Jim Mora says hello at Colorado State, goodbye, good luck to players staying with UConn football

Jim Mora was introduced Monday at Colorado State, then flew back to Connecticut to say his goodbyes to his former players at UConn.

UConn players and coaches, now led by interim head coach and offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis, had a team meeting on campus at 8 a.m. Tuesday, where Mora addressed them, closing the book on his four consequential years as the Huskies coach. Then he flew back to Colorado.

UConn declined to comment on Mora’s appearance on campus.

“I want to take just one minute and acknowledge someone that helped me get to where I am standing today and that’s the athletic director at UConn, David Benedict,” Mora told reporters and the Colorado State community Monday evening in Fort Collins, Colo. “I was out of football for a few years and David gave me the opportunity to get back doing what I love the most. Were it not for David and his faith and really kind of blind trust in me, I would not have the opportunity to be standing here today. So to David, I am forever grateful and I obviously wish him, Connecticut football and all those young men I had the opportunity to coach the best as they move forward and try to get win No. 10 in their bowl game.”

Jim Mora heading to UConn to address his former players after move to Colorado State

UConn had lost 50 of 60 games before Mora took over as head coach in 2022. He led the Huskies to a 6-6 record in his first season, then 3-9 in Year Two, then 9-4, with a victory in the Fenway Bowl in 2024 and a 9-3 regular-season record, all three losses in OT, before accepting the Colorado State position Nov. 25.

With UConn players home for Thanksgiving, Mora did not get to speak to them in person, as a group, before taking the job.

“I need to look those men in the eyes, and I need to tell them thank you and that I love them and that I appreciate all that they did,” Mora told reporters at CSU. “… The number of players that have already reached out to me and wished me well and said thanks has been pretty humbling and overwhelming.”

Mora referenced the challenge of coaching FBS football at UConn, an independent program, at a school best known for its men’s and women’s basketball.

“We did some good things there at a place that wasn’t … it was a basketball school, and it is a great basketball school,” Mora said. “And I am proud that I was associated with it. It was really, really fun.”

Mora, who coached the Falcons and Seahawks in the NFL, was 46-30 at UCLA, where he was let go after six seasons. He was out of coaching four years. In 2019, he said, he expressed interest in the Colorado State job, but it went to Cheshire’s Steve Addazio, who’d been fired at Boston College. Mora settled in the Rocky Mountain Region, he is an avid skier, and was living in Idaho when Benedict hired him at UConn in November 2021.

With numerous openings around the country, Mora would probably have had his pick of several jobs this time. Mora’s five-year contract calls for a $2.4 million salary in 2026, escalating each year to $2.8 in 2030, with various bonuses for wins, bowl or playoff appearances throughout. These numbers do not represent a significant rise over what he would have made had he stayed at UConn, which signed him to a four-year extension worth more than $10 million last year, but Colorado State is moving into a new conference, the Pac-12, in which a playoff spot could be within reach, and the school is near his family, his home and the Rockies.

Mora, 64, told the audience in Fort Collins that he intends this to be his last job, and he expects the Rams, who were 2-10 this season, to compete for championships before he retires.

Even though it was unusual, particularly in this transfer portal age, Mora returned to the UConn campus to speak to his former team, then headed right back out to Colorado. There is no set template for this. At Mississippi, coach Lane Kiffin was not allowed to stay and coach in the playoffs after accepting the job to coach LSU, a conference rival. At Tulane, Jon Sumrall will coach the team the rest of the season, then assume his new job at Florida. James Madison coach Bob Chesney apparently will coach the rest of the season, possibly in the playoffs, despite taking the job at UCLA.

UConn will learn its bowl assignment next Sunday. Projections vary widely, with some anticipation the Fenway Bowl or Pinstripe Bowl could maneuver out of their conference tie-ins to get the Huskies to Boston, where the helped draw 27,000 fans last Dec. 28, or New York. Other possibilities include the Myrtle Beach Bowl or are the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, both mid-December, or the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, which is to be played Jan. 2.

Dom Amore: Jim Mora leaves UConn football far better than he found it. Now, what’s next?

What the Huskies will look like when they play a bowl game is to be determined. Several players entered the portal last year at this time, including star receiver Skyler Bell, to keep options open, but most played in the bowl game and some, like Bell, took their names out of the portal. Opting out of a bowl game could preserve a player’s health; playing in one, especially against a notable opponent, could improve his stock for the portal.

Running back Victor Rosa, from Bristol, defensive back Cam Chadwick, offensive lineman Ben Murawski, linebacker Oumar Diomande, running back MJ Flowers and defensive backs Chris Hudson and Osiris Gilbert are in the portal, as tracked by 247Sports. There will be thousands of players in the portal in the coming weeks. On3.com reports receiver John Neider, from Milford, plans to enter.

Carter Emanuel, quarterback from Orlando, Fla., is among the high school recruits who have de-committed since Mora left. Emanuel later announced he had an offer from Colorado State.

Benedict has said UConn will conduct a national search for Mora’s permanent successor. Presumably Sammis, who was offensive line coach and offensive coordinator under Mora, will be considered. There are numerous power conference schools searching, and a few well-known coaches available or currently in assistant roles.