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Mike Anthony on fire with opening night approaching:
Stepping Up? AD David Benedict’s Fingerprints All Over UConn Football Program
>>But, Benedict said, "There should be progress. Offense was an issue. If you're going to hire a coordinator as a head coach — and that's what Bob was, a coordinator trying to be a head coach — but really didn't want to have anything to do with the offense, you better have someone that's really good at running the offense. And we didn't. … You wind up setting yourself way back. So seeing where Bob was from the standpoint of how he approached the [offensive coordinator] hire, that certainly had an impact on me eventually saying, 'Hey, this isn't going to work.' Eventually you're either going to do the right things that can help the team move forward, or you're going to continue trying to do the same things. ... You can't be afraid to hire really good people."<<
>>"Apathy is probably the worst thing that can happen to a program," Benedict said. "There's no question, had we stood pat, we would have lost a percentage of the fan base. And you could have lost a percentage of the team, just like, 'Hey, we're going to do the same stuff over and how is the result going to be different?' … You can't build a program and have your fan base going south." Benedict appreciated that Edsall showed flexibility, a willingness to hire offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee from Auburn and defensive coordinator Billy Crocker from Villanova, accomplished coaches who would be given control of their units. Edsall was also decisive in addressing roster needs, bringing in junior college transfer David Pindell and naming him the starting quarterback. He also acknowledged that the UConn job today isn't what it was in the 2000s — different conference, different preferred styles, different competition — and has shown a willingness to adapt to an evolving sport.<<
Stepping Up? AD David Benedict’s Fingerprints All Over UConn Football Program
>>But, Benedict said, "There should be progress. Offense was an issue. If you're going to hire a coordinator as a head coach — and that's what Bob was, a coordinator trying to be a head coach — but really didn't want to have anything to do with the offense, you better have someone that's really good at running the offense. And we didn't. … You wind up setting yourself way back. So seeing where Bob was from the standpoint of how he approached the [offensive coordinator] hire, that certainly had an impact on me eventually saying, 'Hey, this isn't going to work.' Eventually you're either going to do the right things that can help the team move forward, or you're going to continue trying to do the same things. ... You can't be afraid to hire really good people."<<
>>"Apathy is probably the worst thing that can happen to a program," Benedict said. "There's no question, had we stood pat, we would have lost a percentage of the fan base. And you could have lost a percentage of the team, just like, 'Hey, we're going to do the same stuff over and how is the result going to be different?' … You can't build a program and have your fan base going south." Benedict appreciated that Edsall showed flexibility, a willingness to hire offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee from Auburn and defensive coordinator Billy Crocker from Villanova, accomplished coaches who would be given control of their units. Edsall was also decisive in addressing roster needs, bringing in junior college transfer David Pindell and naming him the starting quarterback. He also acknowledged that the UConn job today isn't what it was in the 2000s — different conference, different preferred styles, different competition — and has shown a willingness to adapt to an evolving sport.<<
