New UCLA Coach Says He Loves a Challenge

Jim L. Mora is eager begin recruiting players and plans to start immediately, he said Tuesday as he was introduced as UCLA’s new head football coach.

Mora, who is replacing the fired Rick Neuheisel, comes from a career mainly based in the NFL, most recently as coach of the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons. He says professional recruiting is more similar to college recruiting than a lot of people realize. While you don’t meet with parents for NFL players, he said, you still have to appeal to the players, their wives and kids.

“(Recruiting) is one of the things I’m most fired up about because it’s a challenge, because it’s new,” Mora said. “I love challenges.”

One challenge Mora faces is improving the record of UCLA after what he characterized as a tough decade. The team hasn’t made a Rose Bowl since 1999.

“I say it is a sleeping giant in college football,” he said. “This was the job that I wanted, and I was fortunate to get this job.”

He plans on hiring a coaching staff filled with great recruiters and mentors, but thinks it’s to early to talk about the changes he would make.

“I don’t want to stand up here today – my first day – and make any bold predictions or outlandish statements,” Mora said. “I’m going to let our actions going forward speak for us. But I will say this: Our objective is and always will be to win Pac-12 Championships and compete for the national championships.”