A “Rational” Argument Against the Edsall Hire

[PRHusky]

According to the pro-Edsall crowd, hiring Randy is the correct choice mainly because that means we will average 8 wins a season, we will recruit NFL talent, we will have a competent offensive line and we will have a “grown up” in charge of the team. Pasqualoni was a grown up as well, still nationally respected and even more successful than Edsall as a head coach (numbers speak for themselves). How did that work out?

As for averaging 8 wins a season, while there is no question that going 7-5 and 8-4 beats the heck out of going 2-10 and 3-9, you know what a 7-5 and an 8-4 record gets us now a days? An invite to the Cure Bowl against Louisiana Lafayette on December 16th on the CBS Sports Network. After two or three years potentially invited to those kind of bowls against teams nobody is interested in playing, how many of you will continue to attend bowl games and be satisfied with those records?

If Edsall has never had a 10-win season before, why would he have one now? And even a 10 or 11-win season might not be enough to be the top-ranked Group of 5 team.

Sure Randy usually beats the teams he was supposed to beat, but he has the worst record against ranked teams in college football history. Even if you take away all of the losses against ranked teams that happened during the transitional and early BE days, his record against ranked teams is still pathetic.

With regards to recruiting, I seriously doubt Edsall will be able to recruit as well as before. We are no longer in a BCS conference. We are no longer an “up-and-comer”. And we have been horrible for the last six years. Current recruits probably have little to no recollection of UConn being good in football.

I do think we will have a better offensive line, but that will certainly not be enough to make us relevant again.

In all his life as a head coach Randy was only able to recruit one top-notch QB. And let’s face it, if Orlovsky would have grown up 100 miles south or west, there is no way he would have come to UConn. We were extremely lucky he wanted to stay home.

Will Edsall be better than Diaco? Without question. Will he be better than Pasqualoni? I am betting he will. Will UConn ever finish as the top-ranked G5 team or have consecutive double-digit win seasons with Edsall as head coach? Not even the biggest apologistas believe this and that is what it is all about now.

So where does that leave us? With a coach who at best will win 9 games and at worst will be another disaster because the game has simply passed him by. I would have much rather taken a chance on a successful coordinator or a FCS/MAC/CUSA head coach with the potential of ending up being the next Herman or Rhule. After all, no 8-4 team will ever play in a bowl the caliber of the Fiesta Bowl ever again.

Notwithstanding the above, I do hope I am wrong. Otherwise, UConn football will finally die for good.

Go Huskies!

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

Dude. This is simple field trauma medicine here.
It's about stopping the bleeding.
If HCRE starts this team moving in the right direction, the future is so much brighter. Another year of idiocy here and the future would be even darker, if there is a darker shade than black.
For now, the bleeding is slowing. If the band aid needs to be ripped off in the future, so be it. Stop with the future shock and use of words like "ever." Live for today.

 

[sportsart]

You lost me after the 42 paragraph.

 

[UC313]

Amen. We could have hired touchdown jesus and there aint no way in h-e-double hockey sticks were even sniffing a major bowl game or the playoffs.

Step 1: stop sucking
Step 2: be okay
Step 3: be good
Step 4: get better than good
Step 5: do uconn stuff. Win. Hang banners.
Step 6: make power 5 money

 

[noeynox]

We are so far from being the top ranked team in the g5 right now, that that cannot be the measuring stick. Buying out Diaco costed a lot of money, so we weren't going to entice the coach you want with money.

You have some valid points, but goal number is to get back to respectability. A position Diaco left us no where near.

 

[Stainmaster]

For a program in this one's current position, there is no quick fix (no matter how much we want there to be).

 

[PRHusky]

We are so far from being the top ranked team in the g5 right now, that that cannot be the measuring stick. Buying out Diaco costed a lot of money, so we weren't going to entice the coach you want with money.

You have some valid points, but goal number is to get back to respectability. A position Diaco left us no where near.

If that is not the measuring stick, why even bother?

 

[SubbaBub]

We finished last in the AAC and it wasn't the first time either. All those are nice goals and your point is 100% valid, but we have circumstances in the here and now that make this a very valid move. Diaco couldn't stay. If you thought he was going to morph into Vince Lombardi in 2017, he still couldn't stay. The program wasn't going to survive it.

The coaching search never got off the ground publicly so there were no out of the blue, outside the box dark horse candidates, so we had to pick from a fairly well defined group of guys who either, wouldn't come here next season or had no track record winning at this level.

Now I think we would have been OK with the JMU or ODU coaches, but both would have been a crapshoot and still might not want to take their shot to step up with a 3-9 team with no QB.

So the viable options where either Golden or Edsall. Neither was going to wow the fanbase or CFB in general, but RE knows the terrain and certain came with a more palatable price tab. It may not be any more complicated than that. 1. No more Diaco, 2. No more training HC's on the job, 3. Not a lot of money available. 4. Not a lot of wiggle room for failure.

 

[noeynox]

If that is not the measuring stick, why even bother?

Where we are at this moment, worst program in our conference hands down, you gotta get going in the right direction. It isn't as easy as snapping our fingers. Goal number, is to get to where we are competing for our division in conference.

 

[sportsart]

Speaking of loooooong posts, anyone seen @Carl Spackler lately?

What say you Carl?

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Dude. This is simple field trauma medicine here.
It's about stopping the bleeding.
If HCRE starts this team moving in the right direction, the future is so much brighter. Another year of idiocy here and the future would be even darker, if there is a darker shade than black.
For now, the bleeding is slowing. If the band aid needs to be ripped off in the future, so be it. Stop with the future shock and use of words like "ever." Live for today.

I think this is it...DB didn't have a lot of money and he couldn't roll the dice. We have to hope that a creative OC comes on board and RE lets him run his system.

I get the concerns, but it feels like DB did the best with the hand dealt him.

 

[UConnDan97]

According to the pro-Edsall crowd, hiring Randy is the correct choice mainly because that means we will average 8 wins a season, we will recruit NFL talent, we will have a competent offensive line and we will have a “grown up” in charge of the team. Pasqualoni was a grown up as well, still nationally respected and even more successful than Edsall as a head coach (numbers speak for themselves). How did that work out?

As for averaging 8 wins a season, while there is no question that going 7-5 and 8-4 beats the heck out of going 2-10 and 3-9, you know what a 7-5 and an 8-4 record gets us now a days? An invite to the Cure Bowl against Louisiana Lafayette on December 16th on the CBS Sports Network. After two or three years potentially invited to those kind of bowls against teams nobody is interested in playing, how many of you will continue to attend bowl games and be satisfied with those records?

If Edsall has never had a 10-win season before, why would he have one now? And even a 10 or 11-win season might not be enough to be the top-ranked Group of 5 team.

Sure Randy usually beats the teams he was supposed to beat, but he has the worst record against ranked teams in college football history. Even if you take away all of the losses against ranked teams that happened during the transitional and early BE days, his record against ranked teams is still pathetic.

With regards to recruiting, I seriously doubt Edsall will be able to recruit as well as before. We are no longer in a BCS conference. We are no longer an “up-and-comer”. And we have been horrible for the last six years. Current recruits probably have little to no recollection of UConn being good in football.

I do think we will have a better offensive line, but that will certainly not be enough to make us relevant again.

In all his life as a head coach Randy was only able to recruit one top-notch QB. And let’s face it, if Orlovsky would have grown up 100 miles south or west, there is no way he would have come to UConn. We were extremely lucky he wanted to stay home.

Will Edsall be better than Diaco? Without question. Will he be better than Pasqualoni? I am betting he will. Will UConn ever finish as the top-ranked G5 team or have consecutive double-digit win seasons with Edsall as head coach? Not even the biggest apologistas believe this and that is what it is all about now.

So where does that leave us? With a coach who at best will win 9 games and at worst will be another disaster because the game has simply passed him by. I would have much rather taken a chance on a successful coordinator or a FCS/MAC/CUSA head coach with the potential of ending up being the next Herman or Rhule. After all, no 8-4 team will ever play in a bowl the caliber of the Fiesta Bowl ever again.

Notwithstanding the above, I do hope I am wrong. Otherwise, UConn football will finally die for good.

Go Huskies!

You mention successful coordinators or successful MAC-type coaches as being what you would recommend. But of course you've avoided the ugly business of actually providing a name. If you are making an argument against Edsall, you need to also make an argument for someone, IMO. Otherwise, it's a meaningless statement.

And when you follow this up with a name, which I'm guessing you'll do, I would like for you to provide how much it would have taken to get that person, their likelihood of accepting the job, and why they would be better than an "8-5" coach. Only at that point is your post truly meaningful, with all due respect...

 

[#1 PA Husky Fan]

This is all a waste of time. It's done. Let's wait to see who he hires for his staff, hear what he says about his goals for the program, and see the results. RE gave us the best years of Husky football and I expect that he will again.

 

[Adios]

Oregon has been the Pac-8-10-12's whipping boy since the start of the conference. And I bet most of you think of them as elite now. Did you ever think they'd be elite in the 70s and 80s?

The melodramatic attitudes on here are insane. We're not freaking Alabama. But we do have Yale.

 

[FartMan69]

Randy goes 8-4: we get into a bowl, He's not going anywhere being close to 60 and having limited success in the P5. Boom, stable program.


Your mythical young gun hire: Goes 8-4: We get into a bowl, He jets to a P5 school. Time to start over! (again)

 

[AtlantaHusky]

I'll take a .500 season at this point with glee. He's the milk toast hire but I can see that we had no option. $ is right. Thankful for the boosters that made this happen.

If he stayed after some of the later seasons we had, who knows, we probably would have gotten bigger. That is the long, what could have been, past.

Right now we just need some momentum in the right direction. If we punish the team by not rooting or supporting them even with milk toast, we are doomed.

Best of luck to HCRE. Hope you earn the respect back. It won't be easy but if he tackles it with passion he will get some results.

 

[DefCONNOne]

You mention successful coordinators or successful MAC-type coaches as being what you would recommend. But of course you've avoided the ugly business of actually providing a name. If you are making an argument against Edsall, you need to also make an argument for someone, IMO. Otherwise, it's a meaningless statement.

And when you follow this up with a name, which I'm guessing you'll do, I would like for you to provide how much it would have taken to get that person, their likelihood of accepting the job, and why they would be better than an "8-5" coach. Only at that point is your post truly meaningful, with all due respect...

48 hours. 48!!!!!!! There wasn't enough daylight between the Diaco firing and the Edsall hiring to even cough up a name that wasn't Orlando or Moorhead. So your outrageous demand to spit out a name holds no water. At all.

 

[storrsroars]

Sure Randy usually beats the teams he was supposed to beat, but he has the worst record against ranked teams in college football history. Even if you take away all of the losses against ranked teams that happened during the transitional and early BE days, his record against ranked teams is still pathetic.

I've seen this "worst record vs ranked teams" thing a couple of times already in past two days.

I'd suggest that honor goes to Sonny Dykes. Best I can tell, he's 0-26 vs ranked opponents, which I think is still worse than 1-30. I'll add that there are some other coaches nipping at Edsall's heels. Colorado's Mike McIntyre is currently 1-24, Duke's David Cutliffe is 1-22, and Mississippi State's Dan Mullen is barely ahead at 2-32.

Not that any of this is good, but just wanted to clarify that RE does have competition.

 

[UConnDan97]

48 hours. 48!!!!!!! There wasn't enough daylight between the Diaco firing and the Edsall hiring to even cough up a name that wasn't Orlando or Moorhead. So your outrageous demand to spit out a name holds no water. At all.

My demand to spit out a name is in response to the "rational" argument against Edsall. It's not rational if another choice is not offered. So go pop a Valium and settle in for the night...

 

[huskymedic]

48 hours. 48!!!!!!! There wasn't enough daylight between the Diaco firing and the Edsall hiring to even cough up a name that wasn't Orlando or Moorhead.

How long does it take to make a few phone calls to coach's representatives to gauge interest? If he had a short list like most people in his position do - you have contact numbers as well. This is not that difficult for people who do it for a living.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

According to the pro-Edsall crowd, hiring Randy is the correct choice mainly because that means we will average 8 wins a season, we will recruit NFL talent, we will have a competent offensive line and we will have a “grown up” in charge of the team. Pasqualoni was a grown up as well, still nationally respected and even more successful than Edsall as a head coach (numbers speak for themselves). How did that work out?

As for averaging 8 wins a season, while there is no question that going 7-5 and 8-4 beats the heck out of going 2-10 and 3-9, you know what a 7-5 and an 8-4 record gets us now a days? An invite to the Cure Bowl against Louisiana Lafayette on December 16th on the CBS Sports Network. After two or three years potentially invited to those kind of bowls against teams nobody is interested in playing, how many of you will continue to attend bowl games and be satisfied with those records?

If Edsall has never had a 10-win season before, why would he have one now? And even a 10 or 11-win season might not be enough to be the top-ranked Group of 5 team.

Sure Randy usually beats the teams he was supposed to beat, but he has the worst record against ranked teams in college football history. Even if you take away all of the losses against ranked teams that happened during the transitional and early BE days, his record against ranked teams is still pathetic.

With regards to recruiting, I seriously doubt Edsall will be able to recruit as well as before. We are no longer in a BCS conference. We are no longer an “up-and-comer”. And we have been horrible for the last six years. Current recruits probably have little to no recollection of UConn being good in football.

I do think we will have a better offensive line, but that will certainly not be enough to make us relevant again.

In all his life as a head coach Randy was only able to recruit one top-notch QB. And let’s face it, if Orlovsky would have grown up 100 miles south or west, there is no way he would have come to UConn. We were extremely lucky he wanted to stay home.

Will Edsall be better than Diaco? Without question. Will he be better than Pasqualoni? I am betting he will. Will UConn ever finish as the top-ranked G5 team or have consecutive double-digit win seasons with Edsall as head coach? Not even the biggest apologistas believe this and that is what it is all about now.

So where does that leave us? With a coach who at best will win 9 games and at worst will be another disaster because the game has simply passed him by. I would have much rather taken a chance on a successful coordinator or a FCS/MAC/CUSA head coach with the potential of ending up being the next Herman or Rhule. After all, no 8-4 team will ever play in a bowl the caliber of the Fiesta Bowl ever again.

Notwithstanding the above, I do hope I am wrong. Otherwise, UConn football will finally die for good.

Go Huskies!

Great post. Exactly my reservations and disappointment with this hire.

 

[UConnDan97]

How long does it take to make a few phone calls to coach's representatives to gauge interest? If he had a short list like most people in his position do - you have contact numbers as well. This is not that difficult for people who do it for a living.

It's like he believes that Benedict only came up with Edsall in the 48 hours that followed sending Diaco packing. The reality is that it was likely a done deal prior to letting him go...

 

[hardcorehusky]

Randy is here due to economics. Had Fiasco stayed another year- the loss in ticket revenue would have been staggering. Then you go into 2018 with a rebuild. No one comes. 2019 - maybe something starts to turn but you average 20,000 a game maybe. It was too risky to look at the next hot coordinator. Too risky to have someone be successful and leave like Rhule, Taggart and Herman did this year. Somewhere around 2020, expansion talk heats up. This is the smart move. We don't have to be 10-2 each year- we have to be consistently competent and then things can roll. Randy gives us that best chance.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

This program needs stability and respect. No one is asking or expecting the team to go 10-2 and play in a big time bowl yet. We have to get in the tunnel before we have any chance of looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.

Once/if we start to have a respectable football program again, then we obviously have a watchable football team again and, more importantly, put ourselves in position to be a good candidate for expansion should there be conference shifting again.

Randy Edsall was the only legitimate, realistic candidate out there that we know CAN help us do that. Whether he will remains to be seen. Could it all go to ? Absolutely, but it's our best shot. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

However, I'm optimistic he will bring this program back to respectability.

 

[PRHusky]

I am amazed at how many people are already resigned to at best going 8-4 and simply being respectable again. I expect/hope for much better than that. If Temple, USF, UCF, Navy, Memphis, Cincy and Houston can do it, so can we.