The all Connecticut backfield

[Sean]

Lets play the hypothetical game for a minute.

Pretend Brandon Weeden was from Connecticut and never went to the big leagues in baseball.

Do you think Weeden, the hypoethtical CT boy, or Robert Griffin, the electrifying Texan, would have gotten this fanbase more energized?

Without a doubt, they both would have jacked up the fan base and both are tremendous talents. But I think it would be hard to argue that the answer would be hypothetical CT Weeden.

 

[kris1]

Active CT-born NFL players:

Dan Orlovsky- Bridgeport-UConn
Jon Carney-Hartford-ND
Dwight Freeney-Hartford-Syracuse
Terrance Knighton-Hartford-Temple
Matt Lawrence-Hartford-UMass
Niko Koutouvides-New Britain-Purdue
Rob Jackson-New Haven-Kansas St.
Matt Shaughnessy-Norwich-Wisconsin
Jamey Richard-Weston-Buffalo
Chris Baker-Windsor-Hampton

 

[Palatine]

Fans will come if we win. End of story.

Having local players from CT and the Northeast makes for fan favorites, but the only thing that will fill The Rent is winning.

Okay, so what happens if the team has a couple of bad years? Who forms the hard core of your fan base? How loyal are your fans? Who has a connection so strong that it can sustain for some tough times?

You're right, if all you are interested in is creating bandwagon fans.

End of story. LOL.

 

[SAMCRO]

Connecticut (actually, the tri-state area and NE too) is a fickle/fair weathered state when it comes to sports allegiances to teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, or Pats. There are so many other options of things for people to do/be interested in. End of the day, if you win, people will show up. Lose, and people will stop showing up. I don't care if it's 11 starters from CT, winning gets and keeps people there. Losing turns the tides pretty quickly.

I'd love to see an all CT backfield, provided they were the best players at their positions. I don't belive that having that for a season or two will be the end all be all though.

 

[Palatine]

Connecticut (actually, the tri-state area and NE too) is a fickle/fair weathered state when it comes to sports allegiances to teams not named the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, or Pats. There are so many other options of things for people to do/be interested in. End of the day, if you win, people will show up. Lose, and people will stop showing up. I don't care if it's 11 starters from CT, winning gets and keeps people there. Losing turns the tides pretty quickly.

I'd love to see an all CT backfield, provided they were the best players at their positions. I don't belive that having that for a season or two will be the end all be all though.

Assuming UConn doesn't win all the time.....

Okay, so what happens if the team has a couple of bad years? Who forms the hard core of your fan base? How loyal are your fans? Who has a connection so strong that it can sustain for some tough times?

You're right, if all you are interested in is creating bandwagon fans.

 

[CTMike]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

Home grown players would help with filling the stadium - I don't know how much. The local media needs to do a better job of promoting them. High impact QB or running back would help. Except for Casey C. I never heard of any other in-state players until they were on the team because I do not follow high school football too close. I think I am like most fans who go to the games who do not know much about high school players. I get most of my information on them from the boneyard and it is some great info and much appreciated.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

Just a slow few days - not much to talk about.

 

[Palatine]

This might be one of the most pointless threads ever created.

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

 

[CTMike]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

LOL... Palatine, I'm not saying that at all. Nobody is saying that. Attracting in state talent is great for the program, and we pretty much all agree on that - the only caveat being, they have to be able to play at a level that will bring us championships. A more talented player should never lack playing time in favor of someone else just because they are local.

What I said was this thread was pointless. Because people actually agree with your general premise (local talent playing meaningful minutes is good for the program) but you seem to want to still argue about it.

 

[mattp]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

attracting in state talent isn't pointless, but discussing whether we'd rather have identical theoretical players based on their home zip code is.

anyone that's been to the ACC thread on the realigment board knows this isn't the most pointless thread though, by a long shot

 

[Waquoit]

There are some who think that without Corny, UCONN never gets invited ot the Big East at all.

And they would be right. Without Corny, we're UMass.

 

[Waquoit]

Fans will come if we win. End of story.

Having local players from CT and the Northeast makes for fan favorites, but the only thing that will fill The Rent is winning.

"Fans will come if we win", that's genius. I see that sports marketing degree is paying off.

But it's not the end of the story. I think the nay-sayers are missing a big point on this one. Like Pudge always says, building a program is a process that takes time. CT high schools have produced more D-1 talent since UConn went D-1. If UConn was to win with a big chunk of local talent at the skill positions I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the level of HS play would increase even more. The more players produced locally, the better for the program. And it would help UConn football to find an identity and that adds to building a program. Let's face it, whatever identity UConn FB had moved to Maryland.

 

[freescooter]

You think attracting elite players from in-state is pointless? It's one of the most discussed things on numerous boards. Remember Schiano's wall around New Jersey?

that's because new Jersey was producing 30-35 players per year and not keeping more than a handful...and for what its worth, Schinao also recruited very heavily in Florida, especially in Miami-Dade, which by the way produces more players each year than all of New England and New York combined...Just for some perspective, the 1A teams in florida could fill all their spots in any given class entirely with Florida players and still not take all the florida 1A players. UCONN could take all the 1A players produced in Connecticut in a given year and still have to go out of state for 50% of a typical class. You don't seem to get that. By the way, your earlier reference to Georgia...Atlanta ranks 3rd behind Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami Dade in the number of 1A recruits annually...Georgia as a state ranks 5th...Connectiuct ranks 38th, just behind Idaho...Even if you assume that talent and coaching are spread evenly, if you produce 100 players per year you are probably going to have more top players than if you produce 10. If you're in Florida and 50% of the top players get away and go out of state, there are still more high end players available than there are in Connecticut in any given year...actually in any 5 years. I read an interesting comment from th eOk State recruiting coordinator...I'm paraphasing but in essence he said we want to recruit Oklahoma but we can go to texas and see multiple players in a given night, often in a given game, or at worst across town from each other. that's not the case in Oklahoma. And Oklahoma produces 40 players a year compared to Connecticut's 8-12.

 

[gioff23]

"Fans will come if we win", that's genius. I see that sports marketing degree is paying off.

But it's not the end of the story. I think the nay-sayers are missing a big point on this one. Like Pudge always says, building a program is a process that takes time. CT high schools have produced more D-1 talent since UConn went D-1. If UConn was to win with a big chunk of local talent at the skill positions I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the level of HS play would increase even more. The more players produced locally, the better for the program. And it would help UConn football to find an identity and that adds to building a program. Let's face it, whatever identity UConn FB had moved to Maryland.

Except that they have won (38-26 over past 5 years, 70-53 over past 10), 2 BE banners, a BCS bowl bid, wins over teams in every major conference ex-PAC12, and still we sell out only slightly more than 1/2 of season tix and always have tix available on gameday. It takes more than winning - it takes a fanbase to identify with a team, and that does not exist. If it did, folks would easily fill a 40K seat stadium and we would be discussing stadium expansion, instead of conference expansion. Fans will not come if you win, at least not here. We need more, that has been proven every saturday in the fall for the past decade.

 

[freescooter]

Except that they have won (38-26 over past 5 years, 70-53 over past 10), 2 BE banners, a BCS bowl bid, wins over teams in every major conference ex-PAC12, and still we sell out only slightly more than 1/2 of season tix and always have tix available on gameday. It takes more than winning - it takes a fanbase to identify with a team, and that does not exist. If it did, folks would easily fill a 40K seat stadium and we would be discussing stadium expansion, instead of conference expansion. Fans will not come if you win, at least not here. We need more, that has been proven every saturday in the fall for the past decade.

gioff23, It takes more than just "winning" to build a fan base. You really need to have one of those special seasons...UCONN hasn't done that yet. They've been pretty good, certainly better than many thought they'd be at this point, and have actually drawn better since Day 1 at the Rent than most predicted, too (the original analyses were for 25,000 annual attnedance for the first 10 or so years). I'm not knocking the performance to date, by the way. It has been better than what I expected, honestly, but when you look at the two BE titles, in one they got blown out by West Virginia in the game which had they won would have made them outright champs. The second, they did a great job down the stretch but won the big East at 5-2, 8-4 with some awful losses in the early season...again not the kind of thing that makes th ecasula fan say Wow, I have to see these guys...What they really need is to put together a 10-2 type year followed by a bowl win over a much hyped program...10-2 with a win over Michigan next year and a bowl win over Georgia or someone...That is the type of year we've really never had so far. Actually, 2009 was close, but not quite and while we followed it up with a championship, it was a "weak" championship, if you knwo what I mean. Had we come out and beaten Michigan, beaten Temple, that would have changed the entire perception.

 

[Dann]

we need a bosie st type blow up year to get to that next level. it will happen one day soon i hope.

 

[freescooter]

we need a bosie st type blow up year to get to that next level. it will happen one day soon i hope.

Exactly!

 

[businesslawyer]

If we had a Boise type year we'd still be dealing with fans posting:

1. We suck. We haven't beaten anyone. How do they expect me to shell out money for this schedule.

2. Yes, we're winning but the way we're winning isn't real football.

3. How do we expect the rest of football to take us seriously when we don't all wear the same color?

4. BC sucks. If I keep repeating that maybe I'll feel better about myself.

5. Did you hear what happened at Maryland today?

 

[kris1]

Active CT-born NFL players:

Dan Orlovsky- Bridgeport-UConn
Jon Carney-Hartford-ND
Dwight Freeney-Hartford-Syracuse
Terrance Knighton-Hartford-Temple
Matt Lawrence-Hartford-UMass
Niko Koutouvides-New Britain-Purdue
Rob Jackson-New Haven-Kansas St.
Matt Shaughnessy-Norwich-Wisconsin
Jamey Richard-Weston-Buffalo
Chris Baker-Windsor-Hampton

Oops, I forgot :
Amari Spievey-Middletown-Iowa
Aaron Hernandez-Bristol-Florida
John Moffitt-Guilford-Wisconsin

 

[mattp]

we need a bosie st type blow up year to get to that next level. it will happen one day soon i hope.

Boise State didnt have a blow up year. after moving up to 1A they won something like 7 conference titles in 9 years. they won 10+ games in 6 of the 8 seasons before the fiesta bowl, and even after beating Oklahoma a lot of people said they weren't for real and only won due to gimmicks. it's been a long process for them and you're oversimplifying what they did to say they had one blow up year. it doesn't take one blow up year, it takes sustained excellence. Rutgers is exhibit B refuting your blow up year theory. they had a blow up year and quickly returned to afterthought

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Oops, I forgot :
Amari Spievey-Middletown-Iowa
Aaron Hernandez-Bristol-Florida
John Moffitt-Guilford-Wisconsin

and, John Sullivan-Greenwich-ND

 

[kris1]

and, John Sullivan-Greenwich-ND

John Sullivan was born in Mount Kisco, NY

Others:
Scott Lutrus-Brookfield-UConn
Marcus Easley-Stratford-UConn
Zach Hurd-Waterford-UConn
Kory Sheets-Manchester-Purdue

 

[Dann]

let this be a lesson to any ct kid that commits to bcu...its stay home or go to a big time school. bcu sucks!!!

 

[PUPPY4]

Everybody in the backfield with the American Flag Blue and White on, with the block C on the helmet is an all Connecticut backfield!

What is ya?!

 

[ConnHuskBask]

"Fans will come if we win", that's genius. I see that sports marketing degree is paying off.

But it's not the end of the story. I think the nay-sayers are missing a big point on this one. Like Pudge always says, building a program is a process that takes time. CT high schools have produced more D-1 talent since UConn went D-1. If UConn was to win with a big chunk of local talent at the skill positions I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the level of HS play would increase even more. The more players produced locally, the better for the program. And it would help UConn football to find an identity and that adds to building a program. Let's face it, whatever identity UConn FB had moved to Maryland.

It's simple because it's true. No need to be a about it.

People have shown up through the ups and downs - I don't know what stadium you guys have been going to the past 7 seasons when we've had championships and awful seasons, but the attendance hasn't been discernibly different from year to year.

Frankly the whole premise is moronic. Once the kids commit to UConn, they are Huskies plain and simple. It doesn't matter where you came from, but only important that you're here now.

 

[Johnbuoy]

player a- is a qb and overall you would grade a 90
player b-is a qb and overall you would grade a 90

They are the exact same player on the field down to the way they walk onto the field for warmups. So which one do you recruit or start (if your arguing 2 players here already) then? Well lets look at it deeper.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT is much higher when its a "footprint kid". Thats how you build a program from nothing to something quick and also build a loyal fanbase. RE did a ok job at it but he wasn't great at it, he was great at development of athletes. PP to me seems like the guy for this next level of UConn football, I just question a bit his on the field stuff at this point. Off the field hes getting it going. Word

I agree with most of your assessment. In fact I always thought it curious that most of the players for Texas and Texas Tech and to some extent Oklahoma are from Texas. I also think it has something to do with the way they develop their players in the art of football from the time they're knee high to a grasshopper.

 

[Dann]

saw a kid walking down the street from the local hs yesterday with a PP football camp t shirt on. judging from my body type he was 6 foot+ 2oo and looked very athletic. i yelled over to him hey u go to uconn camp with PP? he said "hell yea, it was great last summer. i want to play there if i get the chance!" thats what i'm talking about!!!!! I have seen his tshirts several times since last summer on kids at local events and just around town, i've also def seen more uconn gear on fball kids and just kids in general down here than in the past. in the local gyms i always see a fair amount of uconn stuff becuase bball is established fan base wise and big time to the public. fball was not and under RE it was hard to find fans and even harder to find kids repping it down here. things have changed in ct under PP, there is no doubt about it. hopefully the on the field product follows.

 

[Palatine]

It's simple because it's true. No need to be a about it.

People have shown up through the ups and downs - I don't know what stadium you guys have been going to the past 7 seasons when we've had championships and awful seasons, but the attendance hasn't been discernibly different from year to year.

Frankly the whole premise is moronic. Once the kids commit to UConn, they are Huskies plain and simple. It doesn't matter where you came from, but only important that you're here now.

Yeah, but what if we lose a game -- or two.

Frankly your whole premise is moronic. Who is the most popular UConn player of this century? Which player sold the most jersey with his number on it? Why?

 

[gioff23]

saw a kid walking down the street from the local hs yesterday with a PP football camp t shirt on. judging from my body type he was 6 foot+ 2oo and looked very athletic. i yelled over to him hey u go to uconn camp with PP? he said "hell yea, it was great last summer. i want to play there if i get the chance!" thats what i'm talking about!!!!! I have seen his tshirts several times since last summer on kids at local events and just around town, i've also def seen more uconn gear on fball kids and just kids in general down here than in the past. in the local gyms i always see a fair amount of uconn stuff becuase bball is established fan base wise and big time to the public. fball was not and under RE it was hard to find fans and even harder to find kids repping it down here. things have changed in ct under PP, there is no doubt about it. hopefully the on the field product follows.

+1. This is the pipeline that needs to be cultivated and this staff gets it.