Jim L. Mora Hired to Replace Randy Edsall as UConn Head Coach

Jim L. Mora has officially been named the next head football coach at the University of Connecticut following the departure of Randy Edsall in September.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports was the first to report Mora was the target of UConn's coaching search.

Mora would take over a program that has struggled mightily in recent years. The Huskies are just 1-8 this season and are on track to win three or fewer games for the fifth consecutive season.

Mora, 59, last coached at UCLA in 2017 before going on to serve as a color analyst for ESPN's college football coverage in 2019 and 2020.

After multiple stints as an assistant coach in the NFL, Mora was hired as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons in 2004. He led Atlanta to an 11-5 record, NFC South title and NFC Championship berth in his first season, but he was fired after going 8-8 and 7-9 in his next two seasons.

Mora was then hired as the Seahawks' head coach in 2009, but he lasted just one season after going 5-11. Overall, Mora went 31-33 as an NFL head coach and 1-1 in the playoffs.

Eleven months after his firing in Seattle, Mora was hired as the head coach at UCLA in 2012. During his six-year stint with the Bruins, Mora went 46-30 with four bowl appearances and three seasons with nine or more wins.

UCLA went 4-8 and 5-6 in his final two seasons at the helm, but parting ways with him has not led to better days for the Bruins, as they went just 3-9 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2019 and 3-4 last season.

Mora consistently had solid offenses at UCLA, especially from 2012-14 when the Bruins ranked 36th or better nationally in scoring each season.

He did an especially good job of developing quarterback Brett Hundley at UCLA, as Hundley threw for 75 touchdowns and rushed for 30 more in his three seasons under center before getting selected in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers.

Mora has a defensive background, though, as he was a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator in the NFL, so he was among the most well-rounded coaches available.

While it can be argued that his head coaching stints have ended in disappointment thus far, he has a history of success, taking the Falcons within one win of the Super Bowl and helping the Bruins contend in the Pac-12.

The bar for improvement at UConn has been set low since the Huskies have a total of 10 wins over their past five seasons.

UConn has just one bowl appearance since 2010 as well, and the Huskies have not had a winning season since the 2010 campaign either.

The Huskies went to four straight bowl games from 2007-10 under Edsall, and if Mora can get them anywhere near that level again, his hiring will be considered a massive success.