FfldCntyFan
Texas: Property of UConn Men's Basketball program
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 12,343
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I don’t really know where to begin but I have many things that I need to say, most just to help maintain a bit of sanity.
I want to start by giving credit to Spackler. He manned up big time and did so without hesitation. I fully understand hoping and dreaming that the program you love can by some miracle put everything together, he held out a little longer than a few of us.
I really want to know what goes on in P’s mind. He was actually quite impressive during the press conference that introduced him and I went from being completely depressed over the hire to quite optimistic that things would improve quickly. He seemed very sharp, fully aware of all of the shortcomings from the prior regime (primarily stating that they needed to fix the offense) and prepared to attack them quickly and decisively. He also spoke at length about the importance of quality control in the NFL (basically studying what you have in terms of talent, what you are doing, how you are doing it to determine where you need to improve) and that he was going to bring it here. I want to know what he sees, how he interprets it and what responsibility he and his staff have for the on field results. He often looks more lost than our offensive linemen.
If anyone again claims our recruiting has improved under P I would like this statement followed with specific on field cases, not merely scout and rivals rankings. We know all too well from what players like Jarrell Miller and even Zach Frazer did here compared to kids with half their stars. I wonder what (outside of highlight films, which are by design a ridiculously selective sample) those who do the rankings actually see of these kids before anointing them with however many stars they deem appropriate. To date P has brought in players who received more stars in HS. I have yet to see better players. I realize (BL has pointed this out) that coaching up players once they arrive on campus is part of this equation and we have seen far better from Edsall in this facet of coaching than we have from P (I will also add, from good authority that a couple members of the staff expected players to be at an earlier NFL level of development when they got here which is quite disturbing) but this is only part of the equation.
As far as kids from Connecticut, I don’t care if our roster has three player or thirty players on it. I want a team that can compete with the better schools in the country, regardless of where the kids played HS ball. If what we saw Thursday evening (after P bragging that we had more in state players on the two deep than ever before) is the result of better in state recruiting, I would recommend that we stop recruiting in Connecticut. If this pisses off some in state HS coaches and fans on this board who love the idea that kids who played at their HS will be playing at UConn, so be it. What I saw Thursday night (and most of the prior two seasons) pisses me off beyond description.
I know who is in charge of this university and I know who is in charge of the athletic department. Each has ambitions and aspirations beyond anything any of their predecessors had. I believe that some internal (McHugh) politics and standard protocols were what gave P this season. I also believe that this was justified with the premise that the 2013 home schedule would sell tickets by itself while 2014 would need something (the buzz of a new HC would help) to boost ticket sales. I am very confident that Herbst will achieve her goals for UConn as an academic institution. I also know that she fully realizes how beneficial (academically) an affiliation with members of the B1G would be and that football is (at least in our case) entirely what that hinges on. WM has similar AD ambitions. I am not yet as certain that he will be able to achieve his goals but I believe we will benefit from the experiences (even after movinig on) at Buffalo. WM now knows (due to Quinn’s time at UB) that a hot young assistant will not be a slam dunk as a head coach. He also should be fully aware (due to Turner Gill’s time at Kansas) of the potential pitfalls when a young head coach with success at a lower level moves to a top level HC gig. He will be far more thorough in the coaching search (fortunately for us, far more thorough than JH was) than he would have been without the Buffalo experience.
I don’t feel good about the program at the moment and in all candor I won’t feel good again until a new staff has done enough to convince me we are headed somewhere. I’ll still be attending the games and during each game hoping for the best but we may have a couple more years before we can be convinced that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I want to start by giving credit to Spackler. He manned up big time and did so without hesitation. I fully understand hoping and dreaming that the program you love can by some miracle put everything together, he held out a little longer than a few of us.
I really want to know what goes on in P’s mind. He was actually quite impressive during the press conference that introduced him and I went from being completely depressed over the hire to quite optimistic that things would improve quickly. He seemed very sharp, fully aware of all of the shortcomings from the prior regime (primarily stating that they needed to fix the offense) and prepared to attack them quickly and decisively. He also spoke at length about the importance of quality control in the NFL (basically studying what you have in terms of talent, what you are doing, how you are doing it to determine where you need to improve) and that he was going to bring it here. I want to know what he sees, how he interprets it and what responsibility he and his staff have for the on field results. He often looks more lost than our offensive linemen.
If anyone again claims our recruiting has improved under P I would like this statement followed with specific on field cases, not merely scout and rivals rankings. We know all too well from what players like Jarrell Miller and even Zach Frazer did here compared to kids with half their stars. I wonder what (outside of highlight films, which are by design a ridiculously selective sample) those who do the rankings actually see of these kids before anointing them with however many stars they deem appropriate. To date P has brought in players who received more stars in HS. I have yet to see better players. I realize (BL has pointed this out) that coaching up players once they arrive on campus is part of this equation and we have seen far better from Edsall in this facet of coaching than we have from P (I will also add, from good authority that a couple members of the staff expected players to be at an earlier NFL level of development when they got here which is quite disturbing) but this is only part of the equation.
As far as kids from Connecticut, I don’t care if our roster has three player or thirty players on it. I want a team that can compete with the better schools in the country, regardless of where the kids played HS ball. If what we saw Thursday evening (after P bragging that we had more in state players on the two deep than ever before) is the result of better in state recruiting, I would recommend that we stop recruiting in Connecticut. If this pisses off some in state HS coaches and fans on this board who love the idea that kids who played at their HS will be playing at UConn, so be it. What I saw Thursday night (and most of the prior two seasons) pisses me off beyond description.
I know who is in charge of this university and I know who is in charge of the athletic department. Each has ambitions and aspirations beyond anything any of their predecessors had. I believe that some internal (McHugh) politics and standard protocols were what gave P this season. I also believe that this was justified with the premise that the 2013 home schedule would sell tickets by itself while 2014 would need something (the buzz of a new HC would help) to boost ticket sales. I am very confident that Herbst will achieve her goals for UConn as an academic institution. I also know that she fully realizes how beneficial (academically) an affiliation with members of the B1G would be and that football is (at least in our case) entirely what that hinges on. WM has similar AD ambitions. I am not yet as certain that he will be able to achieve his goals but I believe we will benefit from the experiences (even after movinig on) at Buffalo. WM now knows (due to Quinn’s time at UB) that a hot young assistant will not be a slam dunk as a head coach. He also should be fully aware (due to Turner Gill’s time at Kansas) of the potential pitfalls when a young head coach with success at a lower level moves to a top level HC gig. He will be far more thorough in the coaching search (fortunately for us, far more thorough than JH was) than he would have been without the Buffalo experience.
I don’t feel good about the program at the moment and in all candor I won’t feel good again until a new staff has done enough to convince me we are headed somewhere. I’ll still be attending the games and during each game hoping for the best but we may have a couple more years before we can be convinced that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
