Tag: Jim Mora

Three Connecticut football players to know ahead of their clash with the Duke Blue Devils

Duke will host Connecticut in its penultimate non-conference game of the 2024 season. Here are the most important Huskies to know.

The Duke Blue Devils and Connecticut Huskies are set to go at it on the football field this Saturday.

While it may not be the blockbuster matchup it would be if this took place on the hardwood, the game should still provide plenty of entertainment to both fanbases and serve as an appetizer of sorts before the two fanbases spend basketball season jockeying for position as one of the nation’s best teams.

We’ll see Jim Mora oppose first-year Duke coach Manny Diaz on the football field. Duke comes in on the road after winning an overtime thriller against Northwestern. The 26-20 win was made possible by an inspired performance from starting quarterback Maalik Murphy in the second half.

The Huskies, 1-1 on the season, lost to Maryland 50-7 in Week 1 but handled Merrimack 63-17 this past weekend, so they should enter Durham with some confidence.

UConn won’t be a cakewalk for Duke, but the game is more than winnable for Manny Diaz’s program. The Huskies have some talented players they’ll depend on, and we’ll look at what some offer below.

Joe Fagnano, QB

Jim Mora is set to let senior Joe Fagnano hold things down at the quarterback spot. Fagnano enters off the best performance of his Huskies career, in which he went 13/19 for 328 yards and tossed five touchdowns. He was at the controls as the offense put together a 35-point first quarter.

As a sixth-year senior, Fagnano isn’t lacking in experience. He’s less of a creator in the pocket as much as he is a distributor who gets the ball out quickly to his playmakers, allowing them to operate with the ball in their hands. Look for Duke to try to speed things up for him and force him to make plays out of structure.

Skyler Bell, WR

The Huskies’ most dangerous playmaker is Skyler Bell, a junior wideout from the Bronx, New York. He already has seven catches for 246 yards and a touchdown on the young season, and he’s led the Huskies in receiving yards for both of their first two games.

He transferred to UConn after three years with the Wisconsin Badgers. With the Huskies, he’s been able to showcase himself a little more. He is dangerous with the ball in his hands, has some burst, and is a capable route runner. Duke has the secondary options to neutralize him, but it will take a coordinated effort.

Jayden McDonald, LB

The most impactful Huskies defender is another transfer, Jayden McDonald. McDonald spent the majority of his college career at Troy and spent the spring with Indiana before ultimately landing at Connecticut.

He led Troy with 75 total tackles last season. He’s a smaller linebacker, standing just six feet tall, but he’s unfazed and uses his speed to make plays sideline to sideline. With Duke struggling to get its run game going, seeing a veteran linebacker like McDonald certainly won’t make things easier.

Taysom Hill has a big fan in former Saints head coach Jim Mora

Taysom Hill has a big fan in former New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Mora: ‘He’s a competitor, he’s a team-oriented guy, he’s a popular guy, and he’s effective’

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more-liked player in the New Orleans Saints locker room than Taysom Hill. He’s regarded highly not just by his teammates, but by his coaches — and by a lot of coaches who aren’t in the building.

That group of admirers includes former Saints head coach Jim Mora, who praised Hill’s team-first attitude and overall utility as the makings of a unique talent. Mora coached the Saints from 1986 to 1996 and was the team’s first head coach to leave his post with a winning record. Mora was recognized with the Associated Press award for NFL Coach of the Year in 1987.

“This guy is special. I’m telling you now, and what a competitor,” Mora told WDSU’s Fletcher Mackel back in November, after Hill accounted for 68 yards of offense and two touchdowns (one as a passer, another as a receiver) in a 24-17 win over the Chicago Bears. He continued, “And is the leading rusher on the team. Hey you’ve got Kamara and all these guys, what the hell is Taysom Hill being your leading rusher two weeks in a row? But you won two weeks in a row. So who gives a dang?”

That sounds a lot like the praise Sean Payton used to heap on Hill. And it makes sense. Coaches love players who can handle a variety of assignments and help the team win football games. Drew Brees has pointed to Hill’s efficiency, too, while lobbying for his former understudy to get more touches.

“This guy’s a special player. He’s a competitor, he’s a team-oriented guy, he’s a popular guy, and he’s effective. He can do a lot of things and he does it well. I love him,” Mora finished.

Hill’s usage in Klint Kubiak’s new offense is one of the more intriguing subplots of the Saints’ 2024 season. He’s taken many more snaps at fullback and been asked to do more dirty work as a blocker than before, while cutting down on his snaps as a passer, but Hill is expected to remain an asset for New Orleans. That’s going to be the case until teams figure out a way to slow him down as a runner, if Father Time doesn’t catch up to him first.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5]

Former UCLA HC Jim Mora expects big crowds under DeShaun Foster

Former UCLA HC Jim Mora has high hopes for DeShaun Foster and the program going forward.

Everyone seems to have a take on the recent DeShaun Foster hiring for the Bruins. But one former UCLA head coach had an interesting perspective on the hire.

Current University of Connecticut head coach and former Bruins head coach Jim Mora believes that the Foster hiring could break some records in attendance. During his time at UCLA, Mora went 46-30, led the Bruins to two bowl victories in 2013 and 2014, and drew an average of 67,000 fans to the Rose Bowl per game.

In the 2014 season, Mora also attracted 77,000 fans per game, the highest among Pac-12 teams at the time. But Mora believes that Foster and Co. can attract even more fans to Pasadena.

With the approval and confidence of a former UCLA coach, Foster will likely be welcomed warmly by UCLA fans.

There is clearly new excitement for the program. Add to that an extended student section, and fans will have an opportunity to show out and have their voices heard in 2024 as the Bruins begin their time in the BIG 10.

UConn football releases depth chart ahead of playing at Tennessee

UConn football releases depth chart ahead of playing at Tennessee.

UConn (1-7) will play at No. 16 Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.

UConn head coach Jim Mora discussed playing against Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III.

“You watch Joe and he looks like he is getting a feel for what he is supposed to be doing, and he is comfortable doing it,” Mora told Vols Wire. “I think always with the head coach, is calling a game for him, is becoming aware of what your quarterback is comfortable doing and tailoring your game plan to it. You can see that happening before your eyes.”

Jim Mora discusses Tennessee-UConn game, coaching career

UConn released its depth chart ahead of playing Tennessee and is below.

Jim Mora discusses Joe Milton becoming comfortable as Vols tailor game plan for him

UConn head coach Jim Mora discusses quarterback Joe Milton becoming comfortable as the Vols tailor a game plan for him.

Tennessee redshirt senior quarterback Joe Milton III has totaled 1,763 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns, four interceptions, 258 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns through eight games during the 2023 season.

The Vols will host UConn on Saturday at Neyland Stadium (noon EDT, SEC Network).

Ahead of Saturday’s non-conference matchup, UConn head coach Jim Mora discussed Milton with Vols Wire.

“You watch Joe, and he looks like he is getting a feel for what he is supposed to be doing, and he is comfortable doing it,” Mora said. “I think always with the head coach, is calling a game for him, is becoming aware of what your quarterback is comfortable doing and tailoring your game plan to it. You can see that happening before your eyes.”

Jim Mora discusses UConn-Tennessee game, coaching career

Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Jim Mora discusses UConn-Tennessee game, coaching career

UConn head coach Jim Mora discusses playing Tennessee and his coaching career.

No. 16 Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) will host UConn (1-7) on Saturday at Neyland Stadium in Week 10 (noon EDT, SEC Network).

Rankings reflect the US LBM Coaches Poll.

Jim Mora is in his second season as UConn’s head coach. In his first season, he guided the Huskies to its first bowl game since 2015.

The Huskies have played in five one-possession games in 2023, while having a starting quarterback being injured in the first quarter of game two and a starting tight end being hurt in the first quarter of game two.

Mora discussed UConn’s upcoming game against Tennessee with Vols Wire.

“They will fight you,” Mora said of his team. “They don’t give up and they just have a great will. They work hard and we just haven’t been able to play through yet. It’s been really difficult, but at the same time, I’ve seen some really great qualities come out in our team when we have faced the adversities that we have faced. I think you can really build on that.

“We are a lot better team than we were at any point last year. If you were to not look at the score and watched how we played, you would realize that. The problem is, we are always judged by the end result that people look at. For us, for me, it is so important to look beyond the score and see if we are improving. If we are improving, I know we are heading in the right direction and doing it the right way. If we were not improving, if guys were jumping off the ship, if we were not playing with great effort, if we were undisciplined, if we were not practicing hard and preparing the right way, and getting beat, then I would say we got a problem. The problem right now, we have not been able to breakthrough any of those tight games.”

Mora also discussed his coaching career and Tennessee under head coach Josh Heupel. His discussion is listed below.

Watch: Peyton Manning tells the story of botched fake spike vs. Saints

Peyton Manning shared the story of his botched fake spike against the Saints, when New Orleans got the last laugh:

Now this is funny. Peyton Manning has a lot of love for New Orleans — it’s the city where he was born and raised, and where he grew up watching his father play quarterback. But he probably didn’t feel anything but contempt for the Saints when they handed his Indianapolis Colts a loss on Nov. 18, 2001.

Sure, things started well enough. Manning connected with tight end Marcus Pollard on an 86-yard touchdown pass (the longest play of Pollard’s career, which he would match in 2005) on the first play from scrimmage. The Colts (coached by former Saints head coach Jim Mora Sr.) traded blows with the Saints (coached by Mora’s old defensive coordinator Jim Haslett) until the first half’s final seconds.

With the clock running out before halftime and  trailing by three points inside field goal range, Manning attempted a fake spike to fool the Saints defense and run one more play — scoring what looked to all the world like a touchdown run from 33 yards out (which would have tied the career-long scramble he logged a few weeks earlier). That’s when things got nutty. We’ll let Manning tell it in his own words.

“I did it one time, we were playing the Saints,” Manning recounted to Dan Marino, who popularized the play, blaming the ensuing chaos on an inadvertent whistle from one of the officials at the snap. “And the ref was so confused, instead of giving us a touchdown or saying the half was over, he said ‘do-over.’ You know like at recess, we were gonna have a do-over? They let us kick a field goal, and we got it, but it was influenced by you and your fake spike against the Jets.”

If you go back and check the play-by-play retelling of the game in the history books (or at Pro Football Reference), you’ll see the play recorded as simply, “Peyton Manning pass incomplete,” with no record of the officiating gaffe or Manning’s 33-yard sprint to the end zone. Talk about underselling it.

As for the rest of the game: Haslett’s defense stifled Manning’s offense in the second half, forcing two Colts punts and a field goal before legendary Saints safety Sammy Knight intercepted Manning after the two-minute warning, setting up the New Orleans offense to run out the clock in a 34-20 win. So, yeah, Manning isn’t looking back on this game fondly. But it makes for a great story.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

UConn’s Jim Mora: Michigan is a national championship contender

Strong words from a coach who has overseen some really good teams in his history. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — “I’ve never had a day like this in my career.” Though he may not have expected to beat No. 4 Michigan in The Big House, UConn’s first-year head coach, Jim Mora Jr., has overseen some high-quality teams.

Mora was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, before taking a moribund UCLA Bruins team and bringing it to a respectable level a few years ago. He has a huge challenge in Storrs to overhaul perhaps the worst team in the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

After Michigan’s 59-0 drubbing of the Huskies, Mora spoke to reporters, and he said he knew before his team kicked off that they were in trouble on Saturday.

“I looked down in pregame warmup, it looked like an army down there,” Mora said. “They had so many players and they’re all great players. That’s why I don’t think — they are a contender for the national championship right now. It’s not in dispute in my opinion.”

[lawrence-related id=62995,62998,62994,62990]

This is now the third straight game the Wolverines have met an overmatched opponent, and for the third straight game, the maize and blue have done precisely what they were supposed to: dominate convincingly and unrelentingly. You can criticize who Michigan has played, but you can’t criticize how it’s played.

Mora, of course, has a pretty good idea of what a championship team looks like, regardless of the team he brought to Ann Arbor. And what he saw on Saturday was a team with essentially no weaknesses.

“They have 140 players that are big, fast, strong, physical, well-coached,” Mora said. “They play with violence; they play with energy. They don’t miss tackles. They challenge you. They run the ball well. They pass the ball well. Their quarterback runs it well. They’ve got speed all over the field.”

We’ll know more in Week 4 when Michigan finally opens Big Ten play when it hosts Maryland. That game will kick off at noon EDT and will be Fox Sports’ premier game as “Big Noon Kickoff.”

[listicle id=62989]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbzardvge799bm2 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

What they said: UConn coach Jim Mora thinks Michigan looks better than ever

Mora really, really appreciates the Michigan defense!

First-year head coach Jim Mora inherited a Connecticut football team that went 1-11 in 2021, but Mora is a well-known coach with an NFL pedigree and coaching big-time college football programs like UCLA.

Mora has already matched last year’s win total by defeating Central Connecticut in Week 1, but the Huskies lost to Utah State and most recently, Syracuse.

UConn will travel to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan in Week 3 and Mora. The Huskies will be playing in front of the largest crowd that they have played under in a long time. Mora said that he has been prepping his team about playing in the Big House. He said that his team needs to control what it can control and to try and block out any outside noise going into the game.

“I shouldn’t shake my head no because that’d be a lie,” said Mora. “Yeah, I’ve talked to them about it, but I’m not going to talk about it this week. We talked about it — and we talk about everything — in camp. We talk about all these things. Our objective is to go into any place we go and shut out the noise and concentrate on things that we can control and that’s what’s happening in front of us on the field — not what’s happening around us in the stands, not the noise, not our opponent. It’s just what we can control and what we can control is our ability to focus during the game, on what’s happening on that green grass with the white lines on it. And so I think it’s a distraction if you talk about other things, and so that’s our mindset. “

For the third straight week, the Wolverines are going into their game as a heavy favorite. Mora thinks his team is ready for the challenge that Michigan will present them. He called the Wolverines a ‘well-coached team that has zero holes’. The former Bruins’ head coach noted that Michigan went to the College Football Playoff last season, but he believes that the maize and blue look even better than they did last season.

“Great opportunity for us to play against one of the premier teams in college football,” said Mora. “A team that played in the College Football Playoff last year and, to me, looks better than ever.  Obviously, they’re extremely well-coached. They’re big, they’re physical, they’re fast, they’re skilled. They have their sights set on a national championship — as they should be. They’re certainly worthy of that goal and expectation when you look at their film.”

“This is a team with zero holes. As you look at them, they do not have a weakness. This is gonna be a great challenge for our young men. We’re gonna go up there and we’re gonna fight and compete like crazy and do all we can to try to win the game against a very good team. We’re not going there for any other reason but to give it our best effort to win the game, and I think it should be a fantastic, fantastic opportunity and challenge for our guys. And I think they relish this opportunity.”

Last week, UConn lost to Syracuse, 48-14. The Huskies could only muster 202 yards of total offense in Week 2. But now Mora and UConn will be facing the 11th-ranked scoring defense (8.5 points-per-game) and the 13th-ranked defense (236 yards-per-game) in Michigan.

Mora compared both teams. He said Syracuse did a lot to try and penetrate the Huskies, but Michigan is built differently. Mora said that the Wolverines are big, fast, and physical. He said that Michigan will try and pound the opposing team into oblivion. He really appreciates the way Michigan plays defense, and he enjoys watching them play defense — unless his team is the one playing.

“Structurally they’re different,” said Mora. “Syracuse did a lot more in terms of trying to penetrate. Michigan is — said to start this thing — they’re big, they’re fast, they’re physical, they run to the ball and hit you. They have great confidence in what they do. They sit on routes because they know they can, because they’ve got the speed to go deep with people. They’re very violent with their hands when they disengage. When you watch their film, you’re not going to see guys loafing. You’re not going to see guys on the ground. And they just try to pound you into oblivion. They get off the field on third down. They stop the run. They get off the field on third down and they’re fun to watch on defense — unless you’re getting ready to play them.  I appreciate great defense and so I appreciate the way they play.”

UConn and Michigan will play Saturday at noon EDT on ABC.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbzardvge799bm2 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=62826]

Harold Varner III’s putter head cover referencing Jim Mora’s ‘Playoffs?!?’ rant is completely perfect in every way

Playoffs?!?!? I just hope we can win a game

NFL head coaches are always good for some of the best tirades we’ve ever seen in sports. You’ve got Dennis Green’s “They are who we thought they were” that is absolutely legendary. Herm Edwards’ “You play to win the game,” masterpiece. There are so many more that come with that, too.

What might be even better than those, though, is Jim Mora’s “Playoff” rant. The coach was asked about the Colt’s playoff chances after a game where they turned the ball over 5 times (!!!).

Mora absolutely teed off after that and the rest is history.

We’re just over two decades away from the rant and it still reverberates across sports. Today, specifically, it showed up in the golf world.

Harold Varner III, who is one of the 125 players preparing to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs this weekend, had an absolutely perfect putter head cover celebrating his accomplishment.

It also showed Mora some love.

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. He has the quote down perfectly and it’s just such a creative cover to have. 10 out of 10. This thing is perfect in every way.

Playoffs?!? Just the best.

Watch our sneaker unboxing series, Special Delivery