Jeff Jacobs ...

[Redding Husky]

I don't live in CT, but I read the Courant often. I'm wondering about everyone's opinions on Jacobs. I read the NY, Boston, and Dallas papers semi-regularly. From what I've read on this site, I bet most of you are more down on Jacobs than I am. Here are my thoughts:

1) I agree with Jacobs 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, I think he takes his "media attack dog" role too seriously and he goes too far. In those cases, he may just be playing devil's advocate or he may really believe what he writes; I don't know.

2) It's not his job to be a cheerleader for UConn. If he writes a negative column, he usually has a good reason for it. Occasionally he throws us under the bus for no good reason or blows up a negative situation beyond its true importance.

3) He is a good writer. I think there may be more sophistication from the NY writers, but that may be partially due to the market they cover. Jacobs is essentially as good as anyone in Boston or Dallas.

What say you?

 

[uconndogs]

Controversy often increases demand. Sometime Jacob is keenly focused on demand.

 

[Skiblets]

60% of time he is the voice of reason. 40% not so much. My biggest issues with him are:
1. Whenever he is in attack mode on the Huskies and their coaches he always seems to drop in the coaching salaries in a weak attempt to bolster his point
2. He has a sense of entitlement around access - wants to be spoon fed without doing the digging and hard work. This was particularly annoying during the Edsall years. And when he took the side of the players during beer gate and turned out to be completely wrong, he never copped to it
3. The Whalers are never coming back, never. He hasn't moved on yet.

He does seem to have a good moral compass however and calls out the inequities and issues at UConn as he sees them. We could do better or worse than Jeff.

 

[uconnell]

Were you around for the Soupy Sales incident?

 

[CL82]

I don't live in CT, but I read the Courant often. I'm wondering about everyone's opinions on Jacobs. I read the NY, Boston, and Dallas papers semi-regularly. From what I've read on this site, I bet most of you are more down on Jacobs than I am. Here are my thoughts:

1) I agree with Jacobs 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, I think he takes his "media attack dog" role too seriously and he goes too far. In those cases, he may just be playing devil's advocate or he may really believe what he writes; I don't know.

2) It's not his job to be a cheerleader for UConn. If he writes a negative column, he usually has a good reason for it. Occasionally he throws us under the bus for no good reason or blows up a negative situation beyond its true importance.

3) He is a good writer. I think there may be more sophistication from the NY writers, but that may be partially due to the market they cover. Jacobs is essentially as good as anyone in Boston or Dallas.

What say you?

C'mon Jeff, we've asked you to stop posting here...

Seriously Jacobs is a solid writer who often writes interesting pieces. Until the Courant made it a little tougher to read his stuff online, I'd make a an effort to look at it.

I think the negatives with Jeff started when he felt slighted by Calhoun (largely over Jeff Calhoun laughing at him.) Jacobs made himself the story far too consistently and went out of his way to paint Calhoun, his players and the university negatively. IIRC, Bilas called him out on it during this period. Two particularly egregious instances stick in my mind.

1) When Sticks came back to the program, Jacobs wrote to say it was an obvious fraud that Sticks would get all and then leave the university. He never should have written that hit piece about the kid and should have written up an apology or acknowledgement when he was proven wrong.

2) His first reaction to Jazz Howard's death was to write a piece portraying Jazz as a thug who got into a fight and got more than he bargained for. Although the article was taken down a day or two later, he owed Jazz and his family an apology that never came.

Jeff's sense is that although sometimes he "may get the tone wrong" he's always right. That's not particularly self aware. The same could be said about a lot posters on this board, of course but we're not professional journalists.

That said, overall I think he does a good a job and seems to have made his peace with Calhoun, the university and even the Boneyard. His writing is the better for it as his personal vendettas tended to obscure his vision.

 

[Pudge]

There's one thing that we don't understand - ever. How does the fact that you had s tough time covering a story make a difference to us the reading public? There's a consistent theme through the Calhoun period: he hurt a few writers feelings. But, for the most part, the on the floor results & the kids who came through were uniquely an amazing period. Auriemma & Edsall too.

The UConn fans & non UConn fan readers got too often pulled into the weeds of the personal feelings of these ink stains. Yes, I agree: often, they went too far on a young kid too. The Beergate incident was awful. Let's not leave our serial offender Brian Koontz alone. You can't consistently angle against the State U without underlining your inherent bias. Why hire this except to piss off the fan base. Or the general public. Jacobs has tended to tone down in the last decade. Good. Because at his best, he gets the lead idea necessary for each story & he tells the narrative well.

 

[DCUconnfan]

3. The Whalers are never coming back, never. He hasn't moved on yet.

You bite your tongue, Sir. Bleed green & blue for life. Go Whale!

 

[DoctorWho85]

Watch out what you say? Jeff Jacobs might call you out on TV by name.

 

[uconnfan68]

I don't live in CT, but I read the Courant often. I'm wondering about everyone's opinions on Jacobs. I read the NY, Boston, and Dallas papers semi-regularly. From what I've read on this site, I bet most of you are more down on Jacobs than I am. Here are my thoughts:

1) I agree with Jacobs 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, I think he takes his "media attack dog" role too seriously and he goes too far. In those cases, he may just be playing devil's advocate or he may really believe what he writes; I don't know.

2) It's not his job to be a cheerleader for UConn. If he writes a negative column, he usually has a good reason for it. Occasionally he throws us under the bus for no good reason or blows up a negative situation beyond its true importance.

3) He is a good writer. I think there may be more sophistication from the NY writers, but that may be partially due to the market they cover. Jacobs is essentially as good as anyone in Boston or Dallas.

What say you?

IMHO, most of the time he's a jerk. He let's his feelings dictate the tone of the article too often. He has trashed UConn and it's coaches and teams way too often. Occasionally he really surprises me with a genuinely good article. I'm more 10-90 than your 95-5.

 

[Pudge]

Watch out what you say? Jeff Jacobs might call you out on TV by name.

Already has.

And a few others on the BY. He's run out of ideas ... and gone surfing through here finding nuggets.

 

[Alum86]

Sanctimonious. Arrogant, a Capt Obvious and a piler on.

 

[J187Money]

For once I would like to see a media thread on the Boneyard that isn't just listing the 1000 reasons we all hate the subject of the thread.

For a bunch of people that seem to hate everyone and everything in sports media, we still seem to consume a whole lot of it.

 

[Alum86]

Title is "Jeff Jacobs"

Yo Money, folks don't like Jacobs. Just like Joe D. You disagree with those 2 d- bags and they crucify you.
If the title of the thread was Jim Calhoun, John Wooden, puppies, pudding, and Jesus there would be no hatin'. Maybe.....

 

[EJHarrington]

My view: he sucks just like the Courant.

 

[Redding Husky]

Sanctimonious. Arrogant, a Capt Obvious and a piler on.

I agree, but from what I've seen that's about 5% of his columns. The rest are fine. It's just that we remember the bad ones forever.

 

[BoatShow]

My view: he sucks just like the Courant.

Well snap, we have a former UConn scholarship earner chirping in.

 

[John]

He's a and the paper is a rag.

 

[J187Money]

Title is "Jeff Jacobs" Yo Money, folks don't like Jacobs. Just like Joe D. You disagree with those 2 d- bags and they crucify you. If the title of the thread was Jim Calhoun, John Wooden, puppies, pudding, and Jesus there would be no hatin'. Maybe.....

I'm not defending Jacobs. But the Boneyard doesn't like anyone.

 

[EJHarrington]

Well snap, we have a former UConn scholarship earner chirping in.

And a former UCONN dropout as well.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Until the Courant made it a little tougher to read his stuff online, I'd make a an effort to look at it.

Right click each link and open the article in a new incognito/private browsing tab - works every time, doesn't count against a monthly limit, no log in/pay necessary.

 

[Palatine]

Jacobs is a hack. The reason he attacks the UConn program is the same reason a baby cries, he wants attention. Worst of all, he often makes the story about himself. He is an insecure big fish in a small pond that constantly cries, "Look at me."

He is a competent writer. He rarely turns an interesting phrase, uses a piercing analogy or surprises you with a story that illuminates or elevates. In a larger market he would disappear and soon be in another profession.

 

[huskymedic]

Right click each link and open the article in a new incognito/private browsing tab - works every time, doesn't count against a monthly limit, no log in/pay necessary.

Shhhhhhh...

 

[Fishy]

I like him.

I think he's a talented writer - sometimes I disagree with what he writes and occasionally I think he's way off the reservation, but so be it.

To some extent, if you're a columnist, you're not doing you job unless some percentage of the readers isn't losing its s--- over what you've written.

 

[Waquoit]

Sanctimonious. Arrogant, a Capt Obvious and a piler on.

Jacobs? Nah. He's a good guy. Props for the walk and years of being our local guy.

 

[weyuo]

Jacobs is a hack. The reason he attacks the UConn program is the same reason a baby cries, he wants attention. Worst of all, he often makes the story about himself. He is an insecure big fish in a small pond that constantly cries, "Look at me."

He is a competent writer. He rarely turns an interesting phrase, uses a piercing analogy or surprises you with a story that illuminates or elevates. In a larger market he would disappear and soon be in another profession.

I wish he would disappear from this market.

I like him.

I think he's a talented writer - sometimes I disagree with what he writes and occasionally I think he's way off the reservation, but so be it.

To some extent, if you're a columnist, you're not doing you job unless some percentage of the readers isn't losing its s--- over what you've written.

Where is it written that a portion of a columnists readership needs to disagree in order for said columnist to be deemed successful or good at his job? To me that's just BS. Write the facts without trying to p--- people off is more responsible journalism than intentionally trying to cause a stir. He's gone out of his way in the past. To me that's yellow journalism.