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We just have one more week of spring football left. UCLA is going to have our spring football game next Saturday evening at the Rose Bowl where festivities will start around 5 pm PST. Coach Jim Mora is fired up about it. As far as I know here was his first tweet about it:
Football, Fireworks, Autographs, Giveaways, FUN...April 27th!!Can we get 35K in the Rose Bowl??#35K
— Jim Mora (@UCLACoachMora) April 12, 2013
35,000 is a pretty ambitious goal. IIRC the most UCLA has had for spring game in recent years was around 12,000 in 2009 and in 2010. And that happened in Rick Neuheisel's second and third year as the head coach when he had the program a little fire following the signing of pretty good recruiting classes and a "bowl winning" season in his season year. But Mora wasn't content with setting the goal at 35K. He immediately raised the bar in his subsequent tweet:
Heck, why stop at 35,000...let's get 50K!!RT, call your friends, post on FB, rent a bus, walk on hot coals...just be there!#50K
— Jim Mora (@UCLACoachMora) April 12, 2013
Well, got to love his spirit. We know Dan Guerrero's athletic department is pretty worthless. We doubt they are going to do anything beyond putting up standard information on the official site (which Mora tweeted out as well) and some graphics on the football specific Facebook page. If we had a competent, aggressive and hardworking athletic director with some sort of vision, we'd see a full scale campaign on all fronts - engaging alums, students and fans - across multiple platforms (both online and offline) to boost Mora's call for 50K at the Rose Bowl.
But that's a pipe dream because all we get from Chianti's athletic department when it comes to "outreach" to students is basically sandwich boards on the Bruin Walk. Not only is Chianti a joke among alums he is now a joke on campus.
So let's help Mora out. While we are not fully sold yet on his ability as a game day coach, he does deserve our support at this point given how he has led and managed this program to date. From his actions it appears he knows he is not going to get much support from an incompetent athletic director. Yes, I am sure Mora will say the obligatory nice things about Guerrero being a good boss in public, but his actions in terms of engagement of fanbase and promotion of his players (you know the job that would be done by a competent athletic department) make it clear that he is trying to do all on his own.
So let's help the coach out. Let's do everything we can to turn 50K at the Rose Bowl next Saturday. The program deserves that support. While we wait for Mora and his coaches to prove themselves again on the field next season, given that they have met last year's expectations, have done a superb job on the recruiting trail, and are doing everything they can within their abilities to engage the fanbase, let's return the favor by turning out for the program at the Rose Bowl.
Showing up at the Rose Bowl would also be an excellent opportunity to make your views on our joke athletic director known in public.
So can we fulfill Coach Mora's wish? Can we get 50K at the Rose Bowl next Saturday? Why not? Let's help him out. Once again here are the details for next Saturday's game. Let's turn the Rose Bowl into Bruin blue on a beautiful spring Saturday.
GO BRUINS.