I didn't know him, but remember his name. He was a year behind me at UConn. Obviously he is feeling hard for PP, but he is really off base. Warde stood behind PP much longer than a lot of people wanted him to, and suffered some public criticism for it. The play on the field was pretty horrible to watch. I was one of those who felt Edsall had done more with the program quickly than should have been expected, but that he didn't seem like the guy to get the program to a relatively stable level of even better success. I didn't know what to make of PP's hire, but was willing to wait and see (had no choice anyway). Iovino seems to forget that PP was not MW's hire. MW's obligation is to the school and the athletic program. The program has invested in a great deal of money to make the program "big time". Personally, I don't care if we are big time or not, but one can't ignore the money expended already and WM is not doing his job if his eye isn't on that rather large ball.
Iovino may be forgetting something that happened the year before he came to UConn, but which he must have been aware of as a recruit. UConn fired its very long-time head fb coach Bob Ingalls. The team had been floundering in the Yankee Conference for a few years, and the fans were just as dissatisfied as the current fans are. There were small demonstrations to get the guy fired, someone actually going on Horsebarn Hill and drawing a huge tombstone with lime that said RIP RI that was probably visible from the moon. The belief is that all the pressure led to his being fired. But there was a difference between Ingalls and Pasqualoni, a difference that made dismissing Ingalls a problem for a lot of people. Prior to the down years, UConn under Ingalls had been pretty successful in the conference. It seemed to some (not us students of course) to be a thankless way to handle a guy who had been a positive contributor.
Coaches get fired all the time and this one is not all that mystifying or cruel compared to others.
