Is it Time For Warde To Go?

[CTBasketball]

I think Diaco should get at least 1 more year...

Needs to get his players in there. Its up to Warde to fall the axe when possible. He wasn't responsible for the hiring of PP, we should be thankful he got fired after 2.5 years.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I'm just saying we need to seriously re-think where we are allocating our athletic department dollars if we want to catch an escape pod out of the AAC.

It's a bit of a catch 22 here for me. I'm not in favor of cutting other budgets because I love how we are soooo good in so many sports, but I agree that to be successful more needs to be thrown at football and I recognize it's importance in the CR game. Too bad we don't have a T Boone Pickens or Phil Knight (Oregon?) to single handedly pick up our program. Where's our sugar daddy? I know that was a thread from the summer time so I won't re-hash it again.

 

[J187Money]

A Texas based conference is not inviting a school from New England. Half of the athletic department staffs couldn't find CT on a map. I'm darn sure the travel officer would book flights into JFK because they probably wouldn't fathom that we have an airport in CT. The absolute best thing that could happen is a rumor of us under consideration to entice a move by someone else. Not that it would be that enticing.

BTW, as someone that has to go to Texas often for work, it absolutely sucks, even flying out of NYC airports it is hard to get directs a lot of the time.

 

[J187Money]

We are spending enough on football (right now). This is a conversation to have when we are not spending enough on football.

 

[Carl Spackler]

We are spending enough on football (right now). This is a conversation to have when we are not spending enough on football.

I disagree with that J$ on principle. There is plenty to be conversing about, regarding spending around football.

We are spending enough on football now, but let's see what happens when this year's bowl revenue gets cut, and this year's media contracts take gets split, and when the season ticket revenue starts being collected for 2015. The money stream from the big east is finite.

Very big gambles made with our athletic department that Warde has allowed to happen around football. He's clearly got stones of the size to go along with his neck, and deserves time to see it through, as he's done fantastic things in many other ways, but football is priority #1, if we are to continue long term nationally on path we should be on.

But everybody should be re-evaluating things right now with regards to this football season, and that includes Warde's performance as AD.

 

[J187Money]

I disagree with that J$ on principle. There is plenty to be conversing about, regarding spending around football.

We are spending enough on football now, but let's see what happens when this year's bowl revenue gets cut, and this year's media contracts take gets split, and when the season ticket revenue starts being collected for 2015. The money stream from the big east is finite.

Very big gambles made with our athletic department that Warde has allowed to happen around football. He's clearly got stones of the size to go along with his neck, and deserves time to see it through, as he's done fantastic things in many other ways, but football is priority #1, if we are to continue long term nationally on path we should be on.

But everybody should be re-evaluating things right now with regards to this football season, and that includes Warde's performance as AD.

Not my point. My point is that the school probably has a plan on how to address the coming revenue issues, and we don't know what it is. So for people to panic and start talking about cutting Geno's salary in half or getting rid of Field Hockey just seems like a foolish conversation to have.

THEY should be having this conversation. WE should have rational discussions about what we might do. But some of this is clear nonsense.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Not my point. My point is that the school probably has a plan on how to address the coming revenue issues, and we don't know what it is. So for people to panic and start talking about cutting Geno's salary in half or getting rid of Field Hockey just seems like a foolish conversation to have.

THEY should be having this conversation. WE should have rational discussions about what we might do. But some of this is clear nonsense.

I misunderstood, and I agree.

 

[UCweCONN]

People here talk about Diaco needing time to bring in "his players". More importantly, he needs to keep the players he has already brought in from transferring or quitting altogether otherwise it'll always be an uphill climb. The task of retaining players is 100 times harder when you lose to Army and a subdivision team and go 2-10. I hadn't realized it until another poster posted the season records how long it's been since we had a .500 season.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

Gentlemen: The revenue issue is the acid test for intercollegiate sports success.

Many casual fans think it is victories, but they just do not know jackson.

UCONN sledteam in foosbal generated 11.1mil in '13 according to Hartford business analysts in economic development corporations. These are serious decision-makers.

They do not utilize buddy system headhunters.
They do not play one subsidiary vs another.
They are not in Paris when the heavy hitters are in the batting circle.

They nurture success with dedicated work with a plan in place with short term, near term and long term goals with supporting objectives and enabling objectives, all of which are measureable in dollar and aesthetic terms.

Organizations like the Orange of Syracuse University and the Eagles of Boston College produced 2013 foosbal revenue in the 30-35mil range in their markets. If consensus is that the sledteam market has similar potential, then guess who needs to hit these numbers for P5 future growth path?

 

[Jerry1714]

I don't think the goal ever was to win championships in year 1.

The goal is still to win championships in years 3,4 & 5.

Warde and Diaco can't be graded yet.

Nice to see some people get it.

It is a complete rebuild, thanks to PP and Hathaway.

The hire cannot be judged for a couple more years.

Anyone who had bowl or other high expectations this year has noone but themselves to blame for that. That was never happening.

 

[RedStickHusky]

Gentlemen: The revenue issue is the acid test for intercollegiate sports success.

Many casual fans think it is victories, but they just do not know jackson.

UCONN sledteam in foosbal generated 11.1mil in '13 according to Hartford business analysts in economic development corporations. These are serious decision-makers.

They do not utilize buddy system headhunters.
They do not play one subsidiary vs another.
They are not in Paris when the heavy hitters are in the batting circle.

They nurture success with dedicated work with a plan in place with short term, near term and long term goals with supporting objectives and enabling objectives, all of which are measureable in dollar and aesthetic terms.

Organizations like the Orange of Syracuse University and the Eagles of Boston College produced 2013 foosbal revenue in the 30-35mil range in their markets. If consensus is that the sledteam market has similar potential, then guess who needs to hit these numbers for P5 future growth path?

Chap, since you put such effort into producing a very nearly coherent post, I feel you deserve a reply.
- We all know the money is important for many reasons, but it is not what we root for. We need the money to stay competitive, but it is not the ultimate objective. You say "casual fan" but I think 99% feel that way.
- You say someone has to hit P5 income levels to put us on a P5 path, but I think that's backwards. Not that winning had anything to with Syr or BCU hitting the lottery, but we clearly need to redefine the perceptions of our program - and we have to do it without P5 money. A lot has been written here about the sustainability of that gap and, yes, it's on WM to find alternative sources but that's not a question I'm going to peruse with the same interest I give to a box score.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

This thread can't be real...I have to believe this was simply an exercise in trolling...I have to believe that.

 

[buddy]

Nice to see some people get it.

It is a complete rebuild, thanks to PP and Hathaway.

The hire cannot be judged for a couple more years.

Anyone who had bowl or other high expectations this year has noone but themselves to blame for that. That was never happening.

But Diaco himself said that UConn would go bowlling

Nice to see some people get it.

It is a complete rebuild, thanks to PP and Hathaway.

The hire cannot be judged for a couple more years.

Anyone who had bowl or other high expectations this year has noone but themselves to blame for that. That was never happening.

I believe it was Diaco himself who told the team to prepare to go bowling this past season. I may be wrong, but I do recall something like that.

 

[Antiobserver]

Warde to his haters:

 

[Jerry1714]

But Diaco himself said that UConn would go bowlling

I believe it was Diaco himself who told the team to prepare to go bowling this past season. I may be wrong, but I do recall something like that.

Was he suppose to say in his hiring press conference that this team had minimal talent and was going to be a 3 or 4 win team? That would not be very smart when you want people to buy tickets and boost life into the program.

 

[Adios]

Warde has 4 championship rings as athletic director. He's good for a while. Unless he screws up in football's next hire, if there's the need for a replacement.

 

[BlueMAB]

Nice to see some people get it.

It is a complete rebuild, thanks to PP and Hathaway.

The hire cannot be judged for a couple more years.

Anyone who had bowl or other high expectations this year has noone but themselves to blame for that. That was never happening.

Unlike most I gave Warde an A for his handling of the Calhoun/Ollie transition.
In reality his hockey hire is still an incomplete, but it sure feels like he hit a home run, so he gets an A.
His hiring of Diaco is also an incomplete, but it sure feels like it's at best a C, and quite possibly a D or F.
Diaco's grade for the season is a D (only escaped an F because of the crap PP left behind).

Regardless, we aren't dumping Warde, he's doing a good job.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Unlike most I gave Warde an A for his handling of the Calhoun/Ollie transition.
In reality his hockey hire is still an incomplete, but it sure feels like he hit a home run, so he gets an A.
His hiring of Diaco is also an incomplete, but it sure feels like it's at best a C, and quite possibly a D or F.
Diaco's grade for the season is a D (only escaped an F because of the crap PP left behind).

Regardless, we aren't dumping Warde, he's doing a good job.

I agree on the Ollie situation and IMHO Warde handled it as well a possible.

I also agree on the hockey hire but I may be in the camp that feels it is a work in progress that looks like an A as opposed to incomplete.

Diaco is an incomplete and I imagine that we will need at least another half season for the players to grow into what he is building. It (the hire) hasn't felt as good as it did from the introductory presser to opening day since very shortly after opening day but it is also far too early to view it as a failure. I believe that once the defense fully understands their responsibilities (this is an assignment heavy defense) there will be far more consistency and when our young LBs and DBs get a bit more experience the defense will be great. We need an offensive line (we only began showing something that resembled one very late in the season) and QB (I do hope that he is already on the roster) before our offense will be capable of showing anything.

 

[J187Money]

I would add something:

I know that I've said this here before, but one of the reasons I DIDN'T want to go to UCONN was because it didn't have a 1-A program (this was 1989). I went to UCONN because it was cheap and close to home. At that point it didn't even have that great of a reputation academically, other than "best public school in the Northeast" but with all of the private schools that wasn't saying much.

Even with our successes, and given the fact that even when the team was good what did we get, 2-3K students at games? I would contend that having an FBS football team has been integral in the decision making process for incoming students maybe < 1% of the time. If you disbanded the football program completely tomorrow, the school would still get far more qualified applicants than it could admit.

So what is my point? My point is that all of this is important, but the level of importance that we are placing on it is way overblown versus reality. And I know that we want the team to be great because we love UCONN and we love football so we want UCONN Football to be great.

And I hate to agree with Nelson here, but if it did come to pass that we couldn't compete in football, I have to believe we could go back to the Big East in other sports, and we would be no worse off than we were when most of us went to UCONN.

 

[Nostical]

if it did come to pass that we couldn't compete in football,....we would be no worse off than we were when most of us went to UCONN.

And that would be one sad day for us all. And let me add that as bleak as it gets, that will never happen. Never.

 

[Pudge]

You can't contrast Football at this level with Hockey and Basketball.

What we have learned is that you can really really screw up Football deeply in a few years. What we all should be seeing is that Hockey - in Connecticut - can get rev'd up with a solid young Roster quickly in Connecticut. And KO? I love his profile. He really developed Calhoun's remainders and input a few choice solid guys to fill. But, the difference between a full 85 with all the needed positions and these other 2? Crazy different.

There are still Balis and some development of youth. In retrospect, Cochran played a huge role in both late last year & this whole debacle.

 

[UConnJim]

We have not heard from Warde on this year's football season, although I expect we will in the next few weeks or so after he meets with Diaco. In hindsight, I think we would all agree that the roster was depleted and the disastrous turnovers really killed the team, but Diaco's press conferences and talking about preseasons, gameplans, 100 level, 400 level,... has to concern Warde as it concerns the fans. I'm not sold on Cummings and I hope we make a change if Warde and Diaco determine his performance wasn't up to par. We'll see.

When Warde was hired, UConn athletics seemed to be in a much better place, although we soon found out that wasn't the case. Warde was brought in to improve academics and make incremental improvements to the athletic programs. Unfortunately, the job changed when the Big East fell apart. UConn needs a well connected mover and shaker who has the ability to raise tons of money and energize the fan base. The business/strategic side of the job is critical given our current situation. I don't think the current needs of the job play to Warde's strengths. I think Warde has done a good job, but the job description has changed. If we are on the cusp of getting a P5 invite, and Herbst knows it, then let's keep Warde. If it looks like we are going to be in the AAC purgatory for a while with no clear path out, we need to hire someone else.

 

[buddy]

Was he suppose to say in his hiring press conference that this team had minimal talent and was going to be a 3 or 4 win team? That would not be very smart when you want people to buy tickets and boost life into the program.

Yes, it may not have been smart then, but now, he has basically lost everyone, no one believes him any more, and people will ditch their season tickets anyway.

 

[uconn34]

Please stop this silliness!

 

[Jerry1714]

Yes, it may not have been smart then, but now, he has basically lost everyone, no one believes him any more, and people will ditch their season tickets anyway.

Are you saying he has lost everyone and no one believes him because he said the team would go the a bowl game during his introduction press conference and they did not?

This could not possibility be what you are saying

 

[buddy]

We have not heard from Warde on this year's football season, although I expect we will in the next few weeks or so after he meets with Diaco. In hindsight, I think we would all agree that the roster was depleted and the disastrous turnovers really killed the team, but Diaco's press conferences and talking about preseasons, gameplans, 100 level, 400 level,... has to concern Warde as it concerns the fans. I'm not sold on Cummings and I hope we make a change if Warde and Diaco determine his performance wasn't up to par. We'll see.

When Warde was hired, UConn athletics seemed to be in a much better place, although we soon found out that wasn't the case. Warde was brought in to improve academics and make incremental improvements to the athletic programs. Unfortunately, the job changed when the Big East fell apart. UConn needs a well connected mover and shaker who has the ability to raise tons of money and energize the fan base. The business/strategic side of the job is critical given our current situation. I don't think the current needs of the job play to Warde's strengths. I think Warde has done a good job, but the job description has changed. If we are on the cusp of getting a P5 invite, and Herbst knows it, then let's keep Warde. If it looks like we are going to be in the AAC purgatory for a while with no clear path out, we need to hire someone else.

I t

Are you saying he has lost everyone and no one believes him because he said the team would go the a bowl game during his introduction press conference and they did not?

This could not possibility be what you are saying

I'm sorry but I stand by what I said. He came in, and said we would go bowling this year. I don't like a liar. Never did. If he said it will take time but we will turn it around, then fine. But that is not what he said. He mismanaged what he had. Wins and losses matter.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

an astute observer wants a mover & shaker wit charisma

when i gets my doz. donuts i can reely shakem & also move em

what has this charisma glooten moi: 223 lbs & not lookin as sporty as my playin daze

jog any 'yarders brain memory banks? who could dat bees

 

[Jerry1714]

I t

I'm sorry but I stand by what I said. He came in, and said we would go bowling this year. I don't like a liar. Never did. If he said it will take time but we will turn it around, then fine. But that is not what he said. He mismanaged what he had. Wins and losses matter.

Then I guess you hate every coach in America.

 

[buddy]

Then I guess you hate every coach in America.

Ollie didn't lie.

 

[Jerry1714]

Ollie didn't lie.

Hating a coach and not trusting him because he said the team was going to a bowl game in his introduction press conference and then they miss a bowl game that season is flat our ridiculous.

But everyone is entitled to their opinions.