2025-26 Coaching Carousel | Page 23 | The Boneyard

2025-26 Coaching Carousel

KryHavok said:
I generally love your positivity, not gonna blow smoke up your arse at all cuz I really respect your passion for UConn, but let's not conflate notions. Getting Hurley was absolutely brilliant, though UConn basketball was well established with 4 prior men's BBall championships, and Hurley knows full well of our legacy given his own Big East history. We don't really have issues with basketball hires (notwithstanding Ollie's later years).

Yes, Benedict came from Auburn... where he worked for just 2 years before becoming our AD. I think his SEC creds are an oversell TBH when it comes to football. I realize he was essentially forced to bring back RE. That said, if his SEC experience were that much of an asset he could've perhaps found a way to bring in better (assistant) coaches during RE2. Him getting Mora may not have been so much his singular doing but also Mora reaching out. There was a mutuality at play then.

So then why my pessimism now, it's predicated on several aspects. We've been drubbed ad nauseum about our lack of conference with nothing to play for (forget the CFP) and very little glory to achieve (high tiered bowl tie-in). We've been spurned by the 2 power conferences that had a passing fancy for us. We don't unfortunately recruit well from our home area, and no 4 star player is gonna waltz through our door. What talented and upcoming coach would willingly walk into that situation? We have top flight G6 facilities that can hold their own against many P4 schools, but so what? The 2010's showed that we couldn't get anybody decent to come here except a has been, a nut job, and spineless coward.

We need a tactician who can draft via the portal and spot the diamonds in the rough (yep, sounds exactly like Mora)...I don't feel confident that Benedict can convince that type of successful coach to come here (I think he can certainly find him, but hiring him would be a Herculean task). I don't see anybody competent who fits that mold and who has UConn as their preferred next job.

I will be happy to eat my words if I'm wrong and Benedict finds our next savior...I'll be even happier if this whole thing passes over and Mora stays several more years.
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I appreciate your point of view. Keep in mind that Benedict also successfully replaced other legends at UConn. Gbandi and Rodriguez have replaced Reid and Tsantiris respectfully for the men and women's soccer teams, both doing very well.

And he's successfully navigated our exit out of the AAC and into the Big East / Independent football model; a journey that many on this board thought would kill football instead of reviving it.

We've got great people in Storrs right now, including at the very top. That's where I'll put my faith...
 
UConnDan97 said:
In order to fire Diaco. And then he fired Edsall. In other words, he cares about football...
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Benedict was hired when Diaco was here, it was already 6 feet under when he got here, and he talked to Jerry Kill who wanted to join the staff and Diaco said no, that was the final straw there that Diaco just doesn’t get it and has to go.

Then Benedict hired Edsall with no candidate interested then brought in Lashlee who Edsall ran off after after his 1 year here. Then Benedict finally talked with Mora and got him in early. If god forbid Mora left UConn is a much more attractive job now then it was previously but I have faith he stays.
 
Scoe said:
Benedict was hired when Diaco was here, it was already 6 feet under when he got here, and he talked to Jerry Kill who wanted to join the staff and Diaco said no, that was the final straw there that Diaco just doesn’t get it and has to go.

Then Benedict hired Edsall with no candidate interested then brought in Lashlee who Edsall ran off after after his 1 year here. Then Benedict finally talked with Mora and got him in early. If god forbid Mora left UConn is a much more attractive job now then it was previously but I have faith he stays.
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All of this is true. Sounds like we're on the same page. Benedict understands what football needs and will fight to make it happen.

And I think we all are hoping that Mora stays...
 
Scoe said:
Benedict was hired when Diaco was here, it was already 6 feet under when he got here, and he talked to Jerry Kill who wanted to join the staff and Diaco said no, that was the final straw there that Diaco just doesn’t get it and has to go.

Then Benedict hired Edsall with no candidate interested then brought in Lashlee who Edsall ran off after after his 1 year here. Then Benedict finally talked with Mora and got him in early. If god forbid Mora left UConn is a much more attractive job now then it was previously but I have faith he stays.
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Edsall did not run off Lashlee. Lashlee was a rental as he had to get out from under Gus Malzahn to prove he could be an offensive coordinator on his own.
 
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UConnJim said:
Edsall did not run off Lashlee. Lashlee was a rental as he had to get out from under Gus Malzahn to prove he could be an offensive coordinator on his own.
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Well regardless of the story we see Benedict has a proven track record of hiring the right offensive coaches, would even say Charlton was a good hire, compared to coordinators of the past then we upgraded to Sammis.
 
KryHavok said:
I don't think Benedict will get the next hire right, and that's what scares the tish out of me. We lucked into Mora, we'll not catch lightning in a bottle twice consecutively.
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Wasn’t any luck about it. Luck is opportunity meeting preparation. Dave was prepared for that opportunity. His hands were tied by finances after s__tcanning Diaco and Ollie, had to wait until he could pay. Randy was a wish and a hope
 
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traitor71 said:
I think part of it is that great race for "breaking news". There is so much fake Twitter stuff out there that it is hard to keep up. I'm just surprised he hasn't had them talking to Urban Meyer yet lol.
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Twitter is not news.
Never has been. Same as how I will never call it X
 
How Sway?! said:
I think Deboer has proven that winning National Championships at Alabama is not a given.
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This is his 2nd year. What has been proven is that anything other than an instant national title is viewed as a failure. The money has to be real good to subject yourself to that.
 
Windham4th said:
Twitter is not news.
Never has been. Same as how I will never call it X
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Whether we like it or not, it's where the stories get reported. People use it to get the story out there fast, and people also use it to get fake stories out there fast.
 
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ScottVib said:
Cal is a bit of a head scratcher, Wilcox has the second-best record of any head coach they've had in the 2000s (under .500 but they've been dreadful much of the time) and will have them in a third straight bowl game this year.
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This is the first year he's had them over .500 since 2019. It's a grass is always greener situation.
 
noeynox said:
This is his 2nd year. What has been proven is that anything other than an instant national title is viewed as a failure. The money has to be real good to subject yourself to that.
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How Sway?! said:
I think Deboer has proven that winning National Championships at Alabama is not a given.
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What’s funny is that he could still win the Championship this season. What a bizarre comment. The guy can flat out coach. If Alabama were to fire him, it would take him 5 seconds to get rehired.

UGA took a bite out of Bama. NIL and the Portal took bites out of UGA and Bama. It’s not the same world as it was during peak Saban/Alabama.
 
The state of CT is sitting on a record breaking surplus, so hopefully Uncle Ned who was having fun on the sidelines at the Air Force game, can throw us some extra dough to reward a really, really good coaching staff with more pay and player-related resources!!
 
ZooCougar said:
It’s on people to use their critical thinking skills to sift through the flotsam and jetsam.
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Yes. And as the person who posted the initial false info, I do look for confirmation that it's legit before reposting. I usually check for multiple sources, but in this case I went with the info being retweeted by journalists ... who I assume would know better. My fault.
 
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How Sway?! said:
Yeah as a condition for paying the Diaco buyout. You can't really put that on DB
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In hindsight keeping Diaco would have been better than bringing in Edsall. I can't think of 1 good thing that came from the REstored era.
 
noeynox said:
In hindsight keeping Diaco would have been better than bringing in Edsall. I can't think of 1 good thing that came from the REstored era.
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I can think of some really good players that came because of RE that helped. 3 in the NFL in Lundt, Van Demark and Haynes to start. Nate Carter too. Diaco cared about height and nothing else when it came to recruiting.
 
freescooter said:
In this vein Chip Kelley just got fired as the Raiders OC. Speculation is he’ll go back to a college program. Good example of a guy who was a hot coach who struggled at UCLA.
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Go back to college as an OC? I thought he left UCLA and took the OC job at Ohio St, to get away from being a head coach.
 
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Vowelguy said:
Yes. And as the person who posted the initial false info, I do look for confirmation that it's legit before reposting. I usually check for multiple sources, but in this case I went with the info being retweeted by journalists ... who I assume would know better. My fault.
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I do it all the time. I fall for 274Sports and Pete Nokas.
 
hardcorehusky said:
I can think of some really good players that came because of RE that helped. 3 in the NFL in Lundt, Van Demark and Haynes to start. Nate Carter too. Diaco cared about height and nothing else when it came to recruiting.
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Yeah I guess that is good but he also had them playing at UMass levels of bad with a loss to HC and a miracle hang on by your nails win over Yale. Coulda got a guy from the MAC for what they paid him and not been nearly as terrible. Team looked like they never even practiced on gamedays.
 
hardcorehusky said:
I can think of some really good players that came because of RE that helped. 3 in the NFL in Lundt, Van Demark and Haynes to start. Nate Carter too. Diaco cared about height and nothing else when it came to recruiting.
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Edsall was always an excellent evaluator of defensive talent particularly raw or unpolished prospects. Edsall 1.0 was also great at developing them. Some his 2000s teams were stockpiled with unheralded prospects that turned into NFL players.
 
noeynox said:
Yeah I guess that is good but he also had them playing at UMass levels of bad with a loss to HC and a miracle hang on by your nails win over Yale. Coulda got a guy from the MAC for what they paid him and not been nearly as terrible. Team looked like they never even practiced on gamedays.
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If you look at RE's recruits- they did better as they got older (like most recruits). He wasn't here for a lot of these guys last few years, but his last years seniors were his guys. Won a bowl game with them. It's Jimmie and Joe's not X and O's.

The game had passed RE by the time he came back here. If he gets deserved blame, he should get deserved credit and that is some of the recruits he brought in.
 
hardcorehusky said:
If you look at RE's recruits- they did better as they got older (like most recruits). He wasn't here for a lot of these guys last few years, but his last years seniors were his guys. Won a bowl game with them. It's Jimmie and Joe's not X and O's.

The game had passed RE by the time he came back here. If he gets deserved blame, he should get deserved credit and that is some of the recruits he brought in.
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Players are supposed to get better as they get older.
 
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