UCLA flexes contender status, LA power
LOS ANGELES - A sign inside the UCLA football team's locker room serves as instruction for the Bruins:
'Don't listen to the noise.'
It's not a reference to rush-hour traffic, nearby construction or marching band practice but rather the preseason hoopla creating an unmistakable din on the campus in Westwood.
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This week, in the preseason Pac-12 media poll, UCLA was picked to win the South Division and advance to the conference title game. When the national preseason rankings are released, the Bruins are expected to be among the Top 10. And quarterback Brett Hundley is being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
'Tune out everything,'' the redshirt junior said Thursday at Pac-12 football media day, echoing the mantra designed to muffle the noise, if not their expectations - which would have sounded irrational in December 2011.
UCLA had suffered through yet another disappointing season under Rick Neuheisel, who was fired after four years as head coach. Jim Mora Jr. was brought in to replace him. The Bruins went 9-5 (losing their last three games) that next season and 10-3 in 2013.
'It's been a huge jump,'' Hundley said. 'It's been a fun ride, but we're expecting to do even bigger and better.''
But while wearing figurative earplugs.
'I feel like as long as we handle our business in the league, we'll be where we're supposed to be at the end of the season, where everybody's predicting,'' UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks said.
The conference has taken notice.
'I think you can make a case of what Jim Mora has done in the last two years at UCLA is as good as what anybody's done in the nation,' Stanford coach David Shaw said. 'As far as what they've done and style of play, they've become a physical, get-after-you football team. ... He's built something in UCLA that was not there before.'
Although Mora wants to tune out the noise, it's worth reviewing how the volume got cranked up.
It started with a grumble.
UCLA coach Jim Mora talks to the media during the Pac-12 Media Day at the Studios at Paramount.(Photo: Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports)
Few lamented the ouster of Neuheisel after his 21-29 record. But few fully embraced Mora Jr. either - in part because he had no college coaching experience and had been out of coaching since being fired by the Seattle Seahawks after going 5-11 in 2009, his one season at the helm.
But the grumble turned into a buzz with Mora's successful first season with the Bruins.
The buzz turned into a roar the next season when UCLA beat USC for the second year in a row.
And the roar turned to howls of delight last January when Hundley bypassed the NFL draft for another collegiate season, a decision that instantly propelled the Bruins among the nation's elite teams - and led to the sign:
'Don't listen to the noise.''
Of the slogan, Mora said, 'There's things you have to emphasize on a daily basis. We're making progress and I think we're on the right track, but we're not where we want to be. But I'm excited about where we're going. I like the mind-set of our team. I think they get it. I don't think they're satisfied.'
The Bruins will miss linebacker Anthony Barr, a first-round NFL draft pick. But the Bruins return seven starters on defense and nine on offense -- one of the league's most potent and led by Hundley, a dual threat who last year led the team in rushing.
'He's had a great offseason. He's invested a lot of time in his craft, and he understands his offense now,' Mora said of Hundley. 'So when you see a young man work as hard as Brett is, and be as invested as he is in this team and this position, it gives you a great deal of faith.'
Kendricks said Mora is leading the way: 'Coach Mora is demanding a lot out of us, and we're accepting the challenge. He's showing us the way, so we're just following him.''
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They're also following his orders. Cheer too loudly, and the Bruins will tune you out.
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