I think I complain about this every year, but the Courant is a joke

Here we are a week before the first game, and the lead stories on the Courant's sports page are Women's Gymnastics and Little League. Who freakin cares about Women's Gymnastics outside of the actual Olympic games? Go read Sports pages from around the country, and they are saturated with stories about their local college football teams. Dez does a great job, but the Courant does nothing to help him, or to help itself really. I think that player profiles and practice reports would be what people want to see in the State, no? I am not saying CT is as fervent about UConn football as Gainesville or Austin, but come on. As an out of stater, what should be my go-to newspaper since the Courant obviously does not care to report on UConn football?

I think the school has some culpability here as well. If you're disappointed with the Courant's lack of coverage......you're going to be downright depressed with the other state outlets.

No media access = not much to write about

At least the Rep-American has a lead story on Pasqualoni this morning. The Register has stories about the tennis tournament, which I guess I can understand.

I think the Courant does a pretty good job. Dez is constantly updating his blog, UConn Sports is right on the top bar(and UConn is in the description of the paper in the top bar right after news) and the first game is still over a week away. Come next week there will be daily stories and I am sure a special kickoff printed section.

Could it be better, sure, but I really wouldnt call it a joke.

Bullspit. I cannot believe that the team would be denying access to write background stories about Chandler or Dwayne Gratz. I'm not really looking for hard reporting on the team, but maybe reviews of the schedule, personal interest stories on some of the players, maybe a vague practice report about what players are running with the #1s. If PP is unwilling to give even that information up, then yes, the program has a lot of culpability. I don't see why letting UMass know who our starting QB and RB are would impact the game plan. Or what WR are looking good.

Almost every newspaper in a major football town has been running lead stories or at least top stories on their local college teams for a few weeks now.

I fully expect that next week there will be a pullout section in the Courant on College Football, as they do it every season.(It may even be in Sunday's paper.)
I'll alert the Yard whe I get my morning paper from the mailbox. In addition, The Courant does a great job on Gameday, so next Thursday's paper will be a must get for articles.
Keep in mind that the Courant, as did other dailies, went into severe cost cutting mode, & is a shell of it's former self. They sent some high profile writers packing (Garber, Davis, etc.) & now rely on syndicated columns for many of the pro teams. That they've been able to keep Des around is a miracle & a blessing.

The New London Day is far worse and yet their own staff is critical about the lack of Buzz about the upcoming season while producing very little themselves. Not asking to shill but do more than moan about McNeal not being admitted or a game with BC. There is not a team on our schedule that we cant beat. We could, could have a break out year and no one is writing about it. Maybe its the result from of having the higher expectations of 2010. Use to like Abraham of the Norwich Bulletin, Now with The Globe and TV on Red Sox

It is what it is. UConn fans are used to the Horde providing a smorgasbord of beat writers and a few opinion writers, just from the nature of having a bunch of medium sized newspapers in the state instead of one or two huge ones and a bunch of small-town papers, like it is in other states. In say, Lansing, Michigan State is the dominant entity, my guess is the Tigers/lions play second fiddle, probably similar in Austin with UT being the local team and the NFL teams being just behind. All of CT's papers are used to dividing their attention between UConn sports and Yankees/Red Sox and other NY/Boston pro teams, and the local college or minor league team bringing up the rear. So on any day other than gameday, UConn fans have to seek out all the UConn football stories and blogs, instead of having it be the center of attention.

Print media/newspaers are a dying breed. Twenty years ago I subscibed to my hometown paper, The Joural Inquier, to get news on UConn and the local area high schools (had it mailed to VA). I also, during BB season, got USA today every Tuesday to see the coaches poll. Haven't had the need the past 15 years since all is on line. NEWS? By the time you read it in a newspaer it has been saturated on the 24 networks and internet. Currant - Do you awaitr the sports page every am or read Dez's blog online?

I agree. The Courant does a pretty good job on UConn sports in general (they know it is one of the only reasons people like me still buy the hardcopy), and it is indeed a miracle that Dez is still with them, especially considering how many times he is copied.....I mean, linked to....by Andrea Adelson on ESPN.

The one thing that I miss from the Courant that they used to do in years past (but not last year, if I recall correctly) is the "tale of the tape" section, where you would see the heights and weights of our players in our 2-deep placed head-to-head against the opponent that week. I wish they brought that back, but it does take up a whole page, and I guess that an entire page is difficult to pay for nowadays...

Dez does fine......better than other state columnists. I'd like to see more interest in the football program from various publishers, but unfortunately the ink goes to what creates the most interest.......Yankees, Red Sox, Patriots, Giants, Jets, etc., and the occasional feel good story about Connecticuts little league team from Fairfield.

The only thing that can increase the demand for ink that is used for UConn FB......is UConn FB. Right now expectations are not too high except for strong fans, so as much as I'd like to see an article for a breakout year, it best belongs after that is achieved....so the egg is on the pundits face and not Dez's or other Ct columnist.

I'd rather have "fans" jumping on the bandwagon than off of it........and the analysis of the year in November will let us know which way the egg flies.

I think that most, if not all, of the blame falls on PP's need for secrecy. Even in the days of Gulag RE, there seemed to be more info available. Plus, based on his track record, I think we can be reasonably sure that DC would be on top of anything worthwhile. There seems to be an almost total blackout.

You read all of these papers at these football towns?

Not regularly, but Austin, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Newark all have local college football stories amongst the top 3-4 items on the page today. Again, my issue is not with Dez, but with the decision making at the Courant that decides a lead story about the women's gymnastics team, instead of football or baseball. I don't get upset that they run Red Sox as the lead because that is where the interest is, but I have seen about 3 times as many women's basketball stories as UConn football stories over the last couple weeks. I guess I am off base seeing that many here are satisfied.

Unfortunately, up here, any buzz about UConn football needs to be created, fostered and engineered. In the South it is ingrained at birth. Folks in every Louisiana coffee shop and diner are all talking about the upcoming LSU season, or who might be the starting tight end, etc. The newspapers feed this frenzy with all kinds of articles, as do the local sportscasts.
That does not happen here. Very few people, I would bet, are talking about the Huskies upcoming season in the coffee shops and bars in our Connecticut cities. They are not even aware of the first game upcoming on the 30th. There are very few folks on the street in Birmingham who don't know when the first Alabama game is. Of course they dont have Yankee/Red Sox to contend with or the drama of Tebow/Sanchez. But that's my point.
Where are the banners on the Hartford light posts, where are the downtown rallies or caravans in Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, etc. with a few players and coaches? Where are the key player profiles each day in the paper two weeks before the season? Where is the pick the winner contests among all the car dealers and other business owners? Where are the handouts in every restaurant exhorting fans to get behind the Huskies? A few band members should be marching and playing right into the Capitol, getting the Governor to wave a Husky flag--for all the media to carry on the nightly news.The media needs stories and visuals every day for their output. We should be flooding them, and through their various outlets the general public as well. Where we live and work, even in this age of cool apps and hot social media, there's still nothing like a little PT Barnum to get the patrons into the tent

Great post Nostical! I too am disappointed with the Courant's coverage of the pre-season. They had a reporter at last Saturday's open practice filling in for Dez, but I never saw an article. The other papers are also lacking in coverage. Granted PP does not provide much info, but there are things to write about when you witness the practice in person.

good news (?) ...

Fantastic post. I have to agree. The thread was created due to my disappointment in the Courant, but I definitely think a lot of this goes back to what everyone has been complaining about for a few years. The program and AD do a pretty poor job at selling the UConn football program in the state. Especially compared to what you see from other schools. Rutgers blows UConn away in this area. Sure, they have their own problems, but marketing isn't one of them. Since you mentioned LSU, Les Miles begins his weekly "meet with the fans" dinner this week. He goes to a local restaurant every Wed. night, gives a little state of the state, and answers questions asked by fans. It is broadcast on the radio. He kisses babies and shakes hands. Does PP do anything like this? It is a relatively cost free event that fans drool over.

That said, the Star Ledger has a nice story about their DL who came from a tough part of The Bronx. No reason the Courant can't have those types of things running right now.