Jim Mora has been fired by UCLA following another down year at a program that once showed so much promise.
After six seasons the Jim Mora era at UCLA is officially over. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, and on his birthday the school dismissed Mora as its head coach following a loss on Saturday to USC.
Losing rivalry games is usually the last straw when a coach is on the hot seat, and that proved true once again with Mora’s firing.
Bruins’ Athletic Director Dan Guerrero addressed the firing on Sunday, pretty much toeing the line that you’d expect in a situation like this.
"“Making a coaching change is never easy, but it’s an especially difficult decision when you know that a coach has given his all to our University,” said Guerrero. “Jim helped reestablish our football program, and was instrumental in so many ways in moving the program forward. While his first four seasons at UCLA were very successful, the past two seasons have not met expectations. We thank Jim and his family for his service to our school and his unquestionable commitment to our student-athletes.”"
Making change is never easy, but this is something that had to happen. Josh Rosen is probably heading to the NFL and that means the program is looking at the equivalent of a rebuild. Finding a hot coach on the rise to churn recruitment soil for the future is the right move, the only question is who that guy will be.
As for Mora, he’s probably looking at a few years on television before floating back into the coaching circle. He’s not going to get an NFL job unless it’s as a coordinator and he hasn’t shown that much at UCLA to be up for a top job. He’ll land on his feet, but it’ll be at a smaller program looking to make a name for itself.
Next: Top 15 College Football Players Who Never Won Heisman
The same can be said about UCLA, but for now, this is going to be a slow process for both parties involved.