When Jim Mora arrived on campus at UConn, he found a large reservoir of coaching expertise, a group of veteran coaches ready to embrace him and show him the lay of the land.
Early on, for example, Mora and Geno Auriemma broke bread at Cafe Aura.
“We’ve had dinner a couple of times,” said Auriemma, the UConn women’s basketball coach and proprietor of that particular bistro. “They bring their team around a lot, when they have recruits around. He’s got a lot of stories, a lot of experience at a lot of different levels, a lot of interests outside of football. Just a very interesting guy. To hear him describe it, I just think it’s the perfect place for him at this time in his life.”
Mora says Auriemma, 11-time national champ and runner-up this past season, did much of the talking. We’ll take his word for that.
“I had dinner with Geno, and I didn’t open my mouth,” Mora said. “I just sat and listened, and I wished I had a tape recorder or a notebook so I could take notes and recreate that night.”
This is not a given at any university. The stereotypical image at least is of the football coach holding himself above other coaches on campus. So far at UConn, Mora, a former head coach in the NFL and at UCLA, appears unaffected by basketball’s status as the bus driver, and he’s been a ubiquitous presence at men’s and women’s games, at baseball games, and other events on campus. He’s endeavored to be a part of the fabric.
“Just how visible Coach has been on campus, around the state, at different UConn athletic events, I feel like he has been everywhere,” men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley said. “He’s got this unbelievable energy and vision.”
Mora, too, has been secure and comfortable enough to pick the brains around him and learn by observing the coaching principles applied to sports quite different from his. On Monday night, he joined Auriemma, Hurley, baseball coach Jim Penders and softball coach Laura Valentino at the first of two UConn Coaches Road Shows, this one at the Kinsman Brewing Company with about 250 fans. They meet again Tuesday at Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford.
“They understand the climate,” Mora said. “They understand the culture, recruiting, some of the things that are attractive about our institution over others. I like to watch them at games. I like to watch them all. There is nothing more fascinating to me than trying to read Geno’s lips when he’s talking to girls. I watch Danny, he’s intense; he’s passionate; he’s emotional. But I never once seen him negative toward one of his players during a game. Coach Penders, I watch him in the dugout, his demeanor, calm, directing things, never out of control. I think that’s really contagious with his players.”
Penders, like Valentino, is fresh off winning a Big East regular season title, gave Mora a “hook C” cap to wear at the spring scrimmage a few weeks ago. Monday, they traded texts about a possible transfer who wants to play baseball and try kicking for the football team. “He got right back to me,” Penders said. “He’s been great, so supportive.”
“Everyone is so kind, so nice,” Mora said. “Willing to jump in and help. I’ve been fortunate in my college career to be around some great, great coaches, but never the level I have found at UConn. It’s pretty special.”
UConn football, 7-48 the last four seasons, hasn’t had a winning record since 2010, the year the Huskies went to the Fiesta Bowl. The hiring of Mora was startling, given his experience and stature, but he came to a place where there is little to lose and potentially a great story to be written. Mora has thrown himself energetically into the task with his renovated roster returning to campus next month.
And his new colleagues are watching with fascination as Mora goes about this unique building task.
“We’ve pretty much tried everything there is [to turn football around],” Auriemma said. “We’ve gone down as many roads as there are roads, and we’re running out of roads to go down. That’s the interesting thing about the UConn football job, as it is presently situated: You’re either going to get somebody who is here to try to make a name for themselves and go get a big Power Five job, or somebody who is like, retired. I don’t think he’s either, so he’s the perfect mix.”
Hurley understands what Mora is facing.
“I think it’s a lot of fun what he’s doing right now,” Hurley said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s a lot of fun taking a program from where it is right now to where he envisions it. That challenge is fun. I think the challenge is invigorating. He knows his starting point, but the challenge of getting this thing to a high level in football obviously gets him up in the morning, and gets him up early.”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com.
