I'm not a fan of the football program, non alum - so feel free to pass immediately after this point - just casual fan observance who wants to see the program succeed but wonders if it's remotely possible at this point.
Fans don't come to games:
-The team is absolutely, undeniably terrible
-The tailgating scene is really bad. I've done this, UMass, BC, Syracuse - UConn's was indescribably bad. UMass' is definitely the weirdest as it's packed to the brim, people really seem into it and then like 12 people go to the game
-It's expensive
-The match ups aren't interesting even on a traditional rivalry standpoint (no 'Cuse, etc - so even if the teams suck at least there's some sort of pride at stake)
-Not being on campus *feels* like a killer.
On the good side
-I've always liked Edsall because he seems to know how to sell the program
-Structurally and theoretically - this program should get better and be fine.
On the bad side
-The northeast isn't a football haven, so forget just the recruiting challenges - culturally it's lacking. That's the biggest mountain to climb
-The program hasn't taken advantage of the kinds of things that make college football such an ongoing circus (in a good way) like having games on campus, etc.
-You have exceptional pro teams (The Pats being obvious, the Giants winning two Super Bowls in 10 years, too) where you can just see better football
-There are good teams in the conference (actually the conference is almost egregiously underrated) but they're not traditional powers and don't travel well.. and aren't good enough to reverse market ala Spoelstra
-They've just seemingly run out of time.
-Too much of developing athletics has been tied to rebuilding Hartford
Like 10 years ago, I was all for UConn making a big go at being a D1 mainstay. They had an opportunity they smartly took - but since Edsall left post-Fiesta Bowl, they've seemingly been totally unprepared for the inevitable step back and have made almost every bad move a program can make since then. And just the way everything else has fallen around them in terms of realignment and the developments within college football itself, if just seems like it's been a combination of making bad moves and all the other things they needed to fall the right way for the program they *can't control* has fallen the opposite.
I just dunno how much 'legs' there are for this experiment anymore. The hoops program got a blessing with the 2014 national title and bought more time, but that doesn't seem headed in the right direction, which I feel like almost puts more pressure on football to get unrealistically better on an increasingly unrealistic timeline.
I saw the crappy attendance numbers tonight and said to myself 'heck with it, I should go' and did. I don't regret it - but man, this program feels like it's twitching and the athletics department as a whole is going to have an awful decision to make sooner rather than later. While there's no question getting into a P5 conference should be a priority, I can't help but feel they need to take the low hanging fruit and consider the Big East for hoops long and hard...
