As the tenure of Texas’ 2nd winningest coach winds down, all eyes from the Longhorn nation continue to focus on Alabama’s Nick Saban. When you have quite possibly the greatest coach in the history of college football on your radar it’s difficult to focus on other candidates. But that’s what I’m here for. Let’s talk about a candidate who has found their way onto many lists over the past week: Jim Mora, Jr.
Jim Mora, Jr.
The son of a football coach, Mora Jr. has grown up around football his entire life. Actually, he’s not a true junior, as his father is Jim E. Mora and Jr. is Jim L. Mora, but we are not here to discuss semantics, we are here to talk about potential football coaches.
Mora’s father bounced around the college and pro ranks, but stayed in the Seattle area long enough to allow Mora Jr. to graduate from high school in Bellevue and then attend the University of Washington where he walked on and played four years as a linebacker and defensive back, playing in a pair of Rose Bowls. Following his graduation in 1983, he became a graduate assistant for Don James at Washington in 1984 for one season before moving to the pro ranks the next year, joining the San Diego Chargers as a defensive quality control coach. In 1989, the Chargers promoted him to Defensive Back coach and he stayed in that position until he was hired by his father as Defensive Back coach for the New Orleans Saints in 1992. Following his father’s abrupt resignation midway through the 1996 season, the younger Mora finished that season out and moved to San Francisco, hired by Steve Mariucci to coach defensive backs before being promoted to Defensive Coordinator in 1999. As defensive coordinator, Mora Jr. helped lead the 49ers to a pair of playoff appearances and a pair of 10 win seasons before being named the Atlanta Falcons coach in 2004.
Mora Jr.’s head coaching career started off quickly, leading the Falcons to an 11-5 season and a first round bye in the playoffs. The Falcons defeated the Rams 44-17 to advance to the NFC Championship game where they fell to the Philadelphia Eagles. The final two seasons under Mora Jr. the Falcons struggled to 8-8 and 7-9 marks and Mora was let go following three straight losses to end the 2006 year. He moved back to a familiar place in Seattle the next season, accepting a job on Mike Holmgren’s staff as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Back coach for two years. Mora Jr. turned down an opportunity to return to the head coaching ranks with the Redskins following the 2007 season and when Holmgren retired after the 2008 season Mora was named the 7th head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He lasted one season there, finishing with a 5-11 mark and was fired when the season ended.
Mora Jr. went into broadcasting like many coaches seem to do, working with the NFL Network and Fox in various capacities before being hired by UCLA on December 10, 2011. When he was hired, Mora realized his limitations when it came to the college game and quickly brought in various assistants with college and recruiting ties to his staff, like Adrian Klemm and Eric Yarber. His first recruiting class finished ranked 8th on Rivals, including 17 4-star players and names from Texas like Deon Hollins Jr., Caleb Benenoch and Eldridge Massington. He’s come back to Texas for a pair of players for the 2014 class also, earning verbal pledges from John Plattenberg and NaJeen Toran.
Mora Jr. demands accountability from his players and uses his time as an NFL head coach and assistant as a tool to teach his players at UCLA. The most common comparison for Mora Jr. since he arrived in Los Angeles has been to the man who replaced him in Seattle and built a dynasty across town at USC, Pete Carroll. While they both had similar backgrounds before taking their talents to LA (strong NFL assistant background, but failures as an NFL head coach and seen as a fallback candidate when hired), Mora Jr. is much more poised and outgoing than Carroll was, instead focusing on the job at hand. And the results have been solid thus far. After taking over a 6-8 UCLA program, in year one Mora Jr. led the Bruins to a 9-4 record, including a berth in the Pac 12 championship game where they narrowly lost to Stanford, 27-24, before falling to Baylor in the Holiday Bowl and ending the season ranked 17th in the AP Poll and 19th in the Coaches Poll. The positive results have continued this year, with an 8-2 mark currently and a top 15 ranking in all of the major polls.
My Thoughts
Jim Mora Jr. is an intriguing candidate to me because he’s been successful so far at UCLA and has them seemingly pointed in the right direction. I love the fact that when he was hired rather than bringing NFL assistants with him, he went out and hired guys with ties to college and strong recruiting backgrounds to help get him acclimated. That shows that he knows his limitations in the college game and is not afraid to address them. I like that trait in a coach. You also know he’s a solid X’s and O’s guy because you have to be a solid X’s and O’s guy to get the kind of coaching jobs he’s had in his career. His NFL record is far from spectacular, but I can list some extremely good college coaches who were just as bad if not worse than Mora Jr. was at the highest level so that means nothing to me. If we did go after Mora Jr. I feel good about him changing the culture of the program and demanding accountability. I also like the fact that he is using a spread offense currently with a dual threat QB that I think we need to run here. Hopefully if he were brought in and given a blank checkbook for his assistants he will be able to find guys with strong ties to Texas and other areas for recruiting purposes just as he did when he was hired at UCLA. While he is not going to be Nick Saban and will not create the grand slam type effect that Saban would, do not sleep on Mora because he’s a very good coach in his own right and I think he would do well in Austin.
