AD Manuel is not the right guy for the job

[upstater]

Kansas has Big 12 TV contract money. We have.....something else. They can afford to pay a fired coach the multiple years remaining on his contract and pay the new guy. And hiring Weis isn't what I would call a good thing.

Was Kansas limited? Turner Gill had great success in Canada, he did pretty well at Buffalo (a place where no one else ever won at), so how many young coaches looked at that and thought, "I'd like that job!" Sumlin? Petersen? No way! So they went to Weis.

 

[ruskin]

It's not play-it-safe at all.

From a good coach's perspective it is, will this school give me the support I need to turn it around? Or are they clowns like the people over at Pitt?

That makes a big difference.

I call it playing it smart.

If UConn had a reputation for bailing on coaches you might have a point. If UConn were in a stable conference you might have a point. Since neither one of these are true, I don't think you do. Giving PP 11 more chances to devalue the brand is neither smart not safe.

 

[ruskin]

Was Kansas limited? Turner Gill had great success in Canada, he did pretty well at Buffalo (a place where no one else ever won at), so how many young coaches looked at that and thought, "I'd like that job!" Sumlin? Petersen? No way! So they went to Weis.

Kansas hiring Weis = UConn hiring Pasqualoni

 

[J187Money]

Of course...had PP been fired, and we still lost to Towson (maybe because they are good, and maybe because we aren't so good), then we'd want to fire a guy after one game.

I'm not defending PP or WM with relation to PP, and I'm not trying to downplay the loss...but losing sucks. And until a UCONN team goes 10-2 or better, the Boneyard will be the most miserable place on the internet. Maybe it is good the Tapatalk app doesn't work anymore.

 

[upstater]

Kansas hiring Weis = UConn hiring Pasqualoni

Except for the fact that PP followed a guy who was here over a decade. Weis followed that young upstart Turner Gill, an up-and-comer who had a pretty good resume.

 

[IMind]

Except for the fact that PP followed a guy who was here over a decade. Weis followed that young upstart Turner Gill, an up-and-comer who had a pretty good resume.

And I give you the next head coach of UConn football.

 

[freescooter]

upstater, go back and read Manuel's bio. The lead item on his Buffalo page and the lead item on his original press release when he got the UConn job is about how he turned Buffalo's athletic program around in terms of APR compliance. That is why he was hired here. It was Buffalo for god sakes. It isn't like he was the AD at a major athletic power like Lew Perkins was when we snagged him from Maryland. Herbst selected her rock star because it would look good to hire the guy who turned Buffalo's APR problems with multiple teams around. It was strictly a public relations move. It had zero to do with him being a rock star or managing a major college athletic department or anything else one would typically look for. He listed 2 claims to fame at Buffalo. Cleaning up their APR problems and redesigning the logo. He has now done both at UConn, so we can only hope he will just go away. And as for the no coach is fired after 2 years, that is somewhat a load of bunk, too. A number of coaches have been canned after 2 losing seasons. Skip Hotz was 8-5 in his first year but after 2 losing years he was dumped by USF. So while you can say he had 3, its unlikely that you'd fire a guy after going 8-5 in his first year, even if his 2nd was not so good. Chezik was fired after 2 losing seasons at Iowa State. John L Smith was canned after 1 year at Arkansas. Jon Embree was fired after 2 year at Colorado. And those are just ones I know. Of those you can say Smith was a special case, but the rest weren't.

 

[upstater]

And I give you the next head coach of UConn football.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

 

[freescooter]

Didn't the Kansas AD fire Gill after 2 years? And then followed that up with Weis?

that can't be true. upstater has decreed that nobody fires a football coach after 2 seasons.

 

[freescooter]

Of course...had PP been fired, and we still lost to Towson (maybe because they are good, and maybe because we aren't so good), then we'd want to fire a guy after one game.

I'm not defending PP or WM with relation to PP, and I'm not trying to downplay the loss...but losing sucks. And until a UCONN team goes 10-2 or better, the Boneyard will be the most miserable place on the internet. Maybe it is good the Tapatalk app doesn't work anymore.

Well, actually I don't think that's true. maybe a few people, but the vast majority would have given a new guy the benefit of the doubt on the assumption that he was stuck with Pasqualoni's players. Look, we have seen this movie before with Paul P. Unprepared, bad, sideline management, no emotion, poor execution. This loss was the synthesis of every bad thing that has happened over the previous 2 seasons.

 

[upstater]

upstater, go back and read Manuel's bio. The lead item on his Buffalo page and the lead item on his original press release when he got the UConn job is about how he turned Buffalo's athletic program around in terms of APR compliance. That is why he was hired here. It was Buffalo for god sakes. It isn't like he was the AD at a major athletic power like Lew Perkins was when we snagged him from Maryland. Herbst selected her rock star because it would look good to hire the guy who turned Buffalo's APR problems with multiple teams around. It was strictly a public relations move. It had zero to do with him being a rock star or managing a major college athletic department or anything else one would typically look for. He listed 2 claims to fame at Buffalo. Cleaning up their APR problems and redesigning the logo. He has now done both at UConn, so we can only hope he will just go away. And as for the no coach is fired after 2 years, that is somewhat a load of bunk, too. A number of coaches have been canned after 2 losing seasons. Skip Hotz was 8-5 in his first year but after 2 losing years he was dumped by USF. So while you can say he had 3, its unlikely that you'd fire a guy after going 8-5 in his first year, even if his 2nd was not so good. Chezik was fired after 2 losing seasons at Iowa State. John L Smith was canned after 1 year at Arkansas. Jon Embree was fired after 2 year at Colorado. And those are just ones I know. Of those you can say Smith was a special case, but the rest weren't.

You didn't answer any of my questions. Manuel had nothing to do with the APR issues at Buffalo. That's #1. Secondly, NO ONE ANYWHERE would have been impressed by that if he had somehow done it. No. You actually believe s[ports people in America were saying, "That Manuel, he improved Buffalo's APR scores!!??" Seriously? Show me a link please. I'm at Buffalo, I hope you realize. And the logo was part of a campus wide rebranding. School used to be known as SUNY-Buffalo. The 4 centers decided that this undercut the fact that these were research institutions, so the word University was highlighted (for example, SUNY-Cortland and SUNY-Buffalo look similar, until you realize one is a university, the other isn't). So, the rebrand idea was to emphasize the word University and the word Buffalo. The previous logo contained no words.

And no, Manuel did NOT clean up any APR. I challenge you to show me how he did that. Surely you realize that APR scores are 5 years back. UConn's current scores are the result of having them cleaned up a couple years before Manuel got to UConn. And AD's have nothing to do with this stuff anyways. UConn's only academic changes as far as AD hires wer to replace Ted Taigen with Felicia Crump. And that happened prior to Manuel. And Chizik was never fired at Iowa St. Essentially, you've given me one guy, Jon Embree.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf...-becomes-national-farce-020456422--ncaaf.html

Read this article.

Hiring a coach at Colorado will be an epic challenge. Not only does the quick firing of Embree look bad for the program, Bohn's track record doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. And Colorado will have to hit a home run with whomever they choose because the fan base is going to demand it.
According to Kyle Ringo of the Boulder Daily Camera, Bohn said he will not consider any candidate that doesn't have head coaching experience, so goodbye all high-level coordinators. He also won't take a coach that's been in any sort of trouble, so that would take Bobby Petrino and Jim Tressel off the board. And names such as San Jose State's Mike MacIntyre, Utah State's Gary Andersen and Fresno State's Tim DeRuyter are all great candidates, but none of them scream splashy hire. So who does that leave? Jeff Tedford, who was recently fired at Cal? How about Mike Belotti, who's been out of the game for the past four years? Gene Chizik? Derek Dooley?
These names aren't exactly appealing and Embree's firing isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. The investment in the football program is questionable. The Pac-12 gives CU a little more money with which to work, but it's not the type of money that entices a high-level leader. Also, Embree is being very transparent on interviews with various outlets by making sure whoever considers the job knows exactly what he's getting into. Embree airing dirty laundry probably won't endear him to many college athletic directors, but the chances of him staying in the college game were slim especially with options in the NFL.
As for Bohn, he has to feel the tide turning against him. While he thought firing Embree would be a popular decision, it's proven to be just the opposite. Now it's on Bohn to hit a home run and hope that whoever he hires can save his job.

 

[sdhusky]

Beyond that, do you really want to compare Warde's accomplishments to Jurich's? Seriously?

I think they point was comparing Jurch's actions to the identical actions by WM.

Stick to fashion. Or tell us why Ollie was a bad hire. You know, your strong suits.

 

[upstater]

that can't be true. upstater has decreed that nobody fires a football coach after 2 seasons.

Your posts are riddled with lots of misinformation. Chizik wasn't fired. Gill was. And Kansas had to fall back on a guy who had a disastrous college HC job.

 

[huskypantz]

There are very few people that have enough info to assess Manuel's competency since he took the AD position. None of them are on this board. That will change over the next year or two, but right now there's not much to go on unless you're a Boneyard ubercritic.

 

[CodyJ.]

ahhh. love is in the air.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

My take on WM....FWIW.....

I thought he handled the Ollie hiring ok. He was in an impossible spot. On one side he had a legend who thought he earned the right to name his replacement. On the other side, if he didn't get it right, JC wasn't the one who would be held accountable. I'll give him a solid B in his handling of this.

Marketing and fundraising has seen minor improvements. This is an incomplete so far. Ground breaking for the new hoops practice facility occurred on his watch. Granted, it was in the works before he got here.....but he still gets partial credit.

The APR.......anyone who thinks he had anything to do with this.....or was hired as a PR ploy because of his "accomplishments" at Buffalo.....simply does not know what they are talking about.

Rebranding........time will tell. Do I personally like the logo or the new uni's......not particularly. But that doesn't mean it won't be successful. It may or it may not.

My biggest issue to date......not canning P in December. I understand the reasons why he didn't do it. But it was just so painfully obvious last year that this wasn't going to work. The change should've been made. This year was going to be a disaster either way, so I'm not losing that much sleep over this. His first big task will be naming P's replacement.

 

[Jimdish255]

Kansas has Big 12 TV contract money. We have.....something else. They can afford to pay a fired coach the multiple years remaining on his contract and pay the new guy. And hiring Weis isn't what I would call a good thing.

You're assuming the cost of doing nothing is zero. I believe the cost is significantly higher than zero both monetarily and in perception but we don't know how high or how much. The benefits are less predictable but we would hope at a minimum for better performance on the field, stopping the attendance slide and evaluating what we really have personnel wise and coaching without the filters of PP and GDL.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Was Kansas limited? Turner Gill had great success in Canada, he did pretty well at Buffalo (a place where no one else ever won at), so how many young coaches looked at that and thought, "I'd like that job!" Sumlin? Petersen? No way! So they went to Weis.

I was agreeing with you. I know why they hired Weis....my point was Warde didn't can P last year for several reasons, one of which was financial. The other, in my opinion, is why set a precedent of being an AD with a quick trigger? That would not make other up and coming coaches want to come here.

 

[Pudge]

My take on WM....FWIW.....

I thought he handled the Ollie hiring ok. He was in an impossible spot. On one side he had a legend who thought he earned the right to name his replacement. On the other side, if he didn't get it right, JC wasn't the one who would be held accountable. I'll give him a solid B in his handling of this.

Marketing and fundraising has seen minor improvements. This is an incomplete so far. Ground breaking for the new hoops practice facility occurred on his watch. Granted, it was in the works before he got here.....but he still gets partial credit.

The APR.......anyone who thinks he had anything to do with this.....or was hired as a PR ploy because of his "accomplishments" at Buffalo.....simply does not know what they are talking about.

Rebranding........time will tell. Do I personally like the logo or the new uni's......not particularly. But that doesn't mean it won't be successful. It may or it may not.

My biggest issue to date......not canning P in December. I understand the reasons why he didn't do it. But it was just so painfully obvious last year that this wasn't going to work. The change should've been made. This year was going to be a disaster either way, so I'm not losing that much sleep over this. His first big task will be naming P's replacement.

Actually ... the BIGGEST issue for almost all the whiners here is that we are not in the Power 5.

As much as I yearn for that in our future, I have to say that there is nothing ... NOTHING ... that Warde Manual or Susan Herbst could have done different that would have put us in front of Louisville or Rutgers (basically ... their watch). Now blame Jeff Hathaway ... or milked our Cash Cow successes; and MAYBE Phillip Austin et al. But, when I look at Louisville last Sunday ... I KNOW we are not at their level. For the criteria the ACC chose and who had the power, we were not that close to what Louisville can bring. I do believe we get our shot again ... and PP won't be the coach at that time of the cycle.

Firing PP? I wanted it done. Many here did too. But, I believe that Warde Manual was perfectly reasonable in that decision. He even pressed PP on GDL. I can't fault him in December ... and didn't. I hated not starting with a new regime this year. But, he did what institutional guys do. (Jurich is a good example with Kragthorpe)

And Ollie? Today, I feel he did that just great. Gave him some room ... and NOW, I think we can see a Kevin Ollie come into his own. He chinned his way over the bar & he will make us all proud. I think this might be one of the finest transitions out of a Legend coach ... ever. I do. And, I think WM chose a path & KO knocked it for extra bases. I think he is going to be great.

 

[J187Money]

I was agreeing with you. I know why they hired Weis....my point was Warde didn't can P last year for several reasons, one of which was financial. The other, in my opinion, is why set a precedent of being an AD with a quick trigger? That would not make other up and coming coaches want to come here.

If Warde wanted to and couldn't round up the money...is it his fault?

 

[ZooCougar]

Well, the money was there. The money WAS NOT the issue.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Actually ... the BIGGEST issue for almost all the whiners here is that we are not in the Power 5.

As much as I yearn for that in our future, I have to say that there is nothing ... NOTHING ... that Warde Manual or Susan Herbst could have done different that would have put us in front of Louisville or Rutgers (basically ... their watch). Now blame Jeff Hathaway ... or milked our Cash Cow successes; and MAYBE Phillip Austin et al. But, when I look at Louisville last Sunday ... I KNOW we are not at their level. For the criteria the ACC chose and who had the power, we were not that close to what Louisville can bring. I do believe we get our shot again ... and PP won't be the coach at that time of the cycle.

Firing PP? I wanted it done. Many here did too. But, I believe that Warde Manual was perfectly reasonable in that decision. He even pressed PP on GDL. I can't fault him in December ... and didn't. I hated not starting with a new regime this year. But, he did what institutional guys do. (Jurich is a good example with Kragthorpe)

And Ollie? Today, I feel he did that just great. Gave him some room ... and NOW, I think we can see a Kevin Ollie come into his own. He chinned his way over the bar & he will make us all proud. I think this might be one of the finest transitions out of a Legend coach ... ever. I do. And, I think WM chose a path & KO knocked it for extra bases. I think he is going to be great.

I was going to write something about CR.....but I came to the same conclusion that you did. To think working the phones and making a pitch would've made even an iota of a difference is just complete nonsense.

 

[SonsOfNutmeg]

Here's my thinking. Given that Warde wanted to give PP his 3rd year to improve on his two 5-7 seasons at UConn, he gives him til the Central Florida game (Oct. 26th). If this team goes winless, or even 1-6 win by this game, there's really no hope for bowl eligibility or a winning season. By losing to a FCS school I'd doubt going 6-6 would qualify us for a bowl game, plus we'd still have Lousiville, SMU, Temple and Rutgers on our schedule. And who knows about Memphis... So why not cut ties then, get the job done, and focus on winning what we can with an interim HC, and start the search for a new HC early?

 

[Jimdish255]

I was agreeing with you. I know why they hired Weis....my point was Warde didn't can P last year for several reasons, one of which was financial. The other, in my opinion, is why set a precedent of being an AD with a quick trigger? That would not make other up and coming coaches want to come here.

Only the ones afraid of failure.

 

[ZooCougar]

I was going to write something about CR.....but I came to the same conclusion that you did. To think working the phones and making a pitch would've made even an iota of a difference is just complete nonsense.

Agreed, but Warde basically said that this issue was above his noise level. Guys like Jurich elevate themselves to the noise level they need to be at. From my vantage point, chilling out from the Caymans while Jurich schooled him just looked incredibly weak. He looked completely disconnected and irrelevant.