Former UConn Player Sounds Off

[ruskin]

Guys - do a little research on Vin Iovino. Old guard of CT High School Coaches Association.

http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Danbury-s-Iovino-retiring-from-New-Canaan-AD-post-44330.php

http://articles.courant.com/2002-09...ol-coaches-coaching-fraternity-football-coach

Still involved in high school sports - he's just a friend supporting a friend.

It is mind-boggling that Vinnie I. and his CT HS coaches cronies who you would think are striving for a commitment to excellence at their level expect UConn to settle for something far less at its level so they can hobnob with one of their pals. Mind-boggling.

 

[DCUconnfan]

When Vin was in high school, he had to walk to school through two feet of snow, even in summer.

And get off his lawn, you lousy kids.

It's been comparatively slow as far as news and info go today, and since this literally made me laugh @ the office, I'm nominating it for post of the day.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I'm actually 80% sure this is weyuo...................

 

[huskymedic]

It is mind-boggling that Vinnie I. and his CT HS coaches cronies who you would think are striving for a commitment to excellence at their level expect UConn to settle for something far less at its level so they can hobnob with one of their pals. Mind-boggling.

Remember, the old school NJ and NY Football coaches also wrote letters of support for PP. This is old school generational loyalty... something that is dying (right, wrong or indifferent). This is my dad's mindset and I'm 53.

VI is FCIAC Board (or used to be). He retired as New Canaan's AD 9 years ago.

 

[WestHartHusk]

If this guy liked watching PP's teams so much that he won't watch a TJW team then i can only mention what kind of contraptions he has in his basement.

 

[HuskyHawk]

weren't most on this board rallying with pitchforks for WM to be fired a week ago? Scroll down the posts - he should be fired, he's part of a conspiracy, etc.

But they called for Warde to be fired for refusing to fire PP. This guy wants him fired for what was his best 48 hours as an AD (including the presser).

UConn was 1AA in my day, and that was fine. It was old time "pure" college football. So a few thousand went to games, and nobody travelled anywhere but the Yale bowl (and then never left the parking lot). UConn has grown beyond that. It's not a sleepy little university in the boonies of CT that nobody has ever heard of. Basketball and now academics, put us on the national map. We're in a new ballgame, and it is rougher, uglier and less civil. PP may have been a nice guy and was once a decent college coach, but he's from a prior era and wasn't able to succeed in this one. I didn't see anything classless about the way he was let go. If there is an opening in the Patriot league, he'd be a great choice.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Guys like these, first of all, make me feel young, and second of all, are from an era in intercollegiate athletics when the ECAC was a much larger, broader, and more important organization than the NCAA.

 

[UCDaveD]

Hey Vin,

 

[jackl]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...7YC4CQ&usg=AFQjCNFpP4c7tbA9OIVBS4pWOrt5FmfRAw

I was just goggling GDL to get an idea of how he meshed at UCONN with Mr. Iovino and found this FauxGDL facebook. Who the hell has time to do this? Some funny reading. Iovino graduated in 68 and GDL in 70.

 

[FDNY99]

If I'm not mistaken, this Iovino would have a been a teammate of George Deleone.

Yeah..he must have, the " support of a teamate" line gives that away. Anybody put up a comment? I did, hopefully it gets posted?

 

[junglehusky]

The guy spelled his own name incorrectly. He forgot to use initial caps on his surname.

Iovino? not Lovino? Sans serif font makes "I" look like "l"

 

[hthusky74]

http://blog.ctnews.com/uconnfootball/2013/10/03/former-uconn-player-sounds-off-on-coach-firing/

Is this guy serious? He wants Manuel to be be held accountable for the failure of PP. In addition to this, he is personally blaming Manuel for the re-branding that the university did. This guy clearly wants UConn to be small time Yankee Conference.

I don't know who was responsible for the re-branding, but I hope his/her head(s) rolls sometime soon.

 

[Srqhusky]

Could we have found huskyfan dan or his grand pappy

 

[FDNY99]

as far as rebranding...I would bet that Pasqualoni had as much input as Edsall did when the last rebranding was done. If he wanted a 3rd uniform with the husky helmet he would have got that. If he wanted his regular helmet to say UCONN across the side of the helmet, he would have got that.

 

[SubbaBub]

When I opened this thread, I expected to hear the perspective of someone who knew something about the program under P. Would it be possible to limit the term "former player" to people who were capable of playing at our current level of FB?

Listening to these small time breakfast club CT HS football coaches is getting old. We understand your employment is aided by getting tips and scholarship attention from the staff at Local U, but give it a rest please.

 

[NavinRJohnson]

Nice letter Vin.

 

[jdb50]

Throwing the line about "being better off in the Yankee Conference" into the end of that letter wiped clean everthing else he said. Someone may want to look into taking away this guys keys. There was nothing classless about the firing of PP. He and his sidekick had coached 4 games too long and it was time to end the embarrassment.

 

[mattp]

The article should have been titled "Crotchety Old Man Complains About Change."

I thought we were going to hear from Darius Butler, or Alfred Fincher, not some guy that played when we were the Connecticut School of Agriculture and Connecticut was still a British colony.

 

[Alum86]

weren't most on this board rallying with pitchforks for WM to be fired a week ago? Scroll down the posts - he should be fired, he's part of a conspiracy, etc.

I still think he's a doofus (RSWM). Yeah, I want him gone too. Late to the party to hire Kev and partying in USVI during CR. Firing Dracula was a no brainer and he gets no kudos for this.
He should be on probation at least with the 'Yard.....

 

[weyuo]

I thought it was weyuo,

Hey be nice. I'm not or never have been a high school football coach...oh wait..I did coach a couple pee wee flag football games when I was a senior in high school. It's pretty obvious now that it just wasn't going to work with Coach P. Can't understand why the guy would jump on Manuel for it, he really had to pull the plug or the Rent would be completely empty by Halloween. But the guy did make one point I agree with.... the new helmets are cartoonish.

I told you guys I supported the program and whatever coaching staff came with it. Said it at least a half dozen times here. That included Coach P. Now he's gone and I'll support Weist while he's here. Then I'll support whoever the next guy is that takes the reigns. I've been following UConn sports since the 70's and wish only the best. Now if they can just get a dozen guys in here that can block.....

 

[CAHUSKY]

Just so you know, I'm not Vin...he was quite a bit ahead of me at UConn. Can't say he doesn't have some legitimate points, though. The current logo and the current helmets ARE awful, a point I really think most people agree with now that they've actually seen them, and the University did in fact throw away 20+ years of brand value, not to mention 75 years of tradition in replacing the old one with a piece of crap that looks like it was downloaded from freeclipart.com and colorized by an orangutan with a slight case of the shakes. I generally agree with his rather jaundiced view of Manuel, though for different reasons. On the other hand, Pasqualoni was just the wrong guy for the job. Bad match from day 1. There was nothing to be gained for anyone by keeping him and his firing was handled with about as much class as could be expected. For how not to do it, see USC. For what its worth, I didn't think he should have been kept on this year, so Vin and I are on different pages there too.

Im more convinced you are Vin after reading this post

 

[Nostical]

The current logo and the current helmets ARE awful, a point I really think most people agree with now that they've actually seen them

Sorry, I LOVE the new logo and don't mind the helmets. The old logo looks.....old and wrong.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

When Vin was in high school, he had to walk to school through two feet of snow, even in summer.

And get off his lawn, you lousy kids.

You forgot uphill, both ways......

 

[DarthGrumpy]

There are wonderful high school coaches. Coaches that coach for the right reason and positively impact kid's lives.......and there are high school coaches that have their egos so firmly meshed into what they do to even begin to realize what their responsibilities really should be.

As a coach myself, albeit the U8 crowd, parents are worse when it comes to ego's on the field.

 

[WestHartHusk]

how anyone is still longing for the old logo is beyond me. i would actually be embarrassed to walk into a recruits house and hand him a t-shirt with that thing on it. the new logo looks phenomenal on apparel, tv, next to a recruits name and on the field/court.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

But they called for Warde to be fired for refusing to fire PP. This guy wants him fired for what was his best 48 hours as an AD (including the presser).

UConn was 1AA in my day, and that was fine. It was old time "pure" college football. So a few thousand went to games, and nobody travelled anywhere but the Yale bowl (and then never left the parking lot). UConn has grown beyond that. It's not a sleepy little university in the boonies of CT that nobody has ever heard of. Basketball and now academics, put us on the national map. We're in a new ballgame, and it is rougher, uglier and less civil. PP may have been a nice guy and was once a decent college coach, but he's from a prior era and wasn't able to succeed in this one. I didn't see anything classless about the way he was let go. If there is an opening in the Patriot league, he'd be a great choice.

I have found memories of the Yale Bowl as a UConn student, at least I think I do.

It is true about UConn's image. I remember telling some folks I was going to the University of Connecticut and they would ask if I meant Connecticut College. I quickly discovered that the perception of UConn was a lot strong elsewhere, especially Northern New England, upstate NY and Long Island, all of which have 'weaker' state universities.

Basketball started UConn's image change and that was followed by the initial campus investment in UConn 2000 and then the football team.

 

[kjk9183]

Another old Yankee unwilling to accept change. Why is this even on a newspaper blog.

 

[Skiblets]

"but rather the unprofessional, unsupportive and thoughtless manner by which the Administration of the University of Connecticut handled this matter. I owe this much to the existing football staff at UCONN, the high school football coaches in the state of Connecticut and my teammates while at UCONN." Ummmmmm self inflated view of yourself. You're not that important

"Rock stars by nature love the limelight; I’m afraid that’s exactly what we have, a rock star and not a leader" - please back that up with facts please. We've all been critical of Warde but has he ever sought the limelight. I don't think so

"As an athletic director, every time I had to release a coach, I accepted part of the responsibility for that failure. How much responsibility is our athletic director willing to accept in this situation?" - Hopefully zero. Warde did not hire PP and GDL

"And by the way, did I read correctly that our president, Susan Herbst, is on one of Mr. Burton’s corporate boards?" - Imagine that - a high performing executive on the board of another high performing executive's company


As I read this, I kept expecting it to be a link to the Onion. This guy's a joke and as I type, cannot believe I've actually taken the time. Probably more of a reflection on me than him

 

[Whale22]

I'm actually 80% sure this is weyuo...................

Read it on twitter and thought the same thing.

 

[sportsart]

When CTHSCA, or whatever their called, go to a national high school football coaches conventions (AD/Coach, etc) I'm guessing they sit at the little round table near the loud fan with the middle school honorary coach of the year.

They are a joke. What are there, 12-15 legit teams in the entire state? Legit in terms of quality coaches who take the game seriously and know how to teach kids at a high level.