Sure, I'll thank him for helping get UConn football out of the abyss and for all he did to be an ambassador for the UConn football program. I think he did the best he could in the four years he was here. He found a situation at CSU that he thinks that works better for him at this point in his career and he took it while it was available, so good for him. Most of us would do the same in similar life-improving situations if we thought that's what we wanted.
Here's the thing though that's not sitting well with me this morning as we've had over a day to ponder what's happened.
We're all fans of college sports. We all bleed Husky blue and many of us do as much as we can in our own ways to support the program. We all want UConn to be in a better situation (which is a P4 conference) that would financially sustain our ability to stay competitive at the highest level of college sports - football, basketball, etc. And we all know that football drives the money bus to making that happen.
We're asked every year to do our part to contribute to that. Go to games, donate to the university, buy merchandise to help with NIL, travel to bowl games, etc. Be a good fan and encourage more people to do the same. And we had a very good past two seasons. 9 wins in each, bowl win at Fenway (with tons of UConn fans) vs an ACC school last year, undefeated at home this year, attendance average topped 30k, and we await another bowl bid. That's all gravy and credit goes all around for making that happen.
And now, out of the blue, just a few days after our 9th win in our regular season finale, our head coach, our ambassador for the UConn Football program, slips away overnight and heads to CSU to become their head coach and we get nothing more than a notice from the university that it's happened. Nothing from Mora at all other than altering his social media pic and blocking some UConn fans.
It's not that I expected him to stay a long time here. It's more about the way this is done. The way it always seems to be done at college football season's end when the season hasn't even really ended. It feels like being left at the altar again (a la Randy 1.0, but at least he stayed for that bowl). There's just something fundamentally wrong with a system where you're asked to buy into, you do your part, and the same people who want you to buy in just get up and leave in the middle of the night before the season's done. Then players follow suit, some before the bowl game is even announced, some may not play to prepare for the draft, etc.
Bowls should still mean something, even the lesser tier ones. Realistically it's what we hoped UConn would accomplish all season, and now it feels much less important with what's just happened.
It's just very discouraging and disillusioning that this is the norm in college sports and we're asked to just deal with it. Makes you wonder if it's even worth it anymore.
Happy Thanksgiving, Yard.
