Top 15 Coaching Duos in College Sports
By Logan Shaw
Jan 2, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim L. Mora looks onto the field during the first half of the 2015 Alamo Bowl against the Kansas State Wildcats at Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Jim Mora, Jr. has had a more nontraditional route to the college ranks than most of our other coaches. Instead of spending many years as an assistant at nowhere university and such, Mora spent his time in the NFL, coaching under some talented coaches before getting his first head coaching job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Mora had some success as an NFL head coach, leading the Falcons to the NFL Championship game in his first year, but everything pretty much went downhill from there, including a short one-year stint as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks that didn’t end well.
Mora than accepted a head coaching position at UCLA, where he’s had much success, including a berth into the inaugural Pac-12 Championship game in his first season.
Since then, Mora has won more games in his first three seasons than any other coach in UCLA football history, including back-to-back ten win seasons the past two years.
Steve Alford’s been working his way up the college ranks since 1991, when he coached the Division III, Manchester Spartans to three appearances in the Division III tournament.
Alford then went on to coach at Southwest Missouri State and Iowa, before becoming the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, where he’s had his more successful seasons.
After leading New Mexico to the NCAA Tournament three times in his six-year stint in Albuquerque, Alford became the head coach of UCLA basketball, and has led the Bruins to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in his two years in LA.
UCLA has a couple of good coaches, and after these two call it quits, they may bring UCLA a championship or two.
Next: No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks