How do we build for the future?

[Husky68]

1. Call Nick Saban
2. offer him $10 million/year

Otherwise, there is zero chance UConn will ever be better than a mediocre FBS program. Don’t believe me? Ask BC, Syracuse, & Rutgers (all in Power 5 conferences) how it’s going.

What about Pitt?

 

[Bongo Fury]

Besides having a defense that gets pushed around, they have lacked quality skill players. Successful coaches have these and we think they are good coaches. What happened to Lembo, Frost, Strong, Herman when they no longer had their exceptional player(s)

 

[Exit 4]

@Exit 4 any idea what happened to TE Jayce Medlock and TE Chris Johnson?

Injuries from what I hear

 

[freescooter]

I do think the conference issue is a legitimate problem. Then again, Liberty is making it work. Army is. BYU made it work, though they clearly have some history we lack. So it can happen. To me the goal is generally a top 50ish program with occasional top 25 runs. 7-5, 8-4 seasons with the odd 5-7 and 10-2 thrown in. Win 50% of the mid-tier P5 games, BC, NCState, Syracuse, Indiana type games and an occasional buy game if the opponent is having a down year.

I also think it is pretty tough to evaluate our talent right now. Coaching can Make adequate talent perform at a higher level. Honestly, that was Edsall I.
I will also say that once Edsall left, any chance of righting the ship this season pretty much went out the window. I am not for a minute saying he would or could have done it. Just that once he left, it was pretty much impossible with an acting head coach. The injury to the frosh quarterback kind of sealed the deal.

 

[freescooter]

Besides having a defense that gets pushed around, they have lacked quality skill players. Successful coaches have these and we think they are good coaches. What happened to Lembo, Frost, Strong, Herman when they no longer had their exceptional player(s)

Herman had zero losing seasons in 4 years at Texas. His problem was he didn’t win enough to satisfy Texas. He was 7-3 last year. His worst year he was 7-6. Strong and Frost, I’ll give you. I don’t know about Lembo. What I’ve heard was he sort of lost interest when he didnt get a better job.

 

[Purple Stein]

I've said it before, the entire roster can turn over.

McFadden is the only player who is above average at his position compared to the other 120+ FBS schools. I like Carter so he can stay but I realize there will be 25-30 RB's in the portal and JUCO as good if not better.

Maybe Cam Ross as well.

 

[CCSU97]

I do think the conference issue is a legitimate problem. Then again, Liberty is making it work. Army is. BYU made it work, though they clearly have some history we lack. So it can happen. To me the goal is generally a top 50ish program with occasional top 25 runs. 7-5, 8-4 seasons with the odd 5-7 and 10-2 thrown in. Win 50% of the mid-tier P5 games, BC, NCState, Syracuse, Indiana type games and an occasional buy game if the opponent is having a down year.

I also think it is pretty tough to evaluate our talent right now. Coaching can Make adequate talent perform at a higher level. Honestly, that was Edsall I.
I will also say that once Edsall left, any chance of righting the ship this season pretty much went out the window. I am not for a minute saying he would or could have done it. Just that once he left, it was pretty much impossible with an acting head coach. The injury to the frosh quarterback kind of sealed the deal.

UConn isn't Army and isn't BYU and will NEVER be. They can pack the stands with cadets and alumni in almost any location. Army is an institution and football is only a small part of that culture. Same with Mormons and BYU. These comparisons do more harm than good as they set unrealistic expectations.

The Hawaii analogy is much more appropriate and even they have the advantage of a G5 conference! Hawaii is literally an island to itself in it own time zone and own media market that it shares with no one. Connecticut is its own small market stuck in isolation between NY and Boston. Both have to recruit heavily out-of-state, but have the ability to schedule P5 games at home.

UConn #1 priority would be to get a bowl-tie in anywhere. Even now, if you get to 7 winnable games a year (6 G5 teams + 1 FCS), where are you going? The Independent schedule is solid, but you can't offer championships or bowl games. No current recruit thinks this is going to be a Top-25 program in their playing career.

A much more realistic expectations for the immediate decade is is to be a consistent Top-100 team and occasionally a Top-50 team. How about trying to get the football budget loss closer to $10 million instead of $20 million? Why not set a realistic goal of 10,000 paid season tickets and temporarily close off sections to get down to 30k available seats?

Anyone who thinks a Top-25 rankings and bowl games are possible under the current situation is fooling themselves - and a change in coaching alone is not going to achieve what some fans here expect.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Looking at the depth chart(OF DEF Spec teams)they have a total of 25 Freshman 1st or 2nd on the list.
That is a start.

Exactly.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Or where we were when Randy left.

Exactly.

 

[freescooter]

Army was horrid for decades. 2 winning seasons in the 70s. 2 winning seasons in the 1990s. Decent in the 1980s though nothing special. From 1990-20013 they had 2 winning seasons. They were considered an automatic win by most teams.

They have been better of late thanks to a good coach and a dumbed down schedule. And they don’t “pack the stands”. Sure the cadets show up at home games because they are required to. They also made a conscious effort to weaken their schedule. Lots more MAC and sunbelt and often 2 FCS teams. This season When they played at Ball State there were 13000 in a 22,000 seat venue. They drew 53 and change at Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago which. That was the lowest home attendance for the Badgers this year. I don’t quite get why UConn fans seem to think it is still 1952 and Army football is this big deal. This year they play Georgia State, UConn UMass Bucknell Miami of Ohio, Ball State Air Force, Liberty and Navy plus Wisconsin and Wake Forest. That is pretty typical. Next year their only P5 game is Wake. They have Coastal on the schedule who is likely very good, but that is more serendipity than a grand plan as is Liberty this year.
They schedule 1, max 2 P5 games each year. We have multiple such games most Years. We have 4 next year. What they have is a coach who has installed a system that works with the personnel they can get. It is generally plug and play. Same with Navy really. When they had an excellent quarterback for their system they were very good. Now, playing a tougher schedule that Army, they are pretty ordinary at best. Army found they simply couldn’t compete in CUSA.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

It's pretty simple. Hire an excellent teaching focused coaching staff (like RE-1 was). Get the right coachable raw material (i.e. 3-stars and diamond in the rough 2 stars that want to learn and be coached and have a chance at the next level). Win more games than you lose based on in-game execution. Climb the power rankings. Repeat, repeat, repeat. And if the conference affiliation happens, that's all you can hope for.

 

[billybud]

There is a gap between UConn and much of the FBS in talent....

I was fooled into thinking that UMass had progressed last week...but I just watched them play this week and they are really bad...and that is a measure of how wide the gap is.

A retool will take great recruiting (portal and HS) over a few years...building units like the O Line, D backs, a good S&C regime...and that might take an energetic coach who can put together a staff who can build from scratch.

It is a gut to the studs renovation.

 

[uconnbill]

Brewton?

he and Houston are third down backs. UConn needs another back or two for sure with some size.

The one position I like is the wide receiver but that is it.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

There is a gap between UConn and much of the FBS in talent....

I was fooled into thinking that UMass had progressed last week...but I just watched them play this week and they are really bad...and that is a measure of how wide the gap is.

A retool will take great recruiting (portal and HS) over a few years...building units like the O Line, D backs, a good S&C regime...and that might take an energetic coach who can put together a staff who can build from scratch.

It is a gut to the studs renovation.

I think we're talent wise a slit notch above UMass but you couldn't tell based on our game there because we showed effort level 3 on a ten scale. And, of course, there was that lack of coaching issue.

Agree to disagree on the player gutting - but you can't fire 80 players so it won't matter anyways. I don't think we have tons of talent (obviously) but we have a couple dozen talented players. Our biggest issue is the lack of skill (there's a difference) and the skill can only come via top-flight coaching.

Last night if you did the eye test in warm-ups we pass that test. But then the game starts and you see the lack of skilled line play, corners that don't turn back to the ball once their man is tip toeing on the sidelines, etc etc. These guys just need to be coached up and so will the hopefully other talented ones that come in over the upcoming recruiting classes. Time will tell.

 

[MrHockey9]

5-7 would be worthy of a parade.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

We have to build through the draft. We will get the #1 pick this year, right?
Anyway, i'm generally a negative person, but they're some folks on this thread that make me look like sunshine and puppies. If you have such a dim view of UConn football why are you even on this thread? Don't give me that "keeping it real" crap as some of you seem to be intentional over-the-top negative.

 

[SubbaBub]

Confernce has nothing to do with beating Holy Cross, Yale, UMass, Wyoming, Vanderbilt, or MTSU. That's 6 should be easy wins. I'll throw in Purdue most other years.

We scheduled 7 wins, got 1. Nothing to do with confernce. Heck, we even scheduled Clemson correctly. The '09 bowl team would certainly give them a run.

There is no excuse to be this bad.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

With the transfer portal, a decent coach can get UConn to be a reasonable competitive G5 program. There are a lot of 4* and high 3* players on P5 rosters that are approaching their junior year and have not seen the field yet, and are watching their coaches recruiting 4* and 5* players for their position with every new class.

Every one of these players is a candidate to play at UConn.

 

[History Geek]

With the transfer portal, a decent coach can get UConn to be a reasonable competitive G5 program. There are a lot of 4* and high 3* players on P5 rosters that are approaching their junior year and have not seen the field yet, and are watching their coaches recruiting 4* and 5* players for their position with every new class.

Every one of these players is a candidate to play at UConn.

This

 

[amishboy]

What about Pitt?

Great point; off of Penn State’s loss at home to Illinois (2-5 coming in), Pitt is probably the best team in the East this year. They’re ranked #23, and probably headEd to…top 20?

Sure, there's nothing wrong with top 20; you end up in a “decent” bowl game. But that’s probably the best UConn can aspire to, and I get the sense that many fans expect more.

And given the comparative attraction of spending 4-5 years in Pittsburgh vs. Storrs, the fact that Western PA still produces a ton of FBS prospects each year, and the fact that it plays in a Power 5 conference, I don’t see UConn being likely to reach even the level of Pitt!

[it may not be fair, but I think the window of opportunity for UConn getting in to a P5 conference is closed; they need to be so good, on a consistent year-to-year basis, that a P5 conference is “forced” to invite them, but it’s a Catch-22, because they’ll never be consistently good without being in a P5 conference. Again, thanks, BC.]

 

[huskyinfl]

The university should have a reality show lined up for our turnaround

 

[kemba]

Agree that for many UConn fans here, the problem is unrealistic expectations. UConn's national success has ALWAYS been due to conference affiliation. Calhoun was able to maximize the opportunity in basketball when Perno couldn't. Calhoun only took the job because UConn was in the Big East - that was the selling point to coaches and recruits.

UConn has no football pedigree whatsoever. Anything that was accomplished on the gridiron (rankings, draft picks, bowl games) was done as a P5 program and was mainly due to conference affiliation. Without that P5 affiliation and access the expectations are much, much lower. Your football peers are no longer BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, WV, etc. no matter how much you wish they were or are in basketball.

The model and standard for UConn football moving forward is simple - HAWAII. Connecticut is now on its own little island with some advantages (great basketball, TV contract, $$$ and local media), but very little else. With a good coach and system you can hope for the June Jones years (a decent bowl win), but in most seasons you're simply hoping for a 7-5 record and a few payday games. It is what it is.

But this talk about spending $5mill a year on a coach and further investments in the stadium is misguided and unrealistic. The program will continue to be a huge financial liability for decades and not sure why people think more $$$ guarantees success - it doesn't.

Some of this is true, but most of the characterization of the fanbase and what we are saying is nonsense.

Nobody expects us to be what the basketball programs are. That was true in the Big East and its even more true now. Maybe you can find some basketball only fans who have always ripped the football program for not being the basketball program, but nobody who actually follows the football program thinks that. Not sure about the Hawaii comparison, but those 7-5 expecations IS pretty much where we'd like to get to.

And as far as money, haven't seen anyone suggest $5 million on a coach. But we need to be willing to pay more than they paid Edsall and arguably more importantly they need to be willing to pay assistant coaches

 

[Slasher]

As much as it sucks to say, it's going to require a true program builder and a lot of patience. Who knows how many recruits the new staff will keep (or want to keep for that matter.) There is SOME talent here, but the talent level is far from being ready for the middle of FBS. You'd think the rebuilds off the last 10 years would mean something, but I think best case scenario is a 3-4 year rebuild again. Need to find an up and coming program builder.

 

[KembaKek]

As much as it sucks to say, it's going to require a true program builder and a lot of patience. Who knows how many recruits the new staff will keep (or want to keep for that matter.) There is SOME talent here, but the talent level is far from being ready for the middle of FBS. You'd think the rebuilds off the last 10 years would mean something, but I think best case scenario is a 3-4 year rebuild again. Need to find an up and coming program builder.

there's gotta be some d2 or FCS guy out there

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Have to find something to sell kids on. There is no league championship to shoot for, not much exposure, not much excitement to offer. The transfer portal is one possible solution, but I still think you need to offer kids some sort of unique playstyle or something. Something that gets the team noticed. I'm not trying to be a doomsday prophet, but there has to be some sort of compelling reason to get kids here. What would that be?

Just sell them on the name. It’s not hard to do when you walk up and down the streets of Europe, Sidney and Melbourne, Moscow, Hong Kong and see people wearing UConn T shirts. If Geno and Calhoun or Hurley can sell the school to recruits, a good football coach can do the same.