In an effort to reverse its recent trend of underachieving teams, UCLA took a gamble by hiring longtime NFL coach Jim Mora, who has no college experience. Not only has Mora assembled a staff with lengthy NFL resumes, he’s brought an eye-opening approach, taking the Bruins to blazing hot San Bernardino for training camp.

Time will tell if this approach is effective or just a tired, old-school bag of tricks. In the last entry in our series of best-case, worst-case and most likely scenarios, we take a stab at the Bruins.

Best-case scenario: Brett Hundley takes to the offense like a fish to water, left tackle Xavier Su’a-Filo is an impenetrable wall, running back Johnathan Franklin easily tops 1,000 yards, and the much-criticized UCLA defense finally plays to its talent level with key turnovers that spark a revival. Buoyed by a 4-1 start, the Bruins pull upsets at home against Utah and Arizona and win on the road at Arizona State to roll to an 8-4 mark.

Worst-case scenario: Mora’s hard-line approach wears thin with the Southern California athletes on the Bruins’ roster. Following a lopsided early loss against Nebraska, the Bruins right the ship momentarily, only to drop another disheartening game at Cal that puts UCLA into a seven-game tailspin and results in a 4-8 record. The low point is a loss at Washington State on a cold November day in Pullman by coach Mike Leach’s late-surging Cougars. The Bruins then get routed in back-to-back weeks by USC and Stanford at the Rose Bowl to complete the meltdown.

Most likely scenario: There is talent on UCLA’s roster, but not as much as the scouting service hype machines in Southern California would have you believe. Hundley is an intriguing QB prospect, and there are players who will play in the NFL dotting this club, but the Bruins don’t have the depth and blue-chip players their cross-town rivalries possess, and they don’t have the ability to win consistently on the road. We’re also curious to see how long Mora’s clenched-fist approach will play in Westwood. UCLA makes a bowl game again, but the Bruins’ 6-6 record is hardly cause for celebration.

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