One could describe UCLA coach Jim Mora as verbally gaffe-prone, if one were so inclined. From pining for the Washington job while employed by the Falcons to trashing his kicker as the Seahawks coach, he's got a record of saying neat things. The latest whoopsy is less fun than the others:
Mora, discussing recruiting on the Roger Lodge radio show, said he makes a point to tell parents how safe it is at UCLA, noting, "We don't have murders a block from our campus."
The murder of two Chinese graduate students near the USC campus in April became international news. But Mora said Thursday that he was speaking only about the UCLA campus.
"I just said our campus is safe," Mora said. "I didn't say anything about anyone else's campus. I just said it about our campus. I didn't mention another campus. We don't have anybody getting murdered a block off of our campus.
If that was an accident, well, these things happen. It's kind of weird to promote a lack of murder rather than an abundance of safety, but all right.
Pointing out non-murder is always going to be risky, since murder happens everywhere. Give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he's not paying that much attention to local crime stories, perhaps. He does seem to be highly invested in building his football program, so we can say he missed the story and thus didn't realize he could be found lacking in tact.
I dunno, that's how I'll choose to look at it.
For more on Bruins football, visit UCLA blog Bruins Nation, plus Pac-12 blog Pacific Takes and SB Nation Los Angeles.
While we’re here, let’s watch some of the many fine college football videos from SB Nation’s YouTube channel:
