No Tenn game in 2015 more to come

[Carl Spackler]

OK, how about every crowd other than Michigan? Towson crowd was abysmal in week 1. Last game against Rutgers and the place was empty. Those crowds will be the norm in this conference. Losing a game like this is a big deal.

I don't believe that to be the case. I think that with a winning program, we will draw capacity crowds. There has been some significant damage done to the program in the past 3 years. It started with Randy Edsall in one quick move, getting in front of microphone in the DC metro area, and calling Maryland his dream job, after taking 12 years to build UCONN up to reaching the Fiesta Bowl and competing with Oklahoma. Overcoming that d----ck move from Edsall in national perception of the program will be a hurdle. Of all Randy did, the way he completely destroyed the national perception of the program the way he did publicly with his move to Maryland - won't be forgiven. He could have left this program on a very positive note talking highly of the job he did, and the power of the program......but didn't. Then Pasqualoni came in, and gave the appearance of having completely forgotten what it takes to build a successful college football team, and we lost more games at home, than we lost in the past 10 years. Fans don't like to lose at home.

Winning will fix a lot of problems, and if we're a 7-2 or 8-1 or better, ranked team in late November and a Memphis or SMU, or Tulane comes to town, chances are people will be there to see us play.

 

[freescooter]

It'll be the norm in this conference if we continue to win only 4-5 games a year... if we're winning 8,9,10 games a year we will get good crowds. I think you're over estimating the draw of some of our prior conference opponents... For years Rutgers couldn't get people to go to their games... Temple can't even sell 10k seats to a game not including Penn St. We drew good crowds for those games when we were winning.

I think this is more right than wrong. This league is going to be tricky to "sell" but not impossible if we are good and a couple of other programs step up to make it a nationally relevant conference. Central Florida seems headed that way. Cincy seems headed that way. If we could be the 3rd member it would help a lot.

 

[BlueMAB]

I'm just thankful that our prideful fans, and our bumbling legislature stepped in and told Notre Dame to s u c k it.

Warde has to do better, but pretending that he's not operating at a disadvantage to virtually everyone in the conference isn't being honest. Temple offers Philly, south Jersey recruiting, and a larger stadium for PSU fans. ECU is located in close proximity to the ACC schools, and their recruiting grounds. SMU/Houston - DFW/Houston/Texas recruiting, enough said. Tulsa, OU doesn't have to leave the state for a guaranteed win that is cheaper than paying a MAC or similar program. UCF/USF - USF has larger stadium, Florida recruiting, enough said. Cincy-Ohio recruiting, Nippert Stadium.

Which program in the AAC, other than UConn, doesn't have a P5 opponent in the same state, isn't located in more popular recruiting grounds, and doesn't have access to a larger stadium in close proximity (the same state)?

Warde has done a fine job running the ship. FSU, Clemson, and BCU weren't letting UConn in no matter what he did or said. His coaching decisions thus far have been excellent. He handled the Ollie situation perfectly. Calhoun and Ollie both got what they wanted but Warde maintained his autonomy and authority by doing it on his timeline, not Calhoun's.

He accepted this job (he didn't inherit it) and all the troubles that came with it and has done an excellent job turning things around. Look at the improvement in marketing, in creative ticket sales, in fundraising, in coaching decisions, in virtually every aspect of the entire athletic department, except football scheduling which became even tougher when the P5 conferences expanded and started moving to 9 games schedules. We all want an improved schedule, he has earned the time to make it happen.

Edit: and if you don't like the results of the new husky, the new uniforms, okay.

But the fact is we're still in the AAC after Pitt, Cuse, Rutgers, and Louisville got out. What else needs to happen to show you we still have a perception problem and need to rebrand? The fact Nike paid the bill is a bonus.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I think what all of you guys are underestimating is how badly CR has damaged the program. 9 wins a year and conference titles going to the Motor City Bowl is not going to put the casual fans in the seats. The novelty of UConn has worn out in this state over the last 20 years. During a national championship season in 2011 you could've easily gotten a ticket to just about any basketball game. I think you guys are kidding yourselves a bit.

 

[IMind]

I think this is more right than wrong. This league is going to be tricky to "sell" but not impossible if we are good and a couple of other programs step up to make it a nationally relevant conference. Central Florida seems headed that way. Cincy seems headed that way. If we could be the 3rd member it would help a lot.

I mean honestly... most college fans know their team isn't going to win a national title or even go to a big bowl game.. they go to the game because it's fun... it's an event... but you know what's not fun: Losing. This is why ECU out draws Duke and Wake Forest even though they play in a lesser conference. They win more than they lose. Sure I want access to the playoffs and top tier bowls... sure I would rather play Michigan than Buffalo... but that's not why I go to UConn games.

 

[Husky25]

OK, how about every crowd other than Michigan? Towson crowd was abysmal in week 1. Last game against Rutgers and the place was empty. Those crowds will be the norm in this conference. Losing a game like this is a big deal.

First and foremost, people go to the games for the entertainment value. Generally, games are generally more entertaining when the home team appears to be putting forth a winning effort. That didn't happen until November. IMO, "Supporting the kids" and opponent are secondary to entertainment value.

Other than on the Boneyard and other fan sites, there was not a lot of buzz surrounding last year's team and the former regime did nothing to abate that problem. On NLI Day 2013, UConn's former "coach" lauded his Syracuse teams of yore, not his current team or recruits. They appeared appalled in April when people had the gall to want to watch that pathetic excuse of a Spring Game. Yes there was a change in Offensive Coordinator, but that change didn't result in any different returns come September and UConn still displayed the conservative run, run, pass (sack), punt tendencies with a lack of adjustments of the 2 years prior.

Entertaining? In general, no.

 

[BlueMAB]

It started with Randy Edsall in one quick move, getting in front of microphone in the DC metro area, and calling Maryland his dream job, after taking 12 years to build UCONN up to reaching the Fiesta Bowl and competing with Oklahoma. Overcoming that d----ck move from Edsall in national perception of the program will be a hurdle. Of all Randy did, the way he completely destroyed the national perception of the program the way he did publicly with his move to Maryland - won't be forgiven. .

F*$% Edsall for the way he left, but the people who remember him calling Maryland his dream job can be summed up in two categories.

1) Maryland Fans
2) UConn Fans

The rest of the country doesn't really give much of a s##t about Edsall enough to form an opinion of UConn based on one of his press conferences.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't believe that to be the case. I think that with a winning program, we will draw capacity crowds. There has been some significant damage done to the program in the past 3 years. It started with Randy Edsall in one quick move, getting in front of microphone in the DC metro area, and calling Maryland his dream job, after taking 12 years to build UCONN up to reaching the Fiesta Bowl and competing with Oklahoma. Overcoming that d----ck move from Edsall in national perception of the program will be a hurdle. Of all Randy did, the way he completely destroyed the national perception of the program the way he did publicly with his move to Maryland - won't be forgiven. He could have left this program on a very positive note talking highly of the job he did, and the power of the program.but didn't. Then Pasqualoni came in, and gave the appearance of having completely forgotten what it takes to build a successful college football team, and we lost more games at home, than we lost in the past 10 years. Fans don't like to lose at home.

Winning will fix a lot of problems, and if we're a 7-2 or 8-1 or better, ranked team in late November and a Memphis or SMU, or Tulane comes to town, chances are people will be there to see us play.

This is all true, but it's also a part of a chicken and egg game. Can we get to 7-2 and 8-1 playing against uninspiring opponents and mediocre crowds in cold weather? Will the recruits come to play for such a program?

I think the answer is, yes, eventually. But that's why it takes time to build. Nobody can pull a worst to first like Auburn did at UConn. Coaching and facilities aren't enough. We're back to the drawing board right now. Wipe away the build-up Edsalll did before tossing us aside like a used tissue. Bewteeen Edsall's destruction of our image and PP, it's totally gone now. Utterly wiped away. I don't think UConn fans really came to grips with this. We talk about bowl wins, record against Cuse and UL, and the Fiesta bowl. It is now as if none of that happened.

 

[Husky25]

I think what all of you guys are underestimating is how badly CR has damaged the program. 9 wins a year and conference titles going to the Motor City Bowl is not going to put the casual fans in the seats. The novelty of UConn has worn out in this state over the last 20 years. During a national championship season in 2011 you could've easily gotten a ticket to just about any basketball game. I think you guys are kidding yourselves a bit.

Conference titles may very well put the winner of the AAC in a New Years Day 6 Bowl game.

 

[BlueMAB]

I think what all of you guys are underestimating is how badly CR has damaged the program. 9 wins a year and conference titles going to the Motor City Bowl is not going to put the casual fans in the seats. The novelty of UConn has worn out in this state over the last 20 years. During a national championship season in 2011 you could've easily gotten a ticket to just about any basketball game. I think you guys are kidding yourselves a bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Connecticut_Huskies_men's_basketball_team#Regular_season

On 1/17/11 we were ranked #8. We sold out every game at home from that point on except Marquette who was unranked.

Prior to that we weren't selling out games. But we played USF, Rutgers, Coppin St, Harvard, UMBC, Farleigh Dickinson, etc.

When we had ranked programs (Cuse, Georgetown, Nova, etc) coming in to play, we sold out.

This really supports the argument that if we can get in the top 25, and play some big name opponents, we'll put more fans in the seats.

 

[Stray_Dog]

My first sentence of the first post is this is bad news. It's not the end of the world. Honestly, how many people on this blog went out of their way to watch a Tennessee game this past year? Or last five-ten years for that matter. The fact is, our situation is what it is because of, in my opinion, highly paid UCONN employees dropping the ball over the years. The milk is spilled; no use crying about it. If the Memphis game was for a BCS birth it would have been sold-out or close to it. I didn't even go to the last game and I had not missed a game in 8 years. Schedule the best teams possible, win the games, generate buzz, and things should work out.

In the SEC there is Vanderbilt and university of Kentucky. These are notoriously at the bottom. The joke in the SEC is that Kentucky is there for their basketball - this is the opinion of many SEC fans. Vanderbilt has enjoyed recent success but if they do not sustain it they will return to mediocrity (being the worst in the SEC is better than being the best in many other conferences).

On the other hand, there is UK. UL plays UK and UL wins and all of a sudden UL is a great team. In other words beating the worst team in what is considered to be the "best" conference is always a good thing. Therefore not having TN on our schedule hurts. And saying this is not good is not the same as saying this is BAD. I am not crying over the things not in our control but I am not going to accept a defeatist philosophy of: scheduling cupcakes or some lesser challenging teams because we think we might beat them or should beat them and that this is or becomes our priority.

No matter what the AD does in this situation I have not formulated my opinion prior to his handling of the schedule for I do not believe that there is enough history or example by which he can be judged. However, after this decision is reached there will be plenty of opinion and conjecture to go around. I won't attack or defend him until we know what the alternative to TN is. And for the record I do not profess to begin to believe that he cares one-iota of what I think. He has his facts. On this board, many of us have opinions of WM but they are predicated on his past actions. But as a fan I have an opinion of what I would like to see. Now I just have to see if the outcome is what I am hoping for. And that is; we get the best opponent we can get, and if it is an opponent that is going to challenge us then make it one with lots of notoriety. For the record TN did fit that bill and unlike many here, I do think we could have beaten that team and it would have made us look good!

I think Michigan has a better football team than TN and we played them competitively. The Huskies also have a history of stepping up or down to their competition. It would be nice to have games that the players can get up for!

 

[Carl Spackler]

This conversation right here , is what consecutive losing seasons bring. Lombardi spoke the truth long ago, when he said that winning is a habit, and unfortunately, so is losing.

I refuse to get into losing habits.

Until we have a winnign football program, that is not drawing fans to the stadium, there is nothing to discuss. We just finished a 3-9 season on the back of consecutive 5-7 seasons. Our attendance went through the floor. It's so very shocking. It's going to take some winnign to get the stadium full again. That's it.

As far as this Tennessee thing goes, I refuse to get into losing habits. I'm going to trust that Warde Manuel is a smart dude, and understands that your rep is all you got in college football, and we've got a decade worth of reputation under Hathaway, and being under the impression that because we've got a really good basketball program that we have a say in the intercollegiate world, and we were winning Big EAst football titles too.......the Big East died and ugly death, that IMO, started and ended with the way Villanova dragged ass and was allowed to continue to drag ass on an upgrade..........and we need to survive. Bringing up the Notre Dame thing - that's our college football rep in a nutshell that needs to be repaired. We are the program that had the misguided nuts to throw away a 7 game series with Notre Dame football because we were such hot shots in basketball and built a new stadium in East Hartford (that took 3 years of backhanded deals to squeeze through the legislature).

Until the Tennessee series is announced as Kaput, there is nothing I'm going to be upset about. I'll wait and see what Manuel can do scheduling wise, to fill the openings before I make any judgements. There is no doubt that Tennessee would be a draw for casual fans, not nearly the draw that Michigan was...but still a draw, nonetheless.

I'm not going to go shouting the sky is falling. We've got a season to play in 201 days, and it starts with BYU at home and I do believe that our leadership has learned very important lessons for the future, by what's happened in the past.

 

[BlueMAB]

What's the test? Seeing what kind of quality replacement we can get? he can't make Tenn anyone come to the Rent.

FIFY

 

[metsfan2323]

OK, how about every crowd other than Michigan? Towson crowd was abysmal in week 1. Last game against Rutgers and the place was empty. Those crowds will be the norm in this conference. Losing a game like this is a big deal.

We fired our old coach and hired a new coach with the hopes of fixing this problem. Winning (if it comes) will change things.

People who buy season tickets buy them to see UCONN, not Tennessee. Case in point, we had Michigan on our schedule this year and it was the worst attended season ever (and Tennessee is not nearly as sexy as Michigan). The loss of Tennessee will weaken our gate for one game, not a whole season.

If Diaco coaches as well as we all hope he does, selling tickets in 2015 will not be a problem. It's a little early to be worrying about 2015 ticket sales anyway.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Connecticut_Huskies_men's_basketball_team#Regular_season

On 1/17/11 we were ranked #8. We sold out every game at home from that point on except Marquette who was unranked.

Prior to that we weren't selling out games. But we played USF, Rutgers, Coppin St, Harvard, UMBC, Farleigh Dickinson, etc.

When we had ranked programs (Cuse, Georgetown, Nova, etc) coming in to play, we sold out.

This really supports the argument that if we can get in the top 25, and play some big name opponents, we'll put more fans in the seats.

Before we won a single national championship, UConn would sell out the HCC for Marathon Oil.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

We fired our old coach and hired a new coach with the hopes of fixing this problem. Winning (if it comes) will change things.

People who buy season tickets buy them to see UCONN, not Tennessee. Case in point, we had Michigan on our schedule this year and it was the worst attended season ever (and Tennessee is not nearly as s e xy as Michigan). The loss of Tennessee will weaken our gate for one game, not a whole season.

If Diaco coaches as well as we all hope he does, selling tickets in 2015 will not be a problem. It's a little early to be worrying about 2015 ticket sales anyway.

I really hope I am wrong about this.

 

[Husky25]

Before we won a single national championship, UConn would sell out the HCC for Marathon Oil.

Marathon Oil was an untelevised exhibition game after 7 months of no UConn basketball. The in arena atmosphere blew the at home atmosphere away. That was also 2 recessions ago, there was no HDTV and concessions did not require a home equity loan.

 

[ZooCougar]

Energy Vampires! This thread is bringing me down.

 

[BlueMAB]

Before we won a single national championship, UConn would sell out the HCC for Marathon Oil.

You're really glossing over a larger issue with anecdotal stories, and so far neither of the two have been entirely true.

I used to be at those games in the civic center, we had season tickets. They weren't regularly sold out, but tickets were cheap and available. Season tickets were also easy to come by and affordable for a family of four.

As time went by our season tickets got pushed further and further back, and eventually became unaffordable or simply not worth it. Being forced to pay $35/ticket to see us play dregs, while hoping for a few good games at HCC and seeing friends get tickets to exhibition games for $10/seat from the scalpers makes you re-evaluate. Tickets to single games at Gampel were impossible. You had to have season tickets which were becoming more and more unaffordable due to the donations required to get access to seats.

The school spent a few decades alienating fans by overcharging for crap games, and making sure only corporate or wealthy donors would ever see games on campus. This was a product of the success we had, and the demand for tickets, but the school went too far and they have finally begun reversing that process.

 

[Waquoit]

sometimes you have to eat a crap sandwich, this is UCONN's time

It's just going to get worse in the future then. Because we all know the less bread you have, the more crap you have to eat.

 

[Waquoit]

You're really glossing over a larger issue with anecdotal stories, and so far neither of the two have been entirely true...

Being forced to pay $35/ticket to see us play dregs...

When did dregs cost 35.00 per on a season ticket plan?

 

[BlueMAB]

When did dregs cost 35.00 per on a season ticket plan?

The last time I had season tickets - 2004. Every game was the same price.

I don't recall off the top of my head what they've done recently. I know I can get tickets outside for face value or less. Or walk up that day and buy tickets at the booth.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

People really need to not complain about basketball season tickets.

The " value" season ticket plan at XL AND Gampel cost about $18 bucks a game with no donation. Seats were high up at XL but in GP the seats were in the corner.

Not saying this to anyone specifically but I've read on here multiple times how people were priced out and it's too expensive. It's just not the case.

 

[Confident Carl]

Going Forward P5 teams are going to fear UCONN because I believe Diaco and staff are going to dramatically upgrade the Program. When UCF beats up on Penn State and Purdue, B1G, Louisville, ACC and Baylor Big12, it hurts the Power 5's ego and image.
When Tennessee loses to a UCONN that hurts them even more because SEC teams don't lose to AAC teams. It can be compared to when UCONN loses to Western Michigan or Buffalo. The Buffalo game (along with poor start) did PP in. Any Power 5 team losing to UCONN is going to smart for the program and the coach. It's a perception thing. Michigan losing to UCONN would have been right up their with the loss to Appalachian State and Wolverine fans would be asking for Brady Hoke's head. PP might still be the head coach if UCONN prevailed against MI. Look what happened to UCONN's mojo when they lost to Towson. BC is playing Elon and Buffalo because they know they won't lose. UCONN is hell bent to be in a P5 conference and the college football world knows it. A TN loss to the VA Tech, doesn't look nearly as bad as a loss to UCONN.

 

[huskymedic]

NHRJimFuller6:08pm via TweetDeck
Word is that #UConn football program is close to announcing home and home series with high-profile program for later this decade

NHRJimFuller6:08pm via TweetDeck
#UConn is still talking to teams to fill slots in 2015 and 2016 left by suspension of series with Tennessee