Are there fans of UConn sports that don't realize we have a football team? (rhetorical)
It's been 10 years, we've won two conference championships, and gone to a BCS bowl. People know we have a team, and they know that we were good for a few years (the attendance shows that) and that we sucked the past few years (the attendance shows that). We are long past the point where using basketball to introduce people to UConn Football will have any meaningful impact (JMHO).
A couple pages back, I asked some naive questions about whether there would be hardware and/or players at Rentschler. I clicked Like when I got a direct response, even though the answer felt a bit tinged with impatience. That's OK. Really.
Now, I've come back to read the back-and-forth. Even with the name-calling and such, it seems pretty clear that people on all sides would like to see some connection that "leverages" the double National Championships and the 2 reigning best coaches in their respective sports introducing what we'd all like to believe is another great coach. And I do not see any clear indication that there will be a tie-in. It may occur, and I'll keep looking. I think it'd make great sense, and it'd surely serve my needs.
Allow me to answer the rhetorical question above in a sincere and literal fashion.
Yes, I *realize* that we have a football team. And I even know that the team played in minor bowl games and then even a BCS bowl. But I also know that the stadium is smaller than those at aspirational peers. And I know that the team performed poorly in the most recent seasons. And, as such, I turned down free corporate box seats for the Memphis game, even though I thought it might be an interesting 'recon' mission to see what the story was. I'd already tailgated, literally down the block from me, at the Yale-Brown game, and I liked the camaraderie and heading down the block in the other direction to Delaney's afterward. Maybe The Rent could be as fun. But do I really want to drive an hour both ways to find out? Not without a freebie looksee. Sorry, that's the state of the art.
But that's not all . . .
My half century love for MBB comes from weeknight pre-I-84 sojourns to Storrs with my dad. He and my uncle told me during the years that I was living in New York that UCONN would need football for the long term. And they were clear that it meant the real thing, not just limited but steadily good Villanova/Delaware football. To me, that always felt and still feels like wishes of regular NCAA Top 25 basketball teams that we all had 25 years ago when we were an also-ran in the BE. In other words, "How ya gonna do that?" And there I've comfortably sat . . . until last year's Conference Realignment clapsterfrack, and this past season's 0-9 football start. I now see, like my dad and uncle before me, that we *have* to have good football for the long haul. Being the best basketball school in the universe is not enough. Damn.
I want to modestly offer that we are NOT long past the time when using basketball to introduce football will have any meaningful impact. We are, at least for me (and I don't think I am alone) at precisely the time when using basketball CAN have a meaningful impact. And MUST. My dream would be to see at
www.uconnhuskies.org that there will be some sort of tie-in on Saturday, and that notification of it has been posted while I've been typing this Reply. I'll feel much more thankful than foolish if that's the case, but I can also say that I'm not going to drive to East Hartford and back for football alone on Saturday. As to Sunday, I'm actually passing through Hartford, but I'm due at my u87 year-old aunt's for dinner in Longmeadow, MA at 5. With slightly different timing, I'd have leveraged the convenience and checked out the parade . . . but not otherwise.
If UCONN aspires to P5 status, it will need more fans and a larger stadium to accommodate them. I'm in that target market. This has been the view from that perspective, without calling anybody names or questioning accuracy, sanity, awareness or anything else. "You're welcome" for my interest in Connecticut football.
