Ask Coach Mora Q & A

Coach Jim Mora hosted another round of questions via his twitter account @UCLACoachMora recently, and his video responses have been appearing over the last 2 days. We've collated the sixteen questions and his responses here and they are definitely worth a watch.

Mora's efforts got him some praise in an article in the Orlando Sentinel that cited him and Ok St's coach Mike (I'm a man!) Gundy as two examples of coaches taking advantage of social media to connect with their fans.

I'd like to give a big thank you to Coach Mora for a number of things - first for taking his time to field and respond to questions from the fan base. It's pretty impressive to see a D-1 coach giving up some of his rare available time to reach out via social media and interact directly with the Bruin family. Second, I appreciate him fielding and answering some pretty direct questions, particularly ones about penalties, the Holiday Bowl, and his most regrettable moment from last season. It tells me a lot to see a coach be so open and accountable, rather than avoiding the tough questions or hiding behind coachspeak and cliches. Finally, given the ongoing disaster that is our Apathetic Director and much of the Morgan Center admin, it is really encouraging to see Coach Mora engaging the Bruin fan base, pitching the U.C.L.A. brand, and appreciating what we know as the overall greatness of our University. Coach Mora has learned this in just over a year. If only all of our lifetime bureaucrats in the Morgan Center staff tried this hard and cared this much.

The enthusiasm and the honesty Mora displays in these videos show some of the reasons I really want Coach Mora to be successful and why he has fostered an optimism around U.C.L.A. Football that we haven't seen in over a decade. His answers to questions 2 and 3 are gems. Mora gets it. Of course, another big step toward his success would be getting him a new boss, but that's for a different blogpost. In the meantime, watch and enjoy the latest round of #askCoachMora.

All the videos are from 8ClapProductions on YouTube.

1. We would love to know why our team faces the sun at the Rose Bowl. Shouldn't that side be given to the visitors?

2. What is your favorite spot on campus?

3. What made you choose U.C.L.A. and not some other school or the NFL?

4. I heard that Anthony Barr has been working with the offense as well as defense, How much do you think he will contribute and Are you worried that it could be too much?

5. How are you addressing our drive killing penalties?

6. Our kickoff returns were very weak last year with a lot of our return attempts falling short of the 25 yard line. What is being done about that and who appears to be in charge of that position at the moment?

7. Tangibles are easy to measure. What are some intangibles you look for in a player?

8. What are we Bruins doing to ensure that our scholar athletes stay in school and graduate?

9. Coach Mora, will we get into throwing the deep ball this year? Back in the 90s UCLA really opened it up on offense and the Rose Bowl was electric

10. Are there any common misconceptions about UCLA you come across when trying to recruit nationally?

11. What excites you most about the team in the upcoming season?

12. What was one thing you wish you would have done differently last year?

13. How do you plan on enforcing toughness and accountability in the second year?

14. Do you think problems in the bowl game can be attributed to it being the teams first go around together?

15. Will your offense continue to use the Y position in a traditional role or will it depend on the type of TE you bring in?

16. There are a number of players who fans are expecting a big year from (EK, Owa, XSF, Barr), but are there any players coming out of spring that you expect to have a "breakout year"?

Thanks again to Coach Mora and his staff who helped prepare these videos. You can follow Coach Mora on twitter at @UCLACoachMora.