Benedict has to address this mess | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Benedict has to address this mess

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whaler11

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You are kidding, right? At best he's a mediocre AD and arguably below average. He made no major transformations, and missed the boat on CR at a critical moment. So, how does a guy with short, nonimpactful ride at UConn and a previous run at a second rate nondescript university, make it to one of the premier AD positions in the country? What other factors could there be?
You don't call raising enough $ in 18 months to get the Basketball practice facility built, rebuilding a compliance office and doing a major upgrade of a men's sport a major transformation? The man he replaced couldn't get enough $ raised to just do the plans for that facility in 10 years!
 
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UConn has wealthy alums and donors who aren't public in their donations or their philanthropy???
Thanks. That's exactly what I meant to say. Sorry for the typo.
UCONN has a lot of very successful entrepreneurs and Wall Street types. Based on the Boneyard, you would think there is only one successful alum who apparently did help make the decision to hire Diaco. Not downplaying what he has done with the practice facility and all, but there are many more successful alums out there. How about getting our alums in the NFL now to each kick in $500,000?
 
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Sure. But regardless of whatever temper tantrums we throw, the way UCONN is viewed by prospective students at large isn't swayed just because we aren't playing well. If we fire BD and hire Nick Saban we won't get noticibly more applicants.

I think you need to read some of the research here. The research I have read says applications jump significantly when a schools sports teams are very successful.
 
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I think you need to read some of the research here. The research I have read says applications jump significantly when a schools sports teams are very successful.
Actually not so. A highly successful year sometimes results in a short term bump. But long term other factors like recruiting academic reputation and similar things lead to long term growth. Same with donations btw. Football success tends to bring somewhat greater return than basketball but neither brings long term benefits. The years you win are somewhat better than years you lose but the impact is measurable but modest on both ends. A "first" such as UCONNs 1999 title had more impact than future ones too. That seems to be pretty consistent too.
 
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You are kidding, right? At best he's a mediocre AD and arguably below average. He made no major transformations, and missed the boat on CR at a critical moment. So, how does a guy with short, nonimpactful ride at UConn and a previous run at a second rate nondescript university, make it to one of the premier AD positions in the country? What other factors could there be?
he likes donuts?
 
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I think you need to read some of the research here. The research I have read says applications jump significantly when a schools sports teams are very successful.

Ok - 38K applications for 4K spots. SAT scores, etc are higher than they have ever been for incoming UCONN classes. I'm not disputing what you are saying, so if 20% less people apply, you will have 30K+ applicants for 4K spots. OH NO - CALAMITY.

Sports was instrumental in moving UCONN from the dark ages into the present. It might have been sports that convinced the populous to not revolt when the state started the spending spree that is now over $3B (if not more) on UCONN since 1990. But now that it is all there, and UCONN has the national stature that it does, a few bad football seasons isn't going to negate what was built in the last 30 years. To say otherwise is just lunacy.
 
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My email to Benedict (I encourage you all to do something similar):

Dear Mr. Benedict:

Hope you are doing well. I am writing you today to express my concerns with the direction of UConn’s football program. I am sure I am not the first to do so, and will certainly not be the last.

One of the top reasons I decided to attend UConn as an undergraduate student in 2001 was the allure surrounding UConn’s upgrade to Division I-A football. The combination of a new stadium and joining the Big East Conference for football (which was as good as any at the time with Miami, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, etc.) was extremely attractive for this big football fan who also loved basketball and wanted to attend a strong academic university in the Northeast.

The growth of UConn’s football program during the previous decade was unprecedented. Being able to attend four bowl games in a row in Charlotte, Toronto, Birmingham and Glendale was an unbelievable experience. It seemed we had already become one of those programs for which a bowl game each year and competing conference championships were a given. Then Coach Edsall decided to leave and everything changed in an instant, not because Coach Edsall left, but because we hired the wrong person to replace him in Coach Pasqualoni.

When Coach Diaco was hired to replace Pasqualoni I was excited. Diaco was everything Pasqualoni wasn’t: young, energetic, charismatic, etc. What we did not know was whether he could be a successful head coach.

I believe in the theory that to rebuild something you sometimes have to tear everything that is standing down, so I did not panic when UConn went 2-10 in Diaco’s first year. However, I was concerned about what he said to the press and how he seemed to approach each game. He explicitly mentioned that he considered non-conference games “preseason games” and he used nonsensical terms such as “key-backups” and “key-starters”. Furthermore, it seemed like specifically game planning for opponents was not a priority.

Then Year 2 came around and you did not hear any of that non-sense. Out of nowhere, UConn went 6-6 in the regular season, including a win over previously undefeated and nationally ranked Houston. Even though we lost a bowl game matchup to Marshall, it seemed like the arrow was pointing up. Nonetheless, there were still big concerns.

In Diaco’s first two years UConn had a decent defense, but had a dreadful offense. Many of our wins in 2015 were the result of a hugely positive turnover margin that seemed impossible to replicate. So was the arrow truly pointing up or had UConn just got lucky in 2015?

I do not have to tell you what a total disaster the 2016 season was. I live 1,600 miles away, so buying season tickets is not an option, but I did purchase tickets for the BC football game back in May. I was really excited about the possibility of going into Chestnut Hill and defeating the school I hate the most. My entire family was coming on this trip.

After the ECU and Temple game disasters I decided to cancel the trip. It was clear as day we would get crushed and that attending the game would be a miserable experience. The way the 2016 season ended was an embarrassment. It is clear as day that Bob Diaco is not a good head football coach and that UConn football is not going anywhere with him at the helm.

I recognize the positives that Diaco has brought to our program. From Sundays to Fridays UConn is among the best in the nation, but that is meaningless if we are laughing stock on Saturdays.

Changing coordinators and other assistant coaches will not change anything. You know it, I know it and the entire fanbase knows it. The buyout is obviously a huge obstacle for a change, but losing at least half of your season-ticket base and casual fanbase will be an even bigger obstacle in the future.

I personally try to attend at least one game each season. That is not something I will do as long as Diaco is coach. Furthermore, I have donated to the Athletic Department each year since I graduated. Although my donations are small, I certainly cannot justify any further donations while Diaco remains head coach. Doing so would be implicitly approving him remaining in place as a head coach.

The longer we go on with Diaco as a head coach, the deeper the hole will get and the more difficult it will be to get out of it. Conference realignment has dealt UConn football a huge blow; keeping Diaco for another season would be the death blow.

I wish you the best of luck and pray that UConn finds a way to make a coaching change work.

Sincerely,
 

whaler11

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David - I imagine you are at the XL Center.

What you are looking at is a total and complete rejection of UConn sports.

No pressure though. You might have been sold a bill of goods by your new boss. Like I said - best of luck.
 
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You don't call raising enough $ in 18 months to get the Basketball practice facility built, rebuilding a compliance office and doing a major upgrade of a men's sport a major transformation? The man he replaced couldn't get enough $ raised to just do the plans for that facility in 10 years!
Raising money for a building project is not a major accomplishment. Every school has capital campaigns and funding sports facilities tend to be the easiest. Again, nothing significant. Comparing to Hathaway doesn't elevate the case. Also, these activities are usually driven by Trustees. Our board is configured with the wrong people - politicians, politically connected folks, sports figures and a few insurance executives. You need wealthy business people who will support the school. That's why the endowment is pathetic.
 
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Raising money for a building project is not a major accomplishment. Every school has capital campaigns and funding sports facilities tend to be the easiest. Again, nothing significant. Comparing to Hathaway doesn't elevate the case. Also, these activities are usually driven by Trustees. Our board is configured with the wrong people - politicians, politically connected folks, sports figures and a few insurance executives. You need wealthy business people who will support the school. That's why the endowment is pathetic.
You have got to be kidding me....please let me know what weed you are smoking so when i retire and am no longer subject to random drug testing I can get me some! That project was front and center for 10 years! If you are any kind of UConn athletics fan you will know that! Right now you are just showing how ignorant you are as it comes to UConn athletics!
 
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You have got to be kidding me....please let me know what weed you are smoking so when i retire and am no longer subject to random drug testing I can get me some! That project was front and center for 10 years! If you are any kind of UConn athletics fan you will know that! Right now you are just showing how ignorant you are as it comes to UConn athletics!
Calling someone ignorant does not advance your case. In fact, it shows your own ignorance. You can look at many small liberal arts schools with bigger endowments. They raise more money faster than UConn ever has. Williams and Amherst (schools with 2,00 students) have nearly 3 billion dollar endowments. Many have endowments at or near a billion dollars and others less but more than UConn with a tenth of the population. They raise 50-100 Miliion all the time for projects in a few years. You don't know what your talking about. Loomis Chafee has a bigger endowment than UConn, and had raised money for its facilities from alumni much quicker. No. UConn is exceptionally poor at raising money. So, saying he solved a ten year problem may be extraordinary in your closed world. It reality it means he accomplished what happens all the time in many places routinely. You live in a Connecticut small think world.
 
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Calling someone ignorant does not advance your case. In fact, it shows your own ignorance. You can look at many small liberal arts schools with bigger endowments. They raise more money faster than UConn ever has. Williams and Amherst (schools with 2,00 students) have nearly 3 billion dollar endowments. Many have endowments at or near a billion dollars and others less but more than UConn with a tenth of the population. They raise 50-100 Miliion all the time for projects in a few years. You don't know what your talking about. Loomis Chafee has a bigger endowment than UConn, and had raised money for its facilities from alumni much quicker. No. UConn is exceptionally poor at raising money. So, saying he solved a ten year problem may be extraordinary in your closed world. It reality it means he accomplished what happens all the time in many places routinely. You live in a Connecticut small think world.
I could give a sh@t about Loomis Chaffe or any other school! Or endowment for that fact! You are talking about UConn Athletics and about what Warde Manuel did or didn't do here. And I'm telling you that compared to the man he followed he did a LOT of things here! And by the way raising money for athletic facilities is seperate from endowments! But since you aren't really clear on what I was talking about fundraising wise I can only come to this conclusion...you don't really remember UConn athletics pre-Calhoun!
 
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Benedict doesn't have the time to read autobiographies....
 
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read my edit, I read all of the comments and save for one knuckle head all remarks were vastly positive. is it more that it painted our HC as an out of touch buffoon and there were powers at work that did not want that paraded around the internet?

unless it was at the request of the father I see no reason to take it down.
I know I wouldn't have wanted that out there if it were me. It was a well intentioned post that garnered a positive response but got too much attention.
 
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I know I wouldn't have wanted that out there if it were me. It was a well intentioned post that garnered a positive response but got too much attention.

It was probably too true.
 

ZOOCONN

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I know I wouldn't have wanted that out there if it were me. It was a well intentioned post that garnered a positive response but got too much attention.

yikes I didn't realize we worked/ discussed at the behest of the university. like them or not those were the facts and they shouldn't be censored, our HC screwed up big time and he needs to answer for those missteps.
 
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yikes I didn't realize we worked/ discussed at the behest of the university. like them or not those were the facts and they shouldn't be censored, our HC screwed up big time and he needs to answer for those missteps.

Sorry, I bolded that in response not to support some conspiracy theory lol. Thought I made that clear with my comment. Didn't know if it was ok to relay the reason it was deleted
 

ZOOCONN

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Sorry, I bolded that in response not to support some conspiracy theory lol. Thought I made that clear with my comment. Didn't know if it was ok to relay the reason it was deleted


honestly the way things have been handled with the program recently I was putting nothing past them to try and shut down the bad pub that post was going to bring.
 
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