UCLA parts with Mora after USC loss
UCLA fired football coach Jim Mora on Sunday with one regular-season game left in his sixth season.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero announced the shocking move one day after rival USC’s 28-23 victory over UCLA (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12). 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. The Bruins even fired Mora on his 56th birthday.
“Jim helped re-establish our football program, and was instrumental in so many ways 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.”
Guerrero said his coaching search will be aided by wealthy Bruins booster Casey Wasserman and Hall of Famer and former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman.
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, giving the Bruins four straight winning seasons for the first time since 1988 under Terry Donahue. But UCLA finished 4-8 last year with one of the nation’s worst offenses, and its record hasn’t improved significantly this season despite getting a full season from Rosen, who missed the second half of 2016 with a shoulder injury.
UCLA still could become bowl-eligible with a seasonending victory over the Golden Bears (5-6) under Fisch, who joined the program from Michigan this season and immediately rebuilt the Bruins’ offense into a solid unit.
The Bruins haven’t lost at the Rose Bowl all season, going 5-0.
The Bruins won 10 games in Mora’s second and third seasons, tying the school record for victories in a season. 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.
Former Oregon coach Chip Kelly is likely to be a top target for the Bruins.
LATE SATURDAY
No. 11 USC 28, UCLA 23: Sam Darnold passed for 264 yards and ran for a touchdown, and USC persevered for its third consecutive victory over its crosstown rivals.
Although he threw one interception and failed to get a touchdown pass for the third time this season, Darnold made enough steady plays to keep USC (10-2, 8-1) in front of UCLA (5-6, 3-5).
Ronald Jones II rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and Michael Pittman Jr. returned a punt 72 yards for a touchdown on a spectacular trick play in the first quarter of the regular-season finale for the Pac-12 South champion Trojans.
Rosen passed for 421 yards and hit Jordan Lasley for three touchdowns.
No. 18 Washington 33, Utah 30: A bit of late-game mastery by Washington quarterback Jake Browning provided Tristan Vizcaino a chance at redemption for a season of shaky kicking and the capper to one crazy rally in Seattle.
Vizcaino hit a 38-yard field goal as time expired and Washington scored 10 points in the final 58 seconds to stun Utah.
Washington (9-2, 6-2 Pac12) pulled even at 30-all on Myles Gaskin’s 2-yard TD run with 58 seconds remaining. After Utah (5-6, 2-6) punted, Washington got the ball back with 29 seconds remaining at its own 28.
Browning hit Dante Pettis for 18 yards to near midfield, and then the big play was a 31-yard strike to Andre Baccellia to the Utah 22 with 8 seconds left.
Washington took one shot at the end zone that was incomplete before Vizcaino jogged out for the game-winning kick.