Letters to Warde an Co.

[ZooCougar]

I already posted my letter in another thread. I thought it might be interesting and constructive if people want to post their letters here. Below is mine.

_________________________________


"I am writing to you in an effort to convey my displeasure and general concern in the current state of the University of Connecticut Football program. I urge you to give every possible consideration in upgrading the leadership of this fine program.

I have no official connection to the University other than the fact that I am lifelong resident and fan of the school and its various athletic programs.

I am very concerned and I have serious questions going forward about the viability of Paul Pasqualoni as the principal figure of our program. I think that UConn realistically will never draw the top flight talent across the board that a Michigan or Texas might. This means that our coaching staff must be on the very cutting edge at all times in order for our program to compete at an elite level.

Based upon our current results, I don’t believe that the football staff is functioning on the cutting edge. The team finished ranked #101 in the Sagarin Rankings, the offense was statistically #109, and the team lost to Western Michigan who finished the year ranked #114. UConn’s offense has never been explosive, but we could always count on a solid running game and an offensive line that could impose its will on the other team. All of this has now evaporated into thin air. I believe that allowing this staff to continue on its present course would not be a very good demonstration of a commitment to compete at the highest level.

The level of fan enthusiasm at the moment that I am sensing is at an all time low. Sales of season tickets are at an all time low. The level of fan unease is also at an all time high.

I would encourage you to address these issues with the football program and address them with the public. It is incredibly important that you articulate your vision to the fan base as we navigate through these troubled waters.

Thank you for spending a few moments of your valuable time reading my concerns. "

 

[huskysupporter]

I hope emails others send are as clear and rational as yours.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Stinger92860]

Keep them going....

President Herbst has asked me to thank you for your feedback.

Mary F. Dean
Administrative Assistant
University of Connecticut
Office of the President
860 486-2337
860 486-2626 Fax

 

[buckley503]

As posted before this was Warde's response to my email:

David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I can assure you that there is a commitment to the academic success of the University and our student-athletes academic and athletic success. UCONN is a great academic and athletic institution and we will continue to vehemently fight the perception that because we did not get into an athletic conference that somehow that diminishes the greatness of UCONN. We were great yesterday, today, and we will continue to strive for greatness in the future.
As someone who has 3 degrees from and worked at Michigan for 9 years UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major. Our goal is to sustain success at the highest levels academically and athletically.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you continue to support the your alma mater – we need you now more than ever. Thanks for the support.
Go Huskies!
Warde

 

[UConnDan97]

As posted before this was Warde's response to my email:

David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I can assure you that there is a commitment to the academic success of the University and our student-athletes academic and athletic success. UCONN is a great academic and athletic institution and we will continue to vehemently fight the perception that because we did not get into an athletic conference that somehow that diminishes the greatness of UCONN. We were great yesterday, today, and we will continue to strive for greatness in the future.
As someone who has 3 degrees from and worked at Michigan for 9 years UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major. Our goal is to sustain success at the highest levels academically and athletically.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you continue to support the your alma mater – we need you now more than ever. Thanks for the support.
Go Huskies!
Warde

I hate to keep riding on your coat-tails, Buckley, but I feel like my statement on Warde's statement is important enough to re-post behind you here too, as I think it speaks to part of the reason why we have a gigantic p.r. problem at the University of Connecticut. This was my previous reply to Buckley's letter:

At risk of bitching about something that might just be a chain letter (but likely a chain letter that he crafted), I get relatively pissed off about the fact that I have an Athletic Director of my great university, with numerous national championships in multiple sports, saying things like "...UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major."

Does THIS really define how he feels about UConn??? That we are somewhere better than halfway towards Michigan athletically than we are from Toledo?!? No wonder other people in the nation don't believe in our f#$king greatness....OUR OWN A.D. DOESN'T EVEN BELIEVE IN IT!!!! Someone go buy him a donut and take 15 minutes out of their day to explain to this -clown where he actually works...

 

[huskymedic]

I hate to keep riding on your coat-tails, Buckley, but I feel like my statement on Warde's statement is important enough to re-post behind you here too, as I think it speaks to part of the reason why we have a gigantic p.r. problem at the University of Connecticut. This was my previous reply to Buckley's letter:

At risk of bitching about something that might just be a chain letter (but likely a chain letter that he crafted), I get relatively pissed off about the fact that I have an Athletic Director of my great university, with numerous national championships in multiple sports, saying things like "...UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major."

Does THIS really define how he feels about UConn??? That we are somewhere better than halfway towards Michigan athletically than we are from Toledo?!? No wonder other people in the nation don't believe in our f#$king greatness....OUR OWN A.D. DOESN'T EVEN BELIEVE IN IT!!!! Someone go buy him a donut and take 15 minutes out of their day to explain to this -clown where he actually works...

WM's response seems tailored towards a specific issue. Buckley - was your letter more focused to the academics than to athletics? The mid-major reference has to reflect something in the letter?

 

[UConnDan97]

WM's response seems tailored towards a specific issue. Buckley - was your letter more focused to the academics than to athletics? The mid-major reference has to reflect something in the letter?

What I got out of it was that he was talking about the athletic department in general. The reason I believe that is due to the fact that he is talking about the move to a different athletic conference. So I took it as the entire enchilada. I could be wrong, but I don't believe that I am on this one...

 

[superjohn]

That was seriously Warde Manuel's response to a letter? I thought that was a joke, we are even more ducked than I thought, Manuel is clueless.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Does Warde need to be fired too? Great letter SuperJohn, hope people are paying attention. Paul must go!

 

[buckley503]

WM's response seems tailored towards a specific issue. Buckley - was your letter more focused to the academics than to athletics? The mid-major reference has to reflect something in the letter?

The gist of my email was asking them to provide a courtesy to the fanbase, one way or the other, that big time revenue sports programs were a hand in hand stragegic vision along with continued academic improvement. Or does the fanbase need to adjust/temper expectations accordingly.

 

[huskymedic]

The gist of my email was asking them to provide a courtesy to the fanbase, one way or the other, that big time revenue sports programs were a hand in hand stragegic vision along with continued academic improvement. Or does the fanbase need to adjust/temper expectations accordingly.

Thank - did you bring up mid-majors or did he wander there on his own?

 

[buckley503]

Thank - did you bring up mid-majors or did he wander there on his own?

I did.

 

[UConnDan97]

Perhaps I was a bit strong in my response pertaining to Warde, but the reason I was fired up about his response can only be summed up with the following analogy:

If an alum of Brown University were to write a similar letter to his/her university president, asking about academics rather than athletics, and the Brown president responded, "...Brown is certainly closer to Harvard or Yale than we will ever be to the University of Vermont," the Brown alum should be a bit fired up as well. Closer? Brown is an Ivy League school, and should certainly be viewed as such by their top personnel. I feel similarly about the quality of the athletics programs at UConn; Michigan and Stanford might be higher rated, but we are still a top tier athletics program without question.

I think when letters are planned out and sent to constituents, they should reflect the most positive view of one's institution, not a "ho-hum" attitude...

 

[huskymedic]

Thank - did you bring up mid-majors or did he wander there on his own?

I did.

Phew...

 

[Dann]

David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I can assure you that there is a commitment to the academic success of the University and our student-athletes academic and athletic success. UCONN is a great academic and athletic institution and we will continue to vehemently fight the perception that because we did not get into an athletic conference that somehow that diminishes the greatness of UCONN. We were great yesterday, today, and we will continue to strive for greatness in the future.
As someone who has 3 degrees from and worked at Michigan for 9 years UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major. Our goal is to sustain success at the highest levels academically and athletically.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you continue to support the your alma mater – we need you now more than ever. Thanks for the support.
Go Huskies!
Warde

just caught this in that response warde sent u...

 

[Jimdish255]

As posted before this was Warde's response to my email:

David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I can assure you that there is a commitment to the academic success of the University and our student-athletes academic and athletic success. UCONN is a great academic and athletic institution and we will continue to vehemently fight the perception that because we did not get into an athletic conference that somehow that diminishes the greatness of UCONN. We were great yesterday, today, and we will continue to strive for greatness in the future.
As someone who has 3 degrees from and worked at Michigan for 9 years UCONN is certainly closer to Michigan or Stanford than we will ever be to a mid-major. Our goal is to sustain success at the highest levels academically and athletically.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. I hope you continue to support the your alma mater – we need you now more than ever. Thanks for the support.
Go Huskies!
Warde

Maybe academically, but athletically we're a lot closer to Western Michigan than Michigan in football. You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to recognize that. Without having seen your letter, I'm pretty sure you were talking about athletics based on our current football status. I have know idea WTH he is referencing. That is a poor response.

 

[BlueDogs]

Keep them going....

President Herbst has asked me to thank you for your feedback.

Mary F. Dean
Administrative Assistant
University of Connecticut
Office of the President
860 486-2337
860 486-2626 Fax


You're kidding, right? She might want to spend a few minutes here. There is a laundry list of all the problems with the current program and it's trajectory.

 

[BlueDogs]

Warde Manuel is not a leader and lacks the experience to handle the UConn AD job under current circumstances. Every day that passes, it becomes more obvious. The whole squad from Herbst on down are a disaster. Clean them all out and get some proven leaders and talent.