Has Mora grown on you guys yet?
by John Berkowitz on Feb 6, 2012 7:17 AM PST
Email
PrintI am JohnB the managing editor from the UW Dawg Pound. I have been a follower and big fan of Bruins Nation for some time. I have a question to ask all you guys. I realize that when Jim Mora was hired the majority of you guys were disappointed.
Now that you have had a chance to watch him hire his staff and go out and recruit over the past six weeks how do you feel about him now?
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
34 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Hey John - thanks for coming by
We always appreciated your blogging as well.
As for Mora, so far so good. We are very happy with the way he put together his staff and attacked recruiting. However, that’s just the first part. We need him to put together a big season as we have a very manageable schedule next year. We are going to be fully on board if he can put together a 8-9 win season and beat Southern Cal at home. Thankfully he is not shying away from those expectations. If Mora gets done, we will be on our way.
But so far so good. Then again Neuheisel also did a great job with recruiting at UCLA.
Growing like a weed so far
I was one of those who was very skeptical about Mora (and I’m still pissed at the hiring process, which is on our lousy AD). I thought that never being in the college game, never recruiting, and his sub .500 record as a head coach were all bad predictors for Mora.
Well, he surpassed my recruiting doubts by a mile. I suspect that Mora recognized recruiting as an area where he needed help to get up to speed to compete with other schools, and I think he was very wise to bring in several coaches who were primarily great recruiters. You have to have talent, and he brought in assistants who could convince the talent to come to U.C.L.A., which certainly was not an easy sell.
Like N said though, Neu brought in 3 great classes, too, and it never translated on the field for a variety of reasons. I hope Mora smashes my other reservations about his (and the coaching staff’s) qualifications on the sidelines the way he did with my reservations about recruiting.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
I was hard not to be disappointed
The hiring process was awful and we knew nothing about Coach Mora. We did not know his plans, the staff he had in mind, and how relentlessly he would hit the recruiting trail. I doubt Chianti Dan knew either, otherwise he wouldn’t have been the fourth or fifth choice.
Everything since the hiring has been spot on. Mora has put together a seemingly cohesive staff, and most importantly a staff that is of his own choosing that is addressing all the areas of need. He is making no excuses, as Nestor pointed out, and he’s not saying “our goal is to do XYZ down the road”. He’s coming to win next year.
So in short:
Hiring process: D-
Hire: C (based on qualifications)
Performance since Hire: A
Product on field: TBD (and it is weighed more than the others)
Moral of the story: fire Chianti Dan
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I have nothing much to add here.
I think Tasser is being very generous on the grades for hiring process and hire, but that’s just quibbling. So far, Coach Mora has done far more than I thought he would do.
Well,
I have D- instead of F, because at least Chianti Dan went after Chris Petersen. That was the right thing to do. It’s what happened after he turned him down that gives the F.
The reason I have the hire a C was because it was mostly an unknown. I could easily have given it a D, but I think I was jaded and softened by the recent performance…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
He's hit all the right notes so far
problem is, we’re still only on the Prologue…
I am holding off all initial judgments until at least Game 4 of the first season. At this point, we’ll have a body of work in terms of scheming, coaching adjustments, player conditioning, adjusting to different environments, and obviously win-loss record. Only once we have this data can we really make a valid INITIAL evaluation of Mora.
Having said that, as we are learning from our Basketball program, a coach also has to build a great staff and be a great recruiter in today’s college game. So far, Mora has built what looks like a very solid staff (I love his coordinators), has knocked recruiting out of the park, and has injected some much needed new energy into the program…
Short Answer: No
Long Answer: I reserve judgment until I see the team in action (or in CRN’s case, inaction) on the field.
I have high hopes and low expectations.
Not Yet
I watched him bumble his way through a season in Seattle, he needs to show he can have a clue on offense and defense regarding playcalling.
I appreciate the talent he brought in coaching and player wise, but RN looked pretty good out the gate as well.
I want 9 wins, and a ranked program we have the talent to make it happen.
Think about it
We won 6 games last year w Neuheisel after blowing winnable games at Houston, at Utah. Then we choked against Illinois. There is no reason we shouldn’t be expecting 9 wins and holding serve against the Trojans at home.
by Nestor on Feb 6, 2012 3:36 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Losing to AZ wasn't exactly excuseable either
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
Agree
This is what I meant. If Neuheisel used Tyler Gonzalez instead of Kip Smith, we’d probably beat Houston. So that’s 7 wins. If we played a semblance of average offense, we’d beat Utah and Illinois. We’d get 9 wins that way. We should have beaten Arizona on paper but given the margin, I would have been okaay if we played hard.
Still my main point is with pathetic coaching we cruised to 6 wins and could have easily picked off 3 more. Mora shouldn’t have any issues winning 9 games with schedule next season (and beat Southern Cal) unless something catastrophic happens this off-season.
I actually expect 10 wins from a good coach
Just look at that schedule. We will never have such an easy conference schedule again, ever. And we’re playing it with a very experienced roster, of highly recruited talent.
Our best opponent by far is USC, who we have every right to expect to beat.
Stanford is Luckless, and we play them at home. They also play a pro-style O that Mora should be familiar with. Cal has no qb (and same deal with the O), Arizona and ASU are in shambles talent-wise (and Rich Rod needs some time to recruit for his system), Washington State will be a great test of Mora’s ability to defend a great offensive mind, but our talent is far superior. Oregon State is pretty awful. CU is a wreck, and their offense again is a predictable WCO. Utah we play at home.
So what losses would any fan be “satisfied” with? Nebraska is nothing special, and we play them at home. Our toughest roadie by far is against Washington State. USC is USC. I don’t see myself being at all optimistic with 3 losses next year, let alone 4.
If anything, I think next year could be deceptive, kind of like Erickson’s 10-2 first year at ASU…but going through the games I really see only two objectively expected losses — and either one would be disappointing on its own.
Yep - unbelievably WSU is now our toughest road game on the schedule
If this schedule is not tailor made for a program shaping run, I am not sure what is. We will not have a set up like this in a long time.
That Nebraska game, btw, smells to me like Tenn in Rick's first year
They won’t be as bad as UT that year, but then we won’t be either. We always seem to do well against name OOC at the Rose Bowl, even in mediocre seasons.
You say that like catastrophic offseasons
are rare for UCLA. By my count, we’ve had quite a few of them lately
It's hard to believe how within reach a 10-win season was.
I’m still shaking my head about that.
by Seth Chandler on Feb 7, 2012 9:19 AM PST up reply actions
I think this the appropriate place to put this.
I was talking to one of my friends at the NFL Network. A former player himself, he is closely acquainted with DeSean Jackson and a number of other pros. He coaches in the LA area at the high school level, so he is intimately familiar with the recruiting process.
He has nothing but glowing things to say about Mora. From what he is telling me, he is a home run hire. As he put, he not only is an energetic and passionate recruiter as Neuheisel was, he is an outstanding judge of ability. He favors the Bruins to the Trogans, and was almost to the point of slobbering over the recruits we pulled in. In his estimation, our returning players are going to have a hard time beating back the incoming freshman. I’m hearing he is getting a head start on next year’s recruiting and is already going toe to toe against SC. He swears by Yarber and Broussard, and tells me they are great coaches in addition to being good recruiters.
So, nothing but upside according to a well informed opinion I respect.
Perhaps due to having suffered through the Guerror era, I am hesitant until I see some good returns on the old eye test. But, I was really pleased when I saw lineman after lineman get signed; and really good ones to boot. Hard not to get excited for next year.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Good information to have
If, for some reason, someone still doesn’t want this to work out, they clearly haven’t suffered enough for the last 9 years.
Good info
We have heard similar notes from other NFL lines as well. So that’s positive but at the same time guys in the NFL business are also always looking out for each other.
Plus there is the nagging fact, which I can't quite forget
That Pete Carroll is the ONLY lifetime NFL coach in modern times to succeed in college, and even he had 10 years of college experience in the 80s. Not to mention the cheating that enabled his insane talent level.
Furthermore, Carroll didn’t have the coaching competition that exists in the pac 12 now. He basically went up against a bunch of feeble pro-style coaches who peaked out at Jeff Tedford and Mike freakin Riley. Once Harbaugh and Chip Kelly got going, he was woefully outcoached. And now we have Rich Rod and Leach to scheme against, along with an unknown but very “college” guy in Graham.
I love the staff so far…but this little nugget prevents me from getting my hopes up. We’re basically hoping for something with less than 10% chance of happening based on precedent.
I think
We will get a good sense what we have in our hands in our first 5 games. I guess we are right back to the “Eye Test” again. lol
Good to see you back here bb.
I'm glad to have some fan-life left after the Petersen/Leach choke job
That stung me as bad as Miami ‘98 and between that and the Sports Arena it’s been pretty grim.
I see the following as Mora’s formula for success, in order of importance:
1. Be the best, or top 2, defensive coach in the conference (his competition here is Whittingham—everyone else has O-minded coaches).
2. Run an aggressive college-style offense. Mazzone hire is a good start, but we’ll see if he has the freedom to develop his spread system or be shackled.
3. The conditioning, intensity of practices, serious mindset and discipline (promising so far).
4. Absolute balls-out recruiting, like we haven’t had since the mid-80s. (This seems the most promising prospect so far, tho it’ll mean little without #s 1 and 2.) SC being on sanctions gives further room for this staff to make UCLA the most talented squad in the conference over the next few years.
5. Understanding the 4th down chart, like Carroll and even Weis did. (I think Weis won several games he should’ve lost, including to us in South Bend, by going for it frequently.)
I think #s 3 and 4 have good evidence to support them so far. 1 is the big question mark, and so is 2 until we actually see what Mazzone is able to do. But a combination of all should be pretty successful and unique for UCLA.
Discipline
Hopefully that discipline off the field will also translate on the field, as UCLA seemed to pick up bad penalties at the worst times.
Mora, though, has already shown he knows what his weaknesses are...
…and that he knows how to delegate.
He also put strength and conditioning in the spotlight with a very ballsy hire. I have a hunch that when Alosi tells players what it takes to get to the NFL, they’re going to listen.
by Seth Chandler on Feb 7, 2012 9:32 AM PST up reply actions
Question for John Berkowitz: What's your knowledge and expectations for Mora?
I assume you have followed him closely as a potential UDub coach. I’m not sure too much can be gleaned from an NFL career, as we’ve maintained, but I’d be interested to hear what you think of him and more importantly how you think he’d compare to current Pac 12 coaches.
He hasn't held a practice yet...
…it is really early but I think you will see a tighter ship that will result in a more disciplined team that eventually wins more games and challenges for south division championships.
I like his work ethic and in college football trying to outwork your opponent 365 days per year is key.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Feb 9, 2012 1:15 PM PST up reply actions
winning grows on me
Mora hasn’t won a game yet …
former editor, DumpDorrell.com ... formerly posted as DumpDorrell
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
