The Rest of College Football

[entropy]

Updated: December 10, 2011, 3:43 AM ETSource:

UCLA hires Jim MoraEmailPrintComments380By Peter Yoon
ESPNLosAngeles.com


LOS ANGELES -- Jim L. Mora will be named football coach at UCLA Saturday, a source close to the situation told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Mora, the former coach of the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons, is currently an analyst for the NFL network. He replaces Rick Neuheisel, who was fired after going 21-29 during his four years with the Bruins.

Mora, whose father Jim briefly served as an assistant a UCLA, has little college coaching experience. He was a graduate assistant at Washington, where he played defensive back, in 1984.

He spent most of his career in the NFL, most recently as the head coach of the Seahawks in the 2009. He was fired after going 5-11 in his only season. He was the assistant head coach for two seasons prior.

Before joining Seattle, Mora served as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for 2004-2006. In his first season with Atlanta, the Falcons went 11-5 and made it to the NFC championship game. His teams went 8-8 and 7-9 the next two seasons and he was fired.

Mora, 50, began his NFL career as a quality control assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 1985. He took over as secondary coach in 1989 and left to join his father with the New Orleans Saints in 1992. He moved to the San Francisco 49ers in 1997 and became the 49ers defensive coordinator in 1999 under Steve Mariucci.


Peter Yoon covers UCLA for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

[Jamie H]

Has Neuheisal been successful ANYWHERE? I don't get why people keep hiring him. He's still living off those seasons he had at Colorado with McCarthy's players.

[SeanB]

I had forgotten Mora was fired after one season with the Seahawks. That's just crazy. Was that the firing that made way for Sneaky Pete as he slithered his way out of USC?

[SeattleLionsFan]

He had a couple of good years at UW. Of course half his players had felony warrants on them at any one time.

[entropy]

Texas A&M was close Saturday morning to finalizing a contract with Houston's Kevin Sumlin, who the Aggies have chosen as their new coach, a school source has told ESPN's Joe Schad.

Sumlin, who had also been a candidate at UCLA and Arizona State for their coaching vacancies, has established Houston as a national contender in Conference USA. The Cougars went undefeated this season before losing the conference title game to Southern Miss.

[+] EnlargeKevin Sumlin
AP Photo/David J. PhillipKevin Sumlin, who has established Houston as a national contender in Conference USA, was an assistant coach at Texas A&M from 2001-02.

Houston will play Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2.

Sumlin was A&M's top choice, a source previously told Schad, with Louisville's Charlie Strong, Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and Southern Mississippi's Larry Fedora also under consideration.

Texas A&M fired Mike Sherman last Thursday after going 6-6. The Aggies will play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, in Houston on New Year's Eve.

Sumlin had a base salary of $1 million at Houston in a contract that runs through the 2015 season. He could have earned an extra $1 million in deferred compensation if he completed the 2012 football season with the Cougars.

Sherman, 25-25 in four seasons at A&M, was hired at the end of the 2007 season three days after Dennis Franchione resigned.

Sumlin was an assistant coach at A&M from 2001-02.

The Aggies entered this season with 18 returning starters, a top 10 ranking and were expected to contend for the Big 12 championship and be a factor in the national title hunt.

Instead they lost early games to Oklahoma State and Arkansas after holding double-digit halftime leads to fall to 2-2.

[geo weidl]

After last weeks debacle, be interesting to see how long sumlin lasts.

[Wild Hoss]

There are few things that make feel like suiting up again than watching a competitive Army-Navy game like today. What an rush it must be to play in that game.

[entropy]

I still love this style of football

[lineygoblue]

Army got jobbed on that last off sides call.

Navy wussied into that win.

[Jamie H]

Wow, RG3 wins the Heisman over pre-season annointed-one, Andrew Luck.

Luck was very good, but RG3 was incredible this year. I caught a few of his games and he WAS Baylor. Without him, I'm not even sure they were a .500 team.

Congrats to RG3. I'm sure Luck is bummed, but he will feel better come draft day.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Neauheisel's one great team at Washington was loaded with thugs and hushed-up arrests. The Seattle newspaper did an expose of it a couple years ago I think.

[WingsFan]

Get used to that kind of behavior DSL, Urban Liar had over 30 arrests during his watch at FL.

[hardtimesjake97]

Neuheisel, successful at having a great agent.

RG 3... The guy that really deserved the Heisman, I'm glad they voted it that way and I loved the socks, not enough to go buy any but still, whoever makes those things probably owe the guy an endorsement check when he turns pro. JMO.

[hardtimesjake97]

So on another board dealing with another team and conference off the cuff I said that Georgia would win the MNC game next year over Oklahoma. I just picked a non SEC team for them to beat. Then next sentence I said that UGA would somehow find a way to screw that up. And that they seem to be the Michigan State of the south nowadays, I don't think I'm too far off on that assesment. Am I wrong or out of all those SEC squads is Georgia the choke artist of the whole lot of them? or not? Or can they reverse that next year with a lot coming back?

[UMStan White]

"Am I wrong or out of all those SEC squads is Georgia the choke artist of the whole lot of them? or not? Or can they reverse that next year with a lot coming back?"

Who gives a shit!