UCLA Football: Jim Mora Will Give You Nothing, Media

UCLA football coach Jim Mora is in the midst of getting his squad ready for battle against Rice, team who his Bruins are favored over by 15.5 points, according to various Vegas sports betting sites.

Of course, he was pretty miffed that he was being so kind to the media in his post-practice reports. Why? Because he all of a sudden had this realization that he was talking to the media, in italics.

Mora didn’t particularly like that everything he said was written 30 to 40 times online — including us, mind you — while a lot of his “secret weapons” were being exposed in thorough practice reports.

So Mora turned off his “let’s be nice with the media” switch on Sunday in his post-practice presser. Here it is (good stuff starts at around 1:55):

You want to know about Kevin McReynolds’ apparent position switch? Nope. Want to see if Brett Hundley has been solid? No sir. Want to know if Jerry Neuheisel’s still video-bombing like a mutha-friggin boss? Hell no, get away. You got something on your ear and you want Jim Mora to let you know if you were able to get it off? Get off my yard, son.

In all seriousness, as a UCLA fan, you gotta dig what the dude’s throwing down (or, more appropriately, what he isn’t throwing down. Because while we like to know every damn detail about what’s going on inside UCLA’s practice, Mora’s taking Rice seriously, even if it’s an opponent that the Bruins should beat handily. It’s a different mindset, far different from the one the Bruins implemented when they let San Jose State look like a Pac-12-worthy team at the Rose Bowl in 2011.

Good on Mora, for acting this way with the media, especially the L.A. media, which is a snarky, trollish bunch at times (no one specifically, mind you, but this is the mentality of the Los Angeles journos in general).

Keep re-trollin’, Jim Mora, and take Rice as seriously on Thursday, August 30, as you do on Sunday, August 25.

Three more days ’til Rice.

GO BRUINS!!