AD Manuel is not the right guy for the job

[CodyJ.]

Fire PP or dont Fire PP. Whatever. AD Manuel has shown me nothing above that any bottom of the barrel AD in the country can do. It starts at the top and rolls down hill. The only smart thing I have seen him do is make KO the basketball coach. And that was even like pulling teeth.

UConn and the state need to step up and get real from top to bottom if they want this business to flourish. That is exactly what it is too, a business.

Your thoughts? maybe im wrong...?

 

[freescooter]

You are not wrong.

 

[UCDaveD]

Manuel is a schmuck.

 

[Husky68]

My question to the head lady "Still think he is a rock star"? Easy to come in and clean up someone else's supposed personnel messes, the real key to leadership is recognizing and cleaning up your own; what say you Ms. Herbst about your AD's handling of the only sport that matters in college athletics?

 

[freescooter]

Manuel is here for one reason and one reason only...APR. Without that failure, who knows who would be here. Herbst needed to act to shore up the "academic" side of the basketball program in part because it was an embarrassment and in part because she hoped if it looked like she was making a dramatic move there was at least a long shot that the NCAA would grant a waiver. Unfortunately, that didn't work out and Warde has turned out to be totally ineffective in everything else he has touched. In hind sight, we should have just accepted the NCAA ban and brought in a AD who understood football.

 

[ZooCougar]

Bringing back Pasqualoni is strike two in my book. He needs to own this season.

 

[upstater]

Manuel is here for one reason and one reason only...APR. Without that failure, who knows who would be here. Herbst needed to act to shore up the "academic" side of the basketball program in part because it was an embarrassment and in part because she hoped if it looked like she was making a dramatic move there was at least a long shot that the NCAA would grant a waiver. Unfortunately, that didn't work out and Warde has turned out to be totally ineffective in everything else he has touched. In hind sight, we should have just accepted the NCAA ban and brought in a AD who understood football.

1. How does bringing in Manuel shore up the academic side? He has nothing to do with it. This makes no sense. If you want to shore up the academic side, you bring in academics. If I want my pipe unclogged, I don't call the pizza guy.

2. Are you a big fan of Jeff Hathaway? If yes, OK. If no, then maybe you're satisfied as to why Herbst hired a new AD.

3. The only mistake Manuel made was in not making Ollie the chief from day 1. Hmmmmm, who agreed with Manuel's decision to do that? Did you?

4. How do you know Manuel doesn't understand football? Because he didn't fire a coach after 2 years? Under that premise, Louisville should fire Jurich ASAP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[upstater]

Fire PP or dont Fire PP. Whatever. AD Manuel has shown me nothing above that any bottom of the barrel AD in the country can do. It starts at the top and rolls down hill. The only smart thing I have seen him do is make KO the basketball coach. And that was even like pulling teeth.

UConn and the state need to step up and get real from top to bottom if they want this business to flourish. That is exactly what it is too, a business.

Your thoughts? maybe im wrong...?

No one fires coaches after 2 years. It's just not done.

If ADs are canned for giving bad coaches 3 years, then Louisville should can Jurich.
ND gave Weis 3 years, Miami gave the last guy 3 years, everyone gets 3 years. Ty Willingham got 3 years at both ND and Washington.

 

[junglehusky]

I don't know if he's the right guy or not because we haven't seen who he'd hire to replace Pasqualoni, and what that replacement coach's record is yet. I am curious as to who that would be.

If you have information who WM is going to hire, and you can say what that replacement's record at UConn is likely to be, then please forward that information to Herbst and the board of trustees, I'm sure they'd value having the input of someone who can see the future.

Now, we do have some evidence on WM's record as UConn AD, getting the academics up to standards, getting the bball practice facility funded and built, hiring the new hockey coach, making sure KO was the right guy for the MBB program by having him audition both on the court and proving the team could perform in the classroom. I think the rebranding was okay, obviously that's a polarizing issue. Those things are not as important as hiring the next football coach, but they're not nothing, at least not to me. But if you feel any bottom of the barrel AD could do that, that's your prerogative.

 

[SubbaBub]

We'll see how he handles this. Everything up to now has been influenced more by his predecessors than him. CR, KO, PP after year 2 etc.

 

[ruskin]

No one fires coaches after 2 years. It's just not done.

If ADs are canned for giving bad coaches 3 years, then Louisville should can Jurich.
ND gave Weis 3 years, Miami gave the last guy 3 years, everyone gets 3 years. Ty Willingham got 3 years at both ND and Washington.

Again three examples from team in stable conference situations "Just not done" is another way of saying "we've always done it this way"

 

[upstater]

Again three examples from team in stable conference situations "Just not done" is another way of saying "we've always done it this way"

Louisville was like UConn when they did it. They weren't in a stable conference.

Who are you going to attract here if he knows this is the type of place that fires coaches after 2 years? Especially with Pasqualoni's recruits? Someone willing to commit career suicide?

 

[freescooter]

1. How does bringing in Manuel shore up the academic side? He has nothing to do with it. This makes no sense. If you want to shore up the academic side, you bring in academics. If I want my pipe unclogged, I don't call the pizza guy. That's why I put quotes around "academic." In some ways it was the perfect decision. Herbst made a PR selection to solve a PR problem.

2. Are you a big fan of Jeff Hathaway? If yes, OK. If no, then maybe you're satisfied as to why Herbst hired a new AD. Not a fan of Hathaway. I thought he should have been fired years ago over the Monaco Ford for tickets situation. That I agree that UConn needed a new AD doesn't equate to thinking Manuel is the right selection. We needed a new football coach in 2011. Clearly the wrong choice was made then too.

3. The only mistake Manuel made was in not making Ollie the chief from day 1. Hmmmmm, who agreed with Manuel's decision to do that? Did you? I could give you a list of mistakes Manuel made from his failure to demand that Calhoun make a decison on whether to return to his willingness to schedule a basketball game against a football game in two consecutive years, to his monitoring the conference realignment situation while Jurich and others were actually lobbying for their schools. The list of miscues is long for such a short tenure.

4. How do you know Manuel doesn't understand football? Because he didn't fire a coach after 2 years? Under that premise, Louisville should fire Jurich ASAP!!!!!!!!!!

Jurcih has a history of success. Of course he gets the benefit of the doubt.Furthermore, he was in a different situation. Warde was the new AD and had much more flexibility and much more ability to make a move. Beyond that, do you really want to compare Warde's accomplishments to Jurich's? Seriously?

 

[ruskin]

Louisville was like UConn when they did it. They weren't in a stable conference.

Who are you going to attract here if he knows this is the type of place that fires coaches after 2 years? Especially with Pasqualoni's recruits? Someone willing to commit career suicide?

Please. How many coaching jobs pay $1.6 million? You'll find someone good and young and confident willing to take that "chance" of two years. There's a lot more good candidates than you think who would love to have the infrastructure advantanges (facility) Pasqualoni is peeing away. And the coaching fraternity - and anyone with common sense understands what a cluster duckck the current situation is, starting with the bad hire two years ago.

 

[IMind]

No one fires coaches after 2 years. It's just not done.

If ADs are canned for giving bad coaches 3 years, then Louisville should can Jurich.
ND gave Weis 3 years, Miami gave the last guy 3 years, everyone gets 3 years. Ty Willingham got 3 years at both ND and Washington.

Gross gave Greg Robinson 4 years.

 

[Afroabe224]

In general I think the BY places too much blame on WM and the issues that are currently facing. He has done quite a few positive things (KO extension/Football + Basketball scheduling/Cavanagh hire/renegotiating the XL contract). The elephant in the room is the PP decision. Looking at the factors after the 2012 season (top ranked defense/uptick in recruiting/a signature win/the buyout$$/Available replacements) I think giving PP one more shot to get to 8 wins was reasonable.

The truth is the Towson loss changed EVERYTHING and WM's well calculated risk looks like it will come up snake eyes. I do not defend where we are right now but as of a week ago 7 wins out of PP was doable and worth the risk.

From here we'll learn a lot about WM's value when it comes to the timing of PP firing and his replacement. In time we'll know if he can clean up Hathaway's mess and lead us forward. The only downside is that time has never been against us this much in the race to get into the p5.

 

[upstater]

To freescooter:

1. No one in the world credits Manuel with academic success at UConn, so how is it a PR move?
2. You said Herbst made the move to Manuel in order to make a dramatic move. How was bringing in Manuel a dramatic move?
3. You wanted Manuel to push Calhoun into retirement? Seriously? Do you not remember that Calhoun broke his hip in a bike accident and that Blaney called it a significant factor? Calhoun stepped down a month after breaking his hip. You think Manuel should have fired him for not stepping down sooner? Fired Calhoun? That's what you call being a good AD? And you think it is wrong for UConn to schedule a bball game that opened the college basketball season and made big waves last year just because it was scheduled at the same time as a football game on ESPN? UConn got serious publicity for the basketball game. The football game wasn't moving because it was ESPN on Friday (UConn won). The basketball game also wasn't going to move because of the time delay with Europe. Same situation this year. UConn v. Louisville on a Friday on ESPN. That isn't moving. So when Barclay's calls you up to schedule a bball game against Maryland for 2 hours prior to the football game, to kick off the entire NCAA basketball season, you simply don't say no. These are good decisions, all of them. Not bad.
4. It's not just Jurich. It's every single AD who DOESN'T fire a coach after 2 years. It's just not done. Manuel is doing what EVERY AD does, so if he's bad for doing it, all ADs are bad.

 

[ruskin]

Sorry stater the "no one does it after 2 years" argument is weak. That kind of thinking - play it safe, go by the book - is partly responsible for where UConn is now in CR. How much more do we have to see of this? The man is 64 years old and hasn't had a winning record since 2001. It's borderline criminal to give him 11 more chances to further devalue the brand.

 

[upstater]

Please. How many coaching jobs pay $1.6 million? You'll find someone good and young and confident willing to take that "chance" of two years. There's a lot more good candidates than you think who would love to have the infrastructure advantanges (facility) Pasqualoni is peeing away. And the coaching fraternity - and anyone with common sense understands what a cluster duckck the current situation is, starting with the bad hire two years ago.

There will be plenty of takes for that $1.6 million. That's the problem. There were plenty of takers for Illinois's bball HC position too. No shortage there. But the truly top guys said, "No thanks!"

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Forgetting the fact we could not afford the fire Coach Pee and pay his replacement, what should he have done. Too many people waiting for Superman instead of human leaders who deal with multiple circumstances. This board would be funny if is wasn't so sad. Our future schedule is solid and both of out basketball coaches are signed for years to come. What else do you need your AD to do? Cure cancer?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Didn't the Kansas AD fire Gill after 2 years? And then followed that up with Weis?

 

[upstater]

Sorry stater the "no one does it after 2 years" argument is weak. That kind of thinking - play it safe, go by the book - is partly responsible for where UConn is now in CR. How much more do we have to see of this? The man is 64 years old and hasn't had a winning record since 2001. It's borderline criminal to give him 11 more chances to further devalue the brand.

It's not play-it-safe at all.

From a good coach's perspective it is, will this school give me the support I need to turn it around? Or are they clowns like the people over at Pitt?

That makes a big difference.

I call it playing it smart.

 

[upstater]

Didn't the Kansas AD fire Gill after 2 years? And then followed that up with Weis?

That sounds like an argument in my favor.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Didn't the Kansas AD fire Gill after 2 years? And then followed that up with Weis?

Kansas has Big 12 TV contract money. We have.....something else. They can afford to pay a fired coach the multiple years remaining on his contract and pay the new guy. And hiring Weis isn't what I would call a good thing.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

That sounds like an argument in my favor.

I'm not making an argument either way. If it were up to me I'd of canned P in December. But I understand the various reasons why it wasn't done.