Would Someone...Anyone...Please Stop the Jim Mora Insanity?

We used to have a feature on Sunday mornings after Saturday games rather appropriately called “The Morning After.” It was written each week by gbruin and he would try to put each week’s game into perspective after having some time to allow the emotions of the game to die down.

To be honest, I’m still trying to figure out what to make of yesterday’s loss to Memphis and I could really use one of Greg’s “The Morning After” columns right about now.

On one hand, we should have been able to beat the Tigers. On the other hand, I’m less upset about this game than I would be if our first loss had been next Saturday to Stanford and I can’t quite figure out why.

Could it be because of Jim Mora’s inability to beat Stanford? Or, is it just because my expectations have been managed? Is it because it’s hard to win football games when you’re missing so many starters on defense?

Maybe that’s it? But, then again, it’s not like our defense played well against either Hawai’i or Texas A&M.

I’m not sure why I’m not writing a column today insisting that Mora must go after getting so angry in the first half of the A&M game that I wanted Bruin fans to contact that Athletic Department to demand that Chip Kelly be hired.

Maybe it’s because deep in my brain I knew that something like yesterday was going to happen? After all, I did want Mora fired after last season. So, perhaps, I was expecting something like this to happen this season because Dan Guerrero brought him back for this season.

Maybe it’s because I decided to temper my enthusiasm for this year’s team until I see how they played against Stanford next week?

Maybe my outrage over the first half of the A&M game convinced me that there were still serious issues with this year’s team?

Maybe I’m tired of platitudes from administrators who only seem to care about attendance instead of winning?

Maybe I’m tired of administrators who are given awards recognizing them for their contributions to sports for which they’ve done little to ensure our success?

Could it be that it has more to do with being tired of administrators who refuse to act when they need to in order to ensure the success of our sports teams?

I don’t know, but, for some reason, I can’t quite figure out why I feel ambivalent to the result of yesterday’s game.

Or, maybe, just maybe, I’m reaching that point that so many other season ticket holders have already reached -- that I’m done supporting a football program that doesn’t seem to care about winning?

But, I do know this.

I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of Mora’s excuses. I find it sad that he no longer talks about winning anything besides the next game. When was the last time he spoke about winning a national championship? Or, even the conference championship?

I know that I wasn’t too surprised when the sunny East side of the Rose Bowl had so few fans on it against Hawai’i. That is a combination of fans moving their seats from that side of the stadium to the shady West side in order to sit behind the UCLA bench and last year’s atrocious showing on the field.

I know that, after last week’s win, the Athletic Department launched a campaign to re-engage former season ticket holders, but, I also know that yesterday’s loss isn’t going to help that effort much.

I know that anything but a win against Stanford is going to make it darn near impossible to have another home game this season where the East seats look full, especially during the “White Out” game against Colorado, and, even a win against Stanford might not help it.

I also know that having so many seats on that side of the stadium is going to look terrible on TV. In fact, I think it might look bad enough that it could force Dan Guerrero into a decision to fire Mora because, rather than spreading pockets of empty seats out across the stadium, it has concentrated almost all the empty seats together on the side of the stadium everyone watching the game on TV as well as from the shady side of the stadium including Dan Guerrero’s suite, making it impossible to seem like ticket sales are acceptable.

And, somewhere very deep in my mind, I know that, ultimately, empty seats and lost revenue may be the thing that results in Dan Guerrero finally doing what he should have done after last season: Fire Jim Mora.

Please, Dan, no Mora insanity!


Go Bruins.