‘#NoMoraJim’ banners flew over UCLA’s stadium before the Bruins’ game against Arizona State

Jim Mora’s first three years as head man at UCLA began auspiciously enough, leading the Bruins to first nine, then 10, then 10 again wins. He experienced regression in the 2015 campaign, going 8-5, then utterly fell apart in 2016 with a 4-8 record.

His Bruins outfit currently sits at 4-5 this season, with No. 11 USC and rival Cal remaining on the schedule. He’s certainly in danger of missing a bowl for the second straight season, and that has a certain sector of UCLA fandom pissed.

Earlier this week, a UCLA fan initiated a GoFundMe to help foot the bill for large, flying banners to trail an airplane during the week and before the Bruins’ game with Arizona State on Saturday. The banners express fans’ and donors’ displeasure for Mora’s continued employment with UCLA athletics and explicitly call out athletic director Dan Guerrero. The total funds goal is $15,000, and as of this writing the project has raised $8,735. That’s a significant amount of displeasure about Jim Mora.

As the LA Times points out:

According to the site, the contributions would go toward an airplane banner being flown for five days for 20 minutes, though it does not specify where the banner would be flown. On the last day, the site says, the banner would be flown twice with two different messages including 45 letters per banner.

Five days for 20 minutes, then twice with two separate banners on the last day with two separate messages. This particular set really wants Mora gone. He has gone 16-18 in the last three seasons, after all. Here’s the second, separate banner:

SB Nation’s UCLA blog Bruins Nation caught the first flying banner on video.

UCLA actually ended up beating Arizona State 44-37, so maybe Mora bought himself a little time. But one must admit, #NoMoraJim is fairly clever.

After the win, Mora was asked about the banners.

“Of course I saw them. We all saw them. It’s great to have passionate fans,” Mora said. “I can assure everybody that our team, and our staff and our administration, everybody at UCLA is just as passionate and working just as hard to make every UCLA fan proud.”