National Signing Day 2017: UCLA Football Coach Jim Mora Gets Combative During ESPN Interview

Jim Mora was in mid-season form this morning during a phone interview with ESPN.

As the ESPN team discussed UCLA, Joey Galloway analyzed the football situation in Westwood by saying:

Yeah, definitely not the season...I don’t think anybody was expecting UCLA to struggle the way they did, going 4-8. For the second straight year, they dealt with some injuries and Josh Rosen is going to have to play better. He had his ups and downs. We expected it his freshman year, the year before, to have those kinds of ups and downs. Now, he’s a veteran. He has to play better.

Joe Tessitore then introduced Mora and congratulated him on this year’s recruiting class.

Mora was so peeved by Galloway’s analysis, which almost anyone who has followed UCLA would agree with, that he could barely say anything about the recruiting class in response to Tessitore. Mora was so angry about it that, an hour later, Tessitore was still talking about how angry Mora was at Galloway.

Mora said:

We’re excited about the class. Josh Rosen played five games.

At that point, there was a very awkward pause because it was clear Tessitore wasn’t sure how to respond. Finally, Tessitore added, “In terms of, obviously, the season that you just had.” That’s when Jim got even more combative, saying:

Nah, I’m just responding to the comment about Josh Rosen being up and down. He played five games.

Well, yeah, Jim, that’s true, but, in those five games, he played well and he played poorly. It doesn’t matter how many games he played. Joey Galloway didn’t say anything about the number of games he played last season. He was talking about the quality of Rosen’s play during the games he played in last year.

And, while it certainly seems that he was battling during those games, it’s hard to play well when you’re under as much pressure from the defense as Rosen was last season.

So, it was just silly to get defensive the way that Mora did, but, then again, what do you expect from a guy who has said himself that he’s an asshole?

Glad to see Jim’s in mid-season form on National Signing Day. This year should be another fun one with him still at the helm.

Here’s a video of most of the exchange, courtesy of Dion Caputi:

Go Bruins.