With news of Jim Mora’s firing as head coach of the UCLA Football team broke late Sunday morning, social media exploded with former and current players expressing their thoughts on the situation.
Eulogies are best reserved for funerals but if you were to log onto UCLA Football Twitter you’d see not all deaths are literal. With Jim Mora being fired with one game remaining in the regular season players both current and former took to social media to express sadness, defenses of Mora and in some cases shared their personal stories.
Of course none of what is actually shared will have any impact in coaching decisions but the outpouring of support for Mora demonstrates that he was loved by many of his players. Always considered a “players coach”, Mora might have come off as unfriendly even to the point of being rude. Clearly that isn’t a sentiment shared by all of his players.
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We also have to understand that not every player feels the same about the firing but so far there haven’t been any negative our pourings.
Coach Mora, ain’t no one showed more passion about the game than that man. Changed the program, no matter what anyone says, whoever says different don’t know the game of football. Thank you for believing in me, I wish you all the best coach. #DontListenToTheNoise
— Boss Tagaloa (@_BT75) November 19, 2017
Almost every reaction on social media shared this sentiment. That Mora was a hard worker, loved the game of football and most importantly gave the players the chance to show what they had in one of college football’s most revered stadiums even if the results weren’t what fans and boosters hoped for.
Thankful for Coach Mora. Blessed me with a scholarship when no other head coach in the country would. Gave me the opportunity to show the country what I had.
— Caleb Wilson (@calebwilson) November 19, 2017
Caleb Wilson the former walk-on for USC came to the UCLA Football program and has now become one of the brightest stars moving forward for this team. Whoever starts at QB next season for this team will be throwing to a stud TE.
It wasn’t just former and current players showing support for the former coach either. UCLA target Chris Steele who at one point was committed to the UCLA Football team and has now flipped across town made this statement on his Twitter account after learning of the firing.
It was really an honor meeting coach Mora throughout my recruiting process, not too many coaches care about their players and recruits like he did... he will bounce back ! https://t.co/brXRGRjtPU
— Steele. 🖤 (@KinggChris7) November 19, 2017
It’s always important to remember that no matter how much money these kids make for their universities they’re still just kids. This isn’t the NFL where business decisions that impact the players are made daily and everyone goes on with their business.
Next: UCLA Football: Jim Mora fired as head coach effective immediately
The support that we are seeing now might help us re-examine the public perception that was laid at the feet of Mora. However what really matters in this college football world is wins and unfortunately there haven’t been enough to justify holding onto Mora any longer. He rebuilt this program and helped the UCLA Football program grow with the Wasserman Center. However, teams have to keep moving forward and for that to happen changes had to be made.