SEATTLE -- Washington athletics director Barbara Hedges said Thursday that the university will not censure or otherwise discipline Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel for falsely denying that he interviewed for the San Francisco 49ers coaching job.

However, Hedges expressed disappointment that he misled her.

"We've accepted his apology,'' she told The Associated Press at halftime during the Stanford-Washington women's game. "He's very embarrassed by it.''

After unexpectedly encountering a Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports columnist who overheard part of his telephone conversation about the interview Sunday in the San Francisco airport, Neuheisel repeatedly denied he had met with the 49ers.

Only late Wednesday, a day after the job went to Oregon State coach Dennis Erickson, did Neuheisel admit the truth.

Apologetic and contrite, he said he took the wrong course in trying to honor a promise to 49ers general manager Terry Donohue, with whom he worked as an assistant coach at UCLA, not to talk about the interview.

"He regrets this occurred. We all regret it occurred,'' Hedges told The Seattle Times. "I understand why he was trying to be loyal to Terry Donahue and honor a confidentiality agreement, but we all have an obligation to be straightforward.''

Hedges, who hired Neuheisel away from Colorado, said he didn't give her the full story, either.

On Feb. 6 "he told me he had been contacted by a third party representing the 49ers,'' she told The Times. "I told him to go away for the weekend (at Sun Valley, Idaho) and work things out.''

She said she was disappointed that he didn't tell her he had been invited directly by the 49ers and had gone to San Francisco for the interview, as well as by a statement he issued Monday saying he had had no contact with the NFL club.

"The reality is we all have an obligation at a public university to be straightforward and honest,'' she told the P-I.

"This has probably hurt his credibility,'' she said. "He'll have to work hard to gain it back.''

Neuheisel, 33-16 in four years at Washington and 66-30 in seven years as a college head coach, has not said whether he was interested in or had been offered the 49ers job. With incentives, his contract pays up to $1.4 million a year.

If such situations arise in the future, Hedges added, "Our agreement is he just won't be interested.''

Neuheisel told the P-I on Thursday that after his interview with the 49ers, he realized that "I am more suited for the college game.''

"Hopefully, somewhere down the road, I can be forgiven,'' he said.