Is anyone else concerned?

[hardcorehusky]

Forget ”triple option”. The first option should be for the Administration to take a long hard look at how to stop UConn’s low mid major FBS program from hemorrhaging money.

Indeed, fact are a stubborn thing and there is no escaping that quality recruits just are not coming to UConn.

Rivals ranked the 2020 UConn football class at #93 below UConn’ football per schools James Madison, Troy, Buffalo and others.

24/7 ranked the 2020 UConn football class more harshly than Rivals.

24/7 ranked UConn at #119 behind UConn peer school Coastal Carolina, San Jose, eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and UMass.

If a realistic plan to turn around the UConn football program to obtain a positive ROI in terms of dollars, image, and interest then the first option should be to move the program to D1 FCS and compete at the same level as fellow Big East Conference members Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

Please go back to the basketball board. First of all, did the move away from the AAC and to independent where UConn laid out cost savings resonate with you at all? Is that addressing hemorrhaging money?

Butts in the seats addresses the 2nd biggest issue and if some of the UConn basketball fans who openly loathe football would be legitimate fans of all sports and not negative naysayers, UConn would be in a better situation.

We have talked about rankings for years. I am not typing anymore about it.

And finally, look at how much FCS football loses money for each school.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

The FCS option - nearly the same expense, with 0 revenue or any upside!

Think of how much money can be diverted to
MBB

 

[Duncan Idaho]

All of that, and yet only two winning records in conference play in twenty years.

Not a Rudy Gay in the bunch.

 

[ZooCougar]

To sum up what I've read so far:

- Multiple people are afraid we're not getting 4 star kids and aren't sure how good our 2 star / 3 star kids are.

Based on the previous 9 million years (or at least that's how long it feels like), I'm with you. Having said that, Silver is absolutely right about the timing of the recruits. Many of these kids haven't racked up a bunch of offers, but it's early in the process.

Here's what I see, for what it's worth. We have a bunch of 5.4/5.5 RR kids (Rivals) or 3 star kids (247) that picked us. At that level, some pan out, some don't. But it's not the 5.2/5.3 RR kids that overwhelmed our 2015 and 2016 classes (take a look at the 2016 class if COVID isn't depressing enough for you).

Long story short, the ratings system have this class at an early rating that is better than 5 years ago, and that's positive. And ratings matter. Of course I want the 4 star kid, but let's hope we keep the best ones from our current bunch from getting poached later in the year and let's hope we can train up the worst of the bunch and get the old redshirt bump...

who is calling for 4 star kids in this thread?


I think people just want to see the program playing and recruiting at an FBS level.

 

[ZooCougar]

yeah....if my whole house is on Fire there is pretty much nothing I can do until the fire dept shows up

Yes, don’t wake up the kids.

You were a Pasqualoni supporter. You have no standing with me. You may go now.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

If Edsall can simply get kids with G5 offers we'll be fine. It's not that huge of an ask.

He's a good enough coach to get the best out of guys like that, because there is a certain floor that at worst guys will bring on Saturdays.

Toledo, Western Michigan, Arkansas State, Temple, Buffalo, we could be alright.

Nobody is asking for 4* ACC or Big Ten level recruits.

 

[ZooCougar]

Because I had nothing else to do during this morning...those Edsall players that had like offers or worse
G. Davis Cornell Brockington Terry Caulley Danny Lansanah Tyvon Branch Larry Taylor Julius Williams
Donald Thomas William Beatty Darius Butler Derek Rich tranfer to UGA Scott Lutrus Byron Jones Yarwin Smallwood Geremy Davis Nick Williams Chad Christian Jesse Joseph Trevardo Williams Shamar Stephen
Ryan Griffin Sio Moore Blidi Wrey-Wilson Robert Mclain Greg Lloyd Kendall Reyes Kashif Moore Tyvon Martin Robbie Fry Dave Teggart Jasper Howard Lawrence Wlison Marcus Easley Andrew Adams Dahna Deleston. Probably more to add.

No. Many of those you mentioned held FBS offers other than UConn.

Donald Thomas never even intended to play college football. Every program has a few kids like that in their history.

Edsall is assembling an entire recruiting class with projects. That’s not a winning strategy. But I guess we need the warm bodies.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

No. Many of those you mentioned held FBS offers other than UConn.

Donald Thomas never even intended to play college football. Every program has a few kids like that in their history.

Edsall is assembling an entire recruiting class with projects. That’s not a winning strategy. But I guess we need the warm bodies.

No, they did not

 

[ZooCougar]

No, they did not

Then you are not looking in the right place.

They also didn’t comprise the entire class.

go find the list of ones who didn’t pan out and comeback and talk to me.

 

[Buffett10]

No. Many of those you mentioned held FBS offers other than UConn.

Donald Thomas never even intended to play college football. Every program has a few kids like that in their history

Edsall is assembling an entire recruiting class with projects. That’s not a winning strategy. But I guess we need the warm bodies.

Most of those kids had 2 offers coming in to Uconn... you might want to actually do some research before typing

 

[huskymedic]

If Edsall can simply get kids with G5 offers we'll be fine. It's not that huge of an ask.

He's a good enough coach to get the best out of guys like that, because there is a certain floor that at worst guys will bring on Saturdays.

Toledo, Western Michigan, Arkansas State, Temple, Buffalo, we could be alright.

Nobody is asking for 4* ACC or Big Ten level recruits.

Just playing devils advocate here...so Toledo and ArkState are good G5 offers but Air Force, Army and Navy aren’t?

 

[ZooCougar]

Just playing devils advocate here...so Toledo and ArkState are good G5 offers but Air Force, Army and Navy aren’t?

The academies are system teams. It’s not like they are loaded with talent. The sum is greater than the parts.

We aren’t even close to having a system.

 

[ZooCougar]

Most of those kids had 2 offers coming in to Uconn... you might want to actually do some research before typing

Also 100% irrelevant. Try reading before you post. You can’t recruit an entire class of projects and expect to be successful.

 

[Njalum1422]

Also 100% irrelevant. Try reading before you post. You can’t recruit an entire class of projects and expect to be successful.

We are 5 players in, and all 5 of them aren’t projects. Just off hand I counted 16 players in last years class with FBS offers. Modeste has a higher rating than any of those guys and Yates rates comparably. These kids all just finished junior year, better offers were coming/ probably still are for them.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Then you are not looking in the right place.

They also didn’t comprise the entire class.

go find the list of ones who didn’t pan out and comeback and talk to me.

Zoo , I looked at 247 and Rivals. What entire class of non AAC level or P5 are you referencing?

 

[ZachFan]

Also 100% irrelevant. Try reading before you post. You can’t recruit an entire class of projects and expect to be successful.

Didn't RE 1.0 win, with largely projects and an NFL player or two, per year?

 

[freescooter]

Forget ”triple option”. The first option should be for the Administration to take a long hard look at how to stop UConn’s low mid major FBS program from hemorrhaging money.

Indeed, fact are a stubborn thing and there is no escaping that quality recruits just are not coming to UConn.

Rivals ranked the 2020 UConn football class at #93 below UConn’ football per schools James Madison, Troy, Buffalo and others.

24/7 ranked the 2020 UConn football class more harshly than Rivals.

24/7 ranked UConn at #119 behind UConn peer school Coastal Carolina, San Jose, eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and UMass.

If a realistic plan to turn around the UConn football program to obtain a positive ROI in terms of dollars, image, and interest then the first option should be to move the program to D1 FCS and compete at the same level as fellow Big East Conference members Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

We could realistically solve all our money problems by dropping men’s and women’s basketball. Right off the top We get out from under minimum of $6 million in coaches salaries. Since 0 players are from Connecticut we save 12 out of state tuitions per team for another 3/4 million. Use Wirth as the student athletic center. Saves I don’t know how many millions in construction. Plus we can renegotiate the big East deal since we aren’t playing any more we shouldn’t have to pay a big entry fee. Something modest for Olympic sports and baseball maybe.

We are already

 

[Hoophound]

Edsall really does have an eye for talent. If we can recruit guys with G5 and some P5 offers we will be fine. However, we’ve got to play a better, more aggressive brand of offense that works with the players we have. We just have to. Lashlee made it blatantly obvious that we have the talent on our roster to win games with the right offense. We are far more talented and much faster than we were when he was here and he moved the ball.

 

[UConnDan97]

who is calling for 4 star kids in this thread?


I think people just want to see the program playing and recruiting at an FBS level.

I never said anyone was calling for that. Not sure what you're going on about. I simply commented on the current recruiting vs. recruiting stats from 5 years ago...

 

[Duncan Idaho]

No. Many of those you mentioned held FBS offers other than UConn.

Donald Thomas never even intended to play college football. Every program has a few kids like that in their history.

Edsall is assembling an entire recruiting class with projects. That’s not a winning strategy. But I guess we need the warm bodies.

Not many but its fair they had G5 offers. Should have kept with my premise of like offers. Academies are certainly system programs but Navy has some P5 and a lot of G5 offers on their 2 deep and some strictly academy offers.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Just playing devils advocate here...so Toledo and ArkState are good G5 offers but Air Force, Army and Navy aren’t?

I'm fine with academies thrown in. Especially Navy. Didn't intentionally leave them out.

As Zoo said though the type of recruit added to play in Navy or Army's offense is likely a lot different than what Randy wants to run.

 

[Ldandy]

The academies are system teams. It’s not like they are loaded with talent. The sum is greater than the parts.

We aren’t even close to having a system.

They also need to cast incredibly wide nets to fill their 30-50 person classes. Not so easy to pull kids that are willing to commit to military service. Most high level academic FCS Prospects will carry Academy Offers as well. It’s ok to build a team of these kids if your schedule is Lehigh, Colgate, and Cornell. That said if you are competing at a different level you better mix in some legit size and speed to go with the “smart and tough” guys.

 

[MustangMan]

I'm fine with academies thrown in. Especially Navy. Didn't intentionally leave them out.

As Zoo said though the type of recruit added to play in Navy or Army's offense is likely a lot different than what Randy wants to run.

I didn’t know this until recently:
1) The academies don’t have to abide by scholarships limits. That is how Navy had 50 commits last year.
2) A lot of the offers are to attend their Prep School for a year to see if they can cut it in the classroom.

Bottom line - The academies give out an abnormally high number of offers each year. As the prior poster noted, anyone with good FCS level offers will have a service academy offer or three.

Thus, they aren’t really a good measure of quality offers.

 

[huskymedic]

I'm fine with academies thrown in. Especially Navy. Didn't intentionally leave them out.

As Zoo said though the type of recruit added to play in Navy or Army's offense is likely a lot different than what Randy wants to run.

I agree to an extent if it’s an offensive player but disagree if we’re talking a defensive player.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I agree to an extent if it’s an offensive player but disagree if we’re talking a defensive player.

Fair enough. UConn being as good as Navy consistently would be a hell of a thing.

 

[blue93]

I’m not worried about the upcoming class yet. Like others have said, it’s only May and this recruiting cycle is unprecedented with no camps. There may just not be as many offers going out to kids nationwide (speculation on my part) with the normal visibility that camps provide.

I also think it’s tough to expect much more than this past recruiting class (not bad imo) given the product for the past decade. We need results to sell if we want to bring in bigger fish.

The bigger concern for me is player retention. If we have another mass exodus at the end of next season, there’s no reason to keep going with RE. Developmental kids will always be a part of the program, but if we’re developing them to go play at other schools in their junior and senior years, the results won’t change.

 

[Palatine]

Far more concerned that NFL caliber talent like Tyler Coyle left.

 

[businesslawyer]

This is a difficult topic. But it really needs to be discussed. About pretty much every recruit we are signing isn't clearly being recruited actively at FBS level. It's not a opinion, it's fact. Some of these guys aren't even holding offers from top FCS level programs.

Any kid who is playing at the FCS/FBS level is elite. They are standouts, every single one of them have highlight films that are the envy of most HS football players.

I get that Edsall is a good assessor of talent. I get that over a decade ago he found guys like Jasper Howard and Scott Lutrus. Players that panned out and would be right at home in any Top 10 Football Program. Recruits like that weren't the majority of the of the class. There were 2-3 of them at the most.

We also were at least beating out MAC level FBS programs. Maybe one or two of them had offers from a CAA school or two.

Pretty much every single recruit appears to be solid model citizens. But is this level of talent really going to get us back to being a 4,5,6 or 7 win team?

I hope I am wrong and totally off base. Maybe FBS offers will roll in later for these guys and we will still keep their commitments.

But, I'm really, really skeptical at this point. Convince me I am wrong.

There is no way for you, or anyone else, to be convinced until we start beating people again. Why even ask this question?

 

[Storrs South]

I think it's too early to know for sure with these guys. They very well could have camped and gotten P5 offers over the summer, but we won't know until we see them on the field given COVID. For perspective, I did crunch some numbers and a couple things stand out from the chart below:

• Rivals and 247 generally agree on how good or bad UConn classes have been in the past except...
• The Class of 2020 has a significant divergence between 247 and Rivals. Rivals says it is the best class since 2013, which culminated in a great 2015 season and a couple top players like Foley, Junior, Noel, and Stapleton. 247 says it is the worst class in the history of UConn's tenure in FBS.
• Recruiting took a nose dive as soon as they joined the AAC (probably a combo of losing BCS bowl access & head coach turnover).
• Diaco was an awful recruiter (not revelatory, but wow did he leave the cupboard bare for Edsall). At least Pasquolini continued to bring in good talent and Edsall has shown positive movement at least according to Rivals.

I'm giving Edsall the benefit of the doubt from a recruiting standpoint. As others have noted, his in game coaching is in the stone ages and he needs a really good QB (whether on the roster already or soon to be) to emerge and help break the mold.

 

[Dooooooomed]

Still a no.