Just over a year after nearly losing its highly successful men’s basketball coach to the pros, the University of Connecticut will instead lose its highly successful football coach.
In a statement posted Wednesday to Facebook, UConn Athletic Director David Benedict states that he was informed by football head coach Jim Mora “last night that he has accepted the head coaching position” at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Benedict expressed the school’s gratitude for Mora’s contributions to UConn during his four years as head coach, and said the school now turns its attention “to finding the right leader to build on the foundation that has been established and continue moving UConn football forward.”
The statement added that Offensive Coordinator Gordon Sammis will lead the team in the interim as a national search for the next head coach “will begin immediately.”
Since he was hired on Nov. 11, 2021, to resurrect the Huskies’ moribund football program, Mora has produced a 27-23 record in four seasons, including the school’s first ever back-to-back nine win seasons.
This year, UConn is 9-3 and is expected to play in its third bowl game in four years.
Last December, UConn and Mora agreed to a two-year contract extension.
Mora, 64, originally agreed in 2021 to a five-year deal through the 2026 season that paid him $1.5 million during his first season as head coach in 2022. That agreement included performance incentives worth $200,000 annually.
The new deal extended that contract through Dec. 31, 2028, and was valued at $10.01 million over its four years, not including performance bonuses.
The extension was announced just before Mora led his Huskies to a decisive 27-14 win over the University of North Carolina in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl in Boston. The win improved UConn to 9-4, its first nine-win season since 2007 and first victory in a bowl game since 2009.
Colorado State, which is 2-9 this season, will leave the Mountain West Conference to join the Pac-12. The school’s new Athletic Director John Weber “has been bullish about Colorado State being at the top end of the Group of 5 schools in terms of finances,” the ESPN report said.
Mora would be Colorado State’s fourth coach since 2019, following Mike Bobo, Steve Addazio and Jay Norvell, who was fired last month.
Mora has both collegiate and professional experience as a head coach, with a 75-53 record overall in 10 college seasons, including six at UCLA. He also served as head coach of Seattle and Atlanta in the NFL.
Colorado State opened a new $200 million football stadium in 2017, and according to the ESPN report hopes to compete for a spot in the newly expanded NCAA College Football Playoff.
At UConn, which plays football as one of only two independent schools along with the University of Notre Dame, Mora helped increase the school’s name, image and likeness (NIL) recruiting budget, but is at a decided disadvantage when competing with schools in major conferences that receive significant revenues from large media contracts.
The report of Mora’s departure follows UConn nearly losing UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, who was offered a lucrative contract last year after winning back-to-back NCAA national titles to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Hurley eventually turned down the offer.
