Assistant Coach Search

[Ldandy]

The staff that he puts in place and the early recruiting results will make or break the hiring of Jim Mora. Does Spanos stay as DC? Mazzone comes on as OC? Does Corey, our best recruiter, stay? Who else makes sense? I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

The early recruiting results will make or break the hiring of Jim Mora? Sorry but that is just wrong. Most kids sign in December now. Mora won't be officially the coach until the end of the month. Outside of trying to keep the remaining class in the fold, who exactly is he going to pull to a 1 win team with no prior relationship and about 2-3 weeks to build one? The only way you can begin to judge Mora is after the second signing day for the 2023 class. Even more important will be how he fares with the portal after this and next season. As for Corey Edsall. Meh. His recruiting prowess is overblown on this board. He's like the skinniest fat person. Only good by comparison. JMO but I'd want all connections to Edsall cut unless they have prior ties to Mora.

 

[#1 PA Husky Fan]

The early recruiting results will make or break the hiring of Jim Mora? Sorry but that is just wrong. Most kids sign in December now. Mora won't be officially the coach until the end of the month. Outside of trying to keep the remaining class in the fold, who exactly is he going to pull to a 1 win team with no prior relationship and about 2-3 weeks to build one? The only way you can begin to judge Mora is after the second signing day for the 2023 class. Even more important will be how he fares with the portal after this and next season. As for Corey Edsall. Meh. His recruiting prowess is overblown on this board. He's like the skinniest fat person. Only good by comparison. JMO but I'd want all connections to Edsall cut unless they have prior ties to Mora.

The title of the thread is Assistant Coach Search. The hiring of the staff he has 100% control over, and I expect it to be a quality staff.
Will be nice if he can recruit the kids on the current roster that can contribute, recruit the current commits to stay committed. And recruit the transfers and JuCo’s for next season. It doesn’t say the early signing period.

 

[Buffett10]

I'm not going to pretend to know if Spanos is any good or not as I don't know enough, I'm just an armchair internet warrior who never played the game. To just look at the numbers may not be enough and, as we've all seen, stats can be made to say anything to support or disprove a point. With the offense often not on the field much, that puts more pressure on the D. Maybe we're young and inexperienced. Looking at the Clemson 2 deep, I see 2 freshman, 2 sophomores, 6 juniors and 1 senior. Not bad, but a couple young spots. The freshman are at the safety spot. Maybe the safeties coach or the linebackers coach or d-line coach stinks. I have no idea.
A long way of saying, if Mora knows Spanos and believes he's the right man for the job, who am I to say otherwise? I will trust his judgement until I have reason not to, like when we all soured on GDL and how most if not all of us feel about Giufre.

His defense allowed 52 to Army's 2nd string Qb. It would have been 70+ if they didnt pull their starters in the 3rd. Youth and inexperience can only be an excuse for so long and we've heard that for yrs now. Can't wait to see what his defense does against Clemson.

 

[hayman522]

We're 1-8. No one is owed anything.

Exactly.

 

[ktuck911]

I don’t know, I kind of feel like the state is owed a refund on some of these guys salaries, but that’s just me.

Best response on this thread... hands down...

 

[WestHartHusk]

No. More. Canada.

This needs 2 likes.

 

[jdb50]

New coach is with the team. 3 games to go for the existing staff most of whom will not be back. AWKWARD. Having coach Mora here now is a huge advantage to keeping remaining players and contacting verbal and new recruits so we are in a better position at the start of next year. I would like to see Coach King retained. But this is an interesting position for a new coach to be in. To say the least.

 

[Bubba1957]

Regarding keeping the committed players; I can’t see how any recruit would not see this hirer as a very positive development. Getting to play for a big time coach at a school that just confirmed it’s commitment to making it work. Kids de commit for lots of reasons but this new coach should not be one of them. Also, in order to make room for transfers , coach may rescind a few.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

I throw in Texas and Georgia as well. And UConn has had a lot of luck in Canada so it would be worth to continue to look up north as well.

I'm also going to see if we could keep recruiting Europe, too. And maybe Australia.

I know those area are not the best area for football, but why not? Maybe Mexico, too.

 

[Exit 4]

One would have to believe in conspiracy theories to think Mora’s interest in UConn, or vice versa, wasn’t helped along by Spanos being in the middle. And unless Spanos is going from coaching to the priesthood, he didn’t get that ball rolling without thinking it was going to lead to him keeping his job. Res ipso loquitor is applicable here.

Don’t know what Mazzone is ready for at this point and what Mora thinks he needs, but certainly the fan base won’t have a problem with him being brought here in some capacity. Is it an OC or a non-coaching analyst, like he did this year? No idea.

Given the number of new hires Mora has to make, and the fact that he’s been out of coaching for four years, I don’t see why he wouldn’t keep Corey for one year and see if he’s a good fit for him or not. It would be a huge help in keeping this year’s recruits here, he demonstrated good recruiting skills and to me the benefits of his ties to this year’s class are worth the risk that Mora will determine he’s not a good fit to be the junior guy on the staff. And if he’s not a good fit, you replace him after next year.

Bingo

 

[Stinger92860]

This needs 2 likes.

Moe Petrus, Alex Mateas, and Denham Brown think you and @JMick are full of it.

 

[Exit 4]

So we know Mora has ties to Mazzone and Spanos, I think it’s a given both are on the staff next year.

Now Mazzone has ties with John Marinelli, former Greenwich High head coach. Marinelli was assistant qb coach at Arizona under Kevin Sumlin and now is an analyst with Illinois. He needs to be brought back to CT - he can be the qb coach. He knows Fairfield County and can be the lead CT recruiter.

Where I think Marinelli might be able to make a big difference is to land that next in state QB. We have had a rather open opportunity to play QB here for a decade, yet we have netted far too few of the top northeastern arms. And while I remain super excited about Tyler Phommachanh and his potential, obviously we are going to need far more than just one + level capable QB on this roster to turn the corner.

 

[JMick]

Where I think Marinelli might be able to make a big difference is to land that next in state QB. We have had a rather open opportunity to play QB here for a decade, yet we have netted far too few of the top northeastern arms. And while I remain super excited about Tyler Phommachanh and his potential, obviously we are going to need far more than just one + level capable QB on this roster to turn the corner.

We need to bring in multiple QBs in this year. Transfer, JUCO, whatever. I'm really excited for Tyler but we have to bring in as many capable arms as possible

 

[Stinger92860]

Where I think Marinelli might be able to make a big difference is to land that next in state QB. We have had a rather open opportunity to play QB here for a decade, yet we have netted far too few of the top northeastern arms. And while I remain super excited about Tyler Phommachanh and his potential, obviously we are going to need far more than just one + level capable QB on this roster to turn the corner.

John and Lou!!!!!

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Exactly. Normally I would say Spanos should be jettisoned simply because the defense has been horrific. But he has had success with Mora at UCLA so Would understand why he might be retained, but it absolutely 100% should not be as defensive coordinator.

UCONN is a tough place to attract talent - you need all hands on deck, the best recruiters available should be hired.

“It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it’s about the Jimmys and Joes” - Bear Bryant

Myself, I would love to keep Spanos on staff. However, If Jim Mora can get a great DC, then I'll say Spanos tried, but now it's Jim Mora's time.

 

[Exit 4]

We need to bring in multiple QBs in this year. Transfer, JUCO, whatever. I'm really excited for Tyler but we have to bring in as many capable arms as possible

Yeah, I am hoping we get a serious grad/portal guy for spring ball + Calhoun + a second transfer (maybe after spring) to bolster depth. Also need to reinvigorate the WO QB program.

The goal has to be to have a transfer vs Tyler Phommachanh battle in August. If Tyler Phommachanh is healing slow (no prob), then it has to be a battle between the transfer QBs. Calhoun enters the fray in 2023 after a year of conditioning and film.

We need to have two serious QB dudes vying for snaps week 1 in 2022. We need QBs that have the moxie for a competitive in house battle.

 

[WestHartHusk]

Moe Petrus, Alex Mateas, and Denham Brown think you and @JMick are full of it.

Sure, you can search an entire country that plays a different sport to have 2 football players to throw in my face. Or you can just take a 2 hour ride to established NJ schools where there are an abundance of kids that actually our sport.

 

[ktuck911]

Myself, I would love to keep Spanos on staff. However, If Jim Mora can get a great DC, then I'll say Spanos tried, but now it's Jim Mora's time.

The way he's talking in interviews so far, I think his primary focus is bring in a OC.... didn't seem to hear much about bringing in a DC... or did I miss something? my bad if I did...

 

[HobokenHusky]

I honestly don’t care a ton about DC - that is Mora’s speciality so you are essentially getting a DC in the HC. With that in mind keeping Spanos so we can essentially keep who we want to on the roster is a savvy move.

Mazzone and Marinelli would be an absolute home run on the offensive side. I think it’s hard to understand how respected Mazzone is around the country. Young phenom OCs around the country look at him as a mentor figure. Combined that with the home state mentee and not much more you can ask for.

 

[tower1]

The people that want to keep spanos and his crap defense for continuity or because the kids like him are idiots. His defense is giving up 38 ppg but hey the kids like him so we gotta keep him. Give me a break

Agree get rid of all of them !!!

 

[UConnRock]

Harasymiak is making $380k as co-DC at Minnesota. Viable option for DC with a nice bump in pay?

 

[Alum86]

Outside of what you mention here, my issue with Corey is that we really know how good our TE's actually are. They're so under utilized that I don't think we can make a judgement one way or the other.

True. But they are not that good and they don’t block.

 

[Alum86]

Moe Petrus, Alex Mateas, and Denham Brown think you and @JMick are full of it.

LOL. Denham cost us the Mason game. Canada.. pfffffft

 

[ktuck911]

LOL. Denham cost us the Mason game. Canada.. pfffffft

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Disagree on Canada - there are literally twice as many kids from Canada playing in the NFL as there are from CT. If you concentrate on the Grater Toronto and Montreal areas and make/keep relationships with a dozen or so high school programs you can fairly easily elbow your way to some good talent on a regular basis. It might not be 5-star talent, but it can be 3/4-star talent that will work hard (i.e. less ego and more appreciation to play the game in the States). It makes no sense to turn your back on Canada as a recruiting area.