Jim Mora walked into the Rose Bowl and saw the airplane circling overhead toting a banner calling for his dismissal. UCLA’s football coach noticed that his players, craning their necks, saw it too.
Mora then called a reverse of sorts. He gathered his players with the banner in the background for an unlikely team picture.
“They immediately laughed and they said, ‘OK, our coach is OK. We’re OK,’ ” Mora said of the scene before a game in which his team rallied to defeat Arizona State last weekend. “My job is to make sure that these guys get through this experience with a bright future and I’m never going to lose track of that.