A couple of things here:
1 - My mom (who has since passed) was diagnosed in the late 1990's with the same form of cancer that took Sam Walton's life. Due to money invested by Walton, the best place in the world for treatment was in Arkansas. When I was there (visiting my mother at the medical center) in January 1999 Nutt could have asked to be king and would have been handed the job. while there have been many coaches loved by his (or her) fan base over the years, I doubt that there was ever a coach who was more loved over a brief period of time than Nutt was back then. That honeymoon ended but the idea that someone like Houston Nutt would consider the UConn job has to dispel many of the rumors that most quality coaches would never consider us.
2 - If we are going to succeed as a major football program we will need 50% of our roster from the following block of states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and Virginia. We will need nother 20%-25% from Florida and the rest can be filled out with New York, New England and whatever other states we can land a stray recruit or two from. I personally believe that it is very possible for a school to win an FBS national title without have one player on its roster who is from New England. I doubt that a school can compete in any FBS conference if there is a large portion (more than ~ 25%) of its roster from New England.