UCLA FIRES HEAD COACH JIM MORA AFTER 6 SEASONS WITH BRUINS
Ex-NFL coach still has $12 million left on UCLA contract.
UCLA fired coach Jim Mora on Sunday with one regularseason game left in his sixth season. Athletic Director Dan Guerrero announced the move one day after rival USC’s 28-23 victory over UCLA (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12) on Saturday night.
Offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch will coach the Bruins in their regular-season home finale against California on Friday night. UCLA must pay more than $12 million to buy out the remainder of Mora’s contract, which runs through 2021. The school announced that Mora’s contract will be “honored by UCLA Athletics, exclusively using department-generated funds.”
The extraordinary buyout indicates the depth of frustration in Westwood with Mora, whose tenure got off to an outstanding start before a precipitous decline. Mora went 46-30 in his first significant collegiate coaching job, but the Bruins are on the brink of their second consecutive losing season despite a roster filled with elite recruits led by quarterback Josh Rosen. Mora won at least eight games in each of his first four seasons, but UCLA finished 4-8 last year and hasn’t improved significantly this season.
“Jim helped re-establish our football program, and was instrumental in so many
in moving the program forward,” Guerrero said in a statement. “While his first four seasons at UCLA were very successful, the past two seasons have not met expectations.”
UCLA still could become bowl-eligible with a seasonending victory over the Golden Bears (5-6). The Bruins haven’t lost at the Rose Bowl all season, going 5-0.
They won 10 games in Mora’s second and third seasons, tying the school record for victories. Mora, the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, was the widespread subject of NFL speculation at the time, but he repeatedly vowed to stay with the Bruins.
UCLA is 17-19 since 2015 with Rosen in the program, including 10-16 in the Pac12. The Bruins won just 10 of Mora’s last 27 games.
Motlow first Seminole to score for Florida St.: Justin Motlow accomplished something that has never happened in the 71-year history of Florida State football. Motlow, a preferred walk-on, is the first member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida to score a touchdown for Florida State. His 12-yard catch from J.J. Cosentino with 8:38 remaining in the fourth quarter Saturday was part of a 77-6 win over Delaware State.
“That is just the most amazing honor you could ever feel,” Motlow said. “I am so proud to represent my tribe. The first member to score a touchdown, let alone just play, it’s an exhilarating feeling. It makes me so happy.”
Motlow, who is a 5-foot11, 183-pound redshirt junior from Tampa, is one-fourth Seminole Indian. His grandmother, Louise, is 100 percent Seminole and lives on the Seminole reservation in Immokalee, Fla. His father, Clarence, is half Seminole and grew up on the reservation before moving to Tampa.
FSU Athletic Director Stan Wilcox had the ball from Motlow’s TD after the game. He said he plans to give it to the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
AP rankings same at top: The top nine teams in The Associated Press poll held their spots, led by No. 1 Alabama, while Northwestern and Boise State joined the Top 25 for the first time this season. Ohio State is No. 8. Michigan, North Carolina State and West Virginia dropped out after losses.