the jury still is out on manuel.
aside from ko's contract, the passivity he has shown towards pp and deleone, the mccombs situation, the lack of any ooc games scheduled under his watch, and jetting off to the islands unexpectedly during the critical thanksgiving week when the acc decision came down and the lack of a forceful response to uconn's getting hammered on public perception, we can give him a pass because we don't know for sure if he's secretly knows of big 10 interest, that uconn wanted the acc, nor if gdl comes back, and if so how the team will fare. we also don't know if season tickets will continue to decline from 22k, nor how successful uconn is marketed next year.
however, he is paid to lead. we rightfully have high expectations. with that said, let's take a quick look at 3 ad's who succeeded in getting their schools into a better conference:
Pernetti, rutgers:
http://www.app.com/article/20121120...ing-relationships-opened-door-Rutgers-Big-Ten
This was really about a relationship between Jim and I that goes way, way back,” Pernetti said shortly after he and Delany addressed the media at a press conference. “Jim and I talk all the time and sometimes we talked about, ‘Hey, what are you hearing?’ and ‘what are you hearing?’ ”
Sometimes they talked business. Sometimes they just talked.
“Some of the conversations didn't even revolve around Rutgers in the Big Ten,” Pernetti said. “But I think as long as the dialogues existed — you’re front of mind, they’re front of mind — as long as the conversations existed, you’re in good position to be able to take advantage.”
There’s an old college sports saying that “recruiting is relationships.” Substitute realigning for recruiting and you have the secret to Rutgers’ newfound success.
http://www.app.com/article/20121120...ing-relationships-opened-door-Rutgers-Big-Ten
Oliver Luck, WVU
“Oliver Luck is a true leader. He has brought stability, momentum and energy to his position. He is someone we want on our team for many more years to come,” Clements said. Clements said Luck has overseen several major capital projects, hired new head coaches and been involved in the best fund-raising year in Athletic Department history – raising some $22.7 million this past year. He is also one of the key reasons WVU is in a powerhouse academic and athletic conference, he added. In addition, overall department revenue has increased under Luck’s leadership, and he has continued a master plan for facility upgrades with more projects in the works.
http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/...2201.html?site=full&mobile=yes&device=android
Tom Jurich, louisville
Of those three it is appropriate to ask, have they done more for their respective schools than Manuel has done for UConn? Manuel was brought into the program in february, 2012. At the time he knew that the most important issue facing uconn was its conference situation. How has he handled that? Since we are only told about the heroics of the ru, wvu and uofl's ad's, and how uconn never had a chance because of how much it sucked, we can only speculate as to the role that manuel played.
we know some facts, like uconn is in the big east with ucf, ecu, memphis and houston. we know that rutgers and louisville aren't. we know manuel was in the usvi and went earlier than planned when uconn reached the finals of the paradise jam, we know that jurich cancelled his trip to tne islands to aggressively lobby the acc, we know that ollie was given a temp contract. we know that ollie wasn't give a multiyear contract with a low buyout. we know that uconn has been pilloried in the press, both locally and nationally, for being a football program that suck and has structural issues so deep that it will always suck. we know that fewer people came to the rent to watch uconn. we know that uconn got beat by a mac team 2 years in a row and the two worst teams in the big east. we know that a deficit of 7 points given the aenemic offense might have well been 100 points. we know that the architect of the football program has been given a vote of confidence for a yr 3. we don't know if pp's bff deleone will be back.
we know that there are ZERO out of conference games scheduled in 2014, and only one in 2015.
we know that herbst hired manuel and called him a rock star.
