Mr. and Mrs. Jim Mora Losing Sleep Over California's Defense

No, the headline is not a joke. From Coach Mora's opening remarks after today's presser:

Watched a lot more of Cal yesterday after our press conference. They're really an impressive team. Kean Allen, great player. Safelin great player. Their defense plays with a ton of energy. They just go after it. As a matter of fact, I woke up at 3 a.m. and my wife Shannon was sitting in bed watching -- we have this thing called Huddle -- she was watching Cal's defense. She couldn't sleep. She said, ' Wow these guys play hard.' So if my wife notices it it's noticeable. They do, they play their butts off. We have a great challenge this week.

Uh, yes. Apparently Mrs. Mora was watching Cal's game film from Arizona State. Now, that's dedication.

Mora dismissed Cal's 1-4 record as "extremely deceptive," calling them an "explosive, talented" team. We agree with Mora of course. And, based on the record of last 10+ years UCLA is no position to take any team lightly. There is also the factoid of UCLA being winless in Strawberry Canyon since 1998.

For those wondering about injury updates here is that part of Mora's answer:

[Jordan Zumwalt] was out here today. He had his pads on. He didn't have his helemet on. He's feeling good. He looked good running around. We're hopeful he'll be able to play. Jeff Baca practiced and he's doing well. I don't mind giving you an injury report on some of these guys. It's not a big deal because they're all going to play. Jerry (Johnson) was limited today, but he's fine as well. We're healthy for this point in the season. That's not withstanding Devin (Lucien) obviously, who is getting surgery right now. So, hopefully he comes through that OK.

You can watch Mora's full post practice presser below:

BSR TV: Jim Mora, Tuesday Practice (via Edward Lewis)

We will build on this post throughout the week as we keep getting news streaming out of practices.