The all Connecticut backfield

[rich1122]

I think that we have separate having a better team and getting the fan-base energized. If it puts more folks in the seats then it's great, but has no bearing on whether or not we be any good - we could stink. If we win the Big East with them, well, then that's whole different kettle of fish.

 

[freescooter]

It's silly to argue that state players don't have extra value


Chris Smith was the most important recruit in UConn history. He gave the program credibility inside and out side the state. His commitment showed the doubters that Calhoun could get it done. It also fired up the home state fans. If Smith had gone elsewhere, it would have changed the entire trajectory of the program. There is no way to know what a future without Chris would have been. We do know that UConn was in a different place after Chris's four years.

It is more than nice to have local kids, it is critical. They spike local interest. Especially the elite local players, we rarely have seen an elite Connecticut kid pick UConn. If they did, it would be a heck of a lot easy to attract out of state top flight talent. As Pasqualoni says, great players want to play with other great players. How do you sell that if the great players from Connecticut don't pick UConn?

Having lived in Georgia, and seen how much emphasis UGA put on getting Georgia players, and having seen how when great Georgia players left the state it was cause for alarm, I find this attitude that state players are unimportant to be mystifying.

Women's basketball, really?

What are you talking about? Cornelius Thompson was recruited by Dean Smith who attended a bunch of Middletown High's games while Corny was there. there are some who think that without Corny, UCONN never gets invited ot the Big East at all...

UCONN football managed to recruit a quarterback from Shelton who was also being recruited by Purdue, Michigan State and several others. And who has played in the NFL for 7 years.

Georgia recruits Georgia because there are lots of football palyers in Georgia. There were what? 7 D1A players from Connecticut last year. Huge huge difference. Oklahoma recruits Texas because there are 700 1A players coming out of Texas each year vs 30 or so from Oklahoma. In 2012 Oklahoma signed as many players from FLORIDA and almost as many from Pennsyvania as they did from Oklahoma . Twice as many from Texas as from Oklahoma. UCONN signed as many players from Connecticut as Oklahoma did from Oklahoma. Why does a national program like Oklahoma recruit players from Pennsylvania and florida and Texas? Because they want to get the best players they can. Whether those players are from Norman Oklahoma or Norwich Connecticut. And that is exactly what UCONN should and is now doing.

 

[Dann]

OK isn't trying to build a fanbase like UConn is. OK football is like UConn bball. get the best possible, where doesn't matter becuase the history and fanbase is already in place.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Fans will come if we win. End of story.

Having local players from CT and the Northeast makes for fan favorites, but the only thing that will fill The Rent is winning.

 

[Bootsthemonkey]

I think homegrown kids on the roster makes for nice newspaper articles and pleases the hardcore fanbase. From the conversations I've had with casual fans the topics that usually get brought up to me are big wins (WVU, ND, South Carolina) and being in a BCS game vs Oklahoma. Big wins and games on the big stage are what seem to get people's notice. When I bring up the names of some homegrown CT kids I usually get puzzled looks. I think it's cool when CT kids can make a splash but I wouldn't assume that a large part of the fanbase is paying that much attention.

 

[kris1]

Of the 796 colleges and/or universities that have place players in the NFL, UConn is 151st. UConn presently has 6 active NFL players, which ranks them 93rd. Pretty interesting site.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/colleges/

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Of the 796 colleges and/or universities that have place players in the NFL, UConn is 151st. UConn presently has 6 active NFL players, which ranks them 93rd. Pretty interesting site.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/colleges/

Looks like we are 90th with 6 active players in the NFL. Tied with UMass of all teams.

 

[Dann]

how many CT born players in the nfl right now? how many went to uconn vs bc vs other...

 

[whaler11]

Spackler may be on to something. According to that map yale is huge in utah

 

[kris1]

Here's another one that lists CT-born players in all professional sports as well as players who attended state schools.

http://playersfrom.com/state/ct

 

[Sean]

Lets play the hypothetical game for a minute.

Pretend Brandon Weeden was from Connecticut and never went to the big leagues in baseball.

Do you think Weeden, the hypoethtical CT boy, or Robert Griffin, the electrifying Texan, would have gotten this fanbase more energized?

Without a doubt, they both would have jacked up the fan base and both are tremendous talents. But I think it would be hard to argue that the answer would be hypothetical CT Weeden.

 

[kris1]

Active CT-born NFL players:

Dan Orlovsky- Bridgeport-UConn
Jon Carney-Hartford-ND
Dwight Freeney-Hartford-Syracuse
Terrance Knighton-Hartford-Temple
Matt Lawrence-Hartford-UMass
Niko Koutouvides-New Britain-Purdue
Rob Jackson-New Haven-Kansas St.
Matt Shaughnessy-Norwich-Wisconsin
Jamey Richard-Weston-Buffalo
Chris Baker-Windsor-Hampton

 

[Palatine]

Fans will come if we win. End of story.

Having local players from CT and the Northeast makes for fan favorites, but the only thing that will fill The Rent is winning.

Okay, so what happens if the team has a couple of bad years? Who forms the hard core of your fan base? How loyal are your fans? Who has a connection so strong that it can sustain for some tough times?

You're right, if all you are interested in is creating bandwagon fans.

End of story. LOL.

 

[SAMCRO]

Connecticut (actually, the tri-state area and NE too) is a fickle/fair weathered state when it comes to sports allegiances to teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, or Pats. There are so many other options of things for people to do/be interested in. End of the day, if you win, people will show up. Lose, and people will stop showing up. I don't care if it's 11 starters from CT, winning gets and keeps people there. Losing turns the tides pretty quickly.

I'd love to see an all CT backfield, provided they were the best players at their positions. I don't belive that having that for a season or two will be the end all be all though.

 

[Palatine]

Connecticut (actually, the tri-state area and NE too) is a fickle/fair weathered state when it comes to sports allegiances to teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, or Pats. There are so many other options of things for people to do/be interested in. End of the day, if you win, people will show up. Lose, and people will stop showing up. I don't care if it's 11 starters from CT, winning gets and keeps people there. Losing turns the tides pretty quickly.

I'd love to see an all CT backfield, provided they were the best players at their positions. I don't belive that having that for a season or two will be the end all be all though.

Assuming UConn doesn't win all the time.....

Okay, so what happens if the team has a couple of bad years? Who forms the hard core of your fan base? How loyal are your fans? Who has a connection so strong that it can sustain for some tough times?

You're right, if all you are interested in is creating bandwagon fans.

 

[CTMike]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

Home grown players would help with filling the stadium - I don't know how much. The local media needs to do a better job of promoting them. High impact QB or running back would help. Except for Casey C. I never heard of any other in-state players until they were on the team because I do not follow high school football too close. I think I am like most fans who go to the games who do not know much about high school players. I get most of my information on them from the boneyard and it is some great info and much appreciated.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

Just a slow few days - not much to talk about.

 

[Palatine]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

 

[CTMike]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

LOL... Palatine, I'm not saying that at all. Nobody is saying that. Attracting in state talent is great for the program, and we pretty much all agree on that - the only caveat being, they have to be able to play at a level that will bring us championships. A more talented player should never lack playing time in favor of someone else just because they are local.

What I said was this thread was pointless. Because people actually agree with your general premise (local talent playing meaningful minutes is good for the program) but you seem to want to still argue about it.

 

[mattp]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

attracting in state talent isn't pointless, but discussing whether we'd rather have identical theoretical players based on their home zip code is.

anyone that's been to the ACC thread on the realigment board knows this isn't the most pointless thread though, by a long shot

 

[Waquoit]

There are some who think that without Corny, UCONN never gets invited ot the Big East at all.

And they would be right. Without Corny, we're UMass.

 

[Waquoit]

Fans will come if we win. End of story.

Having local players from CT and the Northeast makes for fan favorites, but the only thing that will fill The Rent is winning.

"Fans will come if we win", that's genius. I see that sports marketing degree is paying off.

But it's not the end of the story. I think the nay-sayers are missing a big point on this one. Like Pudge always says, building a program is a process that takes time. CT high schools have produced more D-1 talent since UConn went D-1. If UConn was to win with a big chunk of local talent at the skill positions I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the level of HS play would increase even more. The more players produced locally, the better for the program. And it would help UConn football to find an identity and that adds to building a program. Let's face it, whatever identity UConn FB had moved to Maryland.

 

[freescooter]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

that's because new Jersey was producing 30-35 players per year and not keeping more than a handful...and for what its worth, Schinao also recruited very heavily in Florida, especially in Miami-Dade, which by the way produces more players each year than all of New England and New York combined...Just for some perspective, the 1A teams in florida could fill all their spots in any given class entirely with Florida players and still not take all the florida 1A players. UCONN could take all the 1A players produced in Connecticut in a given year and still have to go out of state for 50% of a typical class. You don't seem to get that. By the way, your earlier reference to Georgia...Atlanta ranks 3rd behind Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami Dade in the number of 1A recruits annually...Georgia as a state ranks 5th...Connectiuct ranks 38th, just behind Idaho...Even if you assume that talent and coaching are spread evenly, if you produce 100 players per year you are probably going to have more top players than if you produce 10. If you're in Florida and 50% of the top players get away and go out of state, there are still more high end players available than there are in Connecticut in any given year...actually in any 5 years. I read an interesting comment from th eOk State recruiting coordinator...I'm paraphasing but in essence he said we want to recruit Oklahoma but we can go to texas and see multiple players in a given night, often in a given game, or at worst across town from each other. that's not the case in Oklahoma. And Oklahoma produces 40 players a year compared to Connecticut's 8-12.

 

[gioff23]

"Fans will come if we win", that's genius. I see that sports marketing degree is paying off.

But it's not the end of the story. I think the nay-sayers are missing a big point on this one. Like Pudge always says, building a program is a process that takes time. CT high schools have produced more D-1 talent since UConn went D-1. If UConn was to win with a big chunk of local talent at the skill positions I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the level of HS play would increase even more. The more players produced locally, the better for the program. And it would help UConn football to find an identity and that adds to building a program. Let's face it, whatever identity UConn FB had moved to Maryland.

Except that they have won (38-26 over past 5 years, 70-53 over past 10), 2 BE banners, a BCS bowl bid, wins over teams in every major conference ex-PAC12, and still we sell out only slightly more than 1/2 of season tix and always have tix available on gameday. It takes more than winning - it takes a fanbase to identify with a team, and that does not exist. If it did, folks would easily fill a 40K seat stadium and we would be discussing stadium expansion, instead of conference expansion. Fans will not come if you win, at least not here. We need more, that has been proven every saturday in the fall for the past decade.