Coaching hires ranked | The Boneyard

Coaching hires ranked

Who is this Connelly guy? Does he know anything? If he does, it sounds like Toledo got a great replacement for Candle. Morris seems to be following the Chesney formula and, if so, may not be there long before some P4 steals him.
He puts down Candle as if he didn't accomplish much. Meanwhile Candle won the MAC twice and had great success putting players in the NFL.
I'd take winning with great players as something to aspire to as long as he doesn't have "red pants" moments managing the games.
 
Scrutineer said:
Who is this Connelly guy? Does he know anything? If he does, it sounds like Toledo got a great replacement for Candle. Morris seems to be following the Chesney formula and, if so, may not be there long before some P4 steals him.
He puts down Candle as if he didn't accomplish much. Meanwhile Candle won the MAC twice and had great success putting players in the NFL.
I'd take winning with great players as something to aspire to as long as he doesn't have "red pants" moments managing the games.
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I would love to know more specfics about why they think Candle underachieved. Was it game prep…game management..offensive of defensive scheme…leadership?
 
Scrutineer said:
Who is this Connelly guy? Does he know anything? If he does, it sounds like Toledo got a great replacement for Candle. Morris seems to be following the Chesney formula and, if so, may not be there long before some P4 steals him.
He puts down Candle as if he didn't accomplish much. Meanwhile Candle won the MAC twice and had great success putting players in the NFL.
I'd take winning with great players as something to aspire to as long as he doesn't have "red pants" moments managing the games.
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Connelly is one of the best cfb guys out there imo. He's the one that created SP+ and also spent a lot of time at Football Outsiders. I wouldn't put too much stock on his grade considering there's no way he could have put too much thought into 30 coaching hires. However, the Candle description is stuff that a lot of Toledo fans were saying about his tenure there.
 
ShakyTheMohel said:
I would love to know more specfics about why they think Candle underachieved. Was it game prep…game management..offensive of defensive scheme…leadership?
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It's an interesting read but grain of salt to most of this. I'll best half of these evaluations are based on message board opinions and backfilled with selective statistics. No way were they (ESPN) going to grade us higher than Toledo or CSU. Take a look at Bill's 2025 ACC Preview if you want to know how much he knows.
 
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while perusing the Toledo message boards when Candle was first hired I noticed some posters stated that Candle underachieved. I'm not sure I buy it. Toledo is probably one of the strongest MAC programs but I'm sure the top of the conference was fairly equal

plus many couldn't understand why a coach would leave Toledo for UConn, so their perception was obviously skewed like Mrs Riley without glasses

 
IMHO, he’s what we need

A serious guy to lead a program where many still question how serious where we are.

A winner when we need to show sustained winning.

A developer of talent where I felt we became overly reliant on the portal.

A guy committed to building and maintaining programs. We’ve seen too many coaches in the time he spent at Toledo. We need someone who is fully committed to the school and the program and not looking to get back home.
 
A B hire is perfectly fine for us, it was a reasonable choice that wasn’t a media breaker, but that’s about as good as you can expect with UConn. The fact we were able to get a great recruiter with FBS experience and success is the value.
 
Here are some of ESPN's grades for the year Jim Mora was hired:

Jim Mora UConn B+
Dan Lanning Oregon B
Joey McGuire Texas Tech B
Jerry Kill New Mexico St. B
Brent Pry Virginia Tech B+
Don Brown UMass A-
Billy Napier Florida A-
Jay Norvell Colorado St. A

In other words, don't worry about ESPN's coaching hire grades.
 
UConnJim said:
Here are some of ESPN's grades for the year Jim Mora was hired:

Jim Mora UConn B+
Dan Lanning Oregon B
Joey McGuire Texas Tech B
Jerry Kill New Mexico St. B
Brent Pry Virginia Tech B+
Don Brown UMass A-
Billy Napier Florida A-
Jay Norvell Colorado St. A

In other words, don't worry about ESPN's coaching hire grades.
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All the dudes who got B’s should be A’s and all the A’s should be D’s or F’s LOL
 
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NYT/Athletic take:



“UConn (A-): Toledo head coach Jason Candle

I thought the Mount Union alum would earn a bigger job a while ago, given he went 81-44 and won two conference titles over his decade-long tenure at Toledo. He’ll look to build on Mora’s success.”
 
Not to quibble because he only gave out 1 A so an A- is pretty good. By why the minus? He thought HCJC could have gotten a bigger job so it sounds like an A+ for UConn to me.

Virginia Tech only got a B+ with James Franklin. The way that program has been struggling, this was also an A+ depending on how many Penn State or other P4 transfers he brings in.
 
His grading probably reflects reality. Solid coach but isn’t a miracle worker. He’s a 7 win per season, competitive grinder as his ~ .650 record indicates with annove and below average years. I think we will build a competitive above-average program hanging around the 50-70 mark. He isn’t going to turn us into the next Indiana and bring us a playoff. I would love to be wrong on that account but history says otherwise.
 
giddyup said:
His grading probably reflects reality. Solid coach but isn’t a miracle worker. He’s a 7 win per season, competitive grinder as his ~ .650 record indicates with annove and below average years. I think we will build a competitive above-average program hanging around the 50-70 mark. He isn’t going to turn us into the next Indiana and bring us a playoff. I would love to be wrong on that account but history says otherwise.
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UConn will devote significantly more money to football than Toledo, better players, better results (Toledo SOS was #113 and UConn #117). Candle doesn't strike me as a guy who makes rash employment decisions so picking UConn seems like he expects to succeed. Now what is success, take 2025 where UConn was 9-3 (don't count bowl game as was stupid situation and could have been anywhere from 6-6 to 12-0) and Massey had UConn as #85. Last year #50 was 9-4 Wake Forest and #70 was a 2-10 Arkansas (and lot of P4 schools in between). Being #50 would be a stupendous improvement from anything recently done at UConn.

I'd like to think maybe top 30ish like James Madison (12-2) as an aim, and if playoffs go to 24 teams a shot at playoffs as the carrot of the playoffs would really energize a UConn type program.

Get to 4-0 this year, and beat the fruit at home and will be getting votes in top 25. I expect to see a 2-0 team when I go to Hattiesburg.
 
Husky68 said:
UConn will devote significantly more money to football than Toledo, better players, better results (Toledo SOS was #113 and UConn #117). Candle doesn't strike me as a guy who makes rash employment decisions so picking UConn seems like he expects to succeed. Now what is success, take 2025 where UConn was 9-3 (don't count bowl game as was stupid situation and could have been anywhere from 6-6 to 12-0) and Massey had UConn as #85. Last year #50 was 9-4 Wake Forest and #70 was a 2-10 Arkansas (and lot of P4 schools in between). Being #50 would be a stupendous improvement from anything recently done at UConn.

I'd like to think maybe top 30ish like James Madison (12-2) as an aim, and if playoffs go to 24 teams a shot at playoffs as the carrot of the playoffs would really energize a UConn type program.

Get to 4-0 this year, and beat the fruit at home and will be getting votes in top 25. I expect to see a 2-0 team when I go to Hattiesburg.
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Not complaining, just stating we can’t expect miracles. You in Hattiesburg? Used to roll through many a time on I 59 on my way to and from New Orleans. Back in the day those roads were some endless expanses of pine and country.
 
I wonder if blue/white kid will go to hattiesburg. that just seems soooo out of the way, lol
 
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UConnJim said:
Here are some of ESPN's grades for the year Jim Mora was hired:

Jim Mora UConn B+
Dan Lanning Oregon B
Joey McGuire Texas Tech B
Jerry Kill New Mexico St. B
Brent Pry Virginia Tech B+
Don Brown UMass A-
Billy Napier Florida A-
Jay Norvell Colorado St. A

In other words, don't worry about ESPN's coaching hire grades.
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I’d say they got Jim Mora close. Wildly off on most others.
 
huskymedic said:
NYT/Athletic take:



“UConn (A-): Toledo head coach Jason Candle

I thought the Mount Union alum would earn a bigger job a while ago, given he went 81-44 and won two conference titles over his decade-long tenure at Toledo. He’ll look to build on Mora’s success.”
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Here's ESPN's comments about Candle:

IMG_6465.jpeg


Apparently averaging over eight wins a year was "a disappointment." Buried in the middle of that is the main takeaway: "he's clearly good."
 
CL82 said:
Here's ESPN's comments about Candle:

View attachment 117469

Apparently averaging over eight wins a year was "a disappointment." Buried in the middle of that is the main takeaway: "he's clearly good."
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This is the narrative he's been wrapped in. Great recruiter, disappointing results.

I'm sure he is very much looking forward to proving every one of these write ups wrong.
 
uconnfan68 said:
I’d say they got Jim Mora close. Wildly off on most others.
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A guy who took a team that had not had a winning season in 10 years and had not won more than 3 games over the past 5 years and went 6-6 coming off a 1-11 season, then had back to back 9 win seasons with multiple P4 wins, was a B+. Wow! You are one tough grader. Mora did what many people didn’t think was possible at UConn. You’d probably give Einstein a c+ in physics!
 
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I am going to hold off on any judgment until after he coaches here a year or two. So many times what appears to be a good hire isn't and visa versa. The media was hyping the Aaron Glenn hire for the Jets. When Parcells wasc hired by the Giants, a lot of Giants fans I knew didn't like it because he was inexperienced. Even some coaches that didn't have success in previous jobs learned from their failures and became better.
 
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