Mora Signs Five-Year Deal to Coach UConn
The Story: UConn announced the hiring of Jim Mora as its next football coach yesterday morning. Mora, the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and UCLA, signed a five-year contract worth $1.5 million over the first year.
A SPLASH HIRE? Had we been told in September that UConn would hire a former NFL and Power 5 head coach to replace Randy Edsall, we probably would have been excited. But Mora, who turns 60 next week, was way off the radar (literally; he’s been living in Idaho) and we are shocked that Mora wanted the job.
• Mora has been an ESPN analyst and has not coached since he was fired by UCLA on Nov. 19, 2017, near the end of his sixth season. He went 46-30 with the Bruins and 31-33 in four seasons as an NFL head coach.
• Can he coach? Yes. No doubt about that. He has decades of experience at places much larger and more intense than UConn. But, can he go into living rooms east of the Mississippi and get players to Storrs? He’s been out of the game for four years, is more of an NFL guy and is coming 2,500 miles east. Assistants are the key.
• In terms of name value, do high school players even know who Mora is? He coached Michael Vick 17 years ago — the year the senior class was born. The game has evolved quite a bit in recent years and changed tremendously in college. If he’s going to resonate with them, he won’t be able to rest on that.
• “I know it’s a heavy task but it’s one that I welcome and I’m excited about taking on,” Mora said during an introductory press conference yesterday. “I’m excited about getting back to Storrs and beginning to develop relationships in that area.”
ON BOARD ALREADY: The Huskies’ arrangement with Mora is unique in that he will finish the rest of the season as an assistant coach. That allows him to get to know the players and, more importantly, begin recruiting immediately.
• Mora will meet with the players this weekend when the Huskies travel to South Carolina to face Clemson on Saturday (noon, ACC Network). He will replace Lou Spanos as the head coach on Nov. 28, a day after the Huskies wrap up the season with a game against Houston.
• The Huskies have lost at least five players from their recruiting class since Edsall left the program in September. The early signing period begins on Dec. 15. His job this week and for the next several is to get those recruits, and more, back in the fold. He’s also going to have to sell players on the team to stick it out after an awful last two years.
• Mora’s recruiting classes at UCLA, per 247Sports: 18th, seventh, 18th, 12th, 13th and 20th. Now, last we checked, Los Angeles is quite a bit different than Storrs, and those classes didn’t turn into a ton of wins, but it’s a start.
• We’ve maintained for months that the Huskies need to scour the transfer portal for players. Edsall, for some reason, refused to do so. The fourth-best left tackle at Michigan or Iowa would almost surely compete to start at UConn.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT: Mora will make $1.5 million this season and his salary will increase by $100,000 each season, according to Hearst Connecticut Media.
• That’s pretty good, considering Edsall’s salary this season was $1.25 million and athletic director Dave Benedict said last month he’d pay as much as $2 million annually for a coach. Mora no doubt came at a savings given he wants to return to coaching and has been collecting money from UCLA for four years.
• Even though Spanos and offensive analyst Noel Mazzone were Mora’s first coordinators at UCLA, there’s no guarantee either stay at UConn beyond this season. Mora said he will be “very deliberate in how we move forward with filling out our staff.” At this point, we tend to believe it’s more of a coincidence that he was hired than anything. Why would Spanos advocate for Mora to take a job Spanos wanted?
• What’s most important for the Huskies salary-wise is not what Mora makes, but what his assistants are paid. UConn has not spent much money on assistant coaches since Edsall returned and it has shown. UConn has struggled to keep the good ones and has been left with others who have been unable to develop players.
WHY MORA? Benedict didn’t share many details when asked yesterday, other than that Mora wasn’t on his initial shortlist of candidates and only became an option when Mora reached out.
• “With all of [his experience] and his demonstration to significant interest in our program, I thought it made sense for us to get together,” Benedict said.
• “This was not, ‘Hey, we want you, come to UConn, it’s your job.’ I was brutally honest about what I think the opportunity is but also the challenge, and it’s really important to me that the person that was going to ultimately take on this challenge and become our head coach was fully committed, was fully aware and was fully prepared to take this on.”
• “In the end, I would say there was no one more committed or enthusiastic or who showed more interest than Coach Mora did throughout the whole time that we were speaking.”
OUR TAKE: We figured for almost two months that Edsall’s replacement would be an up-and-coming coach with strong ties to the area. We heard about Joe Harasymiak, Andrew Breiner and Bob Chesney, but we also know they were haphazardly thrown into the blender as part of a media creation. We’ll never know if any of them, or the others we’ve heard about, were ever considered. Benedict reiterated yesterday that he wanted to take the time to conduct a thorough, deliberate search. He and the university decided on Mora, who is very much not them.
Mora has oodles of experience, but he has also spent nearly his entire career on the West Coast. UConn could make up for that lack of familiarity by hiring assistants with strong ties in the Northeast, which means Mora will be hiring coaches he likely does not know professionally. That’s a concern from a coaching standpoint, but realistically, what does recruiting in the Northeast mean? Pulling one or two players from Massachusetts and a handful from Pennsylvania and New Jersey each year? The best in-state players are usually at the prep schools, and they’re all from out of state anyway. All Mora will need to do is convince players not from the area to be interested in the school — essentially what Benedict just did with him.
The bottom line? UConn has been awful at football for years. We’d like to see a winner but we’ve gotten accustomed to the Huskies losing (and often in embarrassing fashion). If Mora can make them competitive, it’s already an improvement. He has a good core of players in town, assuming he can keep them. Game on.
All Hurley Needs Is A Good Point Guard
The Story: The No. 24-ranked men’s basketball team showcased its inside dominance in the opener against CCSU on Tuesday. What do we want to see tomorrow against Coppin State at the XL Center (noon, FS1)? How about continued solid play out of the backcourt?
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn has one of the best frontlines in the nation led by Adama Sanogo and Isaiah Whaley, with reserves Akok Akok and Samson Johnson also figuring to play big minutes. On the wings are Tyrese Martin, Tyler Polley and Andre Jackson, who are versatile and explosive. What is going to determine if the Huskies can go from a top-25 ranking into the top 15? The guard play is front and center.
• R.J. Cole took a secondary role last year after his prolific shooting and scoring at Howard, where he scored more than 23 points per game, were tempered by the various options on the team. Now? Cole is the primary ballhandler and is going to be counted upon to be that veteran and organizing influence. He shot 38 percent from 3-point range a year ago, and in the opener he was deadly efficient with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting. If he can be as effective as he was at Howard, the Huskies will go to another level.
• Jalen Gaffney is a favorite of ours at the Daily and the 6-foot-4 guard had a strong opener with 10 points off the bench. Gaffney made strides a year ago by improving his scoring and shooting and earned more minutes. He averaged 6.1 points per game as a sophomore. Now we need Gaffney to take the next step as an aggressive combo guard who can score consistently for the Huskies. Ten points, three assists and three steals in the opener is a start.
• After Cole and Gaffney, where do the Huskies go? Rahsool Diggins is a talented point guard from Philadelphia and it is going to take time to get him acclimated. Jordan Hawkins is more of a classic shooter than a primary ballhandler and, besides, has been wearing a boot because of an injured ankle. Freshman Corey Floyd Jr. is another potential combo guard, but he is in Storrs a year earlier than expected and is more of a player for the future. That means the Huskies are going to rely on Cole and Gaffney to help ignite a powerful offense.
ABOUT COPPIN STATE: The Eagles are 0-2 and lost by 25 points to DePaul, which was picked to finish last in the Big East. They are not a serious threat to beat the Huskies. They are coached by Juan Dixon, who led Maryland to the national championship in 2002 when it beat UConn in an absolutely great Elite Eight game that was Caron Butler‘s basketball opus.
Bueckers, Fudd Set to Make Magic Happen
The Story: The No. 2-ranked women’s basketball team will finally open the regular season when it hosts Arkansas at the XL Center on Sunday at 1 p.m. on SNY.
GET THE HYPE TRAIN ROLLING: The game will be the first starring Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd — that is, aside from the exhibition against Fort Hays State on Sunday — and it will come against a quality opponent.
• Arkansas finished 19-8 last season but fell short in the NCAA Tournament when it lost in the first round to Wright State. It beat UConn 90-87 in January in a thrilling back-and-forth outing, but two of its best players, Chelsea Dungee and Destiny Slocum, were drafted by WNBA teams.
• The Razorbacks also have one of the nation’s top recruits in Jersey Wolfenbarger, a 6-foot-5 guard (yes, you read that right). She’ll create matchup problems for teams for years.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: What’s most intriguing to us is how Geno Auriemma decides to use his players. The Huskies have significant depth for the first time in years and could go any number of ways with his rotation.
• It’s almost guaranteed that the Huskies will go with a starting five of Bueckers, Fudd, Christyn Williams, Aaliyah Edwards and Olivia Nelson-Ododa. How much time do guards Nika Muhl and Aubrey Griffin (if she’s healthy), center Dorka Juhasz and freshmen Caroline Ducharme and Amari DeBerry earn behind them?
• Bueckers isn’t going to need to shoulder so much of the burden as a scorer this season, but will she be comfortable facilitating the offense? It will likely take time for her to achieve that balance since she’s been her team’s go-to option since she first started playing the sport.
• UConn struggled to shoot from the perimeter last season but did fine from deep against Fort Hays State. Being able to extend the floor against a bigger team should bode well for its success later in the year.
Morning Reads
• It’s a big weekend for the men’s hockey team (6-3, 4-1 Hockey East), which plays No. 16-ranked BC at home tonight and travels to face No. 12-ranked Providence tomorrow night. (UConnHuskies.com)
• The volleyball team (19-7, 11-3 Big East) hits the road for the final time this season and will play St. John’s this afternoon and Seton Hall tomorrow. (UConnHuskies.com)
• The women’s hockey team (11-1, 6-1 Hockey East) will look to build upon its best start in program history when it plays Maine at home tonight and tomorrow. (UConnHuskies.com)
• The Jazz’s big offseason signing, Rudy Gay, is nearing a return from heel surgery and has begun ramping up his conditioning. (Salt Lake Tribune)
