Edsall will make us competitive again

[UConnNick]

I'm not worried about Edsall.

I am worried that almost every Northeast football program has looked like garbage since conference realignment has played out. Something is going on. UConn, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, etc. They all look disturbingly bad and it can't be a coincidence.

Every program you mention except Rutgers now play in conferences dominated by southern schools in football recruiting hotbeds. Rutgers is in way over its head in a football dominant conference across the board. Northeastern schools don't get to walk into their backyard and find the quality recruits their conference competitors find in their backyards. And when you compete for out-of-area recruits, you have to convince them to move hundreds or thousands of miles from home to play in a climate they are not used to, that gets inhospitable in Nov. and Dec.

 

[BugsyCT]

Yup. They have the advantages of not only already being established powers (Alabama, Florida State, etc) that the best high school kids want to play for, but the talent pools are in their own backyards. Those 4-5 star recruits can play closer to home. We look to Pennsylvania & Ohio for the best, they have the whole South.

Football being a huge part of the culture & tradition in those places has laid the groundwork for the balance of power we have today.

 

[Jax Husky]

I'm not worried about Edsall.

I am worried that almost every Northeast football program has looked like garbage since conference realignment has played out. Something is going on. UConn, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, etc. They all look disturbingly bad and it can't be a coincidence.

Yep, the disolution of the Big East for a few dollars has ruined Northeastern football. Fools.

 

[BUConn10]

I'm not worried about Edsall.

I am worried that almost every Northeast football program has looked like garbage since conference realignment has played out. Something is going on. UConn, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, etc. They all look disturbingly bad and it can't be a coincidence.

New-age monopoly on recruiting. All the conference expansion and realignment, specially-targeted bowl game locations and recruiting camps have given the traditional powers recruiting roots in every hotbed across the country. The Northeast of the US is already in my opinion the most talent starved football recruiting territory, purely because of culture and population demographics. So occasional gems we would produce here in the prep programs in Jersey, NY, MA, etc are now getting poached by the Michigans, OSUs, and Bama's of the sport since they all have regular recruiting and exposure presence nationally more than ever, and conference consolidation has reduced the competition for those at the top. Forming a respectable roster just by dominating your home recruiting territory is harder than ever for the Northeastern programs. This is just my assessment of the environment of college football at the moment as a sports fan.

 

[UConnNick]

Yup. They have the advantages of not only already being established powers (Alabama, Florida State, etc) that the best high school kids want to play for, but the talent pools are in their own backyards. Those 4-5 star recruits can play closer to home. We look to Pennsylvania & Ohio for the best, they have the whole South.

Football being a huge part of the culture & tradition in those places has laid the groundwork for the balance of power we have today.

That's correct. When the Ivy League schools elected to de-emphasize football and dropped from the ranks of national powers, along with the gradual decline of the service academy teams, northeastern CFB became largely irrelevant. Syracuse and later Penn State tried to fill the void but it wasn't nearly enough to keep the high level of interest that existed when all eight Ivy League school were nationally competitive. Now we are over 60 years removed from the formal organization of the Ivy League in 1956 and their decision to do away with athletic scholarships and not play in bowl games. That legacy continues to hurt, as most of the rest of the country became CFB crazy while northeastern markets became apathetic. We're trying to play catch up but it's a huge gap to close.

Hopefully we can get there. We managed to bring New England back into CBB prominence after a really long dry spell, so who knows, maybe we can eventually do it again in another sport.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

That's correct. When the Ivy League schools elected to de-emphasize football and dropped from the ranks of national powers, along with the gradual decline of the service academy teams, northeastern CFB became largely irrelevant. Syracuse and later Penn State tried to fill the void but it wasn't nearly enough to keep the high level of interest that existed when all eight Ivy League school were nationally competitive. Now we are over 60 years removed from the formal organization of the Ivy League in 1956 and their decision to do away with athletic scholarships and not play in bowl games. That legacy continues to hurt, as most of the rest of the country became CFB crazy while northeastern markets became apathetic. We're trying to play catch up but it's a huge gap to close.

Hopefully we can get there. We managed to bring New England back into CBB prominence after a really long dry spell, so who knows, maybe we can eventually do it again in another sport.

Area became pro- centric while dominated by smaller liberal arts institutions instead of State U.

 

[businesslawyer]

I noticed the comments on Edsall and the corner backs gaining confidence. Does anyone recall what year it was where Edsall took over the secondary responsibilities?

He did it at the start of 2010. He let go of it about the time that that team turned its season around and made its run to the Fiesta Bowl.

 

[uconndogs]

Edsall will get us competitive in the AAC, but it's going to take some time. Crazy Bob screwed the roster with lumbering slow players. We've already seen attempts to address this, but it will take more time.

 

[jayfromfla]

Please. Give it a break. He has a partial recruiting class. Most of whom will be red shirts. Diaco recruiting was rated 100plus. Re is in the mid 80s. It will take time. Not two games