David Shaw continued his run of dominance against UCLA as his Cardinal came back to beat the Bruins 22-13 on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Though Shaw has never lost to UCLA since taking over the Stanford job from Jim Harbaugh ahead of the 2011 season, he has the ultimate respect for Bruins head coach Jim Mora.
After the game, Shaw was asked about UCLA during his interview with ABC/ESPN and was complimentary of Mora.
“I’ll say this on national TV: Jim Mora doesn’t get the respect he deserves for what he’s done here. You look at the program when he got it, these guys are physical — these guys play hard. They have a phenomenal quarterback. They’re probably going to beat [Mora] up for this game. But his kids played extremely hard, so we tip our caps to UCLA.
It was a nice comment from Shaw, and certainly not something he had to say. And he’s absolutely right.
From 1999-2011, UCLA only had one season where they won more than seven games in a season, and they had four losing seasons. Mora has never won fewer than eight games in a season since taking over prior to the 2012 season. He has elevated the program to a greater level, even if he still hasn’t figured out Stanford.
