These again. We're skipping Harbaugh because it's not like you need to be told about Harbaugh. In the event M does hire him, he'll get one.

These are in approximate order of personal preference.

Previously: Dan Mullen.

Jim E. Mora is the son of Jim "Playoffs?!" L. Mora, and as a result joined the nepotism-friendly ranks of NFL position coaches soon after he graduated college. After a decade as a DBs coach he broke through as the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator, parlaying that into two brief, unsuccessful stints as an NFL head coach.

After the second—a one-year gig with the Seahawks after which he was thrown overboard for Pete Carroll—Mora was out of coaching for two years. When UCLA tapped him for their head coaching job, Bruins Nation was wroth. Bruins Nation is always wroth but at the time it seemed like they had a point. Mora looked like a guy who'd never have gotten anywhere without his father's name and seemed a particularly poor fit for college, what with his single year as a Washington grad assistant. The motivation appeared to be "he's kind of like Pete Carroll."

But it's worked rather well. Mora's led the Bruins to three 6-3 Pac-12 records in three years, had a 10-3 2013, and hasn't won fewer than nine games. This is a considerable step up from Rick Neuheisel (21-29 in 4 seasons), Karl Dorrell (35-27 in 5 seasons) and even nominally successful Bob Toledo, who followed up two top-ten outings in the late 1990s with a string of mediocre teams and finished his career 49-32. Mora's three years are the most successful UCLA has had in 15 years, and you have to go back to Terry Donahue's mid-80s heyday to find anything definitively better.

So he's plausible. But how good have these seasons actually been, and what happens post-Hundley?

[After THE JUMP: bad NFL defenses, excellent recruiting, and stealth spread.]

Xs and Os Proficiency

Mora's record as an NFL defensive coordinator is so uninspiring it boggles the mind he was tapped for a head coaching job, and he did about what you'd expect in Atlanta. I'm ignoring the single year with Seattle since that's not long enough to determine anything, but here's San Francisco and Atlanta circa their Mora years, with both DVOA (Football Outsiders' fancy schedule adjusted stat) and raw yards per play. Finishes in the top half of the NFL are bolded:

Mora's best argument is that San Francisco got really really bad the year after he left and that Atlanta was significantly worse on average before and after. Still, this is a guy with eight years of track record who has never finished better than 15th in either of these metrics. This looks like his path to NFL head coach was entirely due to the Shield's dynastic tendencies.

What about college?

That, at least, is a picture of improvement. It topped out at 2013's legitimately good D and backslid some this year.

Recruiting

Josh Rosen will be a familiar name to M recruitniks

While it's never been that difficult to convince kids to hang out in the Rose Bowl for four years, Mora's record as a recruiter is excellent. A recent history of UCLA recruiting:

Mora was hired on December 10th of 2011; at that point Neuheisel's final class had just seven guys who would end up signing with UCLA. Mora added 19 over the last two months before signing day, including seven Rivals four-stars and five star Ellis McCarthy, a potential first round pick. Most of that bounce-back is him.

Mora followed that up with a terrific 2013 class with 19 touted recruits in it; recently he's fallen off a bit, partially because he hasn't had a lot of slots to fill. Worth noting that in 2015 he's locked down five stars Josh Rosen and Keisean Lucier-South. JUCOs aren't an issue, and UCLA hasn't seen the massive attrition Neuheisel had before his recruiting tanked in 2011.

There is a bit of a catch: USC. USC just finished their sanctions last year; 2015 is the first class in which Mora is going head to head with a USC that can actually hand out 25 offers, and the Trojans just went through a coaching change. Mora's taken advantage of that instability; maintaining that advantage now that USC is back on its feet is another matter.

CEO Stuff

Mora imported vagabond college OC Noel Mazzone to deal with Hundley. Mazzone's coaching career is a spectacular traipse about the country, featuring QB stops at CSU, TCU, and Minnesota before OC duties at Ole Miss, Auburn, Oregon State, NC State, Ole Miss again, Panther Creek High School(!) and Arizona State before his arrival at UCLA. He was the WR coach for the Jets somewhere in there, too.

He's done quite well with Hundley and the assorted receivers Michigan did not acquire.

Hundley has been a dual threat in the "dual" sense of the word—UCLA uses him as a runner (about 14 carries a game over his career) and a thrower (70% completions in 2014 and a career YPA over 8). Worth noting here that Mora's three years with the Falcons were Michael Vick's final three in Atlanta; Vick rushed for about 850 yards a year at just under seven yards a pop. If there was ever an NFL-only coach prepped to take advantage of a dual threat QB, it was Jim Mora. That is quite a historical accident right there.

Mora's DC is 37-year old Jeff Ulbrich, who had a decade-long NFL career followed by a brief stint as a special teams coach with the Seahawks; after two years as a LB/ST coach he was promoted to DC. Ulbrich was a LB for Mora back when he was the 49ers DC; against Oregon there was a shouting match/hissy fit between the two.

The rest of his staff is the usual mix of old hands and randoms with more of an NFL focus than usual; Mazzone's son Taylor is the newly-installed QB coach. Mora's got Michigan grad Courtney Morgan on his staff. He appears to be in role similar to that Chris Singletary plays at Michigan.

Potential Catches

Wither the scalps? Concerns about Dan Mullen's inflated record are somewhat applicable to Mora. His best wins:

• Two against Pelini Nebraska teams that finished with four losses.
• Sanction-depleted USC in 2013 and again this year.
• Both Arizona teams this year.

He hasn't beaten Stanford in four tries—has barely come close—and got plowed by Oregon; this season features a two-point escape against Cal and a double OT win over Colorado, plus uncomfortable close shaves against UVA and Texas. UCLA played seven one-possession games this year and won six. You'd hope for something better with a fourth-year Brett Hundley wowing NFL scouts.

On the other hand, UCLA may have played the toughest schedule in college football this year what with a nine-game Pac-12 schedule and UVA, Texas, and surging Memphis the nonconference schedule.

Uh… is Jim Mora a spread coach now? Mora had one year in Seattle when Matt Hasselbeck was his QB in which he ran for about a hundred yards. The six other years he's been in charge of a football team have seen QBs run for hundred and hundreds of yards.

The answer here is probably not since he acquired a pocket passer in Josh Rosen this year. It is goofy how the anti-spread people are willing to overlook one entirely shotgun-based, heavy-QB-run offense while screaming "no" about another one.

Is three years enough to take a gamble? The last three years at UCLA are the first in Mora's career in which he seems to have had any positive impact on the program he's in charge of. What if Hundley is the whole reason?

The recruiting successes and Mora's flexibility when dealing with both Vick and Hundley argue the other way. Still, Mora is a couple years away from being a definitively good idea.

Would He Take The Job?

Maybe? Mora signed a six-year contract last December, rebuffing advances from his alma mater Washington and possibly even Texas. That Texas interest was real but how far it got was disputed:

Saban was obviously the first guy on the list, while Strong was No. 2 and Baylor coach Art Briles was No. 3. Texas representatives talked to Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, and met with Strong, Briles and Mora, but only offered the job to Strong. He accepted after taking time to let his former employers at Louisville know he simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

If Mora was behind Strong on their list (eminently reasonable) then Mora may have parlayed that mild interest into a contract extension and would be more available than said extension hopes to imply.

The unreliable USA Today database only pegs Mora salary at 19th nationally, so Michigan could come in with a bigger offer. UCLA's facilities are reputed to be bad and there have been consistent rumblings that not only is Michigan poking the tires but that he would consider it. Rich Rodriguez leapt to Michigan a year after turning down Alabama, after all.

Still: this is a sitting head coaching in a stable situation who has recruited very well. He is not in a Mississippi State situation where he's always going to be at the most resource-poor school in his division. He's got a five star QB on the way. His availability is far from certain. I would even call it doubtful.

Overall Attractiveness

I still think Mora is behind Mullen due to Mullen's success as Urban's offensive coordinator and the nigh-impossible build job he culminated this year at Mississippi State; Mullen also has significantly more long-term upside since he's more than a decade younger. The institutional obstacles faced by Mora are nowhere near as daunting.

Nontheless, Mora is a guy I'd be pretty happy with. He's done well at UCLA, he's adaptable and he appears to be a plus recruiter—UCLA's transitional class is a bit of a miracle. He's got an anchor class on par with the one Hoke dealt with this year (Neuheisel's final class was Hundley and almost nothing else) but has still piloted the Bruins to a 9-3 record against a very difficult schedule.