JMU did it. Why not us?

[Duncan Idaho]

We should schedule everybody or anybody that has a football budget of $9MM, at least half ours or less i.e. Arkansas State, Sam Houston State... and finish the year at UMass in Amherst, make it a Thanksgiving weekend game. $5 dollar seats just like the good ole Yankee Conference days. We can even wear retro unis. We can fool everyone with our current level of play. Or maybe we can schedule like our D1 transition years? Nah, too tough.

 

[giddyup]

Fed up with the program. Fed up with half measures. Fed up with bad coaching. Just had enough after 25 years. Maybe someday UConn will stumble upon the realization football matters.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Last year, JMU in its first year of after moving up to the FBS level was 8-3. This year, they are ranked 21st in the polls and are 9-0.
So that begs the question - why them and not us? It can't be a lack of resources.

Their stadium is very nice, I like the design, and they recruit better than we do. Simple as that.

 

[Patman]

It has everything to do with coaching. The coach = the program.
recruiting, development, discipline, game planning, in-game management

get a good head coach and winning will follow.

FYI, UConn significantly outspends JMU in football. $18 to $11 MM.
the gap will probably close as James Madison continues to grow. It appears UConn has simply made a string of bad decisions over the years and is paying the price for it.

The idea that jmu, a branch campus of the Virginia system containing odu and Mason, outspends us on football is embarrassing

 

[Skies2018]

There is no reason for a flagship state school with a culture of athletic success should be so absolutely trash every single year. It’s beyond embarrassing, it’s unacceptable, and Mora, AD Dave, the administration, and the state government are all at fault.

it’s a culture of losing and embarrassment and it needs to stop. It’s just pathetic at this point. It’s not hard to solve either. Invest the money, hire the right coaches, and pay the kids. Three simple steps and I guarantee we’re a .500 program minimum.

 

[Alum86]

UConn cares more about basketball than any other sport. Despite the success football saw, the success baseball sees, the success both hockey teams have and the success of soccer and field hockey. DB’s hands are probably tied by the BoT who all would rather see every other sport fail before they lose their precious basketball programs.

That’s the problem here. 5 Nattys in hoop does not mean our FB has to suck.

 

[KryHavok]

There is no reason for a flagship state school with a culture of athletic success should be so absolutely trash every single year. It’s beyond embarrassing, it’s unacceptable, and Mora, AD Dave, the administration, and the state government are all at fault.

it’s a culture of losing and embarrassment and it needs to stop. It’s just pathetic at this point. It’s not hard to solve either. Invest the money, hire the right coaches, and pay the kids. Three simple steps and I guarantee we’re a .500 program minimum.

I tend to agree with you on many points. You wrote "it's not hard to solve", yet the administration has shown they are incapable of solving the multitude of issues. Other than Mora, we've not had decent coaching since Edsall's first tenure. BC, despite being at the bottom of the ACC for football and having coaching issues too, is the only New England team that can be "successful" in football???

It's 2023, football is driving realignment, and we have Mora saying our NIL isn't enough, yet continued losing detracts investment in NIL, creating a damning cycle (can't get NIL $ without winning, can't win without NIL $). Several of our former AAC companions were able to succeed and move up, because football mattered to the administration. Football matters to us as fans, I just question the administration's commitment. Did they just think, "oh, well we have Mora now, he'll be able to figure everything out".

 

[superjohn]

UConn cares more about basketball than any other sport. Despite the success football saw, the success baseball sees, the success both hockey teams have and the success of soccer and field hockey. DB’s hands are probably tied by the BoT who all would rather see every other sport fail before they lose their precious basketball programs.

Of course they care more about basketball than any other sport, it's what made the University what it is today and it's arguably the best program in the country.

I'll let you in on a little secret...they care more about basketball than any other sport at Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, UNC, Indiana too. Those schools have money to burn so they can also put plenty of money towards football too. UConn doesn't have that kind of money but they have the money to be better than all these G5 programs and we outspend them despite them being much better than us in football.

 

[billybud]

Color me skeptical about JMU's true strength...yeah, they are undefeated, but is that a result of scheduling ?

JMU has played one P4 team...gawd awful Virginia (#13 in ACC standings) and they beat them by 1 point.

My thought is that, out of the SEC...Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss would beat them...would they have beaten Tennessee ? I don't think so...maybe played them closer than the Huskies.

I am kind of with the folks who are saying "let's schedule for success"...and build from there.

 

[CL82]

The first thing that needs to change is the inane idea that we have to prioritize in state players

I don't know if we have to "prioritize" and state players, but, we need to be competitive for them. Yeah, we're not a football recruiting hot bed, but decent Connecticut players get sucked out by other schools regularly. We need to maintain ties so that we can keep them. Victor Rosa did pretty well for us last season. Those are the kinds of kids we need to sell on staying home.

 

[Uconnalliance]

Last year, JMU in its first year of after moving up to the FBS level was 8-3. This year, they are ranked 21st in the polls and are 9-0.
So that begs the question - why them and not us? It can't be a lack of resources.

We need to be in a conference and play teams of our own level

 

[goalline]

The "old guy" from UConn offers this 2 cents worth. If it was easy everyone would do it. Winning that is. It looks like basically it takes lots of $$$$$$$$$ and great facilities, supportive alumni, tradition, and more. Then mix in excellent head and assistant coaches, 4 and 5 star athletes, which requires pretty good recruiting, and luck. I mean no serious injuries to the stars of the team. There are few power teams who can compete for the NC...The next level of excellence gets the bowl games that use to be important, (Rose, Cotton, etc.) and then comes all the commode bowls. UConn football can and should be able to win 8 games. But not by playing Michigan, Clemson, and Duke, which beats the he... out the team. To then expect them to go out and beat some pretty good lower tier team makes no sense. The AD needs to get them a schedule they can compete with, and perhaps a couple of power 5 teams. Like James Madison has done. Then when winning becomes possible, UConn will get the recognition that allows them to be consider for a conference that will allow better recruiting and fan attendance. It has been said by many in a better way than I can. Hopefully coach Mora will make the changes that are needed, (coaching, portal, scheduling) and next year will bring 4 to 5 wins...Thanks to all those who post...

 

[amishboy]

And JMU, all southern schools. I don't think most posters on the Boneyard have the slightest clue about what the culture of high school school football in the south (and Texas, and even Pennsylvania & Ohio) is all about. It starts there....

Yes, times 1000!

Again, football in the Northeast is dead, from a national perspective. Penn State usually manages to sign enough 4 & 5-star players (many from PA, Ohio, NJ, and Maryland) to have a decent, top 10-15 team, but that’s about it. Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Rutgers, etc., are lucky if they finish in the middle of the ACC and Big 10.

There just isn’t enough talent in the Northeast for UConn to field a competitive team, and few 3 or 4-star recruits from the South are willing to commit being in Storrs for four or five years.

Jim Mora is the best coach we could have ever hoped to hire, but the program is trending down again. So why keep avoiding the obvious? It’s not going to happen at UConn.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

The idea that jmu, a branch campus of the Virginia system containing odu and Mason, outspends us on football is embarrassing

I think you aren't grasping JMU. They aren't a branch as you termed it. Their undergraduate enrollment is 20k+ and is actually slightly bigger than UVa. Virginia has 6 large state universities given their state population and large geography. Mason and VCU have lots of commuters; JMU doesn't. JMU has committed to football while in FCS and now in FBS. Don't underestimate where they are now and will be in football in the future. They are in a football-focused state with high school talent aplenty. Stadium with 25k seats expandable to 40k+. They're committed.

 

[amishboy]

Yes, times 1000!

Again, football in the Northeast is dead, from a national perspective. Penn State usually manages to sign enough 4 & 5-star players (many from PA, Ohio, NJ, and Maryland) to have a decent, top 10-15 team, but that’s about it. Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Rutgers, etc., are lucky if they finish in the middle of the ACC and Big 10.

There just isn’t enough talent in the Northeast for UConn to field a competitive team, and few 3 or 4-star recruits from the South are willing to commit being in Storrs for four or five years.

Jim Mora is the best coach we could have ever hoped to hire, but the program is trending down again. So why keep avoiding the obvious? It’s not going to happen at UConn.

If you check out their roster, probably 80-90% come from Maryland and south. So if we double our budget, what would entice these recruits to say, “no, thanks” to JMU, and instead come here for 4-5 years? Anything other than more NIL money?

https://jmusports.com/sports/football/roster?view=1

 

[freescooter]

The first thing that needs to change is the inane idea that we have to prioritize in state players. If this is going to be our approach we may as well pull the plug now as we will never generate enough talent locally to compete.

There are a number of programs that were built by travelling to recruiting hot beds to stock their rosters. We were doing that under RE (first run) and did pretty well in Virginia then. There is no way you can convince me that we couldn't win most recruiting battles against JMU in the state of Virginia if we put the correct effort into it.

I've posted endlessly about how half of our scholarship roster needs to come from NJ, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio. There is enough talent there that after the big boys take who they want, we can still find a dozen guys a year who can contribute.

I have been saying this forEVER! There are high schools in Florida that have more D1A recruits than the entire Statenof Connecticut. A few years ago, my nephew’s school had 7 players on the defensive side of the ball get FCS scholarships ranging from Florida and FSU to Marshall. They had 3-4 offensive guys too. The State of Connecticut had 6 that year. We need to be hitting those areas as well as New Jersey PA, Ohio, Virginia NC. We will get the CT kids except for the very top ranked kids.

 

[billybud]

Penn State currently has 30 kids on the roster from Virginia and south...Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Louisianna..

They recruit international kids in the states...South Africa, DR Congo, Germany, Quebec, Ontario, Australia are represented on their roster.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Last year, JMU in its first year of after moving up to the FBS level was 8-3. This year, they are ranked 21st in the polls and are 9-0.
So that begs the question - why them and not us? It can't be a lack of resources.

The JMUs, Boise STs of the football world have winning football history at the lower divisions. They also made smaller jumps to FBS conferences allowing easier continued success. UConn does not and made a huge jump to a BCS conference. BCS membership became the most attractive thing about the program. Thats why it was so critical for Pasqualoni to succeed for recruiting and fan interest. The perception of the program is so bad now, not sure at what level we can succeed.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

The JMUs, Boise STs of the football world have winning football history at the lower divisions. They also made smaller jumps to FBS conferences allowing easier continued success. UConn does not and made a huge jump to a BCS conference. BCS membership became the most attractive thing about the program. Thats why it was so critical for Pasqualoni to succeed for recruiting and fan interest. The perception of the program is so bad now, not sure at what level we can succeed.

We need to attract Edsall’s 1.0 former assistants and some of PP’s assistants AND pay them good money. They formed a great program and I think those guys can do it again. A decent OC and DC can be hired from among those guys. I should think they would like working for a guy like Mora, as long as the money is right. I’m thinking Tob Ambrose, Todd Orlando, Joe Moorehead, and a couple others.

 

[John]

UConn cares more about basketball than any other sport. Despite the success football saw, the success baseball sees, the success both hockey teams have and the success of soccer and field hockey. DB’s hands are probably tied by the BoT who all would rather see every other sport fail before they lose their precious basketball programs.

been going to basketball since the field house days and a long time season ticket holder, but that being said, basketball myopia is going to be the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of the athletic department.

 

[TMB4405]

been going to basketball since the field house days and a long time season ticket holder, but that being said, basketball myopia is going to be the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of the athletic department.

Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner. People can not see it but it will happen. I love every sport because its my school and I want us to succeed at everything we do. But in the long term the continued sh.. show in football will bury all sports including hoops.

 

[freescooter]

There is no reason for a flagship state school with a culture of athletic success should be so absolutely trash every single year. It’s beyond embarrassing, it’s unacceptable, and Mora, AD Dave, the administration, and the state government are all at fault.

it’s a culture of losing and embarrassment and it needs to stop. It’s just pathetic at this point. It’s not hard to solve either. Invest the money, hire the right coaches, and pay the kids. Three simple steps and I guarantee we’re a .500 program minimum.

Once the Big East broke up, UConn basically gave up on football and threw everything into basketball. The NBE move basically said we are turning our back on every other sport. And there is a cadre within the Athletic Dept that is thrilled with that. There has always been a group among the “middle managers” who felt that way. Had we invested in football I have zero doubt we would either be in the ACC or the Big 12 now but we didn’t.

I think the new NBE media deal will be the wake-up call.

 

[superjohn]

Once the Big East broke up, UConn basically gave up on football and threw everything into basketball. The NBE move basically said we are turning our back on every other sport. And there is a cadre within the Athletic Dept that is thrilled with that. There has always been a group among the “middle managers” who felt that way. Had we invested in football I have zero doubt we would either be in the ACC or the Big 12 now but we didn’t.

I think the new NBE media deal will be the wake-up call.

Once UConn went back to the Big East and started their push towards being the premier program in college basketball again freescooter started posting less on the basketball board.

Once UConn won another national championship with their third different coach and had the largest tournament margin of victory in the modern game freescooter stopped posting altogether on the basketball board. I think it was a really big wake up call for freescooter.

 

[buckley503]

UConn: Who's JMU?
Jerry: He's somebody!
UConn: What about me?
Jerry: You're nobody.
UConn: Why him? Why not me?
Jerry: He's good, you're not.
UConn: I'm better than him!
Jerry: You're worse! Much much worse.

 

[Scrutineer]

The "old guy" from UConn offers this 2 cents worth. If it was easy everyone would do it. Winning that is. It looks like basically it takes lots of $$$$$$$$$ and great facilities, supportive alumni, tradition, and more. Then mix in excellent head and assistant coaches, 4 and 5 star athletes, which requires pretty good recruiting, and luck. I mean no serious injuries to the stars of the team. There are few power teams who can compete for the NC...The next level of excellence gets the bowl games that use to be important, (Rose, Cotton, etc.) and then comes all the commode bowls. UConn football can and should be able to win 8 games. But not by playing Michigan, Clemson, and Duke, which beats the he... out the team. To then expect them to go out and beat some pretty good lower tier team makes no sense. The AD needs to get them a schedule they can compete with, and perhaps a couple of power 5 teams. Like James Madison has done. Then when winning becomes possible, UConn will get the recognition that allows them to be consider for a conference that will allow better recruiting and fan attendance. It has been said by many in a better way than I can. Hopefully coach Mora will make the changes that are needed, (coaching, portal, scheduling) and next year will bring 4 to 5 wins...Thanks to all those who post...

Good points.
One issue that isn't mentioned in these discussions is that the financial commitment to football by the administration should include getting rid of the "buy" games versus great programs.
We get slaughtered every time. That doesn't enhance the players' confidence but it gets us a little cash.
Does that help with recruiting?
You're either in it to win or you're not and right now we don't appear to be in it to win and we sacrifice our players' confidence by putting them in positions where they have little chance for success.