UCLA is in desperate need of a culture change.
Enter Jim Mora.
At the top of his list is toughness. UCLA has been labeled as a program that lacks toughness. It's something the Bruins' first-year head coach has heard "for years just like everybody has."
In his first spring with the Bruins, he made sure they endured the toughest spring drills the players had experienced up to that point at UCLA.
Day 1, without pads it should be noted, was as physical a practice as Spaulding Field has seen in years. Mora stood by the premise, "this isn't for everybody," determined to weed out the weak links, if you will.
To start fall camp, the Bruins are packing up and getting away from the comfort zone that is Westwood and heading to San Bernardino, where the temperature is expected to be a modest 94 degrees at the start of camp on Saturday.
For the duration of next week, temperatures are expected to reach triple digits.
"I don't mind that it's going to be hot," Mora said. "I think that's going to be good for us."
The Bruins will work under the scorching San Bernardino sun as an isolated group.
As Mora puts it, he wants no family, no friends and no girlfriends. San Bernardino is going to be a time to come together as a team.
"I want us to be in an environment where if we're going to talk to somebody it's going to be a teammate or coach," Mora said. "If we're going to go out and do something fun together it's going to be with a teammate or a coach.
"I want our football team to be together for two weeks where we can bond, work together, get to know each other better so when we hit the rough patches in the road that are inevitable in any season we know we can depend on each other and we know about each other."
The start of this camp is similar to how it's done where he came from.
"What's a little different about college football than pro football is at the end of the day during training camp some of these guys would go back to their apartments and I don't want that," Mora said. "Or between practices, maybe if they have a girlfriend, she picks them up and they go get yogurt or something."
While the only yogurt dates in San Bernardino will be with teammates, Mora stresses that this won't be a "Junction Boys" type of function and it's structured similar to how he formerly operated training camps during his time in the NFL. Once two-a-days start, the players will have a morning practice and an evening practice which will start at 5 p.m. On single practice days, the team will hit the field at 2:45 p.m.
"That's how I've done it for years and years and years," Mora said. "You get two meals and a meeting between every practice. So, you're never going on the field without having a meeting. It's a really good system. A lot of NFL teams do it that way."
Having camp away from Westwood may not be a standard for the Bruins in future years, but for his first go-around, Mora thought it was imperative.
"I think we need it," Mora said. "Is it going to develop toughness? Probably. I don't know. We're not going to go practice on a dirt field. I'm not going to go out there with two buses and come back with one or anything like that. It's more about the experience of us as a team being isolated a little bit."
