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Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

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RedStickHusky

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I don't often quote Agnew/Safire but I really can't understand alleged UConn fans more interested in proving themselves right on the hiring of PP then they are in rooting for him to succeed.
 
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I can forthrightly say I had no opinion regarding PP. I was optimistic and was looking forward to seeing what he would bring. He has proven to be n unfettered disaster. The only hope I hold out is that he might be an incredible recruiter and his ability to bring good talent mitigates his general weakeness.
 

RedStickHusky

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Fair enough. I think it's accurate to assess the season as approaching disastrous to this point but I think it's just too early to write off the coach. FWIW, McEntee shows obvious signs of progress, I see some things to like about the design of the offense if not the execution, and I think the BWW injury has been pretty telling. The biggest issue I have with coaching to this point is the apparent regression on specials.
 

RedStickHusky

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I am; I know Osan well - did a couple of turns there in the 70s and 80s.
 
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Butch Jones looked like a disaster last year.

Do you people not watch sports? You understand that there's room for turn-around and improvement right? And that it doesn't always happen in the first season.
 
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Butch Jones looked like a disaster last year.

Do you people not watch sports? You understand that there's room for turn-around and improvement right? And that it doesn't always happen in the first season.

Are you implying that a team full of 18 to 22 year olds, who lost all of their offensive playmakers, and are learning an entirely new system, somehow shouldn't automatically be out there winning games by 30 or 40 points?!

Boo this man!
 
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I view The hiring of Coach P. as an interim hiring (5-6 years) born out of necessity to get a head coach in place in time to put the finishing touches on recruiting & getting then current verbal committees to honor their commitment. In those terms, Coach P.'s hiring is already a success. When he's ready to retire (or management decides to go in another direction), I'm confident that the new A.D. will have a list of viable candidates to choose from. We may be seeing one tomorrow: former UConn All-American LB Vernon Hargreaves. He's interned at UConn, Miami, East Carolina & currently is on Skippy's staff at USF. He's building a nice resume & there may come a time in the future for UConn to bring him home.
 
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I view The hiring of Coach P. as an interim hiring (5-6 years) born out of necessity to get a head coach in place in time to put the finishing touches on recruiting & getting then current verbal committees to honor their commitment. In those terms, Coach P.'s hiring is already a success. When he's ready to retire (or management decides to go in another direction), I'm confident that the new A.D. will have a list of viable candidates to choose from. We may be seeing one tomorrow: former UConn All-American LB Vernon Hargreaves. He's interned at UConn, Miami, East Carolina & currently is on Skippy's staff at USF. He's building a nice resume & there may come a time in the future for UConn to bring him home.

And in that regard, I'm disappointed. Randy Edsall (whether I liked him or thought otherwise) did do a nice job of building this program as it grew into a BCS level outfit. The next 5-6 years should be focused on continuing this growth and development and hopefully reaching the point where UConn can be a Top 25 program on a somewhat consistent basis. The next 5-6 years should not have been turned over to an "interim coach" who by the time he finishes will see UConn have settled into a more permanent level and will dictate what it will be for years to come. Just would like to have seen someone that would have brought excitement and "possibilities" to the program - not a caretaker.
 

CTMike

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And in that regard, I'm disappointed. Randy Edsall (whether I liked him or thought otherwise) did do a nice job of building this program as it grew into a BCS level outfit. The next 5-6 years should be focused on continuing this growth and development and hopefully reaching the point where UConn can be a Top 25 program on a somewhat consistent basis. The next 5-6 years should not have been turned over to an "interim coach" who by the time he finishes will see UConn have settled into a more permanent level and will dictate what it will be for years to come. Just would like to have seen someone that would have brought excitement and "possibilities" to the program - not a caretaker.
I don't see any reason why Coach P can't succeed in all the areas you are concerned about.
 

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"You are what your record says you are."
Bill Parcells

Our record says that we are 2-4 and 0-1 in conference.

Our record is a nattering nabob of negativism.
 
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And in that regard, I'm disappointed. Randy Edsall (whether I liked him or thought otherwise) did do a nice job of building this program as it grew into a BCS level outfit. The next 5-6 years should be focused on continuing this growth and development and hopefully reaching the point where UConn can be a Top 25 program on a somewhat consistent basis. The next 5-6 years should not have been turned over to an "interim coach" who by the time he finishes will see UConn have settled into a more permanent level and will dictate what it will be for years to come. Just would like to have seen someone that would have brought excitement and "possibilities" to the program - not a caretaker.

Wow. Five to six years is way, way too long a term to make an "interim" hire. You can set a program back ten years, in addition to the five you lose, by doing that. And, I don't believe for a moment that that is what Hathaway was trying to do.

This hire may work or it may not work. But it was not irrational when made (it was not the direction I would have gone, I've made that clear, but it was not stupid) and people are going to have to give it more than half a season to judge it. Until the end of this year, I may write about how the staff is doing this year, but you won't see me talking about how it might do going forward. That just takes more time.
 
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I don't often quote Agnew/Safire but I really can't understand alleged UConn fans more interested in proving themselves right on the hiring of PP then they are in rooting for him to succeed.

You're not quoting either.

You're quoting Pat Buchanan. He is the author of that phrase.
 
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"You are what your record says you are."
Bill Parcells

Our record says that we are 2-4 and 0-1 in conference.

Our record is a nattering nabob of negativism.
Wow, and you've given him a reasonable chance to succeed? With his own recruits? Didn't think so.
 

prankster

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Wow, and you've given him a reasonable chance to succeed? With his own recruits? Didn't think so.

Note to self:

Double check Parcells quote, double check team record, for accuracy.
 
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Fair enough. I think it's accurate to assess the season as approaching disastrous to this point but I think it's just too early to write off the coach. FWIW, McEntee shows obvious signs of progress, I see some things to like about the design of the offense if not the execution, and I think the BWW injury has been pretty telling. The biggest issue I have with coaching to this point is the apparent regression on specials.

I agree 100%. And I don't think that I need to prove anything that P was the right here. Time will prove it, because the hire was made for the right reasons. My only hope is that Coach P, D and B train some younger guys to do the same things they've done for decades - and that's recruit for a football program in the northeast.

The only thing I can add on specials is that we didn't have much consistency on special teams until a week or two after this point in the season last year either.

The things I see:

Recruiting for the program is more solid than I've seen it ever through 2011 and with 3 1/2 months to go before signing day. We're pulling players from high quality places, locally and abroad, and we've got more palyers coming in with the size and speed to contribute from day 1.

A very well respected AD once talked about hiring a head coach for a sports program, any sports program, and the criteria he looked at. #1 was familiarity with the recruiting territory. #2. Was a track record of success in the recruiting territory. #3. Was ability to recruit the territory. #4. Was the ability to establish your recruiting territory, know your recruiting territory, and pull players that can contribute to your program from your recruiting territory. #5, and least important, was previous head coaching experience.

We're 2-4, but still have a great opportunity to play a post season game for 2011, and I see a team that is giving everythign they've got week to week, and is ahving every bit of ability squeezed out of them, and I will never, ever talk bad about players that are giving every ounce of what they've got. Got to win at home tomorrow though, to keep those post season goals high up there.

Run defense is solid. Pass defense is more than suspect, and we're relying now on freshman back there. That has to improve.

Offense - we are woefully thin in the offensive backfield. Lyle McCombs, has already become one of my favorite backs ever. This kid is giving everythign he's got and he's simply not the physical kind kind of guy that you want in there pass protecting and running the ball on an every down basis. He's giving up his body for the game, there's nothing more you can ask of a player. Quarterbacks are developing, positively, learning lessons on the fly, during game situations. Same thing with receivers and lineman. We have a balanced offense out there, we're just hitting too many foul balls as te head caoch recently stated. Need to take advantage of the opportunities we've got better.
 

RedStickHusky

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You're not quoting either.

You're quoting Pat Buchanan. He is the author of that phrase.
Safire wrote it; Agnew read it. I'm quoting both. Buchanan may have had the 'hopeless, hysterical, hypochondriacs of history', but nabobs was safire's.

edited to correct the 4H quote and to note that, apparantly, Safire wrote that as well (thanks to the link posted by Dave Carlson) ; maybe Buchanan wrote 'pusillanimous pussyfooters'...
 

RedStickHusky

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"You are what your record says you are."
Bill Parcells

Our record says that we are 2-4 and 0-1 in conference.

Our record is a nattering nabob of negativism.
I'm not arguing that our record is impressive. I'm arguing that it is beyond stupid to be talking about cutting P loose after 6 games and that there are some posters here who seek some sort of validation in prematurely declaring him a failure. Even Kragthorpe had a few seasons to become Kragthorpian.
 
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I wouldn't have gone this route if I were making the choice, but I understood it and could see why it made some sense. And I'm not at all covinced that it won't work out in the future. Desite the fact that I strongly disagree with some of the decisions they have made, I think this season was entirely predictable. No quarterback with any experience and really big changes in both the offensive and defensive approaches was almost guarenteed to cause some problems. I'm not going to say that I expected UCONN to be 2-4 at this point, but I do think that a couple of teams were better than expected and we have had lots of trouble adjusting. To me, the Fordham result was really worrisome. That was a game we should have won by whatever we wanted to win by. And while I do think P took his foot off the pedal a bit, I think the fact that we punted 5 times, and never really put together a drive after the middle of the 3rd quarter raised some questions. Letting them complete a long pass that led to the fieldgoal was a foreshadowing of what has happened all too often to the defense. I also wouldn't be completely shocked if we begin to play better as the season wears on and everyone becomes more comfortable with the new systems. If so, that will be a good sign for next year.
 
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Nabobs is often attributed to Safire. But I attended a speech by Buchanan where he stated, Safire invented the "silent majority" and he (Buchanan) penned "nattering nabobs." Straight form the horses mouth.
 
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Nabobs is often attributed to Safire. But I attended a speech by Buchanan where he stated, Safire invented the "silent majority" and he (Buchanan) penned "nattering nabobs." Straight form the horses mouth.

Well, certainly from an end of the horse. But you may be on the wrong side.
 

HuskyNan

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Safire wrote it; Agnew read it. I'm quoting both. Buchanan may have had the 'hopeless, hysterical, hypochondriacs of history', but nabobs was safire's.

edited to correct the 4H quote and to note that, apparantly, Safire wrote that as well (thanks to the link posted by Dave Carlson) ; maybe Buchanan wrote 'pusillanimous pussyfooters'...

Maybe Buchanan said "clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk". Oh wait, that was someone else too...

great_powerful_oz.gif
 

RedStickHusky

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I can forthrightly say I had no opinion regarding PP. I was optimistic and was looking forward to seeing what he would bring. He has proven to be n unfettered disaster. The only hope I hold out is that he might be an incredible recruiter and his ability to bring good talent mitigates his general weakeness.

I think it is much to early to judge PP. Getting adjusted to a new defense and a new offense takes time. Brown's second year as defensive coach at Maryland was much better than his first, as the team had become comfortable with the new system. UCONN players have to learn and be instinctively comfortable with new systems on both offense and defense. Add to that not having a quarterback with any significant game experience, the loss of Todman and the changes in the offensive line and I think it is clear that the current record is not meaningful in judging PP. It will take at least 3 years to form judgement on PP. Even at that time he will still have players he did not recruit and the team will not be wholly his.
 
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