No Mora! UCLA Coach Should Be Fired Today After Embarassing Loss to Stanford

Dan, I told you so. I’ve told you repeatedly that Jim Mora needed to go but, either you didn’t believe me or you just didn’t listen to me.

Instead, you did nothing and it showed at the Hawai’i game to anyone who watched from the West side of the Rose Bowl because the East side was embarassingly empty.

Your department smartly jumped on the marketing opportunity to try to sell some tickets to on that side of the stadium and Jim Mora rewarded their efforts by losing last week to Memphis and last night to Stanford.

As a result, next weekend’s “White-Out” game against Colorado may look more like a “Pink-Out.” Why a “Pink-Out?” Because that’s the color of the seats inside the Rose Bowl and when those seats are empty, you see the pink-colored seats.

To be sure, some Bruin fans will still attend the game because they’ve already paid your athletic department for their tickets. I am, in fact, one of those fans.

But, in protest of your inability to make the tough call for the good of the program, I will not be wearing white and I encourage every other Bruin fan out there to wear some color other than white in protest of the sorry state of the UCLA Football program. You could wear blue, like I plan to, in a show of support for the players who are out there trying their hardest, at least in most cases (yeah, I’m talking about the lack of effort from a Bruin linebacker against Memphis).

And, I encourage anyone who isn’t wearing white and is asked why they aren’t to respond by saying that it’s in protest of the putrid coaching job Jim Mora has done as well as the failure of the administration to do anything about it.

Now, there’s really only one thing that would get me to change my mind about not wearing white next Saturday. It would be for UCLA to announce that Jim Mora has been re-assigned to other duties inside the athletic department and that he is no longer UCLA’s head football coach.

Seven consecutive losses to Stanford are a pretty good reason why he shouldn’t be coaching our beloved Bruins any more. But, it’s not just that.

Since November 14th 2015, the UCLA Football program has been on a race to the bottom. Since that day, UCLA is 4-11 against Power 5 schools and the only reason why it’s 4-11 and not 3-12 is because of an amazing second half comeback against a team whose offense coordinator is known for his bizarre playcalling. The only four Power 5 schools UCLA has beaten since the middle of November 2015 is Utah on November 21, 2015, Arizona and Oregon State last season, and Texas A&M to start this season.

But, the Texas A&M win should probably be chalked up to an awful lot of luck at this point.

To quote Coach Mora’s dad Jim E. Mora “I just hope we can win a game...another game.”

How bad have things gotten for Jimmy? He can’t even seem to do the postgame right.

Here’s how his dad handled a postgame where his team had 5 turnovers.

Instead, this is what Mora offered in his postgame interview.

It was interesting to see Mora say he’s always been a “glass is half full guy.” What makes it so interesting? That he sees it as half full when it is clearly not at all full.

Bruin fans have realized this. Even the most ardent Mora supporters have realized this.

About the only one who hasn’t seemed to realize this yet is UCLA AD Dan Guerrero and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. If Gene Block had some guts, he would finally do what the Nebraska chancellor did last week: fire his athletic director.

Why? Because an athletic director needs to be accountable for his coaching hires’ on-field performance as much as he is accountable for other aspects of managing the athletic department. Being a sound financial manager just isn’t enough. Twenty years without a Rose Bowl appearance should be. Three failed football hires should be. And, if they aren’t, then how about the fact that last season’s on-field performance has threatened the financial well-being of the athletic department due to a substantial drop in revenue from ticket sales.

All I know is that if the Athletic Department really wants Bruin fans to wear white next week to show support for the team, then the Athletic Department needs to do something immediately to show that it cares about the direction of the program. And, if they don’t, then the UCLA Administration should step in to do something.

Think of it as the fashion equivalent of booing Dan Guerrero during his on-field presentation during the Texas A&M game. If you have tickets arrive early and wear blue, not white.

After all, white is the color of surrender and I will not give up the fight to have a football program Bruin fans can be proud of and neither should you.


Go Bruins.