Jim Mora To Texas? It Looks Possible

Jim Mora

ESPN's Adam Schefter is throwing it out there.

Texas is interested in UCLA coach Jim Mora as a possible replacement for Mack Brown, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 2, 2014

According to ESPN's report, the two parties have had a conversation according to sources.

Mora is 18-8 during his tenure at UCLA and is fresh from coming off a Sun Bowl win over Virginia Tech.

Texas athletic director Steve Patterson has said he wants to have a coach in place by mid-January.

It seems Mora is the only one in the Longhorns cross hairs right now.

Jim Mora Gets Rightfully Ticked at Dumbass Reporter (UPDATED)

(Update at bottom of story))

It's rare when a coach is right for getting angry and walking out of a press conference, but in this case, UCLA coach Jim Mora did exactly the right thing.

Mora was rightfully angry during his Monday press conference that he began by talking about what he and the team were dealing with after the early Sunday morning death of walk-on WR Nick Pasquale.

You can read more about what happened to Pasquale RIGHT HERE

An emotional and difficult thing for a team to deal with as they begin another season.

That's when a reporter, whom to this point is un-named interrupted the proceedings by taking a call, then talking while Mora was trying to convey his thoughts.

You can very plainly see Mora trying to compose himself, admonish the reporter for interrupting and then rather than saying something he'd regret, he got up and left.

Bravo!



We've seen Mora during his time in Atlanta stick his foot in his mouth--a lot. But props to him for handling this the only way he could.

We hope he does not get grief for walking out, and don't think he will.

It's amazing to us how many reporters still don't get that whole common courtesy thing nor realize, the entire world does not revolve around them. We covered Sports for 20-years and are well aware that too many Sports Media members don't understand whatever access they get is a privilege, not a right.

And yet so many will leave their phone on, engage in other conversation, complain when it's "Too Cold" to cover a game (NFL Writers) and other inconveniences 1 billion others would gladly put up with.

((UPDATE--Per Ryan Kartje @ryan_Kartje--of the Orange County Register: 20 minutes after walking out of the presser, Mora spent time with the beat writers finishing his thoughts about Pasquale and how the team was handling the situation.

Kartje also tweeted that the offending phone talker during the presser was believed to be a photographer from the local NBC affiliate))

Jim Mora throws media out of practice, Media laugh hysterically

((ht:latimes))

Oh, J.L Mora, the Sports Media loves you so....

You again make headlines, at least in Los Angeles and for sure the blogosphere for doing strange and whiny things.

This time it's for tossing the media out from UCLA's practice Wednesday morning. The offenders, TV Crews allegedly walking around in "Restricted" areas.

Oh, he threw out the Sports Information Department too, whom he blamed for the whole incident.

The notoriously high-strung and parnoid Mora, had the gate to the practice field locked according to the Los Angeles Times, which was all well and good, except three players who arrived late and had to wait for someone to let them in.

Read the Times story RIGHT HERE

You'll recall, Mora made some headlines a couple of weeks ago for not telling a prized, early recruit from Georgia that his scholarship was being pulled. That recruit, Eddie Prinz had to find out through his father, who tracked down an assistant via telephone.

We would say here that Mora needs to lighten up, but we know Mora from his tenure in Atlanta, and this is the way he operates. We wish the L.A media luck, but also offer some advice: Don't pay attention to the man. Unless he makes UCLA relevant, there's no reason to. He doesn't like you, and probably doesn't even know you. He just knows, much like his counterpart at USC Lane Kiffin, that you exist because the higher ups say you have to and in their mind, you are giving away all their secrets.

UCLA pulls scholarship offer and doesn't tell recruit

((ht: ajc.com))

Mr. Sensitivity himself

Nice work Jim Mora Jr.

Former UCLA QB recruit Eddie Printz of Lassiter H.S near Atlanta, no longer will be attending UCLA next year because his scholarship offer was "Withdrawn".

But wait, Printz had no idea it was coming, until his father apparently saw a tweet about the Bruins recruiting another QB. Ed Printz finally got the truth after, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he tracked down the coach responsible for recruiting in the area.

Ed Printz told the paper his son planned on taking classes early so he could early enroll at UCLA and also that his boy turned down at least 20-25 offers because he wanted to play in L.A.

Now, the younger Printz will not be left off the college football landscape, he'll get a chance to play--somewhere. But this all smells kind of bad.

Read the entire story from AJC.com RIGHT HERE

Well. Okay. Technically, Mora didn't "Break" any rules here. And he didn't do anything illegal. But he did something in REALLY bad taste.

Sure, we get that he's "Learning" the college game, but you don't leave a kid hanging like that. Come on dude. Imagine if he were your son.

Anyone who follows the recruiting game knows how cutthroat it is and schools lie and back off promises all the time. We're pretty sure all the players ask is you tell them if you don't want them.

Mora didn't.

This won't change much in California and it won't have an impact on Mora's status as a rookie head coach in the Pac-12. But it WILL have an impact on his recruiting on the other side of the country. Kids WILL take notice of this and think twice before committing to play for him.

Maybe in the big picture it won't matter, but just looking at it on the surface, it just plain smells:

Battle of Semantics:UCLA's Jim Mora talking L.A recruiting (UPDATE: And apologizing about it...)

((ht: latimes))

So...you are probably asking yourself: What the heck does that headline mean?

It means the Los Angeles media are implying a verbal battle brewing between new UCLA football coach Jim Mora Jr and USC.

And really there isn't THAT much to it, it's just a slow day.

The L.A Times reported on Mora making a comment on the Roger Lodge radio show (in L.A) saying "We don't have murders a block from our campus". The implication being UCLA is much safer than USC, which is in a less sheltered part of town. And quite honestly, yeah, there have been homicide issues in and around the downtown area USC occupies. The flip side is UCLA is in one of the "High Rent" parts of town.

According to the Times, Mora is talking smack against the Trojans, who have dominated L.A football for a long time.

Read more from the Times RIGHT HERE

Haha! We like Mora's denial, but the Times is right. Though the whole thing is incredibly juvenile. We know Mora well enough from covering him that he's a master of the sarcastic-double meaning statement. And don't buy the whole not watching the News or reading the paper thing either. He knows exactly what people say about him.

But, we like the fact he's willing to talk smack. UCLA needs to do something, they've been pretty downtrodden for a long time. Why not?

We don't know if Mora will be successful there, but it was a somewhat off the track move to hire him in the first place. Personally, we think his act will play much, much better at that level than it did in the pros. At least during his tenure in Atlanta (home of the OSG), he seemed to try, sometimes to hard, to be liked...at the expense of his coaching.

We'll keep an eye...or an ear out to see if he (Mora) throws any more doo-doo out there, here's hoping he does.

The only appropriate video for this story...is:



UPDATE: And it took him all of one afternoon to apologize for his idea...
((HT: melendezsports/insideucla-Gold)


Remember the last time UCLA tried to run their mouth...???
How long did that era last...???

Coaching Carousel: Jim Mora Jr. to UCLA

((ht: latimes))

J.L Mora

He's back.

Former Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks head coach Jim L. Mora will return to the sidelines this upcoming season as the head coach at UCLA.

Mora takes over from the fired Rick Neuheisel. The "Official" announcement is expected later in the day Saturday.

This season, Mora has spent as an football analyst for Fox Sports among others and he was a candidate for the job that was never mentioned.

Read the full story from the LA Times RIGHT HERE

This should be an "Interesting" hire. Mora has never been a college head coach and he struggled a bit in his stints in Atlanta and Seattle. After some initial success with the Falcons, he essentially imploded after saying some things on a Washington radio station about wanting to be the coach at the University of Washington.

His tenure with the Seahawks ended after one 5-11 season and Seattle decided to hire Pete Carroll.

From our time covering Mora in Atlanta, he's basically a good person who is a "tad bit" excitable at times. He's essentially a younger version of his father in that respect. That quality may serve him well on the college level and particularly at UCLA where football has essentially fallen off the map in Los Angeles and they desperately need someone to bring the excitement back.