Mora reels in Martin
The venerable Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times confirmed with Steve Sarkisian that UCLA had poached another hotshot young recruiting assistant coach from the Pac-12, as Jim Mora intends to bring in Washington's Demetrice Martin as defensive backs coach.
Like Adrian Klemm and Steve Broussard, UCLA's two big-time hires on Tuesday, Martin brings impressive recruiting relationships and bonafides, as he was considered Washington's top recruiter.
Sarkisian told Condotta that the move was "immediate," which also bodes well for UCLA, which got a waiver on Tuesday morning to start assembling its recruiting staff while also maintaining its current staff.
Martin prepped at Muir High in Pasadena, served as a grad assistant at USC and maintains many local ties, as Southern California was his primary recruiting area.
Seems like those concerns about Mora being able to recruit might be allayed with some of these hires, if they're able to hit the ground running.
I've been behind Coach Mora even before his name popped up as a UCLA candidate(see my question in the weekly QandA submission page). I hope the rest of us can get on board with this guy. It's not fair to say a guy can't be good based on NFL success. Nick Saban was a disaster at Miami, and I think Mora has the perfect personality of a College coach. 3 huge hires in 24 hours? Love it! With USC only able to take limited #'s, there's no reason we don't bring in the Pac's best class next season. Welcome CJM, and thank you for being proactive in shoring up your deficiencies.
Looks like recruiting will be covered just fine. I hope Mora can change the culture of UCLA football. More Gutty, less Little in Gutty Little Bruins. Hard Nosed football. More TEs! More Fauria!! More Coleman!! We need some Bruce Davis-like attitudes in our LBs!
I also think that since UCLA is changing the culture with a coach without direct UCLA ties that it is time to do aay with the "over the wall" tradition. Nothing breeds loserdom more than a tradition of ditching practice. In other news, UCLA has an in home visit on saturday with Arik Armstead. Not a great chance of getting him but great for UCLA to get a visit scheduled so quickly with a kid who wasn't really considering us, and, you never know. There is zero chance he ends up at USC though because of family issues between his brother and the school.
Wow! I couldn't be happier with the things coach Mora is doing, he is definitely not wasting any time in assembling a staff that so far looks extremely promising. I seriously doubt we will lose any of the recruits that have committed so far, if anything they will be replaced by better recruits. I'm tired of saying "I can't wait 'til next year" then be disappointed, but something about "next year" that is really exciting to me right now.
Go Bruins!!
Looks like Coach Mora has hit the ground running, good for him! He appears to have his priorities straight, and is immediately addressing his primary need by hiring well-regarded recruiters. He seems organized and results oriented, two things that were sorely lacking under RN. I'm feeling better about this hire by the day.
I'm excited about the coaches he has hired so far, but am more interested in the in who he gets to be OC (and DC). Unlike Dorrel, at least Neu. didn't leave the cupboards bare when he left. Their is a lot of talent on this team. Hopefully we have a coach that can utilize it AND continue to recruit talent for the future.
I don't recall this much excitement over assistant coaches since Norm Chow.
How come coach Neuheisel didn't bring in guys like these before?
@Cedar,
CRN didn't have the Pac-12 money to bring these type of assistant coaches.