Still No Show of Support for HCBD?

[brasssbonanzaa]

If you check out Benedict's twitter feed, you will see lots of tweets made in the last month or so on Field Hockey and Women's Soccer, as they made the postseason..., but the last tweet on UConn football was on September 28th. What is even more odd is that he retweeted a tweet from Randy Edsall on October 4th. Then again, there are no tweets on men's basketball and only one on women's basketball (announcing the HBO show).

Personally, I think Diaco is back coaching the team in 2017 and the reason we have not heard an endorsement from Benedict is that such endorsements usually do more harm than good. Plus, the contract extension is an embarrassment to many parties, so they clearly don't want to highlight their mistake.

Benedict also has had zero social media activity outside of the HBO RT (how can he not - huge get for the program) so the silence from the administration is deafening. I still think there's a much better chance than not that he's back but it's an unusual line they're taking on this one.

Then again, do we really want Benedict and/or Herbst to come out and publicly say they support Diaco?

 

[UConnNick]

Look, this is what the concensus view was when the season ended. But if this is what you are doing, doesn't Benedict just making clear that he will be back next year have to be said? If you were a recruit (or an OC), are you really listening to HCBD prior to the second week of January without such a statement?

To me, when the AD or GM give any coach a public vote of confidence, it almost assures that they're being officially recognized as being on the hot seat, and invariably they get fired soon afterward. If I were a coach, it's about the last thing I'd want to hear from my AD or GM, if I'm at all interested in keeping my job. The moment that happens I'd be inclined to start getting those resumes sent out.

Votes of confidence are more like kisses of death.

 

[jtb26!]

Benedict also has had zero social media activity outside of the HBO RT (how can he not - huge get for the program) so the silence from the administration is deafening. I still think there's a much better chance than not that he's back but it's an unusual line they're taking on this one.

Then again, do we really want Benedict and/or Herbst to come out and publicly say they support Diaco?

For UConn this silience is strange. Benedict couldn't even comment to the media. If we do wait till January to dump BD it will be okay but damn we better have a coach lined up. If we don't dump him we need to find a OC fast so then the recruits can meet this new coach and hopefully want to come to UConn. Not responding to recruits isn't good business.

 

[Exit 4]

If no OC is hired by 12/31, I think we all can predict 1/1. Monitoring the OC hiring process is key.

As for the next coach, I haven't seen one hiring that I thought was someone we could get. We are very unattractive at this moment.

 

[jtb26!]

If no OC is hired by 12/31, I think we all can predict 1/1. Monitoring the OC hiring process is key.

I agree if not selected they probably will pay the buy out

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

I hope that UConn already has a press release written for Diaco's firing and they release it exactly at 12:01am on 1/1/17 just to make a statement.

 

[TRest]

My guess is that they are remaining silent and hoping everyone forgets this season ever happened. Why poke the bear?

 

[UConnJim]

I think you voice support to help save an atrocious recruiting class. Not sure it would make a difference but with so much uncertainty we are toxic. Recruits are voting loudly and clearly that they are not interested in coming here. Probably for a bunch of reasons but at least eliminate uncertainty as one of them. It would be a spin job but spin works a lot of times.

Slow down there. This recruiting class is shaping up how most UConn recruiting classes have shaped up. We have 7 commits so far. Here are the number of commits as of this date and total commits in the last 11 seasons:

2016: 8/16
2015: 19/23
2014: 7/15
2013: 15/25
2012: 15/25
2011: 10/16
2010: 10/20
2009: 13/21
2008: 10/20
2007: 13/29
2006: 4/22

Also, we will start seeing kids who committed to P5 programs start to get pushed out as they have been over recruited or there was a coaching change. There will be opportunities to get some higher ranked kids, just like last year.

Take a look at a school like Michigan's OL recruiting. They currently have 18 OL on roster and lose 3 to graduation. They currently have 4 OL commits and are one of the favorites for about 7 more OL. Do you think they are taking more than 4 or 5 OL in this class?

 

[UConnNick]

BTW the reason seems to be the same one Warde gave for keeping Pasaualoni. Hurts recruiting and you need to give a guy more time to make his mark.

Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Maybe Bobby and the current UConn school and athletic administrations are made for each other. They're all insane.

 

[UConnNick]

I think you voice support to help save an atrocious recruiting class. Not sure it would make a difference but with so much uncertainty we are toxic. Recruits are voting loudly and clearly that they are not interested in coming here. Probably for a bunch of reasons but at least eliminate uncertainty as one of them. It would be a spin job but spin works a lot of times.

I'm afraid they're all resigned to the fact that it's a dumpster fire recruiting class that isn't going to be improved upon much one way or the other, based on any public pronouncements from the staff or AD.

 

[UConnJim]

If no OC is hired by 12/31, I think we all can predict 1/1. Monitoring the OC hiring process is key.

As for the next coach, I haven't seen one hiring that I thought was someone we could get. We are very unattractive at this moment.

Some of you guys....

First, there have been 4 G5 coaching jobs filled. Two were by assistant coaches, at San Jose St. and Houston, and two were essentially out of college football coaching including one that will turn 66 next season and hasn't coached football since 2010 (Butch Davis). None of these hires is very inspiring.

UConn is an attractive position due to pay, facilities, and it is a state flagship university. But, it is a development program in which you have to project recruits.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Maybe. But if you are Dave Benedict, and the fiscal reality is that you can't fire the guy, what do you do. Maybe you want him gone. Maybe you have no confidence in him, but you have to keep him until January 2018. Do you publicly announce your support of Diaco? I don't think so. That puts you on the unemployment line next year with him. Since he's back unless you say otherwise, do you need to announce anything? If so, why? Just because he was terrible this year?

I think he's probably back. About 90%. 10% chance they dump him and have some NFL guy already waiting in the wings for the job.

if you want anything left of the remaining fans to come back next year, I think you have to give them something.
the way in which this season unfolded was a complete meltdown. Nobody except maybe a corpse can look at what happened this season and suggest the fans aren't owed something of a response.

Anything to help understand why we shouldn't give up on the program when it appears that the university leadership has.

 

[Exit 4]

UConn is an attractive position due to pay, facilities, and it is a state flagship university. But, it is a development program in which you have to project recruits.

This is not a matter I really care to debate, but I don't see how all the other schools in the AAC at this point except for ECU and Tulane are equal to or much more attractive than our position. Every school has better recruiting grounds and Temple has good success the past 4 years to work with. I doubt have the have $$ to blow out our fellow AAC schools on comp and comp for the staff. We we do have are facilities, a blue chip status in other sports and state flagship status.

 

[CTMike]

Slow down there. This recruiting class is shaping up how most UConn recruiting classes have shaped up. We have 7 commits so far. Here are the number of commits as of this date and total commits in the last 11 seasons:

2016: 8/16
2015: 19/23
2014: 7/15
2013: 15/25
2012: 15/25
2011: 10/16
2010: 10/20
2009: 13/21
2008: 10/20
2007: 13/29
2006: 4/22

Also, we will start seeing kids who committed to P5 programs start to get pushed out as they have been over recruited or there was a coaching change. There will be opportunities to get some higher ranked kids, just like last year.

Take a look at a school like Michigan's OL recruiting. They currently have 18 OL on roster and lose 3 to graduation. They currently have 4 OL commits and are one of the favorites for about 7 more OL. Do you think they are taking more than 4 or 5 OL in this class?

I'll take your numbers for what they are. We are still off pace. It would be nice to be out in front of our recruiting instead of having to scramble to fill a class.

How does our current class stack up in terms of competitive/P5 offers or stars? Sure this will launch the stars don't matter argument but there's a reason successful programs don't slum it with the unranked masses.

Not sure if true but I think I saw that we've offered 7 OL and every one of them picked a different school? That one chose Georgia Southern over us? A LOT of alarm bells even before other schools start using our uncertainty against us...

 

[BlueMAB]

Slow down there. This recruiting class is shaping up how most UConn recruiting classes have shaped up.

that's the problem

 

[UConnJim]

This is not a matter I really care to debate, but I don't see how all the other schools in the AAC at this point except for ECU and Tulane are equal to or much more attractive than our position. Every school has better recruiting grounds and Temple has good success the past 4 years to work with. I doubt have the have $$ to blow out our fellow AAC schools on comp and comp for the staff. We we do have are facilities, a blue chip status in other sports and state flagship status.

Well, we will agree to disagree. By the way, there are 6 P5 and 11 FBS head coaches from New England, NY, and NJ. And, there are plenty of assistant coaches out there as well. It all comes down to picking the right coach.

 

[UConnJim]

That one chose Georgia Southern over us? A LOT of alarm bells even before other schools start using our uncertainty against us...

Read his tweets. I think he wanted to go to a southern school. And, GS has as many if not more coaching issues as UConn as they almost fired their first year head coach and just fired their two co-offensive coordinators.

 

[sportsart]

Don't they usually post the position opening for three weeks and then announce it as far as the OC position goes?

Again, already having selected him.

At this point Jan 1st is the target if they post it in the next few days.

 

[FartMan69]

Read his tweets. I think he wanted to go to a southern school. And, GS has as many if not more coaching issues as UConn as they almost fired their first year head coach and just fired their two co-offensive coordinators.

We've been dead last in recruiting every single year we've been in this conference. Try to spin me on how rankings don't matter please do because we've sure killed it on the field!

 

[ktuck911]

If Diaco was getting the axe he wouldn't be on personal recruiting trips taking pics with verbally committed kids this past week...

 

[UConnJim]

We've been dead last in recruiting every single year we've been in this conference. Try to spin me on how rankings don't matter please do because we've sure killed it on the field!

I think we were dead last every year we were in the Big East and the results were pretty good.

 

[ZooCougar]

Each day that goes by since our embarassing end of season loss to Tulane without a formal show of support for HCBD from the administration harms recruiting and searching for the right OC. At this point, unless our entire University is incompetent (and I don't think it is), it is not plausible that they just "haven't gotten around to it yet."

So there would seem to be two other possibilities. One is that he is going to be let go immediately upon the New Year, and the other is that Benedict or others are trying to raise a certain amount of money by 1/1 to buy the contract out, and at that point a decision will be made.

Are there any other possibilities? Has anyone heard of donors getting calls for a special contribution?

This is tongue in cheek, sort of. But there was a twitter conversation about someone seeing Randy Edsall in Mansfield the week after the season ended.

Benedict follows Edsall on twitter and retweeted him.

Edsall is not really an assistant and could be available at any time, and while it seems far fetched, it wouldn't shock me if it fell together like that.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

My guess is that they are remaining silent and hoping everyone forgets this season ever happened. Why poke the bear?

I have a bad feeling this is what is going on.

 

[Bonehead]

If Diaco was getting the axe he wouldn't be on personal recruiting trips taking pics with verbally committed kids this past week...

Yes - you need to keep those relationships even if a kid has verbaled so the new coach on Jan2 can have a shot at keeping him. If only other schools are talking to UConn verbals right now that is bad.


Diaco is coming back though, but if he weren't he probably wouldn't know it. He might feel it.

 

[CTMike]

I think we were dead last every year we were in the Big East and the results were pretty good.

Good coaching can uplift talent. Bad coaching can kill it. But wouldn't it be nice to start from a higher starting place once in a while?