Jim Mora says he hopes to stay at UCLA for rest of career

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UCLA football head coach Jim Mora talks to the media after practice. Photo by Brad Graverson // Daily Breeze

UCLA football head coach Jim Mora talks to the media after practice. Photo by Brad Graverson // Daily Breeze

UCLA’s Jim Mora is often involved in NFL coaching rumors during the offseason, but according to the head coach, he is done job searching for the remainder of his career if he can help it.

“My sole focus is UCLA and UCLA football,” Mora said on Thursday’s media conference call introducing new offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch. “I love it here. I hope I can stay here the rest of my career. I hope I can win enough games to be worthy of staying here the rest of my career. I love it here.”

Mora signed a contract extension last summer that will keep him with the Bruins through the 2021 season then had his worst year of his UCLA tenure last year, going 4-8 and missing a bowl game.

Other notes from the conference call/about the Fisch hire:

  • Josh Rosen is expected to meet with team doctors/trainers on Monday when classes start. Mora said he’s heard that the quarterback’s injured right shoulder is doing very well, but won’t have specifics until Rosen meets with the medical staff.
  • Mora said he’s didn’t speak to any offensive coordinators who run an exclusive spread system. Curiously, he added “as far as I know, a spread team has never won a national championship.”
    • His definition of “spread” likely differs from others, but teams who used a system that could be described as “spread,” or leaned heavily on spread elements, have won national championships. (Oklahoma 2000, Florida 2006/2008, Auburn 2010, Ohio State 2014, to name some)
  • Fisch will be taking over the position as quarterbacks coach in addition to offensive coordinator. This puts Marques Tuiasosopo out of position, but Tuiasosopo is under contract until 2018, so it’s likely that he will remain on the staff in a different role. Mora didn’t specify any additional coaching modifications outside of the Fisch hire.
  • Fisch signed a two-year contract extension with Michigan in January 2016 and was paid $700,000, according to USA Today. He was scheduled to make $750,000 in 2017 with the Wolverines, according to M Live. That sum would have made him the second-highest paid assistant in the Pac-12 last year, behind UCLA offensive line coach Adrian Klemm, who made $760,000 in 2016. (Addition: Oregon’s new defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt is now the highest-paid assistant at a public Pac-12 school as he will earn $1.15 million per year with the Ducks.) Fisch’s new salary details have not been made available yet.
    • In 2016, UCLA had the highest-paid assistant coaching staff in the Pac-12, excluding USC and Stanford, with a combined salary of $3.955 million, according to USA Today. Salary information for USC and Stanford is not available through public records requests as they are both private schools.