Associated Students UCLA. Neuheisel added that the athletic department then didn’t own a kitchen, and its “training table” – a term used for the one NCAA-sanctioned meal per day for student-athletes – lacked compared to other top programs.

He credited Becci Twombley, who became UCLA’s first director of sports nutrition and built the athletic department’s sports nutrition program, with help

See Full Page