UCLA Football: Is 2017 The Year Jim Mora Regains Balance?
Tuesday begins the next chapter in the Jim Mora era as the UCLA Football team begins spring practice with their third offensive coordinator in as many years. Will Jedd Fisch be the final piece in the Bruins’ search for success?
There are a lot of questions surrounding the UCLA Football team, especially after they ended the 2016 season 4-8. The biggest one was, “what went wrong with the offense?”
A lot of things went wrong. They were forced into a system that did not work, they had no blocking which led to no run game, receivers were not consistently catching balls and Josh Rosen went down with a shoulder injury halfway through the season.
It was only four short months ago that the Bruins ended their season with a 36-10 loss to the California Golden Bears. For most UCLA fans, the end could not come quick enough and the call for Mora’s head began.
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Mora was never going to get fired after one down season, but if he repeats that in 2017, that is going to be a different story.
Mora has not had the best of luck keeping coaches. In his first two seasons, the Bruin Revolution was in full swing as UCLA had had 9 and 10-win seasons. Things were going well, especially with consistency on the coaching staff.
UCLA Football Coordinators in the Mora Era
| Season | Offensive Coordinator | Defensive Coordinator | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Noel Mazzone | Lou Spanos | 9-5 |
| 2013 | Noel Mazzone | Lou Spanos | 10-3 |
| 2014 | Noel Mazzone | Jeff Ulbrich | 10-3 |
| 2015 | Noel Mazzone | Tom Bradley | 8-5 |
| 2016 | Kennedy Polamalu | Tom Bradley | 4-8 |
| 2017 | Jedd Fisch | Tom Bradley | — |
But at the end of the 2013 season, then defensive coordinator Lou Spanos had an itch to get back to the NFL and accepted a job as the linebackers coach with the Tennessee Titans, ending the Spanos era at UCLA. Bruin fans missed his well executed game plans and halftime adjustments, but they had to move on.
Mora did so by promoting LB coach Jeff Ulbrich to DC, bringing a certain grit, yet uncertainty to the Bruins. UCLA continued their success that year with their second consecutive 10-win season, but things were about to unravel.
Ulbrich, amid controversy, left the Bruins after one season to (wait for it)… leave for a linebacker coaching position in the NFL. Ulbrich had taken a position with the Atlanta Falcons which meant that Mora once again had to find another defensive coordinator. This time, instead of promoting from within, he went out and snagged someone from the old Penn State/Joe Paterno regime.
Mora hired former Nittany Lion DC Tom Bradley, his third DC in 3 years. It took some getting used to and had the obvious growing pains, like having no answer for stopping the run, but that was not permanent. The good news was that the defense significantly improved in Bradley’s second year, 2016. Unfortunately, there was turmoil on the other side of the ball.