Another Work of Fiction at CSUN

From the fantasyland known as Cal State Northridge comes the latest fairy tale, one more fable to squeeze in before the millennium runs out.

This one includes a laugh track.

The school, where crisis intervention is an art form, wants us to believe football assistants Keith Borges and Craig Wall are welcomed back in the program.

It wants us to swallow the preposterous idea that two guys whose names were mud around the football office only a few months ago are wanted back in the fold, as if nothing ever happened.

Moreover, it wants us to accept the premise that telling Borges and Wall they can return to coaching the Matadors has nothing to do with the two men filing a $6 million legal claim against the university, alleging they were victims of retaliation.

As usual, the school’s ministers of propaganda are dishing out rubbish.

When Borges and Wall were reassigned in July to the physical education department, it was done largely to help squelch a fire that was scorching Northridge’s football program.

The blaze started in May, when Northridge received an anonymous letter describing several school and NCAA rules violations in the program. After an internal investigation, former coach Ron Ponciano was fired and top assistant Rob Phenicie was forced to resign.

While the investigation unfolded, Borges and Wall stayed away from the office and out of touch with players and coaches, creating suspicion and hard feelings.

Although nobody says it for the record, many in the program were convinced Borges, the running backs coach, and Wall, the defensive coordinator, wrote the anonymous letter. When the ax fell on Ponciano, the mood toward Borges and Wall fully soured.

Dick Dull, who became athletic director in July, reassigned Borges and Wall to ease tensions. Now Dull says peace has come to the land.

“It was not a knee-jerk reaction,” Dull said about returning Borges and Wall to the football program.

No, it was more like a poker game, with Dull calling the two men’s $6 million bluff.

Dull insists the offer for Borges and Wall to return to football was unrelated to the claim. He intended to reconsider their positions after the 1999 season. It was just a matter of letting the smoke clear and the wounds heal.

If that’s so, why was the offer made to the two men only after they filed the claim in October? Why were they exiled from the program?

Why, again, the lack of forthrightness from Northridge?

The place is Paranoia Central, and probably for good reason. Northridge has staggered through several scandals and now it’s trying to sweep up the residuals of the latest football fiasco with some clever damage control.

Just tell the guys they can go back and their claim crumbles, the potential law suit disappears.

Truth is, only if they were in denial would Borges and Wall really want their old jobs. The coaching fraternity is a tightly knit group, and the Northridge chapter feels betrayed by Borges and Wall. They might go back, but likely to a hostile environment.

Months ago, when the lid first blew off, Wall reportedly was interested in coaching at Northridge, but Borges was not. No one, except the investigators, knows what the two said or wrote about the program. Borges has never returned calls from The Times and Wall said he eventually would tell his story but has not.

Their silence was puzzling, given the acrimony directed their way. But it makes more sense now. They kept quiet as the legal maneuvering unfolded with millions of dollars in the balance.

Whether Borges and Wall are guilty of nothing more than cooperating with an investigation is irrelevant. Other Northridge football coaches and players never put up yellow ribbons for them.

And they won’t any time soon.