Feelings on Edsall?

[MilliniumPrince]

Love him for what he built, a little bitter over the way he left, forever grateful. I boo loudly when returns to the Rent, I will give him a standing ovation when the Program holds a ceremony in his honor in the distant future.

 

[amory]

I like Edsall and I hope he gets a good reception. I thought the way he left was total BS, but he had seen the writing on the wall and no one can really deny he made the right choice in jumping ship.

UConn fans, I think, have gotten very used to guys like Calhoun and Auriemma and expect our coaches to not only succeed but to stay put...and I think Edsall bailing was a rude awakening for a lot of us.

 

[weyuo]

I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.

 

[HuskyBarker]

View attachment 3639

Football? What's that? Now move over your blocking the view

 

[amory]

I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.

For the life of me I can't understand how people can paint Edsall as a bad/borderline bad coach when we were making bowls (even the damn fiesta bowl) and often winning them. Compare that to what we had before Edsall, and what we have now that he's gone.

It's utter nonsense.

 

[whaler11]

For the life of me I can't understand how people can paint Edsall as a bad/borderline bad coach when we were making bowls (even the damn fiesta bowl) and often winning them. Compare that to what we had before Edsall, and what we have now that he's gone.

It's utter nonsense.

They live in some alternate reality.

Oh he talked about execution with the media. Who gives a what he said to the mostly dopey CT media.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

That statement is so pathetically lame I actually laughed out loud. You sound like you'd laud a businessman who boosts sales by dropping price below cost.

street buzz: There's a guy selling new Mercedes for $1000 a pop. Cars are flying out the door. Let's get over there before reality sets in.
weyuo: Say what you want but revenues are up.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

Prove it. Let's see your pudding.

 

[J187Money]

The program had a lot of firsts and a lot of great moments under Edsall. I had a lot of fun during those days. It was exciting. We were competitive and never really felt like we couldn't win a game, no matter the opponent.

He's gone, and the team is worse. And the fan base is miserable. But we will get a new coach and all things are possible.

 

[Whale22]

I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.

Now I know why you are such an apologist for the current team. Closet PP fan. Got it.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.

The only thing more annoying than your posts is that stupid avatar of yours.

 

[Husky25]

I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.

I don't think this is the thread to do it in, but I do think you are off base with your comments.

 

[noeynox]

Weyou, I'll let you in on a little secret. It is okay to have hated Edsall when he was here and to hate P now. Edsall was , P is a nice guy, but proving he sucks as a coach. O'er supposed improved recruiting isn't exactly producing game breakers from what I saw Thursday night.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Prove it. Let's see your pudding.

We don't really know for another 2 or so years, honestly. All of our current upperclassmen, minus any transfers (Whitmer, Philips) were Edsall recruits.

 

[whaler11]

We don't really know for another 2 or so years, honestly. All of our current upperclassmen, minus any transfers (Whitmer, Philips) were Edsall recruits.

Well if your recruiting improves your underclassmen should be taking jobs from upperclassman. Seems like you don't need to wait forever.

And since Edsall left the cupboard so bare, should really speed things up.

 

[ZooCougar]

We don't really know for another 2 or so years, honestly. All of our current upperclassmen, minus any transfers (Whitmer, Philips) were Edsall recruits.

Utter nonsense. It's not like Pasqualoni just walked in the door. At the very least you could acknowledge that he has had time to impact how the players on this perform on the field.

And if what Edsall left was so bad talent wise then I am certain that even talent that bad could handle an FCS team.

Neil Ostrout said it best. This team has been decimated by the abundance of RETURNING STARTERS. Good grief. This team should be playing better than this.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Thought he was a good coach, not a great coach

Very good at developing players, and at coaching the fundamentals. I thought we were always a team that looked well coached. Liked that we were able to develop an identity as a team that was tough and physical and could always run the ball down your throat.

Also thought the questions over whether we had reached our ceiling under him were legit. Passing game was almost always a major problem. Overall talent level didn't seem to be getting better. Most of the time when we played the better Big East teams it looked like we were less talented and while he gets credit for having some success under those circumstances, he gets blame for not changing them. I thought 07-10 we were pretty much the same team year after year, just the breaks fell different ways each year.

I also think that as much as gets written about the challenges of building the football program at UConn, it was also a very good situation. New stadium, new facilities, at a great basketball school. I don't think his job was as difficult as turning around an irrelevant 1-A program. There might have been disagreements about whether we should go 1-A or not, but once the decision was made, there was excitement. And we got to enjoy the benefits of a BCS conference while playing in a conference that was much more wide open than it had been in the past. So his accomplishments get overrated to a degree when people say stuff like "wow, would you have ever imagined back in 1998 that UConn would be playing in the Fiesta bowl, or winning in Notre Dame." Those accomplishments have probably more to do with the changing landscape of college football than UConn themselves. So again, I thought he did a good job, certainly could have been worse, but I think there's a lot of guys who could have pulled off what he did, and some who could have done more.

As far as how he left, my only problem was him calling Maryland his dream job because, I mean, come on. But its extremely rare for a coach to leave in a way that makes everyone happy. They only have so much control over the timing of it. And coaches who leave before the bowl game get criticized for abandoning their team, and coaches who leave afterwards get criticized for waiting to long and putting their school in a tough spot to hire somebody, so you can't really win.

I only wish I had written this, but this is far better than most of my FHCRE analysis. It captures the good, the overrated, the cold hard truths of his tenure. It gets right down to what he could do, what he didn't seem able to do, and what he did that could have been done just as well as many others. Great post.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Utter nonsense. It's not like Pasqualoni just walked in the door. At the very least you could acknowledge that he has had time to impact how the players on this perform on the field.

And if what Edsall left was so bad talent wise then I am certain that even talent that bad could handle an FCS team.

Neil Ostrout said it best. This team has been decimated by the abundance of RETURNING STARTERS. Good grief. This team should be playing better than this.

I didn't claim Pasqualoni is a great developer of players. I refuted the fact that we are in a current position to judge the players Pasqualoni recruited to the program. They're all sophomores and freshmen and for the most part don't play, so we don't really know. They are two totally separate things. Don't let your hatred of Paqualoni cloud your judgment of the difference between player development and pure recruiting.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Well if your recruiting improves your underclassmen should be taking jobs from upperclassman. Seems like you don't need to wait forever.

And since Edsall left the cupboard so bare, should really speed things up.

Well if we were getting 4- and 5-star recruits, absolutely. But if it's only an incremental upgrade in recruiting (which I believe it probably is), then you're probably still looking at players taking a few years to catch up to the players ahead of them on the depth chart.

 

[whaler11]

Well if we were getting 4- and 5-star recruits, absolutely. But if it's only an incremental upgrade in recruiting (which I believe it probably is), then you're probably still looking at players taking a few years to catch up to the players ahead of them on the depth chart.

Well if you are 10-15 and they still aren't breaking through that increment might be imaginary. Edsall may know more about recruiting than websites...

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Well if we were getting 4- and 5-star recruits, absolutely. But if it's only an incremental upgrade in recruiting (which I believe it probably is), then you're probably still looking at players taking a few years to catch up to the players ahead of them on the depth chart.

I judge recruiting by how many other big time programs we are beating out for kids. I have not seen any noticeable difference in this area.

 

[ZooCougar]

I didn't claim Pasqualoni is a great developer of players. I refuted the fact that we are in a current position to judge the players Pasqualoni recruited to the program. They're all sophomores and freshmen and for the most part don't play, so we don't really know. They are two totally separate things. Don't let your hatred of Paqualoni cloud your judgment of the difference between player development and pure recruiting.

We were going to bowls every year and sending kids to the NFL with Edsall players. One can only judge what he is doing with the players he has and predict the future with what he is doing now. And it does not look pretty at all.

We have seen no reason to believe that when his recruits mature that performance will suddenly improve. In fact as time as progressed everything is getting worse.

 

[ZooCougar]

I judge recruiting by how many other big time programs we are beating out for kids. I have not seen any noticeable difference in this area.

It appears to be at best identical, only with less confidence that players will develop. Add to that, the poor coaching is not putting these kids in the best position to compete at an elite level.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I didn't claim Pasqualoni is a great developer of players. I refuted the fact that we are in a current position to judge the players Pasqualoni recruited to the program. They're all sophomores and freshmen and for the most part don't play, so we don't really know. They are two totally separate things. Don't let your hatred of Paqualoni cloud your judgment of the difference between player development and pure recruiting.

And that's the problem. Big time programs bring in kids each year that make an impact right away. This isn't the Ivy League, circa the 1960s, where freshman (not eligible back then) and sophomores were expected to sit and wait their turn. Recruit talent and they can have an impact almost immediately. So if PP has "upgraded" the recruiting then where the heck are these kids?

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

I judge recruiting by how many other big time programs we are beating out for kids. I have not seen any noticeable difference in this area.

We beat out some big schools for Lemelle, but you're right, it hasn't been a huge upgrade. Not sure anybody could make a huge upgrade happen here given the... deficiencies.