So about all the coaching options we had when Pasqualoni was eventually hired....

[businesslawyer]

I don't hate him and I think he can get UConn football back on track. However, I do believe he started the ball rolling in the downward spiral of UConn football by the way he left. Unless the AD was aware of what was happening behind the scenes and did nothing to prepare rather than having to make a quick decision to hire any old loser that was available, then I fault him. I don't like stealth or deceit and I believe that that is what happened leading up to the Fiesta Bowl.

Of course there was stealth and deceit. You think employees always tell their employers that they may be leaving soon ahead of time? Always give two weeks notice (and if he gave two weeks notice the day after the Fiesta Bowl how would that have helped us)? It is an Athletic Director's job to have a plan 365 days a year for what happens if one of his head coaches leaves the next day. If UConn wasn't ready, that's on the school, not the coach.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Of course there was stealth and deceit. You think employees always tell their employers that they may be leaving soon ahead of time? Always give two weeks notice (and if he gave two weeks notice the day after the Fiesta Bowl how would that have helped us)? It is an Athletic Director's job to have a play 365 days a year for what happens if one of his head coaches leaves the next day. If UConn wasn't ready, that's on the school, not the coach.

It is incumbent on the employer(the AD Hathaway) to have a list of names in case the coach leaves, gets sick, or dies. Businesslawyer is correct here. This one isn't on Randy. I hate how he handled it but he has handled a lot of other things like Jazz Howard's death really really well.

Regarding P, he didn't undo all the things Randy did. He loosened certain things that Randy had a tight control over. He let the kids be more accountable but in the process, they lost the culture that Randy had created and that was the beginning of the end.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Next time we hire a head coach I really hope we go somewhere between “0 years head coach experience” and “a billion years head coach experience”

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

It is incumbent on the employer(the AD Hathaway) to have a list of names in case the coach leaves, gets sick, or dies. Businesslawyer is correct here. This one isn't on Randy. I hate how he handled it but he has handled a lot of other things like Jazz Howard's death really really well.

Regarding P, he didn't undo all the things Randy did. He loosened certain things that Randy had a tight control over. He let the kids be more accountable but in the process, they lost the culture that Randy had created and that was the beginning of the end.

With any coaching his rosters were more than good enough to win 8 or 9 games in the late BE and early AAC years. He treated 18-22 year old kids like they were pro football players and we had the worse conditioned team every single game we played. In the long run it hurt the NFL career of guys like Kendall Reyes and Sio Moore

 

[Bongo Fury]

Of course there was stealth and deceit. You think employees always tell their employers that they may be leaving soon ahead of time? Always give two weeks notice (and if he gave two weeks notice the day after the Fiesta Bowl how would that have helped us)? It is an Athletic Director's job to have a play 365 days a year for what happens if one of his head coaches leaves the next day. If UConn wasn't ready, that's on the school, not the coach.

This happens all the time. At least he stayed for the bowl game and didn’t let anyone know so not to be a distraction.

 

[Bongo Fury]

With any coaching his rosters were more than good enough to win 8 or 9 games in the late BE and early AAC years. He treated 18-22 year old kids like they were pro football players and we had the worse conditioned team every single game we played. In the long run it hurt the NFL career of guys like Kendall Reyes and Sio Moore

They always mentioned how things are done in the NFL but that didn’t fit the UCONN teams. They had some bad luck with some missed field goals but generally the team played uninspired especially on offense. BD brought energy but not speed or toughness except for Shireffs.

 

[uconnbill]

Whipple and P were the finalists

The field included
Tom Bradley DC from Penn State.
Former Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe
Former Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski
Arkansas OC/QB coach Garrick McGee

No one ever made a big deal of this (which they should have) but Pasquaoni was the Defensive Coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys (interim) when he took the UConn job.

Coach P was a nice guy but was too loyal to DeLeone who was terrible and the offense was twenty years in the past

 

[metsfan2323]

Coach P was a nice guy but was too loyal to DeLeone who was terrible and the offense was twenty years in the past

The worst part is UCONN had a high profile donor with first hand experience of P's incompetence screaming not to hire P and the powers that be did it anyway. It hurts just thinking about it.

 

[DoctorWho85]

The worst part is UCONN had a high profile donor with first hand experience of P's incompetence screaming not to hire P and the powers that be did it anyway. It hurts just thinking about it.

I think the worst part was a lot of people just thought Burton was crazy. I know I did. I just saw that he was the second winningest coach in BE history and was a very good recruiter. I was ho hum on the hire because Phil Fulmer was in the mix.

 

[Chief00]

Because you don't have the right to leave your job and take another one for more money, right?

Employees stay in a job for as long as it's in their interest to do so. That doesn't just mean money, but it means all things considered they don't feel like it's in their interest to switch. It's an AD's job to make sure that a coach you want to stay stays. What Edsall "owed" UConn was not being so self interested that he walked off the stage before the program's biggest moment playing in the Fiesta Bowl. He stayed through then. Period.

If we want to beat on Edsall, beat on him for the record since he's been back.

I think the problem is Randy left in the middle of the night and did not travel back with the team. The thing he did calling Todman out so he could cover his own tracks was simply wrong.
He should have traveled back to Storrs with the team after the loss and then done whatever he wanted to the next day.

 

[businesslawyer]

I think the problem is Randy left in the middle of the night and did not travel back with the team. The thing he did calling Todman out so he could cover his own tracks was simply wrong.
He should have traveled back to Storrs with the team after the loss and then done whatever he wanted to the next day.

By how it has been reported, the way he handled Todman was wrong.

But unless you're going to explain to me how UConn was worse off either because he made Todman tell the team he was leaving early or because he flew back separately, what do either of those things have to do with his responsibility for what became of the program after he left.

 

[Chief00]

By how it has been reported, the way he handled Todman was wrong.

But unless you're going to explain to me how UConn was worse off either because he made Todman tell the team he was leaving early or because he flew back separately, what do either of those things have to do with his responsibility for what became of the program after he left.

I am not blaming him for what happened to the program after he left, except for some Randy 2 era stuff. I do think the coach should travel back with the team after the bowl loss and wrapped things up with class rather than take a flight to MD that night.

 

[Waquoit]

Randy clearly wasn't all in for the biggest game in UConn history. I'll never forgive him for that.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Randy clearly wasn't all in for the biggest game in UConn history. I'll never forgive him for that.

I think it's more of opposite. He was trying too hard. Going for it on 4th down several times instead of kicking field goals which made the score look way worse than what the actual game was. If I remember correctly, UConn did significantly better than VT did against Stanford who didn't even make it past the the 50 yard line the entire second half.

 

[Uconnalliance]

Mike Leach was the hot name on the interwebs. Was supposedly second to RE for the Maryland job.

Hank Hughes got the interim tag - currently DL coach at Penn

Some other names offered up by the Courant and others:

Bill McGovern - recently NYG LB coach
Mark Whipple - after a second stint as UMass HC currently Pitt OC

Other NFL names floated included Eric Mangini, Kevin Gilbride, and Tony Soprano (RIP)

Other College names linked by various news papers included:

Mario Cristobal - then HC at FIU currently HC at Oregon
Bud Foster - VT DC then and now

Not sure anyone on this impresses

 

[hank970]

None of this would be an issue if Randy Edsall didn't sneak away in the middle of the night and stab UConn in the back. If he had stayed he could have built on the Fiesta Bowl season and UConn would have been more than competitive and would likely have been in the ACC now. We can all blame Pasqualoni or Diaco, but the fault lies with Randy. Sorry.

No, Louisville would have gotten the ACC invitation regardless of Kragthorpe's ineptitude. And, in fact, it did.