Well, the latest news seems to be that our illustrious peabrain of an athletic director, aka Chianti Dan, may be discussing a deal for the UCLA Football HC position with Jim Mora, Jr. Nothing is official yet but from multiple accounts the two parties are currently in negotiations.
If Chianti Dan has indeed made an offer, and if Mora accepts it, well, it will be time to bring out the torches and the pitch forks. There isn't much to blame on Jim Mora, Jr., yet. It's not his fault that Chianti Dan is a supreme tool.
As for Mora well, let's delve a bit into his record and let it speak for itself.
Jim Mora Jr. has spent 4 years as a head coach in the NFL...and not even consecutively. He first spent 3 years as HC of the Atlanta Falcons, with Michael Vick as his QB. He managed to get worse every year with one of the most dynamic QBs in the league, so he was fired. His next stint didn't come until 3 years later, as HC of the Seattle Seahawks. Here's how it breaks down:
ATL 2004 11-5 (0.688)
ATL 2005 8-8 (0.500)
ATL 2006 7-9 (0.438)
SEA 2009 5-11 (0.313)
I think you can all see a downward trend, but I am pretty sure Chianti Dan read the same chart upside down. So, by purely W-L numbers, here's a guy who got worse every year he coached, and only had one winning season. Looks to me like his schtick got old with the players...or he simply didn't know what he was doing.
In any case, MexiBruin has an outstanding post showing that College Football and the NFL are two different beasts, and it takes a very different set of skills to excel at each, from recruiting, to running a program, to developing young players, and very importantly, excellent time management to deal with restricted number of hours practicing.
So let's take a look at Jim Mora Jr.'s college record. But let's look at his record as a college coach.
1984 - Graduate Assistant - University of Washington
That's it. It is simply astounding that Chianti Dan would hone in on the one candidate who has almost zero college coaching experience in any capacity whatsoever, let alone any type of recruiting. It almost looks as if pea-for-brains is doing this on purpose.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: Chianti Dan Guerrero is a name-dropper. He's the guy who falls for the glitzy names and thinks he's hobnobbing with the elite. That's why he stupidly agreed to a game in Cowboy Stadium, and that's why he set up an idiotic, insulting "tour of the Chianti region" for donors. He thinks bringing a coach with a recognized name will bring fans back to the Rose Bowl next season, because that's only as far as his shriveled brain will let him see. He has simply no idea what it takes to build a college football program.
The sad part is, many here will be behind this hire, thinking it will be Pete Carroll v.2.0, but really, by the sheer numbers, this is pretty much one of the worst decisions and one of the worst hires anyone could make.
Obviously, we have no way of knowing how Jim Mora will do as head coach. But he will be on a short leash, an extremely short one. If he doesn't get to the Rose Bowl in next 2 years, he will need to be gone. But hopefully, Chianti Dan will be gone even before that and a new AD with some semblance of intelligence will make another hire.