Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[Dooley]

By far and away the biggest mistake Warde has made to date was not relieving PP of his duties off the 2012 season.

I think ^ this one thing (and this one thing alone) is the only thing that Warde bashers can point to as a mistake. I can see the rationale behind bringing him back for season 3, coming off of consecutive 5-7 seasons. But I also think that our entire fanbase knew from Day 1, let alone Day 730, that PP/GDL was not going to work out. So getting out ahead of the curve and hiring Diaco (or someone else) after Year 2 would've definitely accelerated the rebuilding process by a year...which we all know time is precious for UConn in terms of improving its P5 profile.

 

[Dooley]

They should have been fired for cause when they sent CW out wide...

Taking it a step further, they should have been fired for putting that ridiculous play on film towards the end of a 30-0 game vs UMass. But I digress...

 

[Husky92]

I think ^ this one thing (and this one thing alone) is the only thing that Warde bashers can point to as a mistake. I can see the rationale behind bringing him back for season 3, coming off of consecutive 5-7 seasons. But I also think that our entire fanbase knew from Day 1, let alone Day 730, that PP/GDL was not going to work out.

I wish I could say that. I was (apparently) one of the few who thought it was a good hire. Having married a Syracuse alum I followed PP while he was there and honestly felt he got the shaft when he was fired from SU. I thought the hire, while not flashy, was a smart move. I also thought bringing him back for the third year at UCONN was the right thing. I am apparently a very slow learner. However, by the time we canned him, I was ready to lead the mob with pitchforks. In hindsight, I agree 100% with you Dooley, and freely admit I knew nothing then and only a little more now.

 

[NEforceUConn]

............. In hindsight I freely admit I knew nothing then and only a little more now............

A statement over half the people who post on the BY should say.

But it is entertainment.

 

[hardcorehusky]

I agree the PP mistake was completly apparent by the end of 2012. ( Some would put the date at 2010)A football guy like Warde I'm sure was also convinced of it. But he was a recent hire and a PP buyout would have been costly and require the full support othe adminstation
Even in 2013 PP still had his supporters on the Board.
I'm interested to know why you think there was such a huge quantitative difference between 2012 or 2013?
Especially in view of the way 2013 ended. It looked like we found our long sought QB.
Predictions for 2014 were fairly optimistic.
Other than recruiting I would like to hear your thoughts on the advantages.

For those who find an exercise reviewing your past mistakes as a silly waste of time. I completely understand nothing we could do can change past events. However ,an honest review of past mistakes is a necessity for avoidance of future mistakes.
AZ first law of error

It was the buyout that stopped Warde from removing PP. His hands were tied.

 

[Pudge]

Fair point. He doesn't work in a vaccum and was still somewhat new.

Warde did lay down the line ... which brought in TJ Weist and some change. YES ... it was obvious what should have happened. But all of us must admit that money and momentum made firing PP/GDL hard; including entrenched stakeholders who probably demanded that LAST chance. Diaco came in with all the right stuff ... and frankly, showed that Warde gave him the capacity to build from ground up. A Whipple with a Frohnapfel would have given us some more wins and better fan appreciation (either of those hiring periods). The jury is absolutely out on BD and what is coming. I am nothing but hopeful that this Fall bring a far better product than any so-called experts can project.

Maybe the most important UConn football campaign ever.

 

[SAMCRO]

WM may not have been able to fire PP all on his own (BoT support, buy out, etc...), but his biggest "swing and a miss" from a decision making stand point, in my opinion, was allowing GDL to remain employed. That was a decision he had full authority to make happen. It may not have changed any results the following season, but he continued to be a negative influence on the backslide of our OL play and overall team culture for 10 more months. GDL should have been fired and had a restraining order on him not allowing him anywhere near Storrs, East Hartford, or any away game locations.

 

[businesslawyer]

Warde did lay down the line ... which brought in TJ Weist and some change. YES ... it was obvious what should have happened. But all of us must admit that money and momentum made firing PP/GDL hard; including entrenched stakeholders who probably demanded that LAST chance. Diaco came in with all the right stuff ... and frankly, showed that Warde gave him the capacity to build from ground up. A Whipple with a Frohnapfel would have given us some more wins and better fan appreciation (either of those hiring periods). The jury is absolutely out on BD and what is coming. I am nothing but hopeful that this Fall bring a far better product than any so-called experts can project.

Maybe the most important UConn football campaign ever.

The decision to bring PP back for a third year, at the time, was not dumb. Even if you thought that PP would not turn it around (which I thought), if you fired a coach after two 5-7 years it would have been very hard to bring in the new coach you wanted, because the message was your leash is incredibly, incredibly, short.

 

[noeynox]

Yeah, PP was a dilemma going into year 3 and biz law nailed it on why firing him was a bad idea. Problem with him was hiring him in the 1st place. Had Hathaway done his homework, he would have made it a condition that he don't bring DeLeon with him.

 

[Husky25]

IIRC, Hathaway's homework was done for him. he went against the recommendation and hire Former Head "Coach" Pasqualoni on his own.

I thought Whipple was the choice, but wanted total say on his coaching staff. Pasqualoni was willing to take on the coaches that didn't go with Edsall with only DeLeone being his only condition.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The decision to bring PP back for a third year, at the time, was not dumb. Even if you thought that PP would not turn it around (which I thought), if you fired a coach after two 5-7 years it would have been very hard to bring in the new coach you wanted, because the message was your leash is incredibly, incredibly, short.

You don't think potential future head coaches would be able to discern the situation at hand - old washed up coach, running a program into the ground, compared to a new coach who would potentially win less games up front but had the team going in the right direction?

 

[whaler11]

The decision to bring PP back for a third year, at the time, was not dumb. Even if you thought that PP would not turn it around (which I thought), if you fired a coach after two 5-7 years it would have been very hard to bring in the new coach you wanted, because the message was your leash is incredibly, incredibly, short.

But 2 years and 4 games is enough - and everyone knew after year 2 they were cooked?

Diaco wouldn't have taken the job a year earlier?

Warde had an out - he didn't hire him.

 

[businesslawyer]

You don't think potential future head coaches would be able to discern the situation at hand - old washed up coach, running a program into the ground, compared to a new coach who would potentially win less games up front but had the team going in the right direction?

No. A coach would say that a team that at its best won 8 games hired a guy they wanted and then fired him after back to back 5-7 years, one of which would have been much better if he had a QB. Coaches want to see things from the eyes of coaches, like everyone else.

 

[businesslawyer]

But 2 years and 4 games is enough - and everyone knew after year 2 they were cooked?

Diaco wouldn't have taken the job a year earlier?

Warde had an out - he didn't hire him.

Come on. If you don't see a huge difference between back to back 5-7 and then not really being competitive against either Towson or Buffalo, on the way to 0-4 I don't know what to tell you. Because I know you're smarter than that.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

The mistake was not when they fired P, it was that they hired P.

 

[kemba]

You don't think potential future head coaches would be able to discern the situation at hand - old washed up coach, running a program into the ground, compared to a new coach who would potentially win less games up front but had the team going in the right direction?

I don't. It wasn't clear, at least to the outside world, that we were being run into the ground until year 3. Year 1 he was left with a walk on playing QB. Year 2 we underachieved but we still managed to be competitive, we won at Maryland, we won at Lousiville. While I think most of us could tell how poorly coached we were from watching the games his first 2 years, it's not like the rest of the country was thinking "wow, UConn's only 5-7? What happened to them?" Getting blown out by Towson and Buffalo was a whole different level of bad.

 

[whaler11]

Come on. If you don't see a huge difference between back to back 5-7 and then not really being competitive against either Towson or Buffalo, on the way to 0-4 I don't know what to tell you. Because I know you're smarter than that.

We all knew it was coming. Maybe we didn't know it was going to bottom out so badly - but anyone paying attention knew that staff and team were cooked.

The stuff we hear through the grapevine and I've heard myself from a few parents is even worse than what we saw.

I still don't see why Diaco or someone like Diaco wouldn't have been willing to take the job because we moved on P 4 games earlier.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

No. A coach would say that a team that at its best won 8 games hired a guy they wanted and then fired him after back to back 5-7 years, one of which would have been much better if he had a QB. Coaches want to see things from the eyes of coaches, like everyone else.

Even with a minimal amount of research into the program, which I'd expect a potential HC to do when contemplating a job, it was clear as day they were winning games in spite of P.

We all saw it as fans, and while I know his peers would likely sympathize more with P being fellow Head coaches, it was clear as day what was going on here.

 

[whaler11]

Spin it as a positive.

5-7 with losses to Western Michigan and completely losing home field advantage aren't good enough here.

Maybe it costs you more guaranteed money up front - but that would have been a lot less net cost than the 24 months at sea thanks to that 4 games of proof.

 

[junglehusky]

It's all hypothetical, but if a brand new AD fired the HC, and then it came out that the trustees weren't happy they weren't consulted or were concerned about the buyout, I could see that being a red flag. You don't want to take a job in an environment where your boss and your boss's boss are not on the same page, unless you're either desperate for work or you think you be successful without all the right resources and leave after a few years.

It might not keep away a Whipple type coach, but could make it a little harder to land either an established guy like Mullen (at the time he was on the hot seat and there were rumors he was at least asking around about UConn) or a younger, aspiring guy like Diaco.

 

[businesslawyer]

Even with a minimal amount of research into the program, which I'd expect a potential HC to do when contemplating a job, it was clear as day they were winning games in spite of P.

We all saw it as fans, and while I know his peers would likely sympathize more with P being fellow Head coaches, it was clear as day what was going on here.

Whenever a coach coming off 5-7 seasons is fired, ,there will always -- ALWAYS -- be at least part of a fanbase saying that "you could see disaster coming." The fact that this fanbase in this instance did see it coming doesn't change how it looks on the outside.

 

[CoastAtlantic]

Berry Tramel‏@BerryTramel 2h2 hours ago
Big Ten's new scheduling model further cripples Big 12's status http://newsok.com/big-tens-new-sche...rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Whenever a coach coming off 5-7 seasons is fired, ,there will always -- ALWAYS -- be at least part of a fanbase saying that "you could see disaster coming." The fact that this fanbase in this instance did see it coming doesn't change how it looks on the outside.

You don't think a potential HC would have more insight and potentially be able to obtain more inside information on the state of a program than the general outside perception? I can't imagine a coach looking at all situatuons relatively equal and just see a coach fired after back to back 5 win seasons?

 

[whaler11]

Whenever a coach coming off 5-7 seasons is fired, ,there will always -- ALWAYS -- be at least part of a fanbase saying that "you could see disaster coming." The fact that this fanbase in this instance did see it coming doesn't change how it looks on the outside.

You are arguing how his firing looked to the outside being more important than setting fire to the 2013 season and making the rebuild that much more difficult.

Someone like Diaco is going to turn down 8-9 million dollars and the opportunity to be a head coach because he felt UConn was unfair to Paul Pasqaloni? You'll have to color me doubtful on that fact.

For one BC was legitimately unfair to a pretty successful Jags.. and they landed Addazio who had a head coaching job... (yes I know Spaz in between).

I don't think you can make it protocol, but I don't see how fixing an error one time negatively impacts who you can get when you've got 8 figures to toss around.

As bad as we ripped P - nobody has been harsher on him than Diaco.

 

[Pudge]

We knew. That 2013 season FELT like we were limping through it. And Warde Manuel knew. He insisted on coaching changes that a solid PP would not have agreed to.

Let's not look too deep. It matters that Pasqualoni had a Connecticut home ribbon wrapped around him. That mattered to some that were either donors or stakeholders or on the BOT or somewhere. Warde was new enough that he would be hesitant to pull that trigger; he needed all the juice he could get to make hires like Cavanaugh and raises for Auriemma & Ollie. After two 5-7 seasons, it would have taken big balls to out PP. Look across the landscape and we see that the Buffalo AD (one of the White progeny) did take out Quinn. That SEEMED premature from my vantage point. Buffalo has had a far more spotty track record in football than OUR University. But ... I think that made that easier. No Sports history in a Pro town: off him.

As UConn - with a modest 15 year history in the highest level - I am with BL. We need to be more careful about perception than others. I agree with you if you said some solid Assistant would take our job. I guess I don't think you are playing for Diaco. You are trying to appeal to the agents and greater world of coaches that UConn is going to give solid chances. PP fired himself in September of 2014 with just putrid production performance.