Sports

UCLA Hires Jim Mora as Bruins Football Coach

The former Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks coach will fill the position left by Rick Neuheisel.

Newly hired head coach Jim L. Mora is expected arrive at UCLA Monday, the LA Times reports.

UCLA anounced Saturday that Mora will replace Rick Neuheisel, who was fired Nov. 28. The team under Neuheisel’s lead had a 21-29 record, including a 49-31 loss to Oregon in the inaugural Pacific-12 Conference Championship Game Dec. 2.

This will be Mora’s first time in a head coaching position for a college. His only other experience coaching college was as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Washington in 1984. After getting fired from his one season coaching the Seahawks to a 5-11 record in 2009, Mora served as an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network. As coach of the Falcons from 2004-2006, Mora had a 26-22 record. He was an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers.

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Mora will have a five-year, $12 million contract plus incentives and bonuses, UCLA Athletics Director Dan Guerrero said. The Los Angeles Daily News reports that this deal, up from Neuheisel's $1.25 a year, puts UCLA in the top-tier of Pac-10 coaching salaries.

UCLA’s athletic department does not use state funds and receives most of its funding through ticket, broadcasting and merchandise revenues and donations. Guerrero said when Neuheisel’s firing was announced last month that the new coach would receive more money than previous coaches thanks to the conference’s recent profitable television package and an expected raise in ticket sales.

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Mora, who was neither a Bruin player nor assistant coach, has weaker past ties to the campus than any coach since Rich Sanders was hired in 1949. However, his father, former Saints and Indianapolis Colts coach Jim E. Mora, was assistant coach at UCLA in 1974. Also the 49ers general manager during part of Mora’s time working as defensive coordinator was Terry Donahue, UCLA’s coach from 1976-1995.

-- City News Service


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