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UCLA Football: Jim Mora Introduces Jedd Fisch, Embarasses Self and Program

By Nathan Eberhardt

Sep 17, 2016; Provo, UT, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora reacts after a play in the first quarter against the Brigham Young Cougars at Lavell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 17, 2016; Provo, UT, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora reacts after a play in the first quarter against the Brigham Young Cougars at Lavell Edwards Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 15, 2016; Pullman, WA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora looks on against the Washington State Cougars during the first half at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 15, 2016; Pullman, WA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora looks on against the Washington State Cougars during the first half at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports /

UCLA Football Coach Jim Mora’s press conference to introduce new Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch was a slow-building symphony of misguided malaise that crescendoed to a climax of disaster that resounded throughout the college football world, bringing the bewilderment and scorn of a nation down on UCLA. Other than that, it went fine.

New UCLA Football Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch is an underwhelming hire, given that he comes from a pro-style offensive coaching tree, including one uninspiring year as the OC of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and (as has been belabored time and again on this site) last year’s ill-fated experiment demonstrates that UCLA does not have the offensive personnel to successfully execute a pro-style offense.

It had been the stated hope of a number of us here at Go Joe Bruin that Mora would reach out to someone like Sterlin Gilbert, the spread-to-run disciple of Art Briles that had success with Texas‘ offense this season and was (and still is) on the market after the firing of Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong. Alas, it was not to be.

Mora stated that, “a long and detailed process as [they] looked really from coast to coast for the best person to come in and lead [the] offense,” led them to Jedd Fisch. Mora said that Fisch could, “do the things offensively that match the talents to the men that [they’ve] recruited,” a claim in which I place no confidence because I don’t trust that Mora knows how to accurately assess the talents of the men he’s recruited.

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Despite this claim, and despite the fact that UCLA’s current offensive personnel have proven to be a poor fit for a pro-style scheme, Fisch is pro-style all the way through. Here are some of the names that Mora listed off of Fisch’s resume as influences and mentors: Brian Billick, Mike Shanahan, Pete Carroll, Dom Capers, Vic Fangio, and Gus Bradley.

Fisch envisioned an offense, “with multiple personnel groups, multiple tempos, multiple formations, and a good mix of run and pass,” which are meaningless platitudes, but all the signs point to a pro-style offense that seeks to “run the football to open up the deeper throws, to open up the game.”

And here is where the press conference went pear-shaped. Mora was asked whether he considered any potential coordinators who ran a spread offense. Mora: “Yeah, I didn’t really talk to anyone who runs a spread. As far as I know, a spread team has never won a national championship, and that’s one of our goals here.”

First, that doesn’t sound like the long and detailed, coast-to-coast search for the best candidate that Mora described earlier. But secondly and most importantly, what in the wide world of sports is he talking about?!?