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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/Jay_Dubbbs on 2025-11-14 04:38:41+00:00.

Since UCLA is now in the Big Ten (still absolutely fucking stupid), I was doing some deeper research into their football history. I was just trying to understand some context of what their recent string of coaches looked like and I came across the Mora era and I’m really confused on why UCLA let him go after 5 seasons.

Mora took over after Neuheisel’s short stint (why the hell does UCLA want to keep hiring their former players???) was fired in 2011. Mora had only coached one season in CFB for his alma mater Washington Huskies as a GA in 1984. Mora jumped from the NFL where he had a mediocre stint with the Falcons where he went on the radio and said even if the Falcons were in the playoff hunt, he’d leave immediately to coach the Huskies, despite it not being open lol. He coached one season for the Seahawks and was fired.

Mora found immediate success with the 18th overall class in 2012 (previous year under Neueisel it was in the 40s) and in his first year broke the 5-game losing streak to USC and finished 9-5, their most wins in a season since 2005 and only the 2nd time in the century to get to 9 wins.

In 2013, Mora went 10-3 with another win over USC (seems like a good gauge of UCLA season success if they can beat USC). He also landed the 7th overall class in recruiting for 2013. Capped a great year with a win over VT in the Sun Bowl.

In 2014, he went 10-3 again with another win over USC for the 3rd straight year with a win the Alamo Bowl over Kansas State. It was a slower recruiting year with the 18th overall class in 2014

In 2015, Josh Rosen arrived on campus after Brett Hundley had a great 3 year career with the Bruins. It was a bit up and down that year with a loss to USC and to Nebraska in the Foster Farms Bowl but they still finished 8-5. They finished 12th in recruiting rankings

In 2016, things were rough as they went 4-8 as Rosen got hurt in a loss to ASU in the 6th game where he threw for 400 yards and missed the rest of the season and they suffered their 2nd consecutive loss to USC. UCLA had the 13th highest recruiting class

In 2017, they went 6-7 with another loss to USC despite an insane comeback game to beat Texas A&M where Rosen threw for 491 yards and 4 TDs and overcame a 34 point deficit. His recruiting fell to the lowest at 20th in the country. He was fired following a close loss to USC.

Overall, he finished with a 60.5% winning percentage, which is still the highest since Toledo. Donahue is obviously the peak of UCLA football, but history has Mora as one of the better UCLA coaches in the modern era. He was 3-3 against USC and seem to recruit really well and had two bowl wins as well. He reportedly turned down offers from Washington and Texas while at UCLA. His first 3 seasons were amazing with Hundley but he couldn’t fully capitalize with 5* QB Josh Rosen starting for 3 years. But Bruins hired Chip and they were only decent towards the latter half of his tenure before leaving for Ohio State last year.

Mora is doing a great job at UConn since he was hired in 2022 with another fantastic season this year at 7-3. Considering UCLA’s record since Mora was fired, they’d probably love to have him back right now.