Some Guy’s Exit Interview with Susan Herbst

[Chief00]

Interesting to see that the lack of SNY really is a sticking point with the American. It looks like they are taking advantage of UConn there.

But also, I've always agreed with her point about the football stadium: "Rentschler is a beautiful field. It’s just wrongly placed. It wouldn’t take too much imagination to fantasize about football being on the Storrs campus. What kind of numbers and excitement it would bring. That’s a thing I didn’t understand before I came here. It was baffling. It’s a problem. It’s hard to get students down there. Get on the bus. Wait for the bus. It’s too far.”

This has always been true. When you have a base of 15,000 students attending each game, it really helps you. That means you only need to attract 15,000 fans to Storrs for average games so you can have a 3/4 filled stadium. It should always have been in Storrs.

If she was really informed/transparent she would realize students do travel to The Rent in masses BUT they don’t go in the stadium.

 

[J187Money]

Very soft. I still wonder why she has not been held accountable for failing in conference realignment. Other presidents were successful in selling their schools to the ACC, Big 10 or Bug 12 but she did not. The media in CT is wat too kind to her.

Held accountable how?

 

[upstater]

You are out of your mind if you think 63% or the student body is going to attend football games.

And that’s one article of hundreds about schools all over the country. Clemson is going to oversell their student tickets because so many kids why buy them don’t show up.

Attendance sucks because it’s the worst program in the country. The. Absolute. Worst.

Her doubletalk while Edsall is paying raises out of his own salary should be offensive to anyone with even a fraction of a clue.

Still thinking smalltime. If you want a program at all, you need to build on the student attendance. Alabama is complaining about kids leaving early during a blowout against no one. Totally different situation. The comparison for UConn should be UVa, North Carolina, Maryland.

 

[UCDaveD]

Held accountable how?

LOCK HER UP!

 

[UConnNick]

Okay so what did she do or fail to do that resulted in our status as top G5 school. If you say she didn't get us a P5 slot, you aren't really saying anything are you.

As I noted above I don't think there was any single action she could have taken that would have changed on current status. I understand you anger but I think it misdirected.

She could have paid less attention to her contacts at Duke that were telling her it was in the bag, and more attention to Jurich and his slickly crafted advertising campaign. She let a worm with a morally bankrupt AD and community college academics outwit her into getting the necessary votes. She acted like an incumbent. Maybe if she had been proactive all along it would have worked and maybe it wouldn't have, but she didn't even bother to try and make our case. Jurich was the only one doing all the talking, and the ACC was listening. For that lack of action she deserves all the blame.

 

[whaler11]

Still thinking smalltime. If you want a program at all, you need to build on the student attendance. Alabama is complaining about kids leaving early during a blowout against no one. Totally different situation. The comparison for UConn should be UVa, North Carolina, Maryland.

Those days are long over. North Carolina and Maryland don’t draw flies.

They aren’t coming back.

 

[CL82]

She could have paid less attention to her contacts at Duke that were telling her it was in the bag, and more attention to Jurich and his slickly crafted advertising campaign. She let a worm with a morally bankrupt AD and community college academics outwit her into getting the necessary votes. She acted like an incumbent. Maybe if she had been proactive all along it would have worked and maybe it wouldn't have, but she didn't even bother to try and make our case. For that lack of action she deserves all the blame.

Pretty much agree with all but the last sentence. I'm not sure that any of that would have matter one whit. FSU was flexing it's muscles. To win we would have had to appeal directly to them. Hard for Herbst to know to do that and I doubt she would have been effective, even if she did. I agree that once Louisville started getting loud she and Manual should left the Virgin Islands and reached out to ACC school presidents to get the lay of the land and make our case. It likely wouldn't have mattered but the optics would have been better to the fan base.

 

[UConnNick]

Pretty much agree with all but the last sentence. I'm not sure that any of that would have matter one whit. FSU was flexing it's muscles. To win we would have had to appeal directly to them. Hard for Herbst to know to do that and I doubt she would have been effective, even if she did. I agree that once Louisville started getting loud she and Manual should left the Virgin Islands and reached out to ACC school presidents to get the lay of the land and make our case. It likely wouldn't have mattered but the optics would have been better to the fan base.

Regardless of what the outcome might have been, even if we lost anyway, I'd have preferred to go down with all of our guns blazing. We didn't, and now no one will ever know what would have happened if we had.

 

[Ha Who]

Pretty much agree with all but the last sentence. I'm not sure that any of that would have matter one whit. FSU was flexing it's muscles. To win we would have had to appeal directly to them. Hard for Herbst to know to do that and I doubt she would have been effective, even if she did. I agree that once Louisville started getting loud she and Manual should left the Virgin Islands and reached out to ACC school presidents to get the lay of the land and make our case. It likely wouldn't have mattered but the optics would have been better to the fan base.

Don’t forget about Donna Shitlala

 

[ucp990411]

Okay so what did she do or fail to do that resulted in our status as top G5 school. If you say she didn't get us a P5 slot, you aren't really saying anything are you.

As I noted above I don't think there was any single action she could have taken that would have changed on current status. I understand you frustration but I think it is misdirected.

See UConn Nick beliw

 

[uconnyankee]

i always said by putting the stadium where they did would disengage the student base and thus not build any kind of alumni interest that is needed to sustain a big time program. My daughter graduated in 2016 and although she is a sports fan she did not care about football because it was so difficult to go to games. If it was on campus I guarantee she would have gone to every game and as an alum she still would be going to games. But she still does not care. Men’s basketball however she loves. On March 29 I called her and asked her if she knew what day it was. She said of course. She was 4 years old in 1999! I guess I brought her up right.

Wondering if the success of the programs play a role. Flip a FB NC for 6 years of losing and 3 coaches in BB.
Something tells me students would find E Hartford.

 

[CL82]

Funny to again read how she was shocked that we don't have a D1 lacrosse team. One last hurrah.

I really think she was trolling Whaler with that comment.

 

[FartMan69]

Lunatics using Penn Freakin’ State as a benchmark for this clown car program. Good lord. Acting like we should have had all this tradition pop up out of nowhere and that all the folks in this state should start caring about a program out of the blue is absolute banana land. We aren’t Penn State, Maryland, UVA etc. those are just fantasies in a crazy person’s mind.

 

[BY06518]

So hopping on a bus as a student is more difficult than as an alum buying full price tickets, driving, paying for parking, etc.?

I get that more students would go if the stadium is on campus. But if the stadium was moved to on campus you're getting the students who don't really care about football but its something to do. But those aren't the people who might become life long fans and buy season tickets as alums. They are already going.

You mean all 300 people.

 

[BY06518]

This. Alumni and locals fill FB stadiums. How many students attend BB games?

More than attend our football games that's for sure.

 

[EBonz30]

SNY does do a wonderful job with UConn basketball in general....

 

[pepband99]

If she was really informed/transparent she would realize students do travel to The Rent in masses BUT they don’t go in the stadium.

I've come around on this point. They need to cut the busing back to 4th quarter only. It's insane that fees are being used to actively discourage students from attending the game. It's not like they would be cutting attendance.

 

[UofCT]

It's the biggest misstep we ever made in relation to the football program. Poor leadership from the state.

The football program does not owe you anything

 

[polycom]

I've come around on this point. They need to cut the busing back to 4th quarter only. It's insane that fees are being used to actively discourage students from attending the game. It's not like they would be cutting attendance.

So hold students hostage? Lol what. Did you even attend UConn ?

 

[upstater]

Those days are long over. North Carolina and Maryland don’t draw flies.

They aren’t coming back.

50,000 fans per game at UNC.

 

[whaler11]

50,000 fans per game at UNC.

LOL.

Join us in reality. Their building was light blue Rentschler all year.

 

[whaler11]

@upstater thinks UNC averages 50,000 fans... and last year in response they cut the building’s capacity from 63,000 to 51,000.

See if they will let you audit a math class.

Is less more? UNC will find out after cutting Kenan Stadium football seating capacity.

 

[superjohn]

You both read this board enough to know damn well this fanbase is too fickle, too front-running, and just overall to inconvenienced to expect the majority of the fans who fill up the stadium (hint: not the students) to drive an extra 1+ hour (minimum with traffic) up to Storrs to watch this football program.

I don't think the general fanbase or the infrastructure in Storrs would support the more remote stadium.

And to save @upstater 1,000 words on how Penn State has a similar situation with the small roads leading into their campus, just pause for a moment and reflect that you are drawing a parallel between Penn State and UConn football fandom.

The stadium should be on campus because that's where college football should be played. I've been to games in the Midwest and South and people will drive 8 hours to the middle of nowhere and make a vacation out of it all to watch a college football game. Connecticut is an incredibly spoiled place though where a 45 minute drive is considered a major undertaking. It just kind of culturally sucks for college football so not really sure it ever really would have worked.

 

[the Q]

I found her comment that there might be too many sports to be interesting. With the current budget climate dropping to the minimum might not be a terrible idea, but having to offset football for title Ix is a big juggling problem.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The stadium should be on campus because that's where college football should be played. I've been to games in the Midwest and South and people will drive 8 hours to the middle of nowhere and make a vacation out of it all to watch a college football game. Connecticut is an incredibly spoiled place though where a 45 minute drive is considered a major undertaking. It just kind of culturally sucks for college football so not really sure it ever really would have worked.

During my 3 years at KU we had 2 Nebraska home games. What a sight on Saturday morning. The endless line of RVs, pickups etc. all flying Nebraska flags rolling into town. Most programs don’t travel like that, but at Nebraska they travel hours for home games too, so what’s the difference?

Here’s an example of what’s different? After a huge win at the Rent, what happens? You get on a bus? What a buzzkill. How about a giant outdoor area at Ted’s / Huskies were hundreds of fans walk to from the stadium, chanting cheering, maybe carrying the goalposts they tore down so celebrate over beers and fun. That’s college football and we don’t get to have it with an off campus stadium.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The stadium should be on campus because that's where college football should be played. I've been to games in the Midwest and South and people will drive 8 hours to the middle of nowhere and make a vacation out of it all to watch a college football game. Connecticut is an incredibly spoiled place though where a 45 minute drive is considered a major undertaking. It just kind of culturally sucks for college football so not really sure it ever really would have worked.

I don't quite understand how you say it never really would have worked here. When in the Big East we were pulling in 30k+ a game. It's not waxing poetic of nostalgia to say the building was loud.

Since we didn't have tradition at all, having the stadium centrally located for the state played a huge part in that.

Us getting dumped to the minor leagues and becoming the worst program in FBS I don't think are indictment of our fans or the location of the stadium at all.

If the stadium was on campus today we would literally be drawing 500 people a game.

 

[ucp990411]

I don't quite understand how you say it never really would have worked here. When in the Big East we were pulling in 30k+ a game. It's not waxing poetic of nostalgia to say the building was loud.

Since we didn't have tradition at all, having the stadium centrally located for the state played a huge part in that.

Us getting dumped to the minor leagues and becoming the worst program in FBS I don't think are indictment of our fans or the location of the stadium at all.

If the stadium was on campus today we would literally be drawing 500 people a game.

Students would go thus build a base of alumni going to the games. Some would still be going to their old stomping grounds 20 years later. Instead there are very few students that actually go that there is no base of alumni that are fans. Going back to campus for games is part of the deal. Bring your kids to show them where you went to school is cool. Instead they can bring their kids to East Hartford and immediately leave after the game. Now that’s quite an experience.

 

[mauconnfan]

Interesting to read all the takes on the football stadium location, the students attendance and everything else. As a casual UConn football fan I was very interested in many games early on season ticket holder myself as well as the company I work for, they were competitive and fun to watch as the opening Indiana game proved. They actually even became pretty damn good soon thereafter. But then a couple of horrid hirings and things fell apart, they aren't fun to watch unless they're playing a team as abysmal as they are. Even then not so sure what's so fun about a 48-45 game with 2 pretty awful football teams.

So my take is the stadium is fine there at Cabela's, would've been fine on campus or anywhere within the 30 minute range. They just can't be awful they need to be good, much more competitive and fans will come. They lost the casual fans with the HCPP and HCBD signings and that's on the university no one else. Randy has a tough road, doubt he'll stay on long enough to get them back where they can be competitive even in the AAC. The program is in trouble and where they play for now means little to nothing to me or most casual fans. One party a year just to meet friends and tailgate is about it.

 

[superjohn]

I don't quite understand how you say it never really would have worked here. When in the Big East we were pulling in 30k+ a game. It's not waxing poetic of nostalgia to say the building was loud.

Since we didn't have tradition at all, having the stadium centrally located for the state played a huge part in that.

Us getting dumped to the minor leagues and becoming the worst program in FBS I don't think are indictment of our fans or the location of the stadium at all.

If the stadium was on campus today we would literally be drawing 500 people a game.

I was making a point about how culturally UConn sucks for college football. Other parts of the country they don't whine about having to drive 45 minutes to watch a game, instead they plan their falls around when and where they will be watching their team. They take off time and park their RV's days before games to make a vacation out of it. The whole idea that people are worried about driving an extra half hour is so foreign to the rest of the country.

 

[upstater]

@upstater thinks UNC averages 50,000 fans... and last year in response they cut the building’s capacity from 63,000 to 51,000.

See if they will let you audit a math class.

Is less more? UNC will find out after cutting Kenan Stadium football seating capacity.

Thanks for the link:

UNC’s attendance averaged 50,071 per game last season

Student section: