College Football Analyst, ESPN
On December 10, 2011, former Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks head coach Jim Mora was named Head Coach of the UCLA Bruins. A former NFC Coach of the Year, Mora brought 25 years of NFL coaching savvy and experience to the Bruins football team.
In his first season as head coach he led UCLA to clinch the Pac-12 South title, earning a #3 pick for the 2013 draft and the highest ranked recruiting class the school had seen in the past two decades. Since joining the Bruins, the team has produced three consecutive seasons of nine wins or more, a first in program history. His 29 total wins are the most-ever by a UCLA coach in his initial three seasons on the job.
With a philosophy to focus on the defensive end of the sport, Jim Mora led defensive teams to finish at or near the top of defensive stats from overall defense to pass defense, takeaways, run defense, and sacks. Mora’s efforts eventually resulted in him earning his first head coaching position in the NFL.
In his inaugural season as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons in 2004, Mora guided the team to an 11-5 record, becoming just the eighth rookie head coach to record 11 wins in NFL history. Along with Mora’s conference Coach of the Year honors, this impressive first season culminated with the Falcons winning the NFC South Divisional Title, only the team’s third such accolade at the time. Mora also served as the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks before becoming an analyst and broadcaster for Fox Sports and the NFL Network.
During the off season, Mora is committed to the protection of football players at all levels and sits on the board of X2impact, a company specializing in data collection to monitor players’ health upon impact. Based in Washington, X2impact has already implemented its technology inside mouthpieces at all levels to record the impact of hits on players. In September 25, 2012, the NFL entered into an agreement with X2impact to be used on several teams. Partnered with Microsoft, the X2impact system continues to grow its influence and importance on athletes’ health at all stages.