SUNJ Delusion (Diaco Edition)

[huskymedic]

How in the world do you guys get fooled by this back handed complimenting clown?

Any different than the drivel "our fans" post here?

 

[sportsart]

Any different than the drivel "our fans" post here?

Huh? I haven't seen anyone here give the same back handed compliments he spewed. Even the Warde haters, threw up in their mouth, and then said Warde did good.

 

[Waquoit]

If our guy tears it up and leaves for greener pastures, it ain't going to be Rutgers. Ruttie fans remind me of the South Carolina fans we met in Birmingham. To a person, all of their pre-game woofing was about the SEC, nothing about S. Carolina. Because they had nothing else. Rutgers, just happy to be the lowly piss boys of whatever league they are in.

 

[Stikey]

Nothing in my post was meant to be a backhanded compliment (I'm not even sure that term means what you think it does.) Why are some of you guys so angry?

• He recruited very well at Notre Dame. It's an entirely reasonable question to ask how much of those results were driven by the fact that half of the country grew up as Notre Dame fans. I happen to think that a young, dynamic guy like that will have success on the recruiting trail -- but I think it's naive to believe that he'll be bringing in a Notre-Dame-level recruiting class from the get-go.
• I was not equating the Broyle Award with the Big East Coach of the Year Award. I was saying that awards are not necessarily predictive of future results. In the case of the Broyle Award, the large majority of award winners have gone on to have continued success at the coordinator or head coach levels. None have been out-and-out flops, but some have had spotty results at the head-coach level, like Mark Mangino or Ralph Friedgen. Now, you might be very happy with results like Mangino's performance at Kansas, with a stellar 12-1 season in 2007. But you might want better than his 38-47 record at Kansas outside of that one year.
• I was also very clear that I don't know how true the stories are about NJ high school coaches not liking the guy. Obviously, they didn't dislike him enough to poison some of their students' plans to go to ND, and none of them are talking smack about him to the press.

Regarding the question about the B1G:

• For starters, UConn isn't in the AAU. Aside from Nebraska -- which I believe had to be a case of Delany playing dumb about not knowing that Nebraska was removed from the AAU prior to the invitation to join the B1G -- that has been a core requirement of the conference. Is UConn planning to apply for membership in the near future? (That's not a rhetorical question; I don't know the answer.) There's also the contiguous state requirement, but I can't imagine 30 miles of NYC would stand in the B1G's way of adding a school if it really wanted to.
• Second, I don't think UConn's TV market is large enough to interest the B1G at this point. I have no illusions about the primary reason Rutgers was invited to join the B1G: because New Jersey is a populous state (>2x the size of Connecticut) with more direct representation in two of the largest media markets in the country, and Delany wanted to get into the Northeast. It's the same reason why Maryland was invited. Maryland has >1.5x the population of Connecticut and large parts of it are included in the DC and Baltimore (obviously) TV markets.
• Third, I don't think the B1G feels pressure to expand right now. 14 is a pretty reasonable number for most sports.

Now, I'm also not familiar with the arguments in favor of anticipating that UConn would get an invitation to the B1G. I'm open to being dissuaded of my opinion, of course!

 

[Stikey]

If our guy tears it up and leaves for greener pastures, it ain't going to be Rutgers. Ruttie fans remind me of the South Carolina fans we met in Birmingham. To a person, all of their pre-game woofing was about the SEC, nothing about S. Carolina. Because they had nothing else. Rutgers, just happy to be the lowly piss boys of whatever league they are in.

This is what I'm talking about. Did someone not give you the Red Rider BB gun you wanted for Christmas when you were a kid?

 

[cryjeremiah]

This is what I'm talking about. Did someone not give you the Red Rider BB gun you wanted for Christmas when you were a kid?

Well, we all have been wondering that about him for a while now......

 

[sportsart]

This is what I'm talking about. Did someone not give you the Red Rider BB gun you wanted for Christmas when you were a kid?

just because someone responded positively to one of your posts doesn't give you permission to hang around. Go back to your delusional board and talk about the mid major that kicked your ass.

 

[Nostical]

Well Stikey I do respect rational people and you strike me as one of those. Actually, we are very much on the path toward AAU. Our president is taking us aggressivly to higher and higher places. We squandered several years where we could have been much more proactive in improving our lot, but that's reality and we are working feverishly on it. As for the TV angle, UConn along with Rutgers would capture much more of the TV market in the NYC demographic area than either could on their own. 1+1 = more than 2. There is a more passionate base of fans in CT environs willing to buy into and watch SNY etc for UConn sports than there is in NJ for Rutgers. For example, our SNY basketball ratings for both men and women's teams are incredible when compared with RU. The B1G Network would benefit significantly from having UConn in the conference. We accept the reality that our football program needs a greater measure of support and its stadium needs expansion. Success on the field is what drives both. Bob Diaco is a promising step toward reaching our goals. So here we sit, understandibly excited about the Diaco hire given the despondent state of affairs during the last three years, wishing him well in the task ahead, while still knowing full well there are absolutely no guarantees.

 

[husky10]

Regarding the question about the B1G:

• 
  [ ]For starters, UConn isn't in the AAU. Aside from Nebraska -- which I believe had to be a case of Delany playing dumb about not knowing that Nebraska was removed from the AAU prior to the invitation to join the B1G -- that has been a core requirement of the conference. Is UConn planning to apply for membership in the near future? (That's not a rhetorical question; I don't know the answer.) There's also the contiguous state requirement, but I can't imagine 30 miles of NYC would stand in the B1G's way of adding a school if it really wanted to.
  [ ]Second, I don't think UConn's TV market is large enough to interest the B1G at this point. I have no illusions about the primary reason Rutgers was invited to join the B1G: because New Jersey is a populous state (>2x the size of Connecticut) with more direct representation in two of the largest media markets in the country, and Delany wanted to get into the Northeast. It's the same reason why Maryland was invited. Maryland has >1.5x the population of Connecticut and large parts of it are included in the DC and Baltimore (obviously) TV markets.
  [ ]Third, I don't think the B1G feels pressure to expand right now. 14 is a pretty reasonable number for most sports.

Now, I'm also not familiar with the arguments in favor of anticipating that UConn would get an invitation to the B1G. I'm open to being dissuaded of my opinion, of course!

Reasons that some here believe UCONN might end up in the B1G at some point:

1. UCONN is not in the AAU but the B1G would add Notre Dame in a heartbeat who is not AAU and it is actually the presidents that vote on membership. I think most presidents knew Nebraska was on their way out of the AAU when they entered the B1G. Not trying to compare UCONN to either of those schools just that exceptions can be made.

It is my understanding that UCONN's academic numbers are in line with some of the schools in the lower end of the AAU but they have all been trending up. There is a bunch of new infrastructure being built on campus so despite research dollars shrinking nationally they have and we assume will continue to grow for UCONN. We have a very ambitious president to make sure that happens.

2. Even though the population of CT is much smaller than a New Jersey CT residents do support UCONN well. The numbers have been thrown out here(I don't have them but I could find them here if you want to see them) how SNY made considerable amounts by showing UCONN games by being moved to 1st tier in all CT and about a dollar jump per subscriber for the whole state. Many figure this could translate into a lot of money for the B1G network if they were to pick up UCONN.

Many here also believe that New York just is not a College Football town and frankly never will be. But New York has shown to love College Basketball, UCONN's strength. In other words NYC would tune in more for a Michigan St. UCONN basketball game than a Rutgers Ohio State game. Also having a strong Men's and Women's basketball team that people tune in to watch would be helpful to the B1G network.

3. You are absolutely right the B1G has no reason to expand right now or in the near future. I don't believe anyone here thinks otherwise. I don't think that many here see any sort of shot of UCONN getting into the B1G than as the plus-1 of someone else joining the conference.


-Just stating the reasons why some people believe UCONN could add enough value to the B1G to warrant an invitation. Not really sure what I believe at this point except that things are probably set for the next couple of years, my hope if/when realignment does happen again UCONN has bettered its position enough to be a candidate for any conference. I really hope we do end up in the B1G one day because I don't want our rivalry to vanish. Rutgers is the school I love to hate while BC and Cuse I just hate that they exist.

 

[Waquoit]

This is what I'm talking about. Did someone not give you the Red Rider BB gun you wanted for Christmas when you were a kid?

duckk no, I woulda shot my eye out. And I wasn't talking to you, who are you anyway?

 

[CTFB Fan]

I have many relatives who are die hard Rutgers fans. I can tell you for a fact they are not a happy bunch right now. First of all they believe their administration is a laughingstock (which it is). They also are counting the days when they can unload Flood. He is percieved as "unfit for B1G duty" by many of their fans. They were dillusional enough to think that their coaching job was superior yet they can't afford to a)buyout their current staff and b)pay a competitive wage for a legit B1G staff. With recruits jumping ship (they've lost 5 so far including 3 4 star players) players transferring mid-season and an abysmal end to the season moral for them is pretty low. All could change once the B1G money starts flowing but that won't be fully realized for another 5-7 years. For now they are preparing for the Big Ten basement barring some miracle.

 

[babysheep]

Apparently, they will watch him while he coaches in the "minor leagues" at UConn and then give him a look in a few years if he does a good job. This is the team we just beat a few weeks ago after being 1-9.

http://rutgers. /showmsg.asp?fid=642&tid=169362833&mid=169362833&sid=988&style=2

Some other choice highlights:

"Diaco is going to fail at UCONN....everyone does."

"Diaco will fail at UCONN bc NE has no recruits and NJ coaches don't like him. "

" I don't think he realizes how hard it's going to be to recruit to a mid-major. "

"ND fans are happier than Uconn. That guy gave up points at the worst times, lots of em.

Let him prove himself in the minor leagues. If he performs, we can revisit then."

"If he does a good job there, he could be out of there quickly if something in the B1G (hint,hint) opens up down the road."

"I'm not so enamored with Diaco as some here. I think Narduzzi was a better defensive coach. I agree with the sentiment about letting him prove himself at UConn and then take a look. "

"Wasn't this the same guy that was rejected at every interview he had?"

"While I'm not happy that Flood is staying in no way would I want Diaco as his replacement"

LMAOOOOOOOO WOW.

RU is now to us in football as Cuse is to us in basketball. Completely delusional sense of superiority. The only difference is that Cuse actually has been and still is prominent in basketball. RU has done nothing to earn or even explain that sense.

 

[Stikey]

Husky10: I think you're right about the end-state of where TV is headed. Admittedly I'm relatively young (in my early 30s) and live in an urban area, but I'm actually in the minority of my close friends as a cable subscriber. Most of them just have broadband and subscribe to Netflix/Hulu Plus. I might have joined them if it weren't for the BTN, which I'm very excited for.

The question for me is one of timescale. The change could happen slowly -- cable companies are powerful, and other entrants like Verizon and Dish have largely adopted the same model as cable -- or could happen very rapidly (hello Blockbuster). Regardless of the timescale, the impact on college athletics will be significant.

I don't think UCONN's ACC ship has sailed quite yet -- especially if the B1G gets a strong foothold in the NYC media market. You might very well in that case see ESPN pressure the ACC in a big way to add another school in the region (or a school in the region, since Syracuse is actually farther from NYC than Penn State and Maryland and way farther than Storrs). I have to believe that things would have been a lot different for UCONN had they moved up to D-IA in the late 70s when the split happened -- because the program would then have essentially grown up at the same time ESPN did.


CTFB Fan: I think you nailed the mood of the fan base throughout the Houston / Cincinnati / UCF / UCONN swoon. Firing Cohen, Wrobo and Spence has at least given us the illusion of Flood bringing in competent hires to replace them, though the systematic problem of not having enough to pay assistants is still a real impediment to getting the best candidates. And I think there's a general hope that we can pull off the upset against ND and at least head into the B1G with some momentum.

I have strong reservations regarding Flood. He seems too passive to me to be successful as a head coach; I never see any fire or passion out of him. I can't imagine him motivating anyone with an impassioned locker room speech or closed door discussion. That might be one of the reasons why our senior leadership was so lacking this season. I think he has one more season to show that he can run the team the right way, otherwise I guarantee you there will be donors who will pony up for a replacement. If we had lost to USF and missed out on a bowl game, he would be without a job right now.

Regarding the decommits, there's no doubt those hurt. The two Florida decommits are par for the course for that crazy state, but losing three Jersey guys (two WRs and a S) and the QB in our class was painful. That said, we still have the 35th-ranked class on Rivals even without them, still have a decent shot of bringing maybe two or maaaaaybe three of those guys back into the fold, and have even made progress with guys who have seemingly come out of the woodwork (like a 4* WR from Indiana who just decommited from Tennessee and is taking his only OV before making his decision at Rutgers this weekend). So it'll be a solid recruiting class, but by no means the stellar one we were looking at before the decommits. That said, our 4* and 5* players haven't exactly been panning out on the field, so who knows?

I honestly don't know how we'll do in the B1G next season. I don't think we have much of a chance vs. OSU or MSU (no matter how much our secondary improves), but I think Michigan is very beatable, Maryland and Indiana are very beatable, and PSU underachieved this year (and then we play Nebraska and Wisconsin from the West, who I would put closer to the OSU/MSU category than to the other teams). So we probably go somewhere between 2-6 and 5-3 in-conference, more likely towards the lower end unless we get a really talented DC to replace Cohen. 3-5 would still likely get us to bowl eligibility with our non-conference schedule, which is fine.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Why would any highly qualified assistant sign on with RU right now? It's not just the salary. With a high likelihood that Flood gets fired after next season it's probably a one year gig. You might get lucky (as UConn did with Weist IMHO), but it's not likely.

 

[Stikey]

Why would any highly qualified assistant sign on with RU right now? It's not just the salary. With a high likelihood that Flood gets fired after next season it's probably a one year gig. You might get lucky (as UConn did with Weist IMHO), but it's not likely.

I've thought about that and I agree that it will be more difficult to hire a new DC for a coach who people must know is on the hot seat. I'm optimistic that we will find a highly qualified assistant though, because you only have to find one highly qualified person who's interested. It's not like we need an army of them to select from. I think our best bet is to take advantage of some of the coaching turnover (e.g., a HC gets canned but their DC is reasonably talented) or to find someone from the Sun Belt or MAC who would like to move up add a position in the B1G to their resume.

I also think Rutgers could take another angle and try to hire someone who would have aspirations of taking over for Flood if the latter were to be fired. That's a much trickier thing to do, of course.

 

[ruskin]

Second, I don't think UConn's TV market is large enough to interest the B1G at this point. I have no illusions about the primary reason Rutgers was invited to join the B1G: because New Jersey is a populous state (>2x the size of Connecticut) with more direct representation in two of the largest media markets in the country, and Delany wanted to get into the Northeast

Compliment sitekey on virtually all his points -- HOWEVER the TV market thing is among one of UConn's best arguments in CR. Hartford-New Haven is about the 30th market and add that to Fairfield County, which makes up about a third of the NY market, then UConn's chunk equals the chunk Rutgers gets from being in a third of the NY & Philly markets. And with all due respect to sitekey I believe the intensity of interest in UConn up here is much, much stronger than intensity of interest in Rutgers down there.

Carry on. Hope rumored the 2016-17 home & home series happens.

 

[Stikey]

Compliment sitekey on virtually all his points -- HOWEVER the TV market thing is among one of UConn's best arguments in CR. Hartford-New Haven is about the 30th market and add that to Fairfield County, which makes up about a third of the NY market, then UConn's chunk equals the chunk Rutgers gets from being in a third of the NY & Philly markets. And with all due respect to sitekey I believe the intensity of interest in UConn up here is much, much stronger than intensity of interest in Rutgers down there.

Carry on. Hope rumored the 2016-17 home & home series happens.

I think Connecticut is definitely an underrated TV market when totaled up, but Fairfield County is not a third of the NYC DMA (at least not according to this map: http://www.newportmedia.com/maps/countyinfo.php?m=1)

At any rate, UCONN is much closer to the NYC DMA than Syracuse by a wide margin.

It's hard for me to speak to intensity of interest since I've been in Boston for the better part of the last decade. But from what I hear and see when I go back to visit my family, Schiano did a great job of growing the RU brand. We have a long way to go to capture enough of NJ's attention to be like a PSU or OSU in our state, but for football at least, things are way better than they used to be. And I think Delany is betting that the attention the state pays to RU football will grow rapidly with bigger names coming to town (though it will help if we can field a football team that has at least some success, which is why we're a little nervous about Flood). And it's not like I see a lot of UCONN car magnets on my way through the state back to NJ either...

I'm definitely hoping as you are for that home-and-home. A close-by away game would be great -- even if we always seem to play like crap at the Rent.

 

[ruskin]

And it's not like I see a lot of UCONN car magnets on my way through the state back to NJ either....

The genius of the block R. Think there as many or more Husky stickers, magnets, license plates etc. but they don't stick out/register like the R. Need to bring the block C back.

 

[Colt house75]

Lol... I love this, especially the "NE has no recruits and NJ coaches don't like him" part.

Diaco recruted:

2014 class-

1. 
   [ ]Quenton Nelson- 4* OL- Red Bank, NJ
   [ ]Andrew Trumbetti- 4* DE- Demarest, NJ
   [ ]Jay Hayes- 4* DT- Brooklyn, NY
   [ ]Thomas Holly- 4* DT- Brooklyn, NY- Didn't commit but has Notre Dame as his top three school
   [ ]Richard Yeargin lll 4* OLB- Fort Lauderdale, FL
   [ ]Greer Martini- high 3* ILB- Woodberry, VA

2013 class-

1. 
   [ ]John Montelus- 4* OL- Everett, MA
   [ ]Mike McGlinchey- 4* OL- Philly, PA
   [ ]Doug Randolph- 4* OLB- Woodberry, VA
   [ ]Rashad Kinlaw- high 3* CB- Absecon, NJ

2012 class-

1. 
   [ ]Elijah Shumate- 4* Safety- Ramsey, NJ
   [ ]Jarron Jones- 4* DE- Rochester, NY

2011-

1. 
   [ ]Ishaq Williams- 4* OLB- Brooklyn, NY

And these are recruits he recruited from New England alone, imagine the recruits he got commits from outside of the New England area such as, FL,TX, GA, MI, etc... he's a hell of a recruiter and I think Rutgirl fans are terrified and jealous now that we may compete not only on the field, but in the recruiting grounds as well.

Holly, as mentioned above, not yet committed. Recruited to ND by Diaco.. is a Rivals **** - 4 star. Who knows....

 

[Uconnalliance]

Rutgers= epic fail

 

[Stikey]

I liked the Block C! I'm surprised they moved away from it!

Also, I always though the U-C-O-N-N-UCONN-UCONN-UCONN cheer was a bit cumbersome, but when we were at the game we heard a pretty awesome UCONN/Huskies cheer being led by some folks sitting at maybe the 20 yard line on the shady side of the field. My buddy (who's a Gamecock) and I couldn't figure out why that awesome cheer wasn't used instead. It was totally solid!

 

[Colt house75]

The genius of the block R. Think there as many or more Husky stickers, magnets, license plates etc. but they don't stick out/register like the R. Need to bring the block C back.

Would like metallic BLUE CHROME and the block C....more like the times and the change would be good...There's a new Dog in town!!!!!

 

[Mr Blueskin]

Save all of yourselves a lot of explaining and send Stikey over to our BiG thread (it's almost as BiG as the Obamacare book) and he can spend months combing through why we belong in the BiG.

 

[uconnell]

Would like metallic BLUE CHROME and the block C....more like the times and the change would be good...There's a new Dog in town!!!!!

Can't like this enough!!

 

[HuskyBarker]

Apparently, they will watch him while he coaches in the "minor leagues" at UConn and then give him a look in a few years if he does a good job.

The Only "Look" Rutgers will be giving UCONN & HCBD will be from the Bottom of Rankings as we Win the AAC Championship in 2 Years!