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I'm tired of people blaming Susan Herbst and Warde Manuel for this mess. I'm tired of people blaming the ACC or FSU or Miami.
We've known something quite simple for a long time now: football drives the expansion bus. If you were the ACC, why on Earth would you take UConn over Louisville? There are two obvious explanations as to why Louisville got the nod over UConn:
1. Despite a large population and great TV market, we can't pack a 40,000 person stadium with any level of consistency.
2. Our basketball future is wildly uncertain at this time.
Louisville's attendance and traveling far exceeds ours, as does the consistency of their program over the last 10 years. They have Rick Pitino as coach and he'll probably be there for awhile yet. Why not?
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, we can't even manage to pack a small little stadium. Heck, half the people who show up don't even make it inside, and if they do, they sure as heck don't make kickoff.
Meanwhile, Calhoun put Manuel in a terrible position by basically forcing him to choose a successor without allowing the AD to do a nationwide search. What was Manuel to do? Give a man with no head coaching experience the keys to a storied program? Maybe he is a great coach, but nobody knows that, and the ACC sure as hell don't want to bet their future on it.
Heck, this whole APR mess is in Calhoun's head. As others have stated, plenty of people have managed to get through this APR and manage okay, including Louisville, who have has consistently derided as unmatched in education.
However, one point remains:
We can succeed as a football program if people continue to support the program even in tough times.
Now isn't the time to give up and throw in the towel. You want to tell me that programs like Boise State, Houston, TCU, and Utah can succeed in smaller conferences and we can't? We're just a bunch of lap dogs without the ACC or Syracuse or Pitt or Louisville?
duck that .
I'm gonna keep showing up and screaming my head off. I don't care if it's against ECU or Tulane or anybody else. We have to support this program.
Because at the end of the day, Louisville didn't get the nod over us because they have a long history of football success or because they have a great TV market. They succeeded because they supported their program through thick and thin while we sat on our couches and complained about the evil ACC.
Their fans actually show up to basketball and football games. Novel idea, right?
Get off your butt and support your program. And for duck's sake, give Herbst and Manuel a break. They were handed a situation and they're going to do the best they can. And if you think blowing up the Twitsphere is going to make the difference, I don't know what to tell you.
But if you want to give up, then I don't know what to tell ya. The UConn Athletic Program needs us now more than ever.
I'll see all of you real fans on Saturday.
We've known something quite simple for a long time now: football drives the expansion bus. If you were the ACC, why on Earth would you take UConn over Louisville? There are two obvious explanations as to why Louisville got the nod over UConn:
1. Despite a large population and great TV market, we can't pack a 40,000 person stadium with any level of consistency.
2. Our basketball future is wildly uncertain at this time.
Louisville's attendance and traveling far exceeds ours, as does the consistency of their program over the last 10 years. They have Rick Pitino as coach and he'll probably be there for awhile yet. Why not?
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, we can't even manage to pack a small little stadium. Heck, half the people who show up don't even make it inside, and if they do, they sure as heck don't make kickoff.
Meanwhile, Calhoun put Manuel in a terrible position by basically forcing him to choose a successor without allowing the AD to do a nationwide search. What was Manuel to do? Give a man with no head coaching experience the keys to a storied program? Maybe he is a great coach, but nobody knows that, and the ACC sure as hell don't want to bet their future on it.
Heck, this whole APR mess is in Calhoun's head. As others have stated, plenty of people have managed to get through this APR and manage okay, including Louisville, who have has consistently derided as unmatched in education.
However, one point remains:
We can succeed as a football program if people continue to support the program even in tough times.
Now isn't the time to give up and throw in the towel. You want to tell me that programs like Boise State, Houston, TCU, and Utah can succeed in smaller conferences and we can't? We're just a bunch of lap dogs without the ACC or Syracuse or Pitt or Louisville?
duck that .
I'm gonna keep showing up and screaming my head off. I don't care if it's against ECU or Tulane or anybody else. We have to support this program.
Because at the end of the day, Louisville didn't get the nod over us because they have a long history of football success or because they have a great TV market. They succeeded because they supported their program through thick and thin while we sat on our couches and complained about the evil ACC.
Their fans actually show up to basketball and football games. Novel idea, right?
Get off your butt and support your program. And for duck's sake, give Herbst and Manuel a break. They were handed a situation and they're going to do the best they can. And if you think blowing up the Twitsphere is going to make the difference, I don't know what to tell you.
But if you want to give up, then I don't know what to tell ya. The UConn Athletic Program needs us now more than ever.
I'll see all of you real fans on Saturday.