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Jim Mora on Everett Golson: ‘I don’t want mercenaries’ at UCLA

By Patrick Schmidt

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Everett Golson was interested in UCLA but the Bruins weren’t interested in him and here’s why.

When Everett Golson announced he was transferring from Notre Dame he had a list of 10 schools on his wish list that Notre Dame approved, including Jim Mora’s UCLA Bruins.

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UCLA lost Brett Hundley to the NFL Draft this offseason after setting school records and having a 3-0 record against rival USC, so the Bruins don’t have a proven option at quarterback, but Mora wasn’t interested in Golson.

Mora was on the Rich Eisen Show on Friday and said he and his staff never even approached the topic of Golson coming in to the program because he doesn’t want mercenaries on his team.

“We never even talked about it,” head coach Jim Mora said today on the Rich Eisen Show. “I don’t want mercenaries on my team. I want guys that grew up in our culture and understand what we’re all about. I think that when you bring in a fifth-year guy, especially at a position like quarterback, he has too much influence on guys that I want to have influence on — our staff wants to have influence on, our other players. …

“In order to have sustained success, in my estimation, you have to have a culture. If you bring in mercenaries, you fracture that culture. I think Everett is a great quarterback. Obviously, Jimbo Fisher disagrees with me. He’s won a national championship. I haven’t. That’s just my feeling.”

Golson ended up transferring to Florida State earlier in the week and will compete for the starting job with the Seminoles as they replace Jameis Winston who was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft after winning a Heisman Trophy and national championship after compiling a 26-1 record at FSU.

UCLA has Gerry Neuheisel competing with No. 1 quarterback recruit Josh Rosen and Asiantii Woulard for the starting job with Rosen my pick to win the job.

You can hear Mora’s full comments on the Rich Eisen Show in the clip below.

Next: Ranking the Pac-12 Quarterbacks for 2015

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