LOS ANGELES — Yeah, they could have waited until the day after his birthday, but if there is a hatchet nearby UCLA can’t resist swinging it.
Jim Mora got fired as he turned 56 Sunday, the day after his Bruins encapsulated his six unchanging seasons in a five-point loss at USC.
They played spirited, exciting and dumb football, and they will chase bowl eligibility on Saturday with offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch running things, not Mora.
If UCLA does beat Cal and attends the Herdez Salsa Bowl or whatever, Fisch will be the third interim coach to handle those duties for athletic director Dan Guerrero, who hired Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel before Mora.
Guerrero has fired four football coaches. To hire the next one he will be part of a “nationwide search” team. Maybe try another nation?
The next coach inherits glimmering new facilities from Mora, who can buy a lot of candles with the $12 million buyout check. When Mora appeared to be a hiring target for Texas or the NFL, the Bruins kept lining his pockets.
But the next coach won’t have Josh Rosen, who leaves with no New Year’s Day appearances, no Heisman-finalist appearances and an 0-2 record against USC, coached by Clay Helton, the exact type of avuncular fundamentalist that the star-struck Bruins never would hire.
In terms of charisma, Rosen should have been Lonzo Ball. He could have been a perfect representative of UCLA, had UCLA allowed it.
His intelligence and humor and youthful candor were stifled by Mora, who refused to let him attend Pac-12 Media Days, in fear that Rosen might show some personality.
But then Mora was a controller even by coaching standards, and Sunday was like a birthday for some at UCLA who had to tiptoe around Mora’s anger.
And he made UCLA more aggressive and tougher.
So he’s a complex human being, not unlike 7.4 billion other Earthlings. It’s likely he will coach again.
Mora probably hadn’t even hung up the phone before the Bruin fans were chanting “Chip Kelly,” now with ESPN but formerly Oregon’s coach, and before the Internet was humming with reports that UCLA was meeting with David Dunn, Kelly’s agent.
Guerrero would raise his press conference record to 4-0 with Kelly, who won three Pac-12s in four years at Oregon. Kelly coached in Rose and Fiesta bowls, lost to Cam Newton and Auburn in a national championship game, and went 46-7.
Then he jumped to the NFL and got fired twice in three years. His minimal people skills didn’t help him there. Neither did relatively equal competition. At Oregon Kelly coached only 10 games decided by 10 fewer points and won six.
Kelly was ahead of the college curve. Few others were coaching tempo and the spread like he was, and nobody else had the radical, disposable uniforms and spiffy locker room that Phil Knight financed. Now almost everybody does.
Kelly would please UnderArmour and the other sponsors, donors, marketers and ticket-sellers. If he wants to coach your team you’re almost obligated.
But shouldn’t a search committee actually search?
Dabo Swinney wasn’t even a celebrity in Clemson when he was elevated from his job as wide receiver coach. Lincoln Riley was East Carolina’s offensive coordinator two years ago. Swinney won last year’s national title. Riley, at Oklahoma, can make this year’s playoff.
Dave Clawson is 7-4 at Wake Forest. There have been Presidential terms in which Wake Forest hasn’t won seven times. The Deacons laid 587 yards on Notre Dame. Call him.
Pat Fitzgerald is 8-3 at Northwestern. He is headed for his eighth bowl in 10 years. Sure, he’s purple for life, but you never know. Call him.
Matt Campbell is 7-4 at Iowa State and beat Oklahoma. Iowa State should never beat Oklahoma. Toledo should never beat Arkansas, but with Campbell it did. Call him.
Beau Baldwin is Cal’s offensive coordinator but, before that, coached Eastern Washington to four FCS semifinals in seven years and won it all in 2010. He also coached Cooper Kupp. Call him.
The Rams had obvious choices a year ago when they canned Jeff Fisher. They called a 30-year-old who had zero name recognition or L.A. connection. Sean McVay has done OK.
Firing a coach is easy. Maybe UCLA will realize that finding the right one, for the long game, is hard, as in $12 million hard.