The View From Section 241 -- Jim Mora

[Pudge]

Exactly where I am with perhaps a slight change in emphasis on a couple of points.

But I would add one other thing which you touched on obliquely. Since 2010, the realignments have followed each other one after another. So have rules changes like the portal and NIL. With hugely enhanced mobility now available to the players, heightened by the NIL change, it is not clear that a university without a lucrative conference connection will be able to compete. A lot of structural things have happened during the last decade that may make it impossible.

So that is why I am also wary although that is not quite how I would put it. Rather I find myself consciously trying to curb my enthusiasm. Take a step back and see what happens when almost everyone else is gushing like it is the start of the season when the BY poll responses show a majority think UConn will win at least six. Well, lets see. Unless the results are immediately spectacular, it will probably take five years to get to a winning record. If it doesn't, then that simply means that the landscape of CFB has changed even more than we thought. And there is a definite possibility that UConn might not get there.

See y'all at the blue-white game unless it is cancelled again.

We are NOT competing. This round of realignment, we saw a clear delineation between the top tier P5 and everyone else. You have the B12 yearning to maintain $25m a year (when they thought they were $34-40m). The SEC and B1G are clearly angling to $70m per University. That is a long way from what we learned the MAC earned as rights (when WKU & MTSU were considering) at $410k per year. The Sun Belt were crowing at $500k per year; and that is a lot of new money for James Madison. But is it not obvious what has happened. You still will have Sun Belt beat SEC. But the gap ... and everything that is glitzy about P5 is gone for us. The University of Connecticut. WE - with DB manipulating everything - are on TV and we still have some Brand. We are distinctly at no disadvantage to MAC or SB. CUSA is distinctly worse. I would not want AAC for pure football - too much strange travel for our fanbase.

The precarious nature of the sport is right in front of us ... in the form of UMASS. We can see them chin up on things that we don't have to. I don't think being in a conference is imperative for us - today. Or much of the next decade. We have a solid schedule with regional competition and big money P5 money games. Our hoop is rising again to grab the eyes. TV should be retained with the splash of Mora. We might have some local NIL. Nobody is gonna lay millions for our OLine.

 

[UConnJim]

I was surprised that DB selected Mora, but I now understand it. After the last 8 to 10 years, UConn football needed to get this hire right and they needed to change the negative perception of UConn football which I think Mora has STARTED. In hindsight, it's pretty amazing that RE did almost no media interviews to market the program and Mora has been all over media.

I believe that UConn had the ability to win at least 4 games this past year, but they didn't. Why? I think the program under RE 2.0 had 3 fatal flaws:

1) Poor coordinator hires. I have been shocked that 2 out of the 3 OCs that RE 2.0 hired had no experience being OCs. I don't understand why he never hired a young and successful FCS OC to be UConn's OC. And, the poor OC hires lead to poor QB recruiting, poor offensive schemes, and poor QB play.

2) He did not fully utilize the transfer portal to fill roster holes to quicken the turnaround.

3) After 2018, he seemed to give up on recruiting kids from the Northeast which had been the bread and butter of RE 1.0. Just as important, by not heavily recruiting the Northeast, RE 2.0 did not have relationships with kids who were from the Northeast that went into the transfer portal.


I appreciate everything RE did during his first stint at UConn and I thought he could right the ship quickly after the Diaco mess, but, unfortunately in hindsight, he was not the right coach for the job.

What gives me the most optimism about Mora is the hiring of Nick Charlton as OC. Charlton was the head coach at Maine, he has experience as an OC, and he seems to be ambitious. For FBS schools, you have 3 choices when you hire OCs: an expensive but successful FBS coordinator, a mediocre or has been coordinator, or a young and up and coming lower level coordinator. The vast majority of FBS schools can not afford the expensive OC so they usually hire the mediocre or has been coordinator. A guy like Mora has many relationships with mediocre or has been OCs, but he chose to go with the young up and comer.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I can't really argue most of these points. What I would suggest is undersold in this view, is just how legitimate Jim Mora is. Our program has been a laughingstock. We had a crazy young coach who made up trophies and nonsense phrases. Who wouldn't return punts. Who punted from inside the 40 when behind. Then we got the great retread, and like those retread truck tires you see on the side of I-95, the wheels came off. It's not just this Jim Mora, it's the other Jim Mora, his father. The same way Hurley caries a sense of legitimacy from his dad and brother, Mora has that as well.

The second point, and I don't expect @businesslawyer or many of us old farts to get it, is that you're undervaluing social media. High School football players, like all high school kids (and college kids) now, don't watch TV. They live on YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram. So what was one of the first things Mora managed? Bringing in the D'Amelios. They were already UConn fans, but he recognized it for the staggering asset it is. Charli has 107 million followers on Tik Tok. Dixie 48 million. How many are high school football players? A lot. YouTube and Tik Tok crush network TV in viewership. It matters more than you think that he gets it and knows how important it is.

 

[JohnFSilver]

First how can point 6 be second?

I was thrilled we hired a true professional. That said, I'm well past anything but wins on the football. The rest is meaningless.

I with the curmudgeon's Palantine. Win freaking games. No more we have a high APR, we have great kids at turkey drives, we have great culture and teamwork. Those are important, but secondary to winning games. Win games. 8-4 with great kids is better than 10-2 with a police blotter squad that embarrasses.

But, 1-11 isn't making anyone smile.

Also, Great breakdown BL. I was more shocked by the hire. Not that DB made it, but that Mora wanted it. They, literally, got a guy they have no right getting IMO. IF he wins here, does Mora jump to a big-time P5 role? Maybe. I don't know. He's also 60, doesn't need the money, and maybe he is crazy enough to continue this Don Quixote style quest.

If Liberty, Costal Carolina, Boise State, ULM, Northern Illinois can be good, why can't UConn? Fair question.

Just a thought,

Everyone's been so focused on what UConn can't do -- No p5 invite, can't get into CFP, can't sell stadium, it isn't the South. A non-football person told me once -- "What are we doing with FB? What's the point? You can't win a national title here."

No one has looked what they can do -- Pump out more NFL players than their profile says they should, schedule mid-P5 home and home.

Mora doesn't have the toxicity and negativity of someone associated with the football program. Amazing what that can do. I think, and this goes for people at UConn that are in and around athletics, that fans have come to resent the program. Randy coming back in did the opposite of what DB wanted - it gave people a chance to yell and bury Edsall and the football program. That was a strategic error.

The resources, the attention it gets, and the money it uses. They wanted it to fail, reflexively, because basketball was so desperately hurt by the AAC, quite unexpectedly TBH. I thought UConn's brand and ability was big enough after all the titles. It wasn't. Big East needs UConn, UConn needs Big East.

While football lives, there is always a chance that football drives the bus and the Huskies are out of the Big East. Unfathomable now. But in 5 years? In 10 years? If all you care about is basketball, then football is a threat. Right now, it isn't a big one. But what happens if the Huskies get decent?

Good for the AD department and university? Yes. Is it good for the basketball programs? Not so clear. That tension is going to be there, always.

 

[DoctorWho85]

My biggest thing is Mora has already shown he has a plan and is open about it. He doesn't allude to it like Edsal did. Didn't go about things aimlessly like P did. Or didn't have a clue like Diaco. He is professional, seems to know what he wants and has everyone buying in. There's just a completely different aura surrounding the program right now. I truly believe we'll be bowling next season.

 

[uconndogs]

I continue to believe the NIL will drive the final fissure through college football. Some 40 programs or so will recruit at a level that the rest of college football will have neither the ability nor inclination to pursue. The money will be enormous with "payrolls" in the multi-millions.

Without a P5 conference affiliation UCONN can't even think about playing at that level. Personally, I'm fine with that. The rest of college football will play very competitive and entertaining football. Maybe conference affiliation begins to rationalize around regional alliances. Maybe rivalries rekindle or blossom. How great would it be for UCONN and BC to play every year for the Chowder trophy for New England's finest. The hatred there is perfect for a big-time rivalry game.

I honestly think that college football will look nothing like it does now in 10 years, and it might very well happen sooner. UCONN may actually be reasonably well positioned as this unfolds.

 

[Waquoit]

But those aren't kids who, on paper, are any different than the kids we were getting.

But it's part of the process of building local relationships. He understands it's a two front battle he needs to fight; the quick fix while building for long-haul.

 

[HardFacts]

I with the curmudgeon's Palantine. Win freaking games. No more we have a high APR, we have great kids at turkey drives, we have great culture and teamwork. Those are important, but secondary to winning games. Win games. 8-4 with great kids is better than 10-2 with a police blotter squad that embarrasses.

But, 1-11 isn't making anyone smile.

Also, Great breakdown BL. I was more shocked by the hire. Not that DB made it, but that Mora wanted it. They, literally, got a guy they have no right getting IMO. IF he wins here, does Mora jump to a big-time P5 role? Maybe. I don't know. He's also 60, doesn't need the money, and maybe he is crazy enough to continue this Don Quixote style quest.

If Liberty, Costal Carolina, Boise State, ULM, Northern Illinois can be good, why can't UConn? Fair question.

Just a thought,

Everyone's been so focused on what UConn can't do -- No p5 invite, can't get into CFP, can't sell stadium, it isn't the South. A non-football person told me once -- "What are we doing with FB? What's the point? You can't win a national title here."

No one has looked what they can do -- Pump out more NFL players than their profile says they should, schedule mid-P5 home and home.

Mora doesn't have the toxicity and negativity of someone associated with the football program. Amazing what that can do. I think, and this goes for people at UConn that are in and around athletics, that fans have come to resent the program. Randy coming back in did the opposite of what DB wanted - it gave people a chance to yell and bury Edsall and the football program. That was a strategic error.

The resources, the attention it gets, and the money it uses. They wanted it to fail, reflexively, because basketball was so desperately hurt by the AAC, quite unexpectedly TBH. I thought UConn's brand and ability was big enough after all the titles. It wasn't. Big East needs UConn, UConn needs Big East.

While football lives, there is always a chance that football drives the bus and the Huskies are out of the Big East. Unfathomable now. But in 5 years? In 10 years? If all you care about is basketball, then football is a threat. Right now, it isn't a big one. But what happens if the Huskies get decent?

Good for the AD department and university? Yes. Is it good for the basketball programs? Not so clear. That tension is going to be there, always.

We can be as good as Liberty, Coastal Carolina etc. The major difference between Mora and RE1, PP, Diaco, and RE2 is there is a plan! A plan and a vision! We have yet to hear the words this is a rebuild! The cupboard is bare! We need to build a culture! I was personally involved in a team that was 1-10 and with a coaching change went on to win a National Championship 3 years later. It’s a different era and that could Not happen today but we can certainly get to a winning record and respectability quickly. IMO we ended the RE2 era with one of the worst coaching staffs imaginable. Mora has a plan and the staff is coming together!
It has the feel of what I witnessed 49 years ago and the results will follow. Not sure what most of you expect but seeing the Rent full again, competing every week and winning 6 plus games a year would sure make things a lot more fun!!!

 

[Waquoit]

[Mora's] also 60, doesn't need the money, and maybe he is crazy enough to continue this Don Quixote style quest.

FWIW, I'm about Mora's age and I didn't think it was crazy. In fact, once I heard his story, I totally got it. He came to us, not because he wanted a job, he wanted this job. He's committed to the project. No one wants this to work more than he does. His Job 1 is winning, HCRE's was continued employment.

 

[ZooCougar]

At the Pru Center yesterday, someone asked whether I was going to ever expound upon my less than balloons and unicorns view of the Mora signing when it happened. So, burned out from work and with the Giants being destroyed, and with time having passed, I thought now was a good time to set forth my feelings on the hire.

1. Without any argument Jim Mora is not just the most accomplished football coach we have ever hired at UConn, but a far more accomplished football coach than anyone could have reasonably expected us to hire. I probably should have been prepared for the overwhelmingly favorable reaction that followed the hiring, whether I was ready to jump on the bandwagon or not. And, to the extent you can say an AD did a good job before seeing how it works out, I would absolutely say Benedict at the price he paid did a good job.

2. In the time since he's been here, we've seen some of the "general manager" type skills that everyone should have assumed an accomplished football coach like Mora would possess. The ability to deal with the media. The ability to get himself in the news by becoming the Governor's new "best friend." Putting a staff together. Establishing social media. No one should have doubted that a man as accomplished as Mora is shouldn't have been able to get high grades in all that, and he has gotten high grades. All good things.

3. Maybe there are some people who want to play competitive football again more than I do. Maybe there are some people who want to win more than I do. But in each case, there aren't many of them. I have put a lot of emotion and energy into this project and have sat through more than a decade of an unacceptable product. And half that time where just getting someone to go with me has become as difficult as winning football games. If Jim Mora makes us competitive again, I will be thrilled and no one has any right to doubt that.

4. By no means is this a bad hire. I would go so far as saying, based on my first point alone, this is a good hire and Benedict deserves credit for it. So, why am I still not thrilled, but cautiously wary? Why am I not jumping on the Boneyard bandwagon where every trivial tweet is met with praise like we just brought in Lou Saban or Urban Meyer? Because that is where I am today. The hiring took me by surprise, not just because we hired a more accomplished coach than we should have hoped for, but because for all his qualities Mora did not have either of the two qualities that I would have valued the most highly.

5. So what were the two qualities I would have wanted to see? One was the ability to recruit in the Northeast. I don't think our country is uniform in many respects at the moment, and I don't think selling west coast kids to play at UCLA bears a great resemblance to selling New Jersey and Pennsylvania kids to go to Storrs. Yes, some of the people skills are exactly the same, but I'm not sure that an understanding of what players and their coaches are looking for is the same. I hope to be 100% wrong on this. And while I won't pretend that every kid that signs means that Mora is a genius and we've turned the corner, like some of you, I also won't bash him in two months if we have a below average even for us class. Talk to me in 15 months and we can attempt to begin to judge him fairly. Same thing on the portal. Did HCRE not adjust to the new reality? Totally fair criticism, with which I fully agree. But are we getting players who couldn't make it at good P5 schools, or players from Delaware and the MAC? Again, I will give Mora time to rebuild our player pool, probably more than many of you expecting a quick and amazing turnaround. But will he be able to get us back to the players we were bringing in between 2005 and 2010? Don't know.

6. Second, Mora was never tasked with turning around a dumpster fire. UCLA was underperforming, and he did a good, solid job making it better, but it was not Cal or Oregon State either. Or Rutgers in the early 2000s. And in the NFL, everyone is pulled to average over time. There really isn't a comparable situation to what he faces here. We are a dumpster fire. I would have taken a coach who turned around a dumpster fire from nothing. Like coaches at JMU, or Coastal Carolina, or as someone here wanted, Kent State.

7. Those were the two things I was looking for. What I was given, instead, is a more accomplished coach than I could have hoped for, but without my two key qualities. No doubt, Mora will be far better than what I wanted at tons of soft skills. But winning tweets, while a good thing and something that can, indirectly, over time, help with the key things, is not directly related to getting better players to come to this dumpster fire in New England or coaching seasons and games. I fully hope that in three years it will be clear that I was just beaten down by the years of losing and will be too conservative on this hire. And people like Pudge, whose judgment I respect, will be right with their optimism. And again, I'm not in any way against this hire. But I would have gone in a different direction. And while I'm not always right, I normally assume I am because my track record isn't bad. (Well, and because I think highly of myself but that's another matter entirely.)

So we'll see. I will not constantly go forward throwing rain on the parade some of you have joined. I have said my piece and will now root for him and the team the same way I would have if they hired based on my two criteria and will be more than fair to him. And hopefully some of you will forgive me that I don't throw my panties at the guy every time he posts something on social media or we get a recruit that isn't any different than the types we've been getting anyway. Enjoy the end of your weekend.
.

If Mora failed as badly here as he did at other places they would have built a statue for him.

And yes he is the most accomplished. It’s not even close.

 

[Sky ball]

I am disappointed in Mora. There has been no mention of fresh paint in the bathrooms that would boost moral.

 

[SubbaBub]

The success of this hire will come down to his eventual win/loss record. Until we get a representative sample on that measure we are all shooting in the dark.

BL is right that in the world of selling college football coaches, selling snake oil in some flavor is a required skill and every early move can be spun in any direction.

Keeping current commits and getting some extra love from CT high school coaches? Great, he's a genius or why did he decide to keep these Edsall bums.

BL is also right on that UCLA FB has advantages UConn doesn't and won't have as long as Mora is here. That may be a big deal or it's might not.

Mora might be way overestimating the talent and commitment he can get from players choosing to play here. That may be a ready made exit excuse or he may show the world that players who come to UConn can compete nationally (again).

He might even find and develop an NFL QB or he might not.

Guarded optimism or show me first are perfectly well adjusted positions to take.

Taking what little joy that has been spooned out to the fanbase is also expected.

 

[RSTuthill]

We are NOT competing. This round of realignment, we saw a clear delineation between the top tier P5 and everyone else. You have the B12 yearning to maintain $25m a year (when they thought they were $34-40m). The SEC and B1G are clearly angling to $70m per University. That is a long way from what we learned the MAC earned as rights (when WKU & MTSU were considering) at $410k per year. The Sun Belt were crowing at $500k per year; and that is a lot of new money for James Madison. But is it not obvious what has happened. You still will have Sun Belt beat SEC. But the gap ... and everything that is glitzy about P5 is gone for us. The University of Connecticut. WE - with DB manipulating everything - are on TV and we still have some Brand. We are distinctly at no disadvantage to MAC or SB. CUSA is distinctly worse. I would not want AAC for pure football - too much strange travel for our fanbase.

The precarious nature of the sport is right in front of us ... in the form of UMASS. We can see them chin up on things that we don't have to. I don't think being in a conference is imperative for us - today. Or much of the next decade. We have a solid schedule with regional competition and big money P5 money games. Our hoop is rising again to grab the eyes. TV should be retained with the splash of Mora. We might have some local NIL. Nobody is gonna lay millions for our OLine.

All good points. Just saying I am gonna postpone my emotional investment for awhile. Like Charlie Brown with his placeholder, we have seen this movie before. But unlike Charlie Brown, I am gonna wait and see. Not gonna get too gushy just yet. I will go to games though. Until it becomes too much which I hope that it never does.

I have the exact opposite view, actually.

Despite all of the movements and changes, the true power in football has consolidated at a massive scale. We've spent a tremendous amount of time worrying about each individual move or change, but the big move has been at the top. Come every November 1, about 96% of the "power 5" is completely irrelevant. Whole conferences eliminated from the national conversation, despite on-field results not always matching up with perception. Basically the same 4-6 teams in the playoff every year. It's boring, and drawing the sport down.

We still have better geographical reach than most of the Power 5. We're the flagship in a top-30 market, with significant penetration into the #1 market. We have great facilities. We can and should be able to leverage NIL in a positive way, comparative to some of these podunk hanger-ons in the P5.

But, the best part of being an indy, given the consolidation above? We're 100% self-deterministic. We already commit to playing what's now a "bag game" for money. Win one of those, which is an attainable goal (if not realistic), and this thing takes off again. The G5 schools have to play a dangerous game to get one big OOC game, and win it, to be nationally relevant. We have no such pretence. Any gains we make are measured only by us.

Also good points. I hear you.

 

[JohnFSilver]

If Mora failed as badly here as he did at other places they would have built a statue for him.

And yes he is the most accomplished. It’s not even close.

C

I can't really argue most of these points. What I would suggest is undersold in this view, is just how legitimate Jim Mora is. Our program has been a laughingstock. We had a crazy young coach who made up trophies and nonsense phrases. Who wouldn't return punts. Who punted from inside the 40 when behind. Then we got the great retread, and like those retread truck tires you see on the side of I-95, the wheels came off. It's not just this Jim Mora, it's the other Jim Mora, his father. The same way Hurley caries a sense of legitimacy from his dad and brother, Mora has that as well.

The second point, and I don't expect @businesslawyer or many of us old farts to get it, is that you're undervaluing social media. High School football players, like all high school kids (and college kids) now, don't watch TV. They live on YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram. So what was one of the first things Mora managed? Bringing in the D'Amelios. They were already UConn fans, but he recognized it for the staggering asset it is. Charli has 107 million followers on Tik Tok. Dixie 48 million. How many are high school football players? A lot. YouTube and Tik Tok crush network TV in viewership. It matters more than you think that he gets it and knows how important it is.

This in spades.

I don't know if they are paying the D'Amelios, but if they aren't, and it is organic, incredible. I would think we should know the power of social media by 2021.

Non social media people like to complain about it, but influencers kill. Example. You would think in MY OWN FAMILY I would know more about UConn than my 15 year old daughter.

Last week, got a text from her while se was at school. She said that Bueckers was out with an injury on UConn WB Instagram. She didn't go to her email, didn't go to The Boneyard, didn't go the NH Register or Hartford Courant or UConn Daily. She got it from UConn Instagram.

Information travels like lightning on these platforms. You have to embrace it. She gets her celtics highlights on youtube.

Secondly, on an awful example, there was a rumor of a student having a hit list at Farmington high school. It was all over Snapchat and IG in about 2 hours. By 11 p.m. kids were already saying they were staying home from school, who the kid was, and they had already processed it. By the time FHS got the message out about what really happened or didn't, the entire episode had been talked about, processed and reacted to by the student population. Then it got on facebook and the Karen's came out accusing the schools of acting irresponsibly and not communicating/putting under the rug....

The school never had a chance using it's archaic email reach out. Are you kidding me? God forbid they went to a newspaper and tried to set the record straight. No one reads newspapers anymore anyway.
This happened over night. They didn't even get a chance to call the police before it was everywhere.

 

[Husky68]

Point 4 is looking for issues. Mora won't be going after/getting many (or initially any) of the 330 or so high school 5 and 4 star recruits (his 1st recruiting class at UCLA was rated #12 in the country). That's where he was fishing at UCLA (also highly sought after 3 star). That is more of a difference for him at UConn than PA. or N.J. kids and their coaches looking for "something different" than west coast UCLA recruits. Just to note, of the 77 players currently listed on the roster more players are from Florida than NJ and PA combined so I'd think you should be worrying more about the difference between west coast and southern players (even Georgia has more UConn players than either NJ or PA, also Texas has almost as many as NJ and PA combined).

Point 5 is quite the reach. How many coaches have experience turning around a UConn level disaster of a football program? None. Rated 130th out of 130, recently off having the statistically worse defense in the history of FBS football.
Not sure I see recent turn around at JMU; Kent State guy in year 4 has them at 7-6 and giving up 64 points to Western Michigan and 54 points to Central Michigan in his "turn around year" 4th year leaves a bit to be desired; and Coastal Carolina agree as their coach and HCRE2.0 both took over 3-9 programs and the former turned into a ranked team while the latter was turned into the laughing stock of college football. Mora just needs to do the right things, not something specifically to offset HCRE2.0 stupid from the past.

Mora needs to sell what good (not already acknowledged big time 4 and 5 star) players are looking for, a place where they can achieve. If he and his coaches can connect with a particularly high ranked player good for them, otherwise make it a place where good players (and their high school coaches) feel the potential for individual success is there.

An added plus for Mora over the turnaround guys are in the portal. The better the transfer kids are the more likely they are looking for playing time/path to pro career. Who better than a former NFL head coach to team up with?

Mora is a super exceptional hire and all your "but how do we know he can do this or that unless he has specifically done this or that" is just looking for a cloud.

 

[SubbaBub]

FWIW, I'm about Mora's age and I didn't think it was crazy. In fact, once I heard his story, I totally got it. He came to us, not because he wanted a job, he wanted this job. He's committed to the project. No one wants this to work more than he does. His Job 1 is winning, HCRE's was continued employment.

I think that's unfair to Randy based on the below market contract he signed. Whatever his motivations were or weren't I suspect at some level he truly believed he could repeat his first run of success and at the end of the day he couldn't.

Whether that was the lack of BCS autobid or a shiny new program to sell or just that the game passed him by is anyone's guess, but it's not fair to say he came back just for a job.

I also disagree that hiring him wasn't the right move at the time. Reasonable minds differed at the time and the results speaks for themselves, but I imagine that

if we had hired a no name and ended up where we are more people might be blaming it on the program than they are Edsall. Not sure why, but I think that is the case. Edsall appears to have come with a free replay. We'll see if he left Mora any talent.

 

[Waquoit]

I think that's unfair to Randy based on the below market contract he signed.

I can't tell you how much I hate this. I'm sorry but HCRE did not sign a "below market contract". He signed a "market" contract. And if he thought he was worth more, that gives him a free pass?

 

[ZooCougar]

At the Pru Center yesterday, someone asked whether I was going to ever expound upon my less than balloons and unicorns view of the Mora signing when it happened. So, burned out from work and with the Giants being destroyed, and with time having passed, I thought now was a good time to set forth my feelings on the hire.

1. Without any argument Jim Mora is not just the most accomplished football coach we have ever hired at UConn, but a far more accomplished football coach than anyone could have reasonably expected us to hire. I probably should have been prepared for the overwhelmingly favorable reaction that followed the hiring, whether I was ready to jump on the bandwagon or not. And, to the extent you can say an AD did a good job before seeing how it works out, I would absolutely say Benedict at the price he paid did a good job.

2. In the time since he's been here, we've seen some of the "general manager" type skills that everyone should have assumed an accomplished football coach like Mora would possess. The ability to deal with the media. The ability to get himself in the news by becoming the Governor's new "best friend." Putting a staff together. Establishing social media. No one should have doubted that a man as accomplished as Mora is shouldn't have been able to get high grades in all that, and he has gotten high grades. All good things.

3. Maybe there are some people who want to play competitive football again more than I do. Maybe there are some people who want to win more than I do. But in each case, there aren't many of them. I have put a lot of emotion and energy into this project and have sat through more than a decade of an unacceptable product. And half that time where just getting someone to go with me has become as difficult as winning football games. If Jim Mora makes us competitive again, I will be thrilled and no one has any right to doubt that.

4. By no means is this a bad hire. I would go so far as saying, based on my first point alone, this is a good hire and Benedict deserves credit for it. So, why am I still not thrilled, but cautiously wary? Why am I not jumping on the Boneyard bandwagon where every trivial tweet is met with praise like we just brought in Lou Saban or Urban Meyer? Because that is where I am today. The hiring took me by surprise, not just because we hired a more accomplished coach than we should have hoped for, but because for all his qualities Mora did not have either of the two qualities that I would have valued the most highly.

5. So what were the two qualities I would have wanted to see? One was the ability to recruit in the Northeast. I don't think our country is uniform in many respects at the moment, and I don't think selling west coast kids to play at UCLA bears a great resemblance to selling New Jersey and Pennsylvania kids to go to Storrs. Yes, some of the people skills are exactly the same, but I'm not sure that an understanding of what players and their coaches are looking for is the same. I hope to be 100% wrong on this. And while I won't pretend that every kid that signs means that Mora is a genius and we've turned the corner, like some of you, I also won't bash him in two months if we have a below average even for us class. Talk to me in 15 months and we can attempt to begin to judge him fairly. Same thing on the portal. Did HCRE not adjust to the new reality? Totally fair criticism, with which I fully agree. But are we getting players who couldn't make it at good P5 schools, or players from Delaware and the MAC? Again, I will give Mora time to rebuild our player pool, probably more than many of you expecting a quick and amazing turnaround. But will he be able to get us back to the players we were bringing in between 2005 and 2010? Don't know.

6. Second, Mora was never tasked with turning around a dumpster fire. UCLA was underperforming, and he did a good, solid job making it better, but it was not Cal or Oregon State either. Or Rutgers in the early 2000s. And in the NFL, everyone is pulled to average over time. There really isn't a comparable situation to what he faces here. We are a dumpster fire. I would have taken a coach who turned around a dumpster fire from nothing. Like coaches at JMU, or Coastal Carolina, or as someone here wanted, Kent State.

7. Those were the two things I was looking for. What I was given, instead, is a more accomplished coach than I could have hoped for, but without my two key qualities. No doubt, Mora will be far better than what I wanted at tons of soft skills. But winning tweets, while a good thing and something that can, indirectly, over time, help with the key things, is not directly related to getting better players to come to this dumpster fire in New England or coaching seasons and games. I fully hope that in three years it will be clear that I was just beaten down by the years of losing and will be too conservative on this hire. And people like Pudge, whose judgment I respect, will be right with their optimism. And again, I'm not in any way against this hire. But I would have gone in a different direction. And while I'm not always right, I normally assume I am because my track record isn't bad. (Well, and because I think highly of myself but that's another matter entirely.)

So we'll see. I will not constantly go forward throwing rain on the parade some of you have joined. I have said my piece and will now root for him and the team the same way I would have if they hired based on my two criteria and will be more than fair to him. And hopefully some of you will forgive me that I don't throw my panties at the guy every time he posts something on social media or we get a recruit that isn't any different than the types we've been getting anyway. Enjoy the end of your weekend.
.

The thing I like the most about the Jim Mora hire is that in a very short period we have begun to change the narrative. In hiring him we did everything people said we could not do. He is a well known coach, a very visible, POSITIVE and outspoken coach with boundless energy. And that is what we needed. So stop being a sourpuss and get on the train.

I don’t care one Iota about “northeast recruiting ties". Northeast Football is a backwater. Could we have hired the Holy Cross guy or someone with experience at Merrimack or Albany? Sure. He could know the name of every assistant high school coach in the northeast and guess what? We would still get our clocks cleaned by coaches from the south, west and mid west. The reason is that the northeast is pretty much a dead end football wise. The really good northeast kids don't want to play for northeast coaches. They want to go to real football programs and play for real football coaches.

When you have the football chops, you don't need to know the landscape. You can hire some assistants to help with that, but the talent is going to find you.

Jim Mora is closer to that than we have ever had. Jim Mora is an NFL coach. He has had one stop. And he did fine at UCLA. Chip Kelly is there now and he isn't doing so hot and I rate him. That tells me that for all the advantages UCLA has, it has some pretty major drawbacks as well.

And yes. If Jim Mora failed as badly at UConn, you would want to rename the stadium.

BL, don't tell me that isn't true because you worshiped that LOSER Randy Edsall for accomplishing far less. Randy may have knew a few things, but he was abrasive, unlikeable and nobody good wanted to work for him. He left behind him the WORST PROGRAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

Jim Mora is the Anti-Randy. He knows football, people like and respect him, and he attracts talent. You saying he isn't the most accomplished HC we have had is puzzling in it's inaccuracy. You aimed for the Arctic Circle and hit Disney World instead.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do I expect the guy to get us to the Top 25? No. Can he get us to 4-8, 5-7, 6-6, 8-4? For sure.

Any monkey could come in here and do better than Randy! For starters, PICK THE BEST PLAYERS to start, instead of starting your guys.

His stubborness drove the program into Oblivion. Goodbye loser. Hello, positive, energetic leader.

 

[Pudge]

Point 4 is looking for issues. Mora won't be going after/getting many (or initially any) of the 330 or so high school 5 and 4 star recruits (his 1st recruiting class at UCLA was rated #12 in the country). That's where he was fishing at UCLA (also highly sought after 3 star). That is more of a difference for him at UConn than PA. or N.J. kids and their coaches looking for "something different" than west coast UCLA recruits. Just to note, of the 77 players currently listed on the roster more players are from Florida than NJ and PA combined so I'd think you should be worrying more about the difference between west coast and southern players (even Georgia has more UConn players than either NJ or PA, also Texas has almost as many as NJ and PA combined).

Point 5 is quite the reach. How many coaches have experience turning around a UConn level disaster of a football program? None. Rated 130th out of 130, recently off having the statistically worse defense in the history of FBS football.
Not sure I see recent turn around at JMU; Kent State guy in year 4 has them at 7-6 and giving up 64 points to Western Michigan and 54 points to Central Michigan in his "turn around year" 4th year leaves a bit to be desired; and Coastal Carolina agree as their coach and HCRE2.0 both took over 3-9 programs and the former turned into a ranked team while the latter was turned into the laughing stock of college football. Mora just needs to do the right things, not something specifically to offset HCRE2.0 stupid from the past.

Mora needs to sell what good (not already acknowledged big time 4 and 5 star) players are looking for, a place where they can achieve. If he and his coaches can connect with a particularly high ranked player good for them, otherwise make it a place where good players (and their high school coaches) feel the potential for individual success is there.

An added plus for Mora over the turnaround guys are in the portal. The better the transfer kids are the more likely they are looking for playing time/path to pro career. Who better than a former NFL head coach to team up with?

Mora is a super exceptional hire and all your "but how do we know he can do this or that unless he has specifically done this or that" is just looking for a cloud.

I think we are in a woe is us mood

But Temple & Army & Buffalo - imho - all had much deeper holes to dig out of. Let alone our parallel in Amherst at UMass.

I don't think it is different in any of those 4. But I think you have to use the comparative advantages you have. Dumpster Fire? Look at Temple's 20 years between Bruce Arians and Al Golden. ONLY by really recruiting hard guys in eastern PA & NJ can they be successful ... and Golden - Addazio - Rhule ... Collins. You have to be so good at selecting the right coach. and here they go again. Right UCONN?

 

[outlaw]

@businesslawyer always love reading the view from 241. thanks for taking the time and for finding something better to do than suffer through our Giants pain last night.

I do agree with a lot of what you said. Where we differ, and I'll admit, I am drinking this Kool-Aid all the way. it's so great to see this positive energy and a fanbase with a glimmer of hope again. totally understand the hesitancy, though. I, for one, needed this potential light at the end of the tunnel and I think AD David Benedict gave us a great chance at actually getting there with this hire. I think he's shown hes willing to learn the NE recruting and has already made progess with the high schools here in state. just a few weeks in and it just feels different, this time. we can only hope. cheers, from 106.

 

[businesslawyer]

I have the exact opposite view, actually.

Despite all of the movements and changes, the true power in football has consolidated at a massive scale. We've spent a tremendous amount of time worrying about each individual move or change, but the big move has been at the top. Come every November 1, about 96% of the "power 5" is completely irrelevant. Whole conferences eliminated from the national conversation, despite on-field results not always matching up with perception. Basically the same 4-6 teams in the playoff every year. It's boring, and drawing the sport down.

We still have better geographical reach than most of the Power 5. We're the flagship in a top-30 market, with significant penetration into the #1 market. We have great facilities. We can and should be able to leverage NIL in a positive way, comparative to some of these podunk hanger-ons in the P5.

But, the best part of being an indy, given the consolidation above? We're 100% self-deterministic. We already commit to playing what's now a "bag game" for money. Win one of those, which is an attainable goal (if not realistic), and this thing takes off again. The G5 schools have to play a dangerous game to get one big OOC game, and win it, to be nationally relevant. We have no such pretence. Any gains we make are measured only by us.

So you have us as the best positioned to succeed 1-11 team ever basically. Look, from your mouth to God’s ear. I hope your right. But as I’ve seen said, the race doesn’t always go to the swiftest, but that’s still

The thing I like the most about the Jim Mora hire is that in a very short period we have begun to change the narrative. In hiring him we did everything people said we could not do. He is a well known coach, a very visible, POSITIVE and outspoken coach with boundless energy. And that is what we needed. So stop being a sourpuss and get on the train.

I don’t care one Iota about “northeast recruiting ties". Northeast Football is a backwater. Could we have hired the Holy Cross guy or someone with experience at Merrimack or Albany? Sure. He could know the name of every assistant high school coach in the northeast and guess what? We would still get our clocks cleaned by coaches from the south, west and mid west. The reason is that the northeast is pretty much a dead end football wise. The really good northeast kids don't want to play for northeast coaches. They want to go to real football programs and play for real football coaches.

When you have the football chops, you don't need to know the landscape. You can hire some assistants to help with that, but the talent is going to find you.

Jim Mora is closer to that than we have ever had. Jim Mora is an NFL coach. He has had one stop. And he did fine at UCLA. Chip Kelly is there now and he isn't doing so hot and I rate him. That tells me that for all the advantages UCLA has, it has some pretty major drawbacks as well.

And yes. If Jim Mora failed as badly at UConn, you would want to rename the stadium.

BL, don't tell me that isn't true because you worshiped that LOSER Randy Edsall for accomplishing far less. Randy may have knew a few things, but he was abrasive, unlikeable and nobody good wanted to work for him. He left behind him the WORST PROGRAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

Jim Mora is the Anti-Randy. He knows football, people like and respect him, and he attracts talent. You saying he isn't the most accomplished HC we have had is puzzling in it's inaccuracy. You aimed for the Arctic Circle and hit Disney World instead.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do I expect the guy to get us to the Top 25? No. Can he get us to 4-8, 5-7, 6-6, 8-4? For sure.

Any monkey could come in here and do better than Randy! For starters, PICK THE BEST PLAYERS to start, instead of starting your guys.

His stubborness drove the program into Oblivion. Goodbye loser. Hello, positive, energetic leader.

Did you even bother reading what I said? I did not say he is not the most accomplished football coach we ever brought in. I said the exact oppposite.

But hey, maybe your mistake is also Landon Donovan’s fault.

 

[ZooCougar]

So you have us as the best positioned to succeed 1-11 team ever basically. Look, from your mouth to God’s ear. I hope your right. But as I’ve seen said, the race doesn’t always go to the swiftest, but that’s still


Did you even bother reading what I said? I did not say he is not the most accomplished football coach we ever brought in. I said the exact oppposite.

But hey, maybe your mistake is also Landon Donovan’s fault.

You have always worshiped mediocrity. I have a memory like a steel trap. Back in the scout days you once said Glen Mason would be a good get for UConn. GLEN MASON.


When something better than mediocre plops on your lap, you get confused and uncomfortable.

I am here to tell you, It's going to be OK. Buy another drink, buy her a drink. Just ease into it.

It's going to be OK.

 

[SubbaBub]

I can't tell you how much I hate this. I'm sorry but HCRE did not sign a "below market contract". He signed a "market" contract. And if he thought he was worth more, that gives him a free pass?

A G5 program with P5 aspirations paying $1M for their HC is under market. Just is. Go back a read what other schools were paying in the AAC. The bottom guys were making 1.5 and the guys we wanted to compete with were making $2-3M.

You can certainly crow that we got what we paid for but that wasn't the thinking at the time. Even Diaco got $1.5M.

 

[SubbaBub]

The thing I like the most about the Jim Mora hire is that in a very short period we have begun to change the narrative. In hiring him we did everything people said we could not do. He is a well known coach, a very visible, POSITIVE and outspoken coach with boundless energy. And that is what we needed. So stop being a sourpuss and get on the train.

I don’t care one Iota about “northeast recruiting ties". Northeast Football is a backwater. Could we have hired the Holy Cross guy or someone with experience at Merrimack or Albany? Sure. He could know the name of every assistant high school coach in the northeast and guess what? We would still get our clocks cleaned by coaches from the south, west and mid west. The reason is that the northeast is pretty much a dead end football wise. The really good northeast kids don't want to play for northeast coaches. They want to go to real football programs and play for real football coaches.

When you have the football chops, you don't need to know the landscape. You can hire some assistants to help with that, but the talent is going to find you.

Jim Mora is closer to that than we have ever had. Jim Mora is an NFL coach. He has had one stop. And he did fine at UCLA. Chip Kelly is there now and he isn't doing so hot and I rate him. That tells me that for all the advantages UCLA has, it has some pretty major drawbacks as well.

And yes. If Jim Mora failed as badly at UConn, you would want to rename the stadium.

BL, don't tell me that isn't true because you worshiped that LOSER Randy Edsall for accomplishing far less. Randy may have knew a few things, but he was abrasive, unlikeable and nobody good wanted to work for him. He left behind him the WORST PROGRAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

Jim Mora is the Anti-Randy. He knows football, people like and respect him, and he attracts talent. You saying he isn't the most accomplished HC we have had is puzzling in it's inaccuracy. You aimed for the Arctic Circle and hit Disney World instead.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do I expect the guy to get us to the Top 25? No. Can he get us to 4-8, 5-7, 6-6, 8-4? For sure.

Any monkey could come in here and do better than Randy! For starters, PICK THE BEST PLAYERS to start, instead of starting your guys.

His stubborness drove the program into Oblivion. Goodbye loser. Hello, positive, energetic leader.

In short. The media wants to talk to Mora. No one ever really wanted to hear from Edsall. That alone is a huge upgrade in terms of media coverage narratives.

 

[UConnJim]

Think about the measure of success. UConn has not won at least 4 football games in a season since 2015. Nobody is expecting Mora to make the CFP, but they are looking for him to lead UConn back to respectability which I don't think is a high bar. If Mora can bring in a competent coaching staff, with a couple of solid QBs, and a couple of key plug and play players here and there, he will be successful quickly.