‘We have to build from here’
UConn, Mora arrive for bowl game with higher expectations
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Before moving across the country to become the UConn football coach about 13 months ago, Jim Mora spent a lot of time hiking some rugged trails in and around Sun Valley, Idaho.
If you can picture that, and if you’ve seen Mora run the bleachers at Rentschler Field before games, it’s easy to understand one thing about the man.
“I like to go uphill,” Mora said Thursday evening, speaking not from the top or from a final destination, but at least from a place where he and his players can appreciate the view.
UConn officially arrived at a forgotten plateau Thursday, in advance of Monday’s Myrtle Beach Bowl against Marshall. The Huskies haven’t been to a bowl since playing against, and losing to, the same team at the 2015 St. Petersburg
Bowl.
What’s in the years that followed, well-documented, was a college football mess. Mora was handpicked to clean it up and on Thursday, there he was, the face of a program recognized for its turnaround, spending time at the posh Pine Lakes Country Club speaking about postseason rewards and opportunities that aren’t afforded to teams that lose more than they win.
UConn is 6-6, with a chance to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2010. That is, all things considered, a rather modest success — the type, however, that feels like a miracle to anyone who has been around the program the past six years.
“I hope this is the base line,” Mora said. “I appreciate that people are excited about what we’re doing. I think we want to celebrate the progress we’ve made, but I don’t want, nor do I want anyone affiliated with this program, to be satisfied with 6-6. That’s not our goal. So the tone you talk to people with is really important because you
want to recognize that they’re excited and we’re excited and our players, who have never been to a bowl game, are excited. But at the same time, it’s important that you send a message that this is only the start. This can’t be the norm. Six has to be the minimum. We have to build from here. I think our players, especially the ones who are coming back, have that same mindset.”
Mora, best known previously as coach of the Atlanta Falcons (2004-06) and UCLA (2012-17), had several opportunities to get back into coaching while living in Idaho. Eventually, he felt the need to get back on the sideline as much as he once needed a break to prioritize family.
Why 2022? Why UConn? “Right time,” he said. “Right place.”
“I was familiar with the campus,” Mora continued. “I was familiar with the brand. Obviously it was more of a basketball brand. Still is. I wanted the challenge. I’ve said this often: I like to go uphill. I like to take on hard tasks. For me, that’s thrilling. That’s where I’m testing myself. This was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
There are dozens of bowl games and hundreds of intriguing story lines in college football this time of year, when coaches and players on teams that earn it put in 15 or so additional practices as their seasons funnel toward a game that can only enhance, or highlight, a season’s progress.
Mora, standing at a podium during his press conference, before the cocktail party that followed, reached forward, patting a Marshall helmet that was squared off with a UConn helmet as a display.
“I love that helmet,” he said. “I’ve always been a Marshall fan. … If you’re my generation, the Marshall story is a compelling one. And to see them to continue to play at such a high level is really exciting.”
Marshall’s 1970 football team was involved in the most devastating air disaster in college sports history. Most of the 75 people killed in the crash of Flight 372 in Huntington, Va., 37 of them players, were affiliated with the program.
Rebuilding through tragedy, and from scratch, the program went on to win two Division I-AA national championships in the 1990s. The Thundering Herd has now been to nine bowl games in the past 10 years. Marshall is 8-4 this season, coach Charles Huff ’s second, the team’s first in the Sun Belt Conference after 27 in Conference USA.
“It’s a two-fold deal,” said Huff, previously an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama. “We’ve got the history of Marshall and the event that ultimately changed college football, ultimately changed the university, and then you’ve got recent history and that’s kind of been the good part. Because it’s the story of the tragedy and the rebirth ... and the next phase is you’re talking about national championships, conference championships, you’re talking about Hall of Famers, you’re talking about Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich.
“And now here we are, in a bowl game with an opportunity to do something special, being the first Sun Belt Marshall team with an opportunity to win nine games.”
The game will be held at Coastal Carolina University’s Brooks Stadium — capacity: 20,000. About 6,500 fans showed up last season for the game between Old Dominion and Tulsa, according to the bowl’s executive director, Rachel Ammon Quigley.
A UConn administrator said UConn had sold roughly 2,500 tickets, with some of those being purchased for donation to UConn students and to Myrtle Beach area middle school and high school teams.
Marshall is a 10-point favorite.
UConn is just about always the underdog, though.
The Huskies weren’t
rattled by a 1-4 start and won five of six games to reach bowl eligibility with a home victory over No. 19 Liberty, a 14-point favorite, on Feb. 12.
“I’m very fortunate to be able to experience this year,” said Mora, 61. “I’ve been coaching for a long, long time and this has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable years I’ve ever had and it’s because of the people I’m able to be with every day. What I’m most proud of, the biggest accomplishment for us, is just creating and maintaining the connectiveness and the culture that we did through a tough start.”
Uphill all the way … to a bowl game, onto the national airwaves. The team made a brief appearance on ESPN’s First Take Thursday morning before departing Storrs.
“I think there was a lot of uncertainty when I took this job on my side and probably our players’ side as to what the future looked like,” Mora said. “Our biggest achievement as a team is the way we came together and stayed together ... They never lost confidence, they never lost hope, they never lost faith, they never fractured.”
Mora said he came back to college coaching with something to accomplish, not necessarily something to prove.
“Without sounding arrogant — I don’t think I’m arrogant — I didn’t have any doubt that I could start this program on a path back to success,” he said.
He mentioned turning the Falcons from a 5-11 team to an 11-5 team that reached the NFC Championship, and early success at UCLA after that team was coming off consecutive losing seasons.
“I felt like we could do the same thing here if we had the right people,” Mora said. “It’s not about me, necessarily. But I didn’t have any doubts that if we assembled the right staff and created the right atmosphere and culture and did the right things and stayed focused on the things that were important, we could get back on a path to success.
“The reason I came back to coaching is because I missed it. I missed the player. I missed the camaraderie of the staff. I missed game day. I missed the relationships. It wasn’t ever about proving anything. I love to coach football. I love to be around young people. I love to serve a purpose in their lives. I was just very fortunate to get this opportunity, and I relish it.”