OT UCONN football loss to Towson harms AAC :-(

[jplotinus]

UConn football has been around since 1896. As a Division IAA team, it was a member of the Yankee League and won 15 league championships. In 1998, UConn went 10-3 under Skip Holtz and won the A10 championship. UConn became a Division IA (FBS) team in 2000, 13 years ago. It joined the Big East as a full member in 2004.

The Huskies have been in 5 bowls (seasons 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) and have shared the Big East title twice, in 2007 and 2010. This is not a new football team and your repeating that bit of fiction time and again will not change that.

The above sounds a bit like disagreement for its own sake, IMO. In the post to which the above was a response, it was stated:

"Hating on PP, without taking into consideration uconn's lack of football experience at the top level is not a hallmark of a supportive fan base IMO. If it were that easy to develop a top 25 football program, all teams would be top 25. Oh, wait, only 25 of <120 can achieve that status."

Thus it was clear the reference to UCONN experience in football meant football in the fbs division and not football experience dating from 1896.

Moreover, in citing uconn's bowl experience, absent a list of what bowls they were can serve to overstate the matter, and that for two reasons:

First the sheer number of bowls allows about 1/2 of the total number of colleges that compete in the fbs to go to a bowl game.

Second the $ payout range for bowls varies from a low of a few hundred thousand to nearly $20million. Only once so far has UCONN gone to a big pay bowl. And that was pretty remarkable.

The issue is whether fans can accept and appreciate early success on one hand and a recognition of the validity of the old saying "Rome wasn't built in a day" on the other?

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[RadyLady]

clue: it didn't work in basketball, it ain't gonna work in football.

 

[Adios]

This is getting blown way out of proportion. Ultimately, it's not about success in athletics (cough, Rutgers, cough), it's about markets. Football was the first sport UConn played and it's not going away. Unless the school decides to join the A-10 with UMass.

ECU fans have more guts than UConn fans. We're so incredibly spoiled and fickle.

PS: PP was hired to fence in CT. Now that he's done that, time to boot him.

 

[Icebear]

It wasn't me that came up with that stuff. I think the AAC is the key to a slow, or maybe not so slow, death for UConn. Cause: Income Malnutrition. No network is going to pay to watch Tulsa play Tulane or Eastern Carolina play Memphis - in any sport.

Sorry, I corrected it to jplot. You are spot on that UCONN is set up for a slow death after so much hard work. The present issues on the football side show how devastating one bad hire can be.

 

[jplotinus]

Sorry, I corrected it to jplot. You are spot on that UCONN is set up for a slow death after so much hard work. The present issues on the football side show how devastating one bad hire can be.

Hi Icebear

I'd like to double check for accuracy of understanding. It appears you attribute 100% of mediocrity in UCONN football to PP. if that understanding is correct, I wonder why you think there is a better coach who could have overcome the following:

1-state of ct is not a hotbed of HS football, does not produce abundant highly rated recruits (neither does any other New England state).

2-12yrs in fbs division means UCONN has less tradition in the fbs than almost all other fbs schools. USF, being the closest comparable school in terms of newness to fbs.

3-2consecutive 5-7 seasons means UCONN was 1 victory short of bowl eligibility. If memory serves, Edsall went 1-11 1st season at Maryland. Thus, by way of comparison PP=not too shabby.

IMO, it is not reasonable to expect top 25 ranking in any top level collegiate sport absent consistent top 25 ranking in player recruitment. UCONN gets top recruits in bb. FB, not so much. I'm not sure how PP stacks up in recruiting. Perhaps I'll look into that.