Although UCLA football coach Jim Mora said he was disappointed with his team’s performance on Saturday, officials from the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl were clearly impressed.
The organization named Mora the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week on Wednesday, four days after his Bruins trounced the then-No. 16 Arizona Wildcats 56-30.
“We have a set of criteria that we look at and coach Mora just knocked it out of the park,” said Jim Terry, chairman of the Dodd Foundation, in the press release.
The award recognizes coaches whose program includes high standards of scholarship, leadership and integrity and whose team performed well the previous week.
In Mora’s tenure at UCLA, his team has posted an Academic Progress Rating of 975 out of a possible 1,000. Last year, his players posted the third-best graduation rate in the nation.
Mora also raised $550,000 for his Jim Mora Count On Me Family Foundation, which aims to help children in need, at his ninth annual Jim Mora Celebrity Golf Classic.
“His team just registered a big conference win against a top-25 opponent,” Terry said in the press release. “Academically his student-athletes have an exceptional graduation rate; and finally, the work he and his family do with their foundation is very admirable.”
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.