The team took Thursday off from bowl practices, instead getting away from Westwood for a team function - getting in a few games of paintball. While the team was off, our new coach was finalizing a few more of his coaching hires. As gbruin noted yesterday, ASU Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone has confirmed that he will be coming to Westwood to serve in the same role on Jim Mora's staff. gbruin also identified a couple of the other assistant hires that Mora was on the verge of finalizing. In sum, 5 members of the new coaching staff were finalized on Thursday: Two coaches from Coach Neuheisel/Johnson's staff - Inoke Breckterfield in his existing role as Defensive Line coach, and Marques Tuiasosopo as tight ends coach. The three newcomers to UCLA are Steve Broussard, Demetrice Martin and Adrian Klemm.
Broussard will be taking the dual role of passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach, after having coached the defensive backs at UW (for better or worse). Klemm will serve as the Bruins offensive line coach and running game coordinator, while Broussard will coach our running backs. Broussard and Klemm will join Coach Mora's staff immediately and help him with the final stages of recruiting . While working on the coaching situation, Coach Mora was also conducting radio interviews, talking about the commitment to improving the football program's facilities and other resources that he was promised upon taking the job.
The comments about feasibility studies and planning upgrades only mean so much, but it is a conversation that Morgan Center needs to begin having, with Coach Mora and within itself if UCLA Football is going to truly compete with and aspire to be one of the elite programs."Not that there wasn’t a commitment because I think there was, but a renewed commitment to providing the resources that need to be provided to put UCLA on scale with everybody in the country,"
... Mora also revealed that the school is currently undergoing a feasibility study to improve the facilities. Athletic director Dan Guerrero said last month there were plans to upgrade Spaulding Field, the Bruins' practice field. Currently the facility has two fields, but they are only 80 yards long.
"I think it’s something you always want to be doing," Mora said. "You always want to be upgrading, you always want to be showing a commitment."
In other football news, Richard Brehaut has reaffirmed his desire to play baseball once the football season ends. While having a new head coach may change the support behind Richard in this decision, it is a decision that he is tryint to standby.
Brehaut was asked this week if he thought Mora would be supportive of his baseball pursuits.
"I hope so," Brehaut said referring to Mora. "Because I’m definitely, I’m playing, so I hope he’s OK with it. Hopefully he is. That will be something that I’ll sit down and obviously will have a long talk with him about. I think I’ve proved that I can do both and be successful this past year. So I hope he understands that and the feeling is mutual about that."
And if it isn’t?
"If he forced me to make a choice I would definitely have to sit down and have a long talk with my family about that," Brehaut said. "But that’s something in the future and I’ll talk to him about that and we’ll see."
The Bruins will return to practice later this morning.