Like a bomb went off; what happened?

[ZooCougar]

Being in a European time zone, when I went to bed the universe still hadn't crumbled. I wake up and this is really happening. Wow.

Not to join in on the bitching and negativity but let's stop for a second with the wise cracks and look at what really happened.

How the hell does Baylor get into the Big 12 back in the day? How does a Commuter School get into the ACC? You think think these places fight fair?

I think UConn tried to fight fair. This whole belief that "we have a lot going for us" is true, but at the end of the day it only takes you so far when your opponent has some things going for them too and they are playing a different game.

Secondly, I see a chorus of people here and some in the media proclaiming that the Fiesta Bowl was some sort of Catastrophic Success and that it exposed our true colors and the less than skin deep support that the football program enjoys.

I think most of our fans are more sophisticated than we realize. We qualified for the Fiesta Bowl, but this was not a Fiesta Bowl team. I am sorry to sound like I am denigrating the team, but earning that spot was not as gratifying as it should have been. Most fanbases would have a similar reaction attendance wise.

The chain of events that happened after that success were not handled well by the previous leadership. We didn't really have a President, and Jeff Hathaway was as predicted terrible at recruiting and hiring the right kind of coach for us.

They completely messed up on assessing where the football program was, it wasn't a Fiesta Bowl caliber program. It was really a third tier bowl caliber team. We didn't need a caretaker, we needed another aggressive builder. The idea behind the Pasqualoni approach was deeply wrong.

The Athletics Department as a whole has a bad cold. Too many empty seats at the MBB, WBB and Football games. I can understand why with football, but our basketball programs are still world class.

There is something wrong with the relationship between our fanbase and the department. It could be that they are so focused on extracting every last bit of revenue at the expense of enthusiasm, attendance and growth. I have no idea, but there is something toxic in the bloodstream.

 

[Excalibur]

You really get the sense that we are playing Checkers while everyone else is playing Chess. We've been out-maneuvered at every turn for nine years.

 

[spsct]

Same here. Jesus, I logged on to see if there were any updates and it was Armageddon.

 

[ZooCougar]

Part II.

We have an image problem. Man, people really dislike us. What horrible thing did we do? Did the lawuit leave some sort of deep scar tissue?

1. There is the belief that MBB is a flash in the pan and only successful because of Calhoun, now that Calhoun is gone, UConn MBB is over. Never mind whether that is valid or not, that's the perception.

2. UConn under Calhoun was renegade and disreputable. Again a perception. Doesn't matter if it is valid or not.

3. Football is an afterthought. The fanbase is small and they don't travel. There are still articles out there that tell us our facilities suck. Perception.

4. UConn is a northeastern school, people don't care about college football up here. College Football represents 80% of the revenue for college sports. Why commit to the northeast yet again.

The Fixes:

1. Not much we can do here but do everything possible to support MBB. The new facility could help, but nice facilities haven't spelled automatic success for football.

This round of realignment was terribly timed for us. Last fall happened while Herbst was firing Hathaway. No way she could have known that.

Maybe a year or two from now after a successful period with Kevin Ollie would demonstrate that UConn will be resilient and continue to win Post Calhoun.

2. We have to be squeaky clean. I don't know jack about basketball, but it sounds like the APR is improving. This also is bad timing for us.

3/4. Football is at a crossroads whether we like it or not. This issue, more than any other is the one that needs to be addressed the most and the one that will consume the most money.

To not get serious here is to basically accept that we are OK with being a mediocre regional program.

If we want to continue to be serious about football, our strategy going forward almost must involve leveraging almost every fiber of the Athletic Dept's being on football. To do otherwise this is just a half assed effort.

In order to defeat the perception UConn has to look like an island in an ocean that is barren of college football. It has to look like the exception to the rule and stand out.

This means we have to go and spend money Coaches. The best coaches that our money can buy and we better have alot of it.

Not just an expensive head coach, but his staff. What's the difference between the big successful programs and everyone else? They have coordinators that make more than MAC teams pay their head coaches.

We need coaches that are going to be competitive in the game of modern college football. That means winning on the field, winning in the media and winning in the living room of the recruits.

Pasqualoni is not that guy. From this day forward, Pasqualoni supporters should have their heads checked. The man is a punchline, and he is just barely good enough to get us to 5 or 6 wins. Getting to the Beef O'Brady's Bowl with 6 wins is nice but isn't going to do anything for us long term.

It's just time to get serious. Or not. I am not saying Pasqualoni is the reason we are in this situation, but he is one of the items on the list that have contributed to it.

 

[uconNYC]

Our problem is that ZooCougar is doing the analyzing instead of WM. Who knows - maybe WM is, but I haven't really seen much change.

 

[ZooCougar]

Our problem is that ZooCougar is doing the analyzing instead of WM. Who knows - maybe WM is, but I haven't really seen much change.

You know this as well as I do, when you are in charge of an organization, it can be hard to see yourself and your organization. It's paradoxical but it's the truth.

An outside set of eyes can help. An outside actor that can mediate on our behalf, that has a vested interest in our success can also see us more clearly.

Change can also take time to implement in a big organization. Hockey East was low hanging fruit, addressing our soft underbelly is not.

 

[ZooCougar]

BOOM

 

[mattp]

Not just an expensive head coach, but his staff. What's the difference between the big successful programs and everyone else? They have coordinators that make more than MAC teams pay their head coaches.
.

I hope WM doesn't read this and decide to give GDL a raise.

I think some people are going overboard with their pessimism. Unless you think all of the conferences are done expanding you have to think we'll be in either the ACC or B1G in the next 3-4 years, heck maybe in a year. In a year or two we'll have 4 new teams in the ACC that are pretty likely to vote for us to get the majority required. In the meantime we'll play some new teams (Tulane!!!) and try to kick ass. TCU and Utah were good for a long time in the MWC and WAC. Louisville was good in CUSA. It's not the end of the world. Let's enjoy KO's good start in bball and hope P and GDL get FB winning games again next year. The cynic in me thinks winning last week may have been the tie-breaker for Louisville since there seems to be an inverse relationship between winning and selection for expansion.

My main hope now is that the bball onlies stay on board. It's the only quasi bright spot in the conference now.

 

[junglehusky]

I think the real "What happened?" is in regards to the ACC meetings, how that went down, who was against UConn and what deals were made. It sounded like Swofford was pro-UConn both this time and the previous time (that Flipper blocked us). I hope we can get some reporting on those details.

Would it have helped if we were stronger in football performance? I don't know... probably. my gut take is that this is 90% Hathaway/Hogan and maybe 10% Manuel... the hathaway / calhoun relationship and some of the perceptions of UConn coming from that program probably had an effect (which is BS given UNC's and Miami's antics, but whatever).

 

[SubbaBub]

They don't want to be associated with UConn. That's it. Their ever changing list of excuses is a poor sugar coating.

At the end of the day, it's a bunch of cocktail party debutantes who think a northern new money school isn't good enough for them.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ZooCougar]

Just from reading about Louisville's campaign and reading Herbst's comments and Warde yesterday, it looks clear that we were completely outmatched by Jurich.

Hate to use a cliche but we brought a knife to a gunfight and then went to the Virgin Islands while Jurich was hustling.

We are bad at this!