Strike 1: The video (and meme) is embedded in the minds of football fans everywhere. Jim Mora Sr, the then-head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was lamenting a mistake-filled loss to the San Francisco 49ers when he was asked about his team making the NFL playoffs.
“Playoffs?” the coach says sarcastically. “Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!”
Fast forward 24 years. Jim Mora Jr. is named the new head coach of the Colorado State Rams. He arrives in FoCo fresh off a nine-win season at UConn, where he resurrected a downtrodden program and took them to the postseason for the first time since 2015. Last season, the Huskies knocked off North Carolina in the Fenway Bowl. Mora Jr. will be there in spirit when this year’s Huskies play in a second consecutive bowl game later this month.
His new boss is already talking about playoffs. As in the College Football Playoff.
Can such a thing actually happen?
Unlike his counterpart in Boulder, Mora Jr. brings a wealth of coaching experience with him to his new job. He has coached in the NFL for five different teams, including a pair of stints as an NFL head man in Atlanta and Seattle. His college gig before UConn was as the head man at UCLA. He’s no stranger to Colorado, having spent six of his formative years as a youth growing up in Boulder while his father was an assistant coach for Eddie Crowder at the University of Colorado. Mora Jr. has a son who just graduated from CU. But make no mistake, this introductory gathering was nothing like the one three years ago in Boulder. It wasn’t a made-for-social-media event. No one was wearing sunglasses, and there was no mention of Louis Vuitton.
There was a lot of talk about climbing mountains.
“I love to go uphill. I love to embrace hard things. How many 14,000 footers (mountains) are there in this state”? the new coach asked the gathered crowd. When he was told there are 54 such peaks, he smiled.
“Okay, so a couple goals for you. We’re gonna win a Pac 12 Championship. We’re gonna compete to win a national championship, and I’m gonna scale (those) 54” he smiled as the crowd applauded.
Aim high.
Mora Jr’s new boss John Weber certainly is. He’s talking playoffs in a much different way than Mora’s father did back in 2001. The CSU athletic director – who has never been shy about promoting the possibilities for his football program – is openly talking about the College Football Playoffs.
“To make the climb we eagerly embark on as Rams, we must excel on the football stage, not just as new members of the Pac-12, but under the national spotlight,” Weber wrote in an email to CSU supporters. “Our expectations do not end with our primary goal to win conference championships; they carry forward to the idea we will be in the College Football Playoffs.”
Playoffs? Playoffs? After a 2-10 football season?
Both Weber and his new football coach used the word “ascend,” frequently, as in “Ascending to the Pac-12.” Mora made it clear that in his mind, there are no ceilings, no “top of the mountain” as it were. Just a continual climb to reach your own peak.
“We have the resources to ascend as high as we determine we want to ascend,” Mora said. “We’re gonna populate this team with young men that are committed, and they’re tough and they’re hard-nosed, gritty, talented…and they’re un-entitled and can bond together and can go after something that a lot of people think is unattainable. And we will get it done.”
That would make a great video.
