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When Jim Mora sat down with media members after lunch yesterday, he took the time to explain how he is trying to advise UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen regarding his posts on social media. Mora very much sounded like the father of four kids that he is. He spoke about how they are always looking at their phones and mentioned how his own kids sometimes can have the "attention span of a gnat."
Yet, Mora stressed the importance of allowing his players to express their individuality in a responsible way.
He explained that he had Josh speak with Rams GM Les Snead who told Rosen that NFL teams look at everything before giving a kid $40 million.
Mora seems to understand that college students are going to make mistakes. But, he added:
You try to help them learn how to not make the fatal error. You know, the one they can never recover from. Saying something or doing something that offends such a large majority of the population or is illegal that you can never recover from.
Coach Mora also discussed the changes that are being made to the Bruins’ uniforms this year. Mora said:
I try to stay in tune with what people want. I think it’s important that we represent the alums and our university and those that care about our program and the way they want to be represented. And, one of the issues has always been the color of the jersey, the shoulder stripe and the shine on the pants.
We finally found a way to address those issues and we did. I think the uniforms are great. The shoulder stripe is about as good as you can get it with technology today. The shine on the pants is even better. The blue has been softened.
Our players love the look. I love the look. I think it’s traditional. We put the numbers back on the shoulders. I’ve always been a traditionalist and, to me, it’s as traditional as you can get in this day and age.
He added that there will be a navy blue alternate with a different font but it will still have a traditional look to it.
Mora mentioned that, even though, the Wasserman Center won’t be done until May 2017, it’s already having an impact on recruiting because they can show recruits the renderings as well as the frame of the building that’s already up.
As a follow-up, he was asked about the length of the practice fields and he said that they would still have 2 80-yard fields. He called them "enough". He didn’t really seem to care about the length, saying "When you’re practicing, you rarely use 100 yards."
Last year at Pac-12 Media Days, Bruins Nation had its first opportunity to sit down and talk with Coach Mora and, channeling his inner John Madden, he gave a very detailed explanation about why evading a pass rush isn’t as simple as "just running more slants."
This year, we asked about the situation with Jake Raulerson and how that might affect Coach Mora’s recruitment of graduate transfers in the future. Mora answered:
I was disappointed. This was a young man who was admitted to Stanford and Michigan. He graduated from Texas in three years with a 3.4. But we couldn’t find a way to get him into UCLA and that was disappointing. We were depending on him. We recruited him hard and he was a part of our recruiting class.
It changes the dynamics of our offensive line dramatically. He is a veteran player that we were counting on to come in and help us, but that’s the way it goes. And, especially in the public school system here in California, you have to be prepared for those things. So, we just adjust and someone will have to step up.
The experience hasn’t changed Mora’s view on graduate transfers. They still aren’t looking to populate the team with transfers, but he called Raulerson "special and unique." Mora added that he met their recruiting profile.
He also called the offensive line a "work in progress", but added that it will always be a work in progress.
My apologies for the fact that the video is split into multiple parts. It was an issue with the camera.
Here’s Part 1:
Here’s Part 2:
Here’s Part 3:
Go Bruins!!!