Scott Robinson
A storm is brewing behind the scenes of the Kraft Hunger Bowl. Coach Jim L. Mora, who will be present among the San Francisco sidelines come this Saturday, will attempt to shade off the spotlight and assess his newly inherited football squad.
While seemingly frequent in the past ten years, the changing of the guard for UCLA’s coaching staff might actually most resemble a similar transition made 25 years ago. It was then that a coach named Dick Vermeil took the Philadelphia Eagles’ head position and a young, defensive-minded assistant stepped in as UCLA’s face to Bruin football.
A “New Sheriff is in Town”
It was February of 1976 and the new field general, 31-year-old Terry Donahue, came aboard after serving under Vermeil as UCLA’s offensive line coach. This period of transition most definitely mirrors today’s transference to Mora. Like Mora, Donahue’s new team also meddled with culture questions. He even issued similar coach-speak statements calling for better discipline and accountability. In offering his vision for the Bruins, Donahue stated:
We’ll be a representative and competitive team and play hard and enthusiastically.(Spokane Daily Chronicle, 9/3/1976)The scene of 1976 College Football echoes to today’s sentiments of conference fluidity and landscapes of change. Back then, UCLA was anchored under the flag of the PAC-8, but the influences of television and expansion, eventually forging the BCS era, meandered amongst the nation. In fact, talk of expanding to a PAC-10 (adding Arizona and Arizona State) was considered controversial.
The likes of media disrespect also persisted against the blue and gold back then. Despite winning the 1975 Pac-8 Championship, the Bruins, especially with a coaching change, were not seen to be in a position to repeat. Entering the ’76 season, John Sciarra, UCLA’s Rose Bowl MVP QB, was gone. A young and athletic sophomore was buried in the depth chart (see Theotis Brown). UCLA wasn’t seen to crack the top half of their conference. As today, back then changes were also required.
Similar to Mora’s hire, the nay-sayers were ever-present when assessing the newly hired Donahue and his team:
The Bruins, with troubles at the offensive line and at quarterback, do not figure to be able to cope with the bigger, more veteran teams at USC, Cal and Stanford.(Spokane Daily Chronicle, 9/3/1976)Read more...
