Avon Old Farms

[Duncan Idaho]

Had a lot of talent. But that first year, had no qb, and the second year, OL collapsed. Just a rough go of it.

Should have been better, 8-4 year one and probably 7-5 and 8-4 year 2 as well.

Just didn’t deliver as little things beat them.

The firing of him after four games, though, looking back, is what destroyed the program. Should have kept him for the year imo. By the time diaco came in, the house crumbled and diaco thought he had to blow the entire thing up.

Thoughtful take on the timing of his firing. I use to go to some of the practices spending time with the OL group. I remember not one of the 15 or so guys could answer any of GD's questions posed to them during his chalk talk sessions with them. gotta hand it to you John, you always have P's back in these threads. Good football man, but not good here.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Um - I think there was a reason he didn’t give Joe Williams an opportunity.

He did just fine at Utah. He gave McCombs another chance(s).

 

[Duncan Idaho]

He did just fine at Utah. He gave McCombs another chance(s).

Wished he could have played him more as a freshman. IIRC he was running all over the place from practice reports. But McCombs did have a good year.

 

[Alum86]

So he’s coach of a prep school now? I remember visiting friends at WesConn around ‘83 or so when he was coach. He walked the halls of the dorm like a drill sgt making sure his players were in line. He made Western a D3 power or at least a regional one. For us? Not so much. He was on the decline when he got here.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

PP was a lazy hire. A quick, just get someone hire. The AD and admin were more interested in fretting about how RE left, when they should have been looking to hire someone who could take UConn from an 8-4, 7-5 plateau to a 9-3, 10-2 level. A lazy, knee jerk hire.

 

[AllHusky]

PP was a lazy hire. A quick, just get someone hire. The AD and admin were more interested in fretting about how RE left, when they should have been looking to hire someone who could take UConn from an 8-4, 7-5 plateau to a 9-3, 10-2 level. A lazy, knee jerk hire.

Exactly, don’t blame PP, blame the folks who hired him!

 

[Bongo Fury]

It was falsely reported that they had hired Mark Whipple who wanted to bring in coaches of his choice. PP pretty much kept the existing coaches.

 

[Palatine]

PP's biggest mistake was George DeLeon. He had given P one of his first football jobs and Paul repaid him by giving him a job everywhere he went. His first job at UConn was the offensive line. The players didn't like him and that's mild, they thought he was an .

In the very first game with P as UConn coach, on the very first offensive play, our LT and left guard separated and left a clear path for a (Fordham?) player to sack our QB. That was an omen of George's work. P later promoted him to Offensive Coordinator. He was eventually let go but the die was cast.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It was falsely reported that they had hired Mark Whipple who wanted to bring in coaches of his choice. PP pretty much kept the existing coaches.

When the report on Whip came out, the only coach he said he wanted to bring in was Don Brown (who Whip had previously worked with at UMass and was on the market because Maryland's new head coach had a far different defensive philosophy). Brown came here anyway as it turned out.

The issue I had with that part of the mess is it is what led Orlando to look for another job prior to his job here being filled as the clear message was that he had no job security.

P continually spoke to players/staff about how he knew what a top program looked like (implying that a Fiesta bowl team didn't), challenged some players to a fist fight and recruited more from published rankings than what he actually saw (ask Larry Coker how well that works).

While he may have been a pleasant person outside of the environment of running a football program, as our head coach he was far from being a good coach or person. The only one worse was his buddy Deleone.