Bruins blow out candles for Mora
Jim Mora deserves to move on for well-publicized reasons, but UCLA showed poor taste in dumping him the morning after a valiant battle with a crosstown rival — with another week left for the seniors and the rest of the organization giving their all. With recent basketball and football leadership behaviors, UCLA seems to be about winning and money instead of class and character.
Greg Whittier
Woodland Hills
Dan Guerrero’s 0-3 record of football coaching hires speaks for itself, and the mediocrity of the program should rest squarely on his shoulders. Sure, he has made some decent decisions that have helped the success of various sports teams within the athletic department, including following Title IX guidelines.
However, unless 80,000 people shell out $50 and pack the Rose Bowl to watch a women’s tennis match, it is the football program that continually will be under the microscope. There’s definitely a chink in the Under Armour.
Larry Herrera
Redondo Beach
Hold on, here! Mora’s $12-million severance is being paid out of “exclusively athletic department generated funds”? Those funds, no matter where they are generated, belong to the UC system, and therefore, the California taxpayers.
Since when did athletic departments become autonomous institutions?
Rick Kern
Incline Village, Nev.
When will taxpayers demand that UCLA quit throwing its money away on buyouts of coaches? The AD and president need to be accountable for fiscal ineptitude for these long-term, automatically extending contracts they continue to give out.
Sophie Perry
Los Angeles
So, Bill Plaschke thinks the sudden firing of coach Jim Mora is “bold.” Really? Let’s see ...
After their limp-wristed tongue-lashing to three do-nothing/know-nothing recruits who only brought shame and disrespect to their university and nation, they fire a coach who had four of six winning seasons, who has dealt with devastating injuries to key players and the loss of his starting quarterback, who recruits so well that the bulk of these players leave early for the NFL, and has boosters and donors throwing millions of dollars to a football program at a basketball school.
And, adding insult to injury, won’t let him at least finish out the season and fire him on his birthday! That’s cold, not bold.
Rick Solomon
Lake Balboa
Jim Mora recruited a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback in Josh Rosen. When he did, he needed to recruit a strong offensive line, a reasonably good runner and receivers who could hold onto passes. By pointing out they would be playing with a Heisman-quality quarterback and thus contend for a national title, he had the tools to do that. He failed in all three categories. That warranted his dismissal.
Bruce N. Miller
Playa del Rey
Conversation from last Sunday in Westwood:
DG: Hey, Jim, tough loss last night. I mean Josh said he thought you guys had it won.
JM: Yeah that was a tough one, I too thought we had it won as well. You know without the penalties and messing up that punt return, we had that game.
DG: Well that’s how it goes sometimes, you tried. Oh by the way: a very happy birthday, Jim, and thanks for the memories. Also, YOU’RE FIRED!!!
Phillip Trujillo
Ontario
Jim Mora should have protected his job better by enrolling as a student at UCLA and stealing something. David Stratton
Solvang, Calif.
I can imagine Junior’s response to being told he was fired went something like this: “Layoffs? Don’t talk about layoffs! Are you kidding me? Layoffs”?!
Steve Ross
Beverly Hills
USC 28, UCLA 23
Sam Darnold won the battle last Saturday night, but Josh Rosen will get a bigger paycheck after the 2018 NFL draft.
George Vreeland Hill
Beverly Hills
Let’s see if I have this right. Josh Rosen drove the field and fumbled in the red zone, then drove the field again and threw an interception in the end zone, but because he completed 61% of his ridiculous 52 passes, he had a stellar game? If I had a selection in the draft, I would probably take Josh over Sam as well, but please don’t confuse one-dimensional game planning with stellar performance.
Bill Pool
Fountain Valley
Clay Helton seems like a real nice, friendly, happy man. But it is so tiring year after year hearing him talk about how the Trojans are “a work in progress, hoping to learn and get better in the future.” Funny, but you never hear Nick Saban saying these things. His club comes out of spring practice each year fully prepared to compete at the highest level week after week. The Trojans could be the worst 10-2 team in college football history. They have played two nice games the entire season.
The Trojans might compete for a Pac-12 title each year, but until Helton and his staff start recruiting and teaching toughness and aggressiveness like Alabama they will remain only an afterthought when it comes to competing for a national championship.
Bruce Olson
Lake Arrowhead
Stealing the show
What would I do if I were UCLA? I believe that the insane comments by LaVar Ball cast a very dark cloud over UCLA and their athletic department. Because of this I would suspend Cody Riley and Jalen Hill for as many games that UCLA deems fit but I would expel LiAngelo and rescind the scholarship offer to LaMelo.
To get the message across to other parents who think they are above it all, I would hope that LaMelo would not be offered a scholarship to any other NCAA school.
Richard Katz
Los Angeles
I think there is an opportunity here for UCLA and the Ball family to turn this into something positive and offer two books to be included in any shoe sales. The first being, “Tips for International Travel (i.e.: Shoplifting Not a Crime in Foreign Countries)” and second, “Grammar for Idiots (i.e.: Ain’t No Big Thing).”
If it takes an international incident to put a shoe in Dad’s mouth, so be it.
Steve Walsh
Redondo Beach
Memo to Bill Plaschke: If you don’t like what the “attention-seeking father” is saying, then stop giving him so much attention. Bennett Beebe
Westwood
Magic Johnson claimed he could keep LaVar Ball in line. Apparently that was all a lie and Magic was more caught up in the hype and image than he was in the talent. Lonzo is not even in the top 10 of rookies this year. Cindy Stewart
Los Angeles
With Lonzo shooting 43% from the line, will teams resort to a “Maul Ball” strategy?
Rick Deguchi
Covina
Thanks
For one shining Thanksgiving morning, Bill Plaschke’s column “Pause to Give Hearty Thanks” brought back memories of the great Jim Murray. His column was heartfelt and the perfect way to begin Thanksgiving, as well as pause and reflect on what the holiday is truly all about. Well done, Bill!
Richard Whorton
Studio City
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