AD Manuel is not the right guy for the job

[upstater]

Here's my thinking. Given that Warde wanted to give PP his 3rd year to improve on his two 5-7 seasons at UConn, he gives him til the Central Florida game (Oct. 26th). If this team goes winless, or even 1-6 win by this game, there's really no hope for bowl eligibility or a winning season. By losing to a FCS school I'd doubt going 6-6 would qualify us for a bowl game, plus we'd still have Lousiville, SMU, Temple and Rutgers on our schedule. And who knows about Memphis... So why not cut ties then, get the job done, and focus on winning what we can with an interim HC, and start the search for a new HC early?

The search for a new coach started before halftime Thursday.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Agreed, but Warde basically said that this issue was above his noise level. Guys like Jurich elevate themselves to the noise level they need to be at. From my vantage point, chilling out from the Caymans while Jurich schooled him just looked incredibly weak. He looked completely disconnected and irrelevant.

That's fine. But don't confuse your vantage point with reality.

 

[uconnell]

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


Kansas did it a couple of years ago.

 

[Waquoit]

Firing PP? I wanted it done. Many here did too. But, I believe that Warde Manual was perfectly reasonable in that decision. He even pressed PP on GDL. I can't fault him in December ... and didn't. I hated not starting with a new regime this year. But, he did what institutional guys do.

Keeping P was a bad move for the school but probably a good move for Warde. He's not taking any heat outside of the Yard for what he did. But a "rockstar" isn't afraid to take a chance. There was no evidence, zero, zilch, nada that P was going to turn this thing around. Warde's cold feet cost us a valuable year or more.

 

[BlueDogs]

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?

The guy who wants to take control of this mess and believes he can fix it is the guy we want. Not the guy who is worried about failing and getting fired. There are plenty of performance oriented folks who would take the challenge because they believe they can make things happen.

 

[upstater]

The guy who wants to take control of this mess and believes he can fix it is the guy we want. Not the guy who is worried about failing and getting fired. There are plenty of performance oriented folks who would take the challenge because they believe they can make things happen.

This is Uconn. Not Michigan. Anyone who comes here is looking to make a name for himself and move on. Let's be realistic.

 

[BlueDogs]

This is Uconn. Not Michigan. Anyone who comes here is looking to make a name for himself and move on. Let's be realistic.

I'd argue the "lets be realistic" mantra is part of the reason we are in this mess. I think UCONN is a great place to be and Id gladly take a guy who wants to make a name for himself and move on, because that means he must have succeeded and the program got better for it.

 

[freescooter]

Of course he was hired for the PR value of having "fixed" Buffalo's APR problems. go bakc and read the stories about him. Go back and read about his appointment. that was front and center in EVERYTHING written at the time. Now nobody is going to admit to that now, but at the time, that was clearly on everyone's mind. Go back and read the Buff news from his tenure there. It and hiring the football coach are his top accomplishments en virtually every story about him. It was the thing that made him a "rock star." Had UConn not had its own APR issues at the time, it would not have been enough to get him in the door. But it did and it was.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

If Warde wanted to and couldn't round up the money...is it his fault?

....never mind.

 

[ZooCougar]

That's fine. But don't confuse your vantage point with reality.

That is reality dude.

We actually came out looking worse on the other end simply because they dithered . There was no fight in those dogs.

 

[upstater]

I'd argue the "lets be realistic" mantra is part of the reason we are in this mess. I think UCONN is a great place to be and Id gladly take a guy who wants to make a name for himself and move on, because that means he must have succeeded and the program got better for it.

Right, that's exactly what I'm saying. That guy is going to come here if he knows he has the support to turn things around, whereas at Michigan he knows the long knives are out early, and the boosters will do a RichRod number on you in an instant. UConn is not going to attract the kind of coach that is going to risk everything. Not if that same coach can wait a year and land at, say, South Florida. Remember, our braintrust didn't call Addazio. They should have. He went to Temple. But a guy like that could easily end up at a school with a program on UConn's level. He doesn't need UConn.

 

[Kevin Caliendo]

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.

those guys all should have been fired after two years and their programs would have been better off

 

[upstater]

Of course he was hired for the PR value of having "fixed" Buffalo's APR problems. go bakc and read the stories about him. Go back and read about his appointment. that was front and center in EVERYTHING written at the time. Now nobody is going to admit to that now, but at the time, that was clearly on everyone's mind. Go back and read the Buff news from his tenure there. It and hiring the football coach are his top accomplishments en virtually every story about him. It was the thing that made him a "rock star." Had UConn not had its own APR issues at the time, it would not have been enough to get him in the door. But it did and it was.

I'm at Buffalo. I deal with athletics all the time. What you're writing is 100% unadulterated bunk.

First off, I know exactly what they did to bump up the scores, since it was done prior to Manuel getting there. Secondly, the scores went from 890 before he got there to 920 when he left.

Here's the kicker. He wasn't there long enough to make a big impact. APR scores are 4 years behind. The 20 point jump took scores from 4 years prior to Manuel getting there, and the bump happened immediately. It coincided with his presence, but the scores were 4 years old. Did APR scores rise after that initial jump to 920? NO. After Manuel left, did the scores from his tenure contribute to rises? NO. The scores have been at 925 for many years now. Hmmmm, 925, the cutoff. Those are football scores.

I don't know why people were saying bad things about UB basketball. Those scores have always been in the mid 900s. Reggie Witherspoon always did a pretty good job with that. It was the football team that had been hovering in the 890s.

 

[upstater]

those guys all should have been fired after two years and their programs would have been better off

Kansas fired Turner Gill after 2. Are they better off? How does 1-11 sound?

 

[junglehusky]

I was going to write something about CR.....but I came to the same conclusion that you did. To think working the phones and making a pitch would've made even an iota of a difference is just complete nonsense.

I would only add to that - UConn was working the phones, and w were making a pitch. Louisville had a better pitch, and they had a better grasp of ACC politics. If the tobacco road schools had more clout it would've been UConn, not UL.

Sent from my SGH-T679 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bezzz]

This is Uconn. Not Michigan. Anyone who comes here is looking to make a name for himself and move on. Let's be realistic.

Yup. Just like Geno in '85. And Calhoun in '86.

 

[upstater]

Yup. Just like Geno in '85. And Calhoun in '86.

You realize we're discussing football, right? Little difference between football and women's basketball.

 

[Adios]

I am of those who think 3 years is a wise move. What a shame his likely last year had to be against a home schedule as we have for this season.

 

[Bezzz]

You realize we're discussing football, right? Little difference between football and women's basketball.

I'll give you women's BB as a rare bird but this is not unlike men's BB where UConn was an also-ran in '86 and is now a blue-blood program. UConn's football problems seem to be conference and geography...can these be overcome by a great head coach?

 

[upstater]

I'll give you women's BB as a rare bird but this is not unlike men's BB where UConn was an also-ran in '86 and is now a blue-blood program. UConn's football problems seem to be conference and geography...can these be overcome by a great head coach?

UConn can be AT LEAST as good as Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers and Boston College, and they are all in P5 conferences. But every single school in our cohort, including Cincy and Louisville, have had coaches make a name and then move on (Marrone, Jagodzinski, Schiano, Kelly, John L Smith, D'Antonio, Petrino, etc. Other than Beamer, I can think of absolutely no other long termer, and Virginia Tech is in a very fertile recruiting ground.

 

[Chief00]

Sometimes leadership is about just doing the right thing. In this case the right thing is clearly terminate Coach P immediately.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Where is jags?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

That is reality dude.

We actually came out looking worse on the other end simply because they dithered . There was no fight in those dogs.

But how do you know they were dithering? There are a handful of people that actually know what went on behind closed doors. None of those folks are posting on the BY. People are looking for a scapegoat and ignoring all the reasons why Ville was selected and we weren't.

 

[ZooCougar]

It's not scapegoating, it's pointing to a mentality. I honestly don't believe that they knew what game they were playing, I think they thought they were in and did not understand the groundswell that erupted against them.

And as Warde loves to say: they were not postured to act.

 

[freescooter]

I'm at Buffalo. I deal with athletics all the time. What you're writing is 100% unadulterated bunk.

First off, I know exactly what they did to bump up the scores, since it was done prior to Manuel getting there. Secondly, the scores went from 890 before he got there to 920 when he left.

Here's the kicker. He wasn't there long enough to make a big impact. APR scores are 4 years behind. The 20 point jump took scores from 4 years prior to Manuel getting there, and the bump happened immediately. It coincided with his presence, but the scores were 4 years old. Did APR scores rise after that initial jump to 920? NO. After Manuel left, did the scores from his tenure contribute to rises? NO. The scores have been at 925 for many years now. Hmmmm, 925, the cutoff. Those are football scores.

I don't know why people were saying bad things about UB basketball. Those scores have always been in the mid 900s. Reggie Witherspoon always did a pretty good job with that. It was the football team that had been hovering in the 890s.

I'm not making this up. Rightly or wrongly, he got the credit. I quoted from the Buffalo's own athletic web site. He was there for about 7 years, so he was there for at least 1 full APR cycle plus. Here's the link.
http://www.buffalobulls.com/information/directory/bios/manuel_warde
And I can also tell you that a member of the BoT who I know casually (we work in the same building)told me when he was hired that UConn would be getting an APR waiver because they had hired the best APR guy in the country as AD. Turns out he was wrong, but that was absolutely the perception among many associated with UConn.