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U.C.L.A.'s Johnathan Franklin and Coach Jim Mora Jr., whom Franklin first thought of as "the dude whose dad did that 'Playoffs?!' thing."
LOS ANGELES — For summer training, the coach took his new team inland, where the average temperature hovered at 109 degrees. He pointed one afternoon toward the San Bernardino Mountains. A football season, the coach, Jim Mora Jr., told the U.C.L.A. Bruins, is like climbing one of those.
The running back huddled with his teammates, donned his boots and backpack, and began to march. Players stomped through the desert in groups of 11. A quarter-mile in, they turned left, where a swimming pool awaited, where they competed in belly-flop contests and the running back, Johnathan Franklin, rested his aching legs.
It was not a "hike," this milestone in U.C.L.A.'s resurgence. It was a "psych," as Mora termed it.
"He sold it well," defensive back Tevin McDonald said. "We thought we were going to have to dodge rattlesnakes."
The coach and the running back — the holdover and the new guy — can laugh about that now. At 8-2 (5-2 in the Pac-12), the No. 17 Bruins have their best record since 2005. They enter Saturday's contest against their crosstown rival, mighty Southern California, with a better record and, for the first time in a decade, a higher ranking than No. 21 U.S.C. (7-3, 5-3).
Mora and Franklin, the key figures in this transformation, met for the first time 11 months ago. Franklin asked Mora whether he should declare for the N.F.L. draft. Mora mentioned unfinished business. Franklin came back an hour later and told Mora he would return.
Mora said: "If I had known then what I know now, I would have been over-the-moon excited. Here's a kid who I didn't know a year ago, and he's critically important to me."
Said Franklin: "I love Coach."
The running back grew up 15 minutes away. His father, Herman, graduated from U.S.C. Most everyone in the boy's South Central neighborhood loved the Trojans; he idolized Reggie Bush. "When I went to U.C.L.A.," Franklin said, "I pretty much had to burn my whole closet."
His father always expected something like this season, ever since his son returned from a Pop Warner game and relayed his statistics: three carries, 150 yards. But not for the Bruins. Anyone but the Bruins. As he came to terms with his son's decision, he said: "You can be a Bruin for four years. And a Trojan for life."
U.C.L.A. recruited Franklin as an athlete. He started at safety and moved to running back. Teammates call him Hollywood and Superstar.
In his career, he played for four offensive coordinators, learned four systems, four languages. He started 3-0 in 2009 and beat Texas in 2010. After that signature victory, classmates gave players standing ovations. The expected turnaround, though, never came.
Franklin fumbled too often. One year, against Washington, he coughed up the ball twice. Teammates, he said, stopped talking to him. He hardly left his room for weeks. Stick with it, his father said.
Rick Neuheisel was his last coach. His pistol offense felt confining. Not enough open space. In Neuheisel's last game, Southern California hung a 50-point shutout on the Bruins. Embarrassed failed to cover what it felt like. Franklin shelved his U.C.L.A. football gear for months.
"Obviously, you don't like to see people get fired," quarterback Kevin Prince said. "But this program needed a fresh start."
While U.C.L.A. stumbled into football irrelevance, the coach blew out his knee skiing near Seattle. His alma mater, Washington, offered its training facilities for his rehabilitation. Mora met softball pitchers and volleyball spikers. He liked the atmosphere on campus.
Eventually, he came to a realization that startled him at first: he wanted to coach in college. Warrick Dunn, the former N.F.L. running back, told Mora he was suited for that level back in 2004.
You're crazy, Mora told him.
John Wooden, the legendary U.C.L.A. basketball coach, fascinated Mora throughout his childhood. He clipped out Wooden quotes. He hung Wooden's "Pyramid of Success" on his bedroom wall.
Mora remembered that when the U.C.L.A. football job came open. His previous gig, as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, ended badly, after one season. "Jim's internship," his wife, Shannon, called it. "A raw deal," said his father, Jim Mora Sr.
The coach considered Seattle home. He went to high school in that area. College, too. Each Seahawks loss felt like a personal failure, as if he had let down everyone who ever mattered. He still hated to lose, but Shannon said "it was starting to break him down."
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