AD Manuel is not the right guy for the job

[BlueMAB]

Louisville clearly has the better football image. Stats don't matter (see Rutgers).

Don't underestimate the importance of Louisville's location in the south. You think Florida State wanted another Yankee basketball program in their conference? Hardly.

I've been to Louisville, it is without a doubt a southern school with a football program that has a decidedly better image than UConn. No matter how much we pump our image, Louisville's is better. Go to a couple more BCS games, win at least one, spend some time in the top 10-15, end a few years ranked in the top 25, and we can expect our image to improve.

The talk about "we've only been at it for 12+/- years" isn't a resume booster, it's actually more negative than positive. They want established programs. Even coming out of CUSA, Louisville was more established, look at their history.

 

[J187Money]

Actually people like me aren't part of the problem. I'd have lobbied my ass off, because I would have realized I was behind. I'm not silly enough to think that UCONN has enough tradition and history in football that being in a power conference is some kind of birthright. We have an off-campus stadium of barely adequate size for big time college football, we can't fill it on a regular basis, and when you go around the country and talk about UCONN football people seem surprised like they never even heard we played D1 football. The people that are the problem are the people that thought we could just go D1 and the world would fall at our feet because we won 11 NCs in hoops. And are amazed that it didn't happen. I advocate for the school and the program everywhere I go. I put my money where my mouth is. I always have.

 

[junglehusky]

Man, a bunch of people in this thread are letting relevant facts get in the way of scooter's pseudohistory. Can't you let him cling to the one thing that gives him a warm fuzzy feeling?

 

[Waquoit]

No, I wouldn't. But about a year ago when I had the discussion with the Foundation guy we had about $150 million of projects that they were trying to raise money for.

Are we talking the same Foundation that has 2 presidents, both making hundreds of thousands of dollars?

 

[upstater]

No, I wouldn't. But about a year ago when I had the discussion with the Foundation guy we had about $150 million of projects that they were trying to raise money for. Things that LV already built.

UConn built the Rent and the Burton and the Shenk and now the bball facility. Just those 2 sports = $200 million.

I saw someone say Cincy is putting their money behind their sports. Well, Cincy is spending $35 million. He was lauding them compared to UConn.

In the deranged CR game, somehow $35 million > $200 million.

 

[upstater]

Upstater that was one of Hathaway's biggest failures...not upgrading the athletic facilities. Blows my mind that in the same town obly a few miles away a D-3 school has a baseball stadium and softball facility that BLOWS away what is on campus at UCONN!

Am I dreaming? Or did Uconn not build the Burton, the Shenk and the Rent over the last decade or so?

 

[upstater]

When a member of the Foundation sits me down and tells me that LV has kicked our ass with regards to funding athletic facilities over the past 15 years, I tend to regard those things as facts.

I'm not a Warde defender. I just don't believe the narrative that magic words would have changed the outcome. The story that UCONN was ahead is a nice one, except that NOBODY EVER SEEMED TO ASK Clemson or FSU what they thought, and they run the show for football. And regardless of what I've heard about what other people thought, I've never heard that FSU, Miami or Clemson were the least bit interested in UCONN to the ACC.

And when you look up unmitigated disaster, there are about 10 million things in front of an 8-4 team that turned into a 5-7 team. Not that I'm happy. I just have perspective.

This is the second time today someone has cited a trustee or a foundation person in this thread. First it was freescooter, now you. Freescooter's trustee had bad information, now yours is scoffing at the $200 million raised on sports facilities for TWO sports at Uconn over the last decade or so.

It really boggles the mind.

 

[upstater]

No, I wouldn't. But about a year ago when I had the discussion with the Foundation guy we had about $150 million of projects that they were trying to raise money for. Things that LV already built.

Look it up. Rent, Burton, Shenkman, Basketball facility.

 

[ZooCougar]

Louisville clearly has the better football image. Stats don't matter (see Rutgers).

Don't underestimate the importance of Louisville's location in the south. You think Florida State wanted another Yankee basketball program in their conference? Hardly.

I've been to Louisville, it is without a doubt a southern school with a football program that has a decidedly better image than UConn. No matter how much we pump our image, Louisville's is better. Go to a couple more BCS games, win at least one, spend some time in the top 10-15, end a few years ranked in the top 25, and we can expect our image to improve.

The talk about "we've only been at it for 12+/- years" isn't a resume booster, it's actually more negative than positive. They want established programs. Even coming out of CUSA, Louisville was more established, look at their history.

I like your post, I agree with your post. But one of my old college roommates was from Louisville and was a die hard fan.

This is a school that in the early 90s was still giving away tickets, no... couldn't give away tickets at gas stations.

Then Schnellenburger came in and worked his magic and they boom, they went to the Fiesta Bowl. Schnellenburger was gone to Oklahoma shortly thereafter.

Believe me, they have come a loooooooong way. But somebody saw the hidden value and tapped into it. I think UConn is in a similar position. Not as a hidden southern superpower, but as something different. I don't believe in Rutgers, Syracuse or BC at all. If they were going to become northeeasterm powerhouses then they would have done it. We are one transformative coach away from making some noise.

This is why Pasqualoni was such a BAD hire.

Hathaway completely and utterly misread the state of the program post Fiesta Bowl. We were not on an upswing and merely needed a guy to come in and sustain success.

College Football is all about hustle. And Edsall for all his flaws was a hustler and seemed to figure out how to get to a bowl even when he wasn't dealt the best hand.

If you read the book "Meat Market" by Bruce Feldman, then you may recall a paragraph on Ed Orgeron's time on Pasqualoni's staff. To sum it up, Team Pasqualoni wasn't willing to devote the time and energy to recruiting that other places he worked were willing to. It was all rinse, wash and repeat with him. We don't need that.

 

[jackl]

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.

I have seen somewhere in this forum that in December there is a 1 million dollar buyout payment for coach PP if he is bounced out of his office. I thought that he had a 3 year deal and that was it. What is correct?

 

[BlueDogs]

It would seem to me if we follow the money, a #28 media market is a real factor that somehow was discounted. Given that we also sit in between the NY and Boston markets and BC is covers Boston, Syracuse covers upstate NY market, and Pitt covers the western PA and some eastern PA market, bringing in Rutgers and UConn would have made a whole lot of sense for the ACC in terms of valuable media market coverage. So, something went very wrong in the process. Perhaps Rutgers going Big10 broke up a contiguous market footprint, but nonetheless one would think from a competitive standpoint grabbing the CT market would be smart just to stop market dilution by another major conference. On the other side of the street, getting NY Metro market penetration by the Big 10 is a huge plus in terms of media revenue and adding in CT would be compelling. Even bringing over UMass (yes, weak and pathetic but has potential) would give the BiG 10 major media market coverage.

Somewhere along the line, we screwed up in a bad way. It may have been in negotiations or perhaps there are a bunch of folks with some real adverse feelings against UConn (BE lawsuits, BB program threats). Whatever the case, getting roped in as an anchor of the AAC and now being a perceived faltering program under PP is just driving us off a cliff. I suspect things need t still get a lot worse for folks to realize definitive and bold action is needed.

 

[jackl]

Look it up. Rent, Burton, Shenkman, Basketball facility.

Just wait for 2017 when the money comes rolling in for the naming rights to the RENT. "Waste Management Field".

 

[ZooCougar]

Just wait for 2017 when the money comes rolling in for the naming rights to the RENT. "Waste Management Field".

It already is given the Dumpster Fire Pasqualoni has ignited.

 

[freescooter]

You guys are nuts...well except upstater, and you don't know how much it pains me to say that. Louisville has at best a modest football history. Is it better than ours right now? Sure. But it is as far away from this supposed southern football power school as Towson is. this decison was based on an incredibly effective and aggressive pr campaign that made Louisville Football into the next Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, and Texas all rolled into one, when in fact they are at best a 2nd tier power along not even on the same level as VaTech and West Virginia. Jurich ran an aggressive campaign, found his allies, built his relationships. All the while, our rock star sipped nice cool drinks with little umbrellas in them and monitored the situation. I've seen this type of thing before in politics. You ignore the opposition until suddenly you realize that he is having an IMPACT you didn't expect, but you really didn't have a plan and you get beat. When I was younger I ran a guy's campaign for 1st selectman. Late comer to the race as a replacement for the nominee who became too ill to run, against a popular incumbent. We kept swinging away. At the dump on Saturday morning, the high school football came on Friday night, the local diner on Sunday morning, visited every house in town at least once. He barely bothered campaigning, even went on a vacation in October, until he suddenly realized he was losing a race he was penned in to win, and then it was too late. Been through it a few times on both sides. I saw this developing along exactly that model when I saw Jurich on some ESPN show and read an interview with Pitino the same day...in 2 different national papers. I was looking for a UConn response, maybe an interview with Warde or maybe Calhoun the next day, but bupkus. By the Louisville-UConn game it was over, even though the announcement hadn't been made. everything I've read since then has been an excuse..oh they have better football, they have better facilities, they spend more on facilities, they have been to the womens final four twice in a row, they have a national championship in basketball...as I said, but most objective measures, every important measure actually, UConn should have been the choice, but we let them set the narrative while Warde monitored the situation.

 

[FDNY99]

Am I dreaming? Or did Uconn not build the Burton, the Shenk and the Rent over the last decade or so?

Both projects were finalized under Perkins. Hathaway had nothing to do with those projects. His "project" was the basketball practice facility...which he managed to raise $5 million for during his tenure from 2003-2011. Between Pendergast and Manuel they raised $25 million in 18 months to get it done. You can't even consider that project his either.

 

[BlueDogs]

You guys are nuts...well except upstater, and you don't know how much it pains me to say that. Louisville has at best a modest football history. Is it better than ours right now? Sure. But it is as far away from this supposed southern football power school as Towson is. this decison was based on an incredibly effective and aggressive pr campaign that made Louisville Football into the next Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, and Texas all rolled into one, when in fact they are at best a 2nd tier power along not even on the same level as VaTech and West Virginia. Jurich ran an aggressive campaign, found his allies, built his relationships. All the while, our rock star sipped nice cool drinks with little umbrellas in them and monitored the situation. I've seen this type of thing before in politics. You ignore the opposition until suddenly you realize that he is having an IMPACT you didn't expect, but you really didn't have a plan and you get beat. When I was younger I ran a guy's campaign for 1st selectman. Late comer to the race as a replacement for the nominee who became too ill to run, against a popular incumbent. We kept swinging away. At the dump on Saturday morning, the high school football came on Friday night, the local diner on Sunday morning, visited every house in town at least once. He barely bothered campaigning, even went on a vacation in October, until he suddenly realized he was losing a race he was penned in to win, and then it was too late. Been through it a few times on both sides. I saw this developing along exactly that model when I saw Jurich on some ESPN show and read an interview with Pitino the same day...in 2 different national papers. I was looking for a UConn response, maybe an interview with Warde or maybe Calhoun the next day, but bupkus. By the Louisville-UConn game it was over, even though the announcement hadn't been made. everything I've read since then has been an excuse..oh they have better football, they have better facilities, they spend more on facilities, they have been to the womens final four twice in a row, they have a national championship in basketball...as I said, but most objective measures, every important measure actually, UConn should have been the choice, but we let them set the narrative while Warde monitored the situation.

YUP.

 

[upstater]

Both projects were finalized under Perkins. Hathaway had nothing to do with those projects.

Totally irrelevant. This is a discussion of how much the school has spent on facilities in the last 15 years. When you spend $200 million, you have spent a lot and shouldn't be knocked for it. It doesn't matter which AD did it. The school did it. It wasn't the ADs money.

 

[FDNY99]

Totally irrelevant. This is a discussion of how much the school has spent on facilities in the last 15 years. When you spend $200 million, you have spent a lot and shouldn't be knocked for it. It doesn't matter which AD did it. The school did it. It wasn't the ADs money.

They would have spent 2x that if Perkins had not left for Kansas. All e had to do was follow the blue print he was left by his role model. I'm not arguing they haven't spent money...trust me I vividly remember what things were like on that campus..I spent a LOT of time there as a kid. I'm just saying Hathaway's in ability to follow Big Lew's lead facility wise hasn't helped.

 

[uconnric]

You guys are nuts...well except upstater, and you don't know how much it pains me to say that. Louisville has at best a modest football history. Is it better than ours right now? Sure. But it is as far away from this supposed southern football power school as Towson is. this decison was based on an incredibly effective and aggressive pr campaign that made Louisville Football into the next Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, and Texas all rolled into one, when in fact they are at best a 2nd tier power along not even on the same level as VaTech and West Virginia. Jurich ran an aggressive campaign, found his allies, built his relationships. All the while, our rock star sipped nice cool drinks with little umbrellas in them and monitored the situation. I've seen this type of thing before in politics. You ignore the opposition until suddenly you realize that he is having an IMPACT you didn't expect, but you really didn't have a plan and you get beat. When I was younger I ran a guy's campaign for 1st selectman. Late comer to the race as a replacement for the nominee who became too ill to run, against a popular incumbent. We kept swinging away. At the dump on Saturday morning, the high school football came on Friday night, the local diner on Sunday morning, visited every house in town at least once. He barely bothered campaigning, even went on a vacation in October, until he suddenly realized he was losing a race he was penned in to win, and then it was too late. Been through it a few times on both sides. I saw this developing along exactly that model when I saw Jurich on some ESPN show and read an interview with Pitino the same day...in 2 different national papers. I was looking for a UConn response, maybe an interview with Warde or maybe Calhoun the next day, but bupkus. By the Louisville-UConn game it was over, even though the announcement hadn't been made. everything I've read since then has been an excuse..oh they have better football, they have better facilities, they spend more on facilities, they have been to the womens final four twice in a row, they have a national championship in basketball...as I said, but most objective measures, every important measure actually, UConn should have been the choice, but we let them set the narrative while Warde monitored the situation.

baloney

 

[upstater]

They would have spent 2x that if Perkins had not left for Kansas. All e had to do was follow the blue print he was left by his role model. I'm not arguing they haven't spent money...trust me I vividly remember what things were like on that campus..I spent a LOT of time there as a kid. I'm just saying Hathaway's in ability to follow Big Lew's lead facility wise hasn't helped.

Hathaway was bad, agreed. But you can count the number of schools that spent $200 million on 2 hands.

 

[freescooter]

baloney

Hard to respond to that.

 

[J187Money]

This is the second time today someone has cited a trustee or a foundation person in this thread. First it was freescooter, now you. Freescooter's trustee had bad information, now yours is scoffing at the $200 million raised on sports facilities for TWO sports at Uconn over the last decade or so.

It really boggles the mind.

Here is the quote (or my paraphrasing): "Louisville has built a new facility for every single one of their sports over the last 15 years, all the way down to field hockey, etc. UCONN has $150 million in projects (Baseball, etc) that don't have 1 dime of funding." All I'm saying is that people IN the university think that LV is way ahead of us in terms of funding for facilities. And they think that played a part in LV beating out UCONN. My meeting with the rep (just looked at my calendar) was on 12/3/12, right after we lost out.

So HE (and probably others in the university) think that the overall commitment (i.e. funding) is part of the issue. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was lobbying. Maybe there was no hope anyway.

All I'm doing is relating a conversation from someone that is more "connected" than I am. As to the veracity of his comments? I can't say for certain. They might have just been random opinions.

 

[J187Money]

You guys are nuts...well except upstater, and you don't know how much it pains me to say that. Louisville has at best a modest football history. Is it better than ours right now? Sure. But it is as far away from this supposed southern football power school as Towson is. this decison was based on an incredibly effective and aggressive pr campaign that made Louisville Football into the next Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, and Texas all rolled into one, when in fact they are at best a 2nd tier power along not even on the same level as VaTech and West Virginia. Jurich ran an aggressive campaign, found his allies, built his relationships. All the while, our rock star sipped nice cool drinks with little umbrellas in them and monitored the situation. I've seen this type of thing before in politics. You ignore the opposition until suddenly you realize that he is having an IMPACT you didn't expect, but you really didn't have a plan and you get beat. When I was younger I ran a guy's campaign for 1st selectman. Late comer to the race as a replacement for the nominee who became too ill to run, against a popular incumbent. We kept swinging away. At the dump on Saturday morning, the high school football came on Friday night, the local diner on Sunday morning, visited every house in town at least once. He barely bothered campaigning, even went on a vacation in October, until he suddenly realized he was losing a race he was penned in to win, and then it was too late. Been through it a few times on both sides. I saw this developing along exactly that model when I saw Jurich on some ESPN show and read an interview with Pitino the same day...in 2 different national papers. I was looking for a UConn response, maybe an interview with Warde or maybe Calhoun the next day, but bupkus. By the Louisville-UConn game it was over, even though the announcement hadn't been made. everything I've read since then has been an excuse..oh they have better football, they have better facilities, they spend more on facilities, they have been to the womens final four twice in a row, they have a national championship in basketball...as I said, but most objective measures, every important measure actually, UConn should have been the choice, but we let them set the narrative while Warde monitored the situation.

Or maybe - the fact that Jurich was in the job since 1997 and had deeper relationships with lots of the relevant ADs, etc., was all that mattered. And the fact that Warde came from Michigan, and went to Buffalo, and then Storrs, with NO ACC connections meant that nobody was going to pick up the phone anyway. You could argue that if we KNEW that we needed to jump to the ACC (which we didn't) that we should have hired someone with the right connections. Jurich didn't need to find allies. He already had them.

So had there been a UCONN response and aggressive lobbying, and we still lost (which is like 99.99999999999999999999999% certain) what would be your position then?

 

[upstater]

Here is the quote (or my paraphrasing): "Louisville has built a new facility for every single one of their sports over the last 15 years, all the way down to field hockey, etc. UCONN has $150 million in projects (Baseball, etc) that don't have 1 dime of funding." All I'm saying is that people IN the university think that LV is way ahead of us in terms of funding for facilities. And they think that played a part in LV beating out UCONN. My meeting with the rep (just looked at my calendar) was on 12/3/12, right after we lost out.

So HE (and probably others in the university) think that the overall commitment (i.e. funding) is part of the issue. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was lobbying. Maybe there was no hope anyway.

All I'm doing is relating a conversation from someone that is more "connected" than I am. As to the veracity of his comments? I can't say for certain. They might have just been random opinions.

Maybe it's that UConn needs new trustees and people in the foundation who have an understanding of what is going on.

I mean, I laid out all the building for you guys, and yet it gets ignored. Freescooter cites his conversation with a trustee about how Manuel is the best in America at improving APR scores, because of a press release that stated he took the basketball scores which were woefully low and improved them. I provided a link from the NCAA database that showed the bball scores were high before he got to Buffalo and that they decreased into the 940 range after he got there. It's one thing to make hyperbolic PR statements for the sake of the media, but if people are spewing this stuff in private conversations, I begin to wonder if these are positions they actually hold. The trustees should have gone through Manuel's hiring with a fine-toothed comb.

Ask your friend if he can name schools that have spent more than UConn in the last 15 years.

 

[J187Money]

Maybe the state deciding the rest of the building had to be done with private donations played into it. They wouldn't foot the bill for basketball. Nor any of the other proposed projects. If they don't get donors they don't get built.