A “Rational” Argument Against the Edsall Hire

[Bonehead]

TJ Weist

Meh - but meets the $$$.

 

[chiller99.5]

When you make a hire spending limited funds, the Coach is looking to succeed and move on. When you hire an upper level coach you lose assistants.Honestly in a conference like the AAC you have to do one thing well and be competent in the others to have a good season be it either offense or defense .

 

[Dougsts]

So, lets look forward a few years and MD comes a calling again and Randy bails for his dream job,,,are we in a groundhogs day loop?

 

[Bonehead]

So, lets look forward a few years and MD comes a calling again and Randy bails for his dream job,,,are we in a groundhogs day loop?

Possibly - It's the business.

Did you ever start dating a man/woman again who had previously broke up with you? why? Did you get married?

Have you ever been offered a new job with better working conditions and more salary and had limited time to decide? Probably not but if you had you would know you are burning a bridge. Bridges can be rebuilt.

Have you ever seen a grown man naked in a Turkish prison ?

If Diaco had gone 4-8, 7-5, 9-3 it's quite possible he would have been offered his dream job and been gone.

 

[Marty Jackson]

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!

When first hearing RE was the likely choice it was a letdown. Really hoping that this next hire would be 'sexy' in that it would get some buzz about uconn football.
That's not RE.
Now that I'm over the initial reaction, and some more details are coming out, this was more a strategic move than a swing for the fences. While not something that is going to fire up the boneyard, it does make sense based on where the program sits today.

I don't think this was a 'nobody will come to Uconn' hire. Randy fits. He's built this program up from a lower point in the past. Outside of being a defensive minded, he really is opposite of Diaco in that he brings a lot of experience.

Yes, I was really pissed when he left and how that happened. I was glad to see him fail at MD, his supposed dream job. He's coming back and hopefully somewhat humbled. The place he left behind when he was too good and the ego a little inflated is now welcoming him back, after he had essentially been shelved in the coaching world.
He needs Uconn as much as Uconn needs him.

As for some of the details, RE only making $1M is interesting. Is it possible this was done to get some more established coordinators. I don't think that reflects RE's market value.

Anyway, I can see why the mixed reactions. I'm warming to his return. Am hopeful that his staff will suggest that this was a strategic play as opposed to a desperate play.
Does anyone think Kill is still a possibility?

 

[uconndogs]

One thing that intrigues me about this hire is that my suspicion is that Edsall doesn't need this headache and doesn't need the money. I suspect he wants to be here and wants to fix a program that he built. That can be very strong motivation. If he and Benedict can get along and get some kids in here I think Randy can be very successful in the American.

 

[pepband99]

TJ Weist

*Maybe* , but you're betting on an awful lot there...

1) Cochran (or Flowers, for that matter) won't be walking through that door.
2) The "hot FCS guy bolting to a P5" scenario might still apply, given Weist having been "screwed over" by us prior
3) You're assuming he would leave for an intra-conference school (especially one that passed him over once already)

I'm with the others here - the real choice here was Diaco vs anyone else. I'll take anyone else.

 

[freescooter]

I do think there is a rational argument that can be made that Edsall isn't the right guy but in 4000 words I don't think you made it. The options to me where few. You need a guy who can take this mess and rebuild it. So you have maybe 3-4 guys, Edsall Golden Schiano and then some unknown quantity like a coordinator someplace but that was a swing and big miss last time. Edsall adds the fact that he wants to be here. Knows the terrains and how to succeed here.

 

[Skiblets]

So, lets look forward a few years and MD comes a calling again and Randy bails for his dream job,,,are we in a groundhogs day loop?

Not gonna happen. Hathawaybdoesnt work here anymore

 

[J187Money]

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.

Except there have been threads for months on who we would want to replace Diaco.

 

[freescooter]

I do think there is a rational argument that can be made that Edsall isn't the right guy but in 4000 words I don't think you made it. The options to me where few. You need a guy who can take this mess and rebuild it. So you have maybe 3-4 guys, Edsall Golden Schiano and then some unknown quantity like a coordinator someplace but that was a swing and big miss last time. Edsall adds the fact that he wants to be here. Knows the terrains and how to succeed here.

 

[J187Money]

When first hearing RE was the likely choice it was a letdown. Really hoping that this next hire would be 'sexy' in that it would get some buzz about uconn football.
That's not RE.
Now that I'm over the initial reaction, and some more details are coming out, this was more a strategic move than a swing for the fences. While not something that is going to fire up the boneyard, it does make sense based on where the program sits today.

I don't think this was a 'nobody will come to Uconn' hire. Randy fits. He's built this program up from a lower point in the past. Outside of being a defensive minded, he really is opposite of Diaco in that he brings a lot of experience.

Yes, I was really pissed when he left and how that happened. I was glad to see him fail at MD, his supposed dream job. He's coming back and hopefully somewhat humbled. The place he left behind when he was too good and the ego a little inflated is now welcoming him back, after he had essentially been shelved in the coaching world.
He needs Uconn as much as Uconn needs him.

As for some of the details, RE only making $1M is interesting. Is it possible this was done to get some more established coordinators. I don't think that reflects RE's market value.

Anyway, I can see why the mixed reactions. I'm warming to his return. Am hopeful that his staff will suggest that this was a strategic play as opposed to a desperate play.
Does anyone think Kill is still a possibility?

Who would have made UCONN "sexy"? Moorhead? Orlando? Fleck? No, even if they would be great, nobody outside of CFB wonks have any idea who they are. Sexy is Les Miles, or a "name" that a) we couldn't afford and b) wouldn't come here anyway.

This isn't what I would have done, but this might have been the price to get rid of Diaco, in which case hard to argue against. 100% I believe we will be better with HCRE, and if he has a ceiling, we can decide who should be next, after going to bowl games every year and having a winning home record with 30K+ people in the stands.

Worrying that we can't get to 10 games with Edsall given that UCONN has NEVER won 10 games as a D1 school is a bit silly. Since he left we only got to 6 once, and we lost a bad bowl game to a very mediocre Marshall team.

Let's put the train back on the tracks. And have some faith in DB that he is going to force the issue on offense, since pretty much all of us were resigned to having another year of Diaco before DB pulled a $3.4M rabbit out of a hat.

 

[BlueMAB]

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.

This is the anti-Edsall straw man summed up perfectly.

Most of us don't believe 8-4 is the best we can do, but we're resigned to the belief that Edsall can get us back there to establish some respectability. We'll take respectability on the way to greatness.

I believe that he'll get 5 years to turn it around and, unless we get that 10+ win season, we agree to not renew and move on to another coach hoping he gets us over the top. If edsall finds the right assistants again he could be that guy. Might not, but there were no guys guaranteed to do that.

I'm amazed there are still posters who think that it's as simple as plugging in a new coach and playing in a New Years bowl game. Possible, but another swing and miss hire could turn us from a potential Cincinnati/Louisville to a perenally bad Kansas

 

[warbler1055]

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.

UConn averaged 4 wins per season for the last 6 years. Do your math. I will take 8-9 wins per season any time.

 

[J187Money]

This is the anti-Edsall straw man summed up perfectly.

Most of us don't believe 8-4 is the best we can do, but we're resigned to the belief that Edsall can get us back there to establish some respectability. We'all take respectability on the way to

I believe that he'll get 5 years to turn it around and, unless we get that 10+ win season, we agree to not renew and move on to another coach hoping he gets us over the top. If edsall finds the right assistants again he could be that guy. Might not, but there were no guys guaranteed to do that.

I'm amazed there are still posters who think that it's as simple as plugging in a new coach and playing in a New Years bowl game. Possible, but another swing and miss hire could turn us from a potential Cincinnati/Louisville to a perenally bad Kansas

Right - let's get back to 8-4 and then figure out why we lost the 4 games we lost and address that, be it coordinators / head coaching / players / scheme / whatever. We lost 9 games this year and there are so many things wrong you almost don't know where to start, other than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[businesslawyer]

TJ Weist

Everyone here likes TJ and wishes him well. And if he came back here as an OC/Associate Head Coach, that would be great. But:

1. How can it not be factored in that, even though he's been an interim head coach with some success, and an assistant on a number of outstanding teams, not one school has ever offered him a chance to be a head coach? We all know that there are things a head coach has to be that go beyond technically coaching football like an NFL coach does. Like dealing with boosters, finding and running a staff, etc. Isn't it rational to conclude that there may be a reason that no other college football program has decided he's the right guy to run it?

2. I think the analyses of others -- that we can't risk a coach who can't take chicken crap and make chicken salad out of it -- is right on and said better than what I said pre-Edsall. I wanted Schiano -- I still think that would be a better choice for a number of reasons -- but Schiano, Edsall and Golden are similar -- they all have blemishes on their resumes as they've grown up, but they have each shown they can take a crappy Northeast program and make it competitive. HOW COULD THAT NOT BE THE PRIME FACTOR IN THIS HIRE?

3. As I said in another thread -- given your certainty at 3-4 in 2010 that HCRE wasn't going to win another game that year, don't you have enough of a semblance of self-analysis to ask yourself if you are the right person to be judging his likelihood of success?

 

[freescooter]

I also think that the 2009 team in particular was a very good football team. Probably his best that under normal circumstances (not having to deal with the murder of one of the team leaders) would have had 10-11 wins. They lost two heartbreakers after Jazz then finally got a week off and came back to dominate the rest of the schedule. They had a line that made opponents want to quit in the 4th quarter.

 

[History Geek]

...Now that I'm over the initial reaction, and some more details are coming out, this was more a strategic move than a swing for the fences. While not something that is going to fire up the boneyard, it does make sense based on where the program sits today...

...He needs Uconn as much as Uconn needs him...

This is where I am about this. Wait and see, but cautiously optimistic. Turn us around, and this program is his legacy. That would be attractive to me, as well as getting a change to work again.

 

[Palatine]

Edsall's dream car.

 

[sdhusky]

EHow can it not be factored in that, even though he's been an interim head coach with some success, and an assistant on a number of outstanding teams, not one school has ever offered him a chance to be a head coach?

Cause sometimes AD's make bad decisions.

TJ could very well be a great HC at some point. I would have taken him over Diaco, any day.

 

[DefCONNOne]

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.

More than 48 hours, that's for sure. As for his short list...how many on that short list were hired and how many new names did he think of after Diaco got fired?

 

[UConnDan97]

More than 48 hours, that's for sure. As for his short list...how many on that short list were hired and how many new names did he think of after Diaco got fired?

Just determining the particulars of a contract alone will cost you more than 48 hours, much less choosing the right candidate. That's the point here. Benedict did not choose him and sign him in a 48 hour period. Negotiations had to have been going on prior to that, very obviously.

If you think it all went down in 48 hours, I have some lands to sell you in the everglades...

 

[UConnDan97]

Uconn sucks so bad that Edsall is the ONLY coach that can save us. Got it.

Nope, that's not the point. The point is that in order to make a rational argument against Edsall, you have to at least mention the alternative scenario. Let me help you all out since you all seem to be struggling with the concept:

Al Golden
Contract - possibly 1.6 to 2 million
Understands northeast recruiting
Current position outside of college, so likelihood of accepting offer.
Higher contact may lead to less money for assistants (currently unknown).
Likely OC or offensive style = fill in the blank.

How hard is putting together something like that if you hate the current hire?? Truth be told, I'm only warm on the hire. But there's no arguing that it was a logical, sensible hire when considering the financials, the northeast recruiting, and the track record. Dare I say...it was a rational hire...

 

[Carl Spackler]

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

What say you Carl?

I say Edsall isn't starting from inside trailerz this time. Everyone needs alottle humble pie, and I hope he'll at least get the program back to respectability where we're winning at home instead of getting blown out by f----king Temple and Tulane.

 

[RedSoloCup]

I say Edsall isn't starting from inside trailerz this time. Everyone needs alottle humble pie, and I hope he'll at least get the program back to respectability where we're winning at home instead of getting blown out by f----king Temple and Tulane.

where have you been?

and is it really you? two sentences?

 

[Carl Spackler]

where have you been?

and is it really you? two sentences?

I'm turning over a new leaf.

 

[sportsart]

I'm turning over a new leaf.

So in other words, they finally found the right drug cocktail for you, yes?

 

[DefCONNOne]

Just determining the particulars of a contract alone will cost you more than 48 hours, much less choosing the right candidate. That's the point here. Benedict did not choose him and sign him in a 48 hour period. Negotiations had to have been going on prior to that, very obviously.

If you think it all went down in 48 hours, I have some lands to sell you in the everglades...

Only if you take the Arizona beachfront property off my hands, will that sale ever get done.

 

[Dove]

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!

When DanO was a senior I reached out to his dad, who was DanO on the Boneyard, and invited them to a Boneyard Tailgate. They came and enjoyed our bounty. THAT is why he came to UCONN. As long as the Yard is strong great players will come.

(He was the only QB ever invited)

 

[Carl Spackler]

So in other words, they finally found the right drug cocktail for you, yes?

Who is they?