UCLA Football: Jim Mora Introduces Jedd Fisch, Embarasses Self and Program

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:34 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Nathan Eberhardt/FanSided via Go Joe Bruin

Oct 15, 2016; Pullman, WA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora looks on against the Washington State Cougars during the first half at Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA Football Coach Jim Mora’s press conference to introduce new Offensive Coordinator Jedd Fisch was a slow-building symphony of misguided malaise that crescendoed to a climax of disaster that resounded throughout the college football world, bringing the bewilderment and scorn of a nation down on UCLA. Other than that, it went fine.

New UCLA Football Offenseive Coordinator Jedd Fisch is an underwhelming hire, given that he comes from a pro-style offensive coaching tree, including one uninspiring year as the OC of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and (as has been belabored time and again on this site) last year’s ill-fated experiment demonstrates that UCLA does not have the offensive personnel to successfully execute a pro-style offense.

It had been the stated hope of a number of us here at Go Joe Bruin that Mora would reach out to someone like Sterlin Gilbert, the spread-to-run disciple of Art Briles that had success with Texas‘ offense this season and was (and still is) on the market after the firing of Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong. Alas, it was not to be.

Mora stated that, “a long and detailed process as [they] looked really from coast to coast for the best person to come in and lead [the] offense,” led them to Jedd Fisch. Mora said that Fisch could, “do the things offensively that match the talents to the men that [they’ve] recruited,” a claim in which I place no confidence because I don’t trust that Mora knows how to accurately assess the talents of the men he’s recruited.

Despite this claim, and despite the fact that UCLA’s current offensive personnel have proven to be a poor fit for a pro-style scheme, Fisch is pro-style all the way through. Here are some of the names that Mora listed off of Fisch’s resume as influences and mentors: Brian Billick, Mike Shanahan, Pete Carroll, Dom Capers, Vic Fangio, and Gus Bradley.

Fisch envisioned an offense, “with multiple personnel groups, multiple tempos, multiple formations, and a good mix of run and pass,” which are meaningless platitudes, but all the signs point to a pro-style offense that seeks to “run the football to open up the deeper throws, to open up the game.”

And here is where the press conference went pear-shaped. Mora was asked whether he considered any potential coordinators who ran a spread offense. Mora: “Yeah, I didn’t really talk to anyone who runs a spread. As far as I know, a spread team has never won a national championship, and that’s one of our goals here.”

First, that doesn’t sound like the long and detailed, coast-to-coast search for the best candidate that Mora described earlier. But secondly and most importantly, what in the wide world of sports is he talking about?!?

Next: Mora Introduces Jedd Fisch, Cont.

Nov 19, 2016; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora looks on before the game against the USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Mora Introduces Jedd Fisch, Cont.

In the BCS/CFP era, here are the national title winners:

That’s eight of the last 19 national champions that ran a spread offense, and five of the last ten. Urban Meyer‘s entire career has been about pioneering the spread in the SEC and the Big Ten, to resounding success.

Ohio State and Alabama, each of whom won with a pro-style offense, have both switched to the spread and have dominated the last three years of college football with it. It would be one thing if all spread success had happened while Mora was focused on the NFL – it would still be an ignorant comment, mind you, but understandable – but more titles have been won by spread teams than not since he entered the college game.

It’s possible that Mora does not understand what the spread is, that he thinks it’s narrowly defined as a Mike Leach-style Air Raid pass attack (even then, Leach designed the offense with which Oklahoma won the title in 2000).

But that level of ignorance about the sport in which he coaches is concerning, even from the perspective of a defensive coach, who needs to understand the intricacies of offense in order to plan how to stop a variety of opponents.

Ultimately, the biggest concern I have about this gaffe is not that it has caused the college football world to point and laugh, nor that Mora doesn’t know his college football history or even terminology.

No, what concerns me most that it reveals how committed Mora is to retreating to his comfort zone. He’s an NFL guy through and through, and NFL culture is all about playing it safe, not overextending, and minimizing risk. It’s how he calls his defense (give up 10 yards in order to prevent being beaten over the top), it’s how he handles his own personnel moves, and it’s how he envisions his offense.

The trend among all but the best coaches in the game is to have their greatest success in years two and three of a job and then either sink into a rut or respond to adversity by playing things safe and focusing on not getting fired.

This is why I jokingly called this gaffe a fireable offense: it reveals how unwilling and unprepared Mora is to do the work to reverse the negative trend of the last two seasons. It leaves me with no confidence that he can turn this thing around.

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