Before he began to address today's practice, Coach Mora came out firing. Here is the entire transcript:
Good morning. I just want to address one thing and that's the false twitter stuff going on there that someone attributed to Randall Goforth. It is absolutely 100% not Randall. I've talked to Lane Kiffin. He's talked to his guys. I've talked to my guys. It's a total non-issue. Some knucklehead's out there trying to stir it up So it's been shut down. Randall was in tutoring session when this idiot was tweeting. It's ridiculous. The power of the social media is amazing and when it's used for negative, in a negative way it's sickening. So that's it
(Media - Chris Foster: How do you really feel about it?)
I think it's a frickin' joke that somebody would do that. I think you're the lowest form of lifeform if you would portray yourself as a young man, an 18 year old young man trying to do his best. Trying to stir it up like that. Attributing comments to him that aren't his. I think he ought to go to jail. That's how I feel. I think you're a scumbag.
(Media: what do you think would be an appropriate sentence?)
Bring his ass out here.
(Media: You'll put him to work?)
We won't put him to work. He won't make it very far with this team.
(Media - Foster: I think you're limiting your chances of him actually showing up)
Yeah, because he's a coward That's what cowards do, cowards hide behind print.
(Media - Foster: Print? Excuse me?)
That's what Twitter is, right? It's print.
(Media - Foster: Maybe be a little clearer on that , please)
You know what I meant
(Foster laughing: I know)
Yeah, I challenge that guy to come on out here. Whoever he is. He won't though. He's a coward. Or a girl, whoever it is.
I was pretty surprised at how strongly Mora felt about this and how strong his comments were relating to the person/s behind this. I kind of thought Mora would like this to just go away, and he still probably would, but it's clear he wanted to make sure he took up for his freshman player, and that he had the absolute last words to put this subject to an end. After watching this, I am very happy with how Mora addressed this, and I pity the fool who started this mess.
I also enjoyed Foster's sudden "Wha?" moment when Mora said that cowards hide behind print. I think the exchange shows that Foster and Mora have a pretty good relationship so far, and it's been reflected in a lot less snark from the LAT's daily coverage.
The media and Mora moved on to actual football stuff at this point, but Mora wasn't in a particularly joking mood at this point. When a reporter prefaced her question by noting Washington State wasn't showing much, Mora disagreed, pointing out that WSU is improving every week, complimenting their coach and QB, and and calling their defense, especially against Oregon, impressive. It's obvious that Mora is working to keep the focus on this Saturday, and not the one after.
Mora also brushed off comments about the Bruins' current ranking with this beauty:
Rankings don't matter now. Rankings matter at the end of the year.
Coach Mora has his head screwed on right. I trust he will get this message across to the players. I also trust that, while we can be proud of the progress we have made to this point, the fans will understand why we aren't celebrating anything just yet.