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Spanos out

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History Geek said:
The media all have eyes and ears and presumably not bad at their jobs. They must have noticed LS not there and maybe even heard some rumors as to why. I’m betting some inquired and were told that there would be something soon and asked to respect LS’s privacy at this time.
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True that makes the most sense but if not, I wonder why none of them were even curious, since this has been going on for awhile,
"Spanos has missed recent team practices, but was in attendance at the start of practice Wednesday, though he appeared to have left early."

Either way, sounds like the D may get more aggressive under Mora's control, per Matt's new tweet with Wortham, which isn't a bad thing. And there's that Mora word again..... Maniacal !

 
History Geek said:
The media all have eyes and ears and presumably not bad at their jobs. They must have noticed LS not there and maybe even heard some rumors as to why. I’m betting some inquired and were told that there would be something soon and asked to respect LS’s privacy at this time. Later someone asked about Mora’s involvement with the defense and he gave that BS answer. The rest of them decided not to follow up because Mora is still in the honeymoon phase.

I agree its not a good look but it is what it is. I hope LS will be ok and I hope all the positive vibes that have emanated from the program since the Mora hire is not just window dressing. We are about to find out.
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I mentioned this earlier in the thread, I will give a slight pass if it was a legit personal reason, a reporter noticed it and the staff asked for a 24-hour period to keep it quiet. Not saying a reporter has to do that, nor am I saying they can't do it. I do know part of keeping access and not burning sources is an art and sometimes you can be a decent human and hold on to a story for a day.

As much as it surprised the UConn faithful, it's not a major story or critical story where a 24-hour delay has any effect once the story breaks.
 
For me the question still remains, “what happened and what is the future of the position?” A leave of absence suggests a return. The OP stated this was over differing opinions on the defense. That make no sense to me given their past relationship. They knew each other pretty well. But the OP scooped the story so it is at least possible.

If it is a football issue, he needs to be let go and replaced. If it is a personal issue, he needs to be supported and the team will shift responsibilities until his return (or departure). As a fan, I would love some clarification on this. As the head of an organization, I realize there are times to keep info close to the vest.

But my fanhood is winning out right now. :D
 
Just throwing this out there….usually when someone takes a “leave of absence” and they don’t comment on why…it’s cause it’s some type of medical issue. Lou hasn’t been active on twitter (was much more this season than the last few) since early august. If you ask me…I think he’s dealing with some kinda medical issue. I’ve said for years, he doesn’t look good…very pale at times and a drawn face. He didn’t look like that even 8 years ago. I wish him the best and a speedy return to the team. Hope is all with him!
 
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I’m leaning towards it being an actual personal issue.

You don’t fire your DC one week before your first game over a football disagreement, you work it out and move on. Plus Mora is the HC, he can just demand something be done his way. The football reasoning would be understandable if it happened weeks ago, there’s no way Mora just figured out they aren’t meshing well enough.

Plus we know Spanos has dealt with a lot in his life recently, might not be able to handle the added stress of travel and game performance at the moment. I don’t think it’s so crazy that a rich man with many personal issues might make a decision to alleviate a heavy burden like this.
 
Huskyforlife said:
I’m leaning towards it being an actual personal issue.

You don’t fire your DC one week before your first game over a football disagreement, you work it out and move on. Plus Mora is the HC, he can just demand something be done his way. The football reasoning would be understandable if it happened weeks ago, there’s no way Mora just figured out they aren’t meshing well enough.

Plus we know Spanos has dealt with a lot in his life recently, might not be able to handle the added stress of travel and game performance at the moment. I don’t think it’s so crazy that a rich man with many personal issues might make a decision to alleviate a heavy burden like this.
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I hear what you are saying...but the original poster....and exit 4 have said it's a personality conflict. It may be both, but it's hard to ignore those data points.

And for his sake...a personality conflict is better than a health issue.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The truth will come out. If he's right, he's right. Spanos worked for Mora before, it's not like any of what Mora demands was new for him. You'd expect some fundamental incompatibility would have shown up sooner. If not, then this is a fail by Mora, who should have identified it earlier or hired somebody else.
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Naw, the real fail would be letting a situation fester.
 
In my opinion….Personality conflict gets you fired. If I suck at my job they don’t ask me to take a month off and come back and try again. Just makes no sense. At my job people take a “leave of absence” when they have one or a combination of mental health issues, medical issues or substance abuse issues. Maybe he’s on maternity leave!? LOL Could have been stress related…who knows! But yeah…hope he’s doing just fine and gets back to the sidelines quick.
 
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Stinger92860 said:
Reading bio’s it appears to me that none of the remaiming coaches on the D side are ready to step up to DC. Maybe that changes after this year. Until then it would seem that Mora needs to own the D and he lets Charlton owns the O. Is it possible to hire a consultant to assist on D? Maybe yes, but the consultant would be here to help, not to run the D. Super Bowl winning coaches have run one of the units, so there is some success in this model. It’s going to be interesting watching this play out. I hope the beat writers stay all over this.
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I disagree. Mora needs to be the game manager and to do that he has to focus on what's going on on the field every second. That's his strength. He can't be giving sideline pep talks to position groups.
 
Why fire your DC a few weeks out from the start of the season? I feel there would need to be an extremely compelling reason for doing so, more than just a personality conflict. That conflict would have been evident months ago, and yes you’d pull the trigger and fire sooner rather than later to not jeopardize what you have been building.

I think it’s a personal matter for Spanos.
 
I have no idea why Spanos is taking an LOA, but UConn is better able to replace the DC than the OC at this point. I think Charlton can run the offense as he has experience as both an OC and a HC. Mora can run the defense as he has experience as both a DC and HC.
 
When all is said and done, this is a positive development. For starters, it seems to me that the root cause of the problem was a disagreement over how we go about winning games. Not someones hurt feelings or ego. I've heard many praises sung to date about the ability of our assistant coaches. They are the ones out there getting the players. When it became evident to Mora that the status quo was untenable, he made a call. That speaks to his crisis management, I'm sure this won't be the last. I don't get all the handwringing. If one's afraid to make a mistake, one doesn't try. I like it this way, give it a shot and if it doesn't work out take prompt action.
 
He’s definitely had a stressful year. Does anyone recall him having an issue with Jon Wholley couple years back?
 
Waquoit said:
When all is said and done, this is a positive development. For starters, it seems to me that the root cause of the problem was a disagreement over how we go about winning games. Not someones hurt feelings or ego. I've heard many praises sung to date about the ability of our assistant coaches. They are the ones out there getting the players. When it became evident to Mora that the status quo was untenable, he made a call. That speaks to his crisis management, I'm sure this won't be the last. I don't get all the handwringing. If one's afraid to make a mistake, one doesn't try. I like it this way, give it a shot and if it doesn't work out take prompt action.
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He made the decision a week before the season.
 
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UConnJim said:
I have no idea why Spanos is taking an LOA, but UConn is better able to replace the DC than the OC at this point. I think Charlton can run the offense as he has experience as both an OC and a HC. Mora can run the defense as he has experience as both a DC and HC.
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I really think Mora needs to hire someone, even just for the season, to be defensive coordinator. UConn may not be able to cough up $500,000 for the job. But half that salary may get us someone decent. Mora has a lot of responsibilities already at UConn. I don't think we should add to them.
 
The media obviously sat on the story. Which leads me to believe that it’s not 100% performance related.

Football coaches often have a terrible work/life balance. It’s totally possible that it’s all of the above. Personal, medical, family or otherwise.

Our best writers aren’t cutthroats yet. I am totally in the camp that other considerations led to the timing of the release.

No more need to drag Loose Panels through the mud. He never gave up last year and he managed a pretty crappy situation about as well as one could expect.
 
LoyalFanCT said:
I really think Mora needs to hire someone, even just for the season, to be defensive coordinator. UConn may not be able to cough up $500,000 for the job. But half that salary may get us someone decent. Mora has a lot of responsibilities already at UConn. I don't think we should add to them.
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I think it would have to be promoting from within - who can he get at this late point? It would have to be someone very familiar with the defense and terminology and I doubt there is anyone out there at this point.

Whether he promotes someone or not Coach Mora will have to be heavily involved which is not ideal for a head coach.
 
I'm still going to lean on the less cynical but still very upsetting side that it's probably stress/health related. He's a high intensity guy and probably pushed to far and needs to step away in order to get things right. I fully believe Spanos was going to turn things around defensively this year with a HC that will actually let him run the defense schemes and not meddle as much as Edsall did. I hope whatever ails him passes quickly and it's a speed recovery.
 
Last year, we couldn't hire another coach or coordinator because RE was still technically on the staff. Does LS LOA prevent UConn and Mora from hiring another coach?
 
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Chin Diesel said:
So, are us BY'ers to now be conditioned to wake up between midnight and 2am to get the scoop on UConn football??
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What? You weren’t doing that already?
 
RSTuthill said:
So I was never enthused about the PP, Disco, or RE2.0 hires. And I was not initially enthused about JM (incurring the wrath of Pudge), but in the preseason he has impressed me -- leaving aside the fact that the rubber is really about to hit the road and will account for a lot more.

But I am just a bit curious. How do you know that Spanos is bad? Do you have some data that say that? Yes, we know the statistics, but he had one quality DT and one quality LB last year and the D was always on the field. That may be a slight exaggeration but you get the point. And a program where a lot of the better players posted out. Are you close enough to the program to have observed bad coaching?
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Lmao how did people know Spanos is bad? Ummmm people watched the games last year.

Yes, you’re correct that we didn’t have great talent on the roster. But this team was FUNDAMENTALLY bad on the defensive end last year. Not just athletically bad. Heck, they got run all over by a FCS team (and also by a terrible UMass).

Wish Spanos the best of luck. He seems like a great person. But will be glad if he isn’t going to be a part of the program going forward.

Glad that Mora didn’t wait until the end of the season to fix his mistake.
 
McLovin said:
Lmao how did people know Spanos is bad? Ummmm people watched the games last year.

Yes, you’re correct that we didn’t have great talent on the roster. But this team was FUNDAMENTALLY bad on the defensive end last year. Not just athletically bad. Heck, they got run all over by a FCS team (and also by a terrible UMass).

Wish Spanos the best of luck. He seems like a great person. But will be glad if he isn’t going to be a part of the program going forward.

Glad that Mora didn’t wait until the end of the season to fix his mistake.
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And yet apparently he wasn’t bad at UCLA.

I have no idea what the deal is with this, but if the Band-Aid had to come off I’m glad it came off before the start of the season.
 
CL82 said:
And yet apparently he wasn’t bad at UCLA.

I have no idea what the deal is with this, but if the Band-Aid had to come off I’m glad it came off before the start of the season.
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At one point Randy Edsall and PP were good coaches, too. The game changes and coaches sometimes lose their fire & desire to adapt.

Bad timing, but I agree the team will be better off without a potential locker room distraction looming behind closed doors all season long.
 
DoctorWho85 said:
I'm still going to lean on the less cynical but still very upsetting side that it's probably stress/health related. He's a high intensity guy and probably pushed to far and needs to step away in order to get things right. I fully believe Spanos was going to turn things around defensively this year with a HC that will actually let him run the defense schemes and not meddle as much as Edsall did. I hope whatever ails him passes quickly and it's a speed recovery.
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So at BC when Spaziani was there, there was a disagreement/fight between the head coach and OC at halftime of a game. Not confirmed by media but generally well known. He was given a leave of absence for personal reasons the next day and media was asked to respect his privacy. Press release was nearly identical to the UConn release.

90% probability that the health issue is Mora told him to go away.
 
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