Things we no know...

[Bonehead]

Edsall could recruit - case closed. Smallwood Davis foxx yadayadayada - that's just some still on the team. So many of you said PP was better and there was an uptick - TBD on his recruits. You want to not agree that's fine but I think the past talent speaks for itself. Moore branch Beatty etc...

PP could not coach edsall recruits but seems like Weist could once he got his feet underneath and changed the horrible schemes in mid season. That takes time (3 worst teams I know but I have no confidence that the eye brow would have ever motivated this team to put in effort and actually win a game this year). PP called out whitmer because of his height - Christ drew Bree's is 5 11 - then Casey comes off bench to light it up with pretty much all the same offensive talent on the team. We will see how PP's recruits turn out but there aren't that many!

The team wants TJ back - as head coach. He has motivated and made football fun for the kids again

What I don't know is moving forward - do you show him the door because you believe you have a better candidate?

What outcome will that have on players if that does happen?

Lastly - I don't know who the best candidate is moving forward to represent the University of Connecticut
- that's why Warde makes the big $ - but TJ has done us fans proud. I think we could all agree THTA THE TEAM could have easily packed it up and finished 0-12. A coordinator from a big school - does he have heading experience?? If not thtat doesn't impress me either.

TJ probably comes cheaper than all other candidates. Not saying that is the best option. If you believe he has created some mojo and want him to stay maybe an Ollie contract?
Narduzzi has a nice résumé and has local ties - interesting.

I would try to get Dan Mullen from Miss State if there is mutual interest - proven.

I know many coaches come from Mac schools but that is less than 50-50 if they work out long term.

Time to wait and see n

 

[Nostical]

Here's what I know. Whenever our new coach is announced we will see and hear a veritable yin and yang of reaction. USC is getting lots of twitter angst over their choice of Sarkasian--who just may become the next Pete Carroll. U of Washington is getting lots of kudos and love over Chris Peterson--who may become the next Dan Hawkins, Boise's former very successful HC and can't miss choice when hired by Colorado---and he flopped. The reality is, it's still a crapshoot. Let's get very excited over WM's selection and then hold on tight and hope for the best.

 

[noeynox]

Here's what I know. Whenever our new coach is announced we will see and hear a veritable yin and yang of reaction. USC is getting lots of twitter angst over their choice of Sarkasian--who just may become the next Pete Carroll. U of Washington is getting lots of kudos and love over Chris Peterson--who may become the next Dan Hawkins, Boise's former very successful HC and can't miss choice when hired by Colorado---and he flopped. The reality is, it's still a crapshoot. Let's get very excited over WM's selection and then hold on tight and hope for the best.

Starting a post with Edsall could recruit, well P could recruit too. See Lamelle, Bradley, Obi and o yeah, a QB named Cochran who would have NEVER come to UConn if Edsall was here. Edsall could coach better than P.

 

[huskypantz]

There are two components to recruiting - talent evaluation and the sales pitch. Edsall could evaluate talent - and he was incredibly good at it. Edsall was a horrible salesman in comparison to other BCS coaches. We won very few recruiting battles against BCS foes. Coach P seemed to be batting a higher percentage against our BCS competition. The higher you get in the CFB food chain, the less you need the former skill and the more you need the latter.

 

[UConnRock]

Edsall could recruit - case closed. Smallwood Davis foxx yadayadayada - that's just some still on the team. So many of you said PP was better and there was an uptick - TBD on his recruits. You want to not agree that's fine but I think the past talent speaks for itself. Moore branch Beatty etc...

PP could not coach edsall recruits but seems like Weist could once he got his feet underneath and changed the horrible schemes in mid season. That takes time (3 worst teams I know but I have no confidence that the eye brow would have ever motivated this team to put in effort and actually win a game this year). PP called out whitmer because of his height - Christ drew Bree's is 5 11 - then Casey comes off bench to light it up with pretty much all the same offensive talent on the team. We will see how PP's recruits turn out but there aren't that many!

The team wants TJ back - as head coach. He has motivated and made football fun for the kids again

What I don't know is moving forward - do you show him the door because you believe you have a better candidate?

What outcome will that have on players if that does happen?

Lastly - I don't know who the best candidate is moving forward to represent the University of Connecticut
- that's why Warde makes the big $ - but TJ has done us fans proud. I think we could all agree THTA THE TEAM could have easily packed it up and finished 0-12. A coordinator from a big school - does he have heading experience?? If not thtat doesn't impress me either.

TJ probably comes cheaper than all other candidates. Not saying that is the best option. If you believe he has created some mojo and want him to stay maybe an Ollie contract?
Narduzzi has a nice résumé and has local ties - interesting.

I would try to get Dan Mullen from Miss State if there is mutual interest - proven.

I know many coaches come from Mac schools but that is less than 50-50 if they work out long term.

Time to wait and see n

Mullen is not getting canned from Miss St. He got 2 OT wins against Ark and Ole Miss to become bowl eligible. The pressure is now off for a little while. He would have been a good option for UConn, but he is off the table.

 

[UConnDan97]

We will see how PP's recruits turn out but there aren't that many!

If we're all being fair, PP only gets credit for two full classes of recruits and three players from the 2011 class. So his classes are all freshmen and sophomores. Having said that, here is the list of PP players that played in the game against Memphis:

Mateas, Norris, COCHRAN!, Bradley, Campenni, Ashiru, Donohue, Melifonwu, Stewart, Jh. Williams, Green, Floyd, Clax, Samra, Lemelle, Myers, Parker, and Rugg.

If you want to put an asterisk on Samra and Rugg, that would be fair. They only saw scrub time in the fourth quarter. However, as Noeynox so kindly reminded you, our rising star of a QB would not be here if not for PP. Also, a notable missing player from that list due to injury is Shakim Phillips. I'm not trying to defend PP. But many of his underclassmen recruits have already become a large part of the two-deep. By my last calculation, the two-deep had about 50% of PP's guys, which is probably unheard of, since it means that you are littered with underclassmen in your two-deep.

PP was a horrible game-time coach, who couldn't motivate his players, couldn't figure out when to call a timeout, and couldn't make halftime adjustments, along with putting his faith and trust into a wreck of an OL/OC coach. But the idea that he didn't recruit quality players or that he couldn't teach something to them during their stay here isn't true. He can find them, and he can teach them, but he just couldn't manage them...

 

[gars44]

Edsall could recruit - case closed. Smallwood Davis foxx yadayadayada - that's just some still on the team.

Smallwood and Davis are gems. Many others, very good. But to say Edsall could recruit? I respectfully disagree. Every program is going to get some good players just by being there. Look, I like Edsall but when he left there was no one to quarterback this team. We started a walk on. Now, I don't know if RE would have started Michael Nebrich. Maybe. We also had no backfield except a 168 lb RSF scatback, LM. Incidently, we also had no wide receiving talent ready to step in. We had Ryan Griffin at TE. What else? Edsall got a few guys here and there but he left huge holes in year in year out recruiting needs. Swiss cheese approach to recruiting. He was a good guy, a good coach, but you can not single him out as a "good" recruiter.

 

[gars44]

If we're all being fair, PP only gets credit for two full classes of recruits and three players from the 2011 class. So his classes are all freshmen and sophomores. Having said that, here is the list of PP players that played in the game against Memphis:

Mateas, Norris, COCHRAN!, Bradley, Campenni, Ashiru, Donohue, Melifonwu, Stewart, Jh. Williams, Green, Floyd, Clax, Samra, Lemelle, Myers, Parker, and Rugg.

If you want to put an asterisk on Samra and Rugg, that would be fair. They only saw scrub time in the fourth quarter. However, as Noeynox so kindly reminded you, our rising star of a QB would not be here if not for PP. Also, a notable missing player from that list due to injury is Shakim Phillips. I'm not trying to defend PP. But many of his underclassmen recruits have already become a large part of the two-deep. By my last calculation, the two-deep had about 50% of PP's guys, which is probably unheard of, since it means that you are littered with underclassmen in your two-deep.

PP was a horrible game-time coach, who couldn't motivate his players, couldn't figure out when to call a timeout, and couldn't make halftime adjustments, along with putting his faith and trust into a wreck of an OL/OC coach. But the idea that he didn't recruit quality players or that he couldn't teach something to them during their stay here isn't true. He can find them, and he can teach them, but he just couldn't manage them...

Double like! All true. This could be part of the PP Wikipedia page.

 

[Stinger92860]

Looking back on 2012 we had 5 nfl players on defense and 2 on offense. What was bare was qb and rb. Randy did fine but he had gaps. Things are rarely black or white.

Ppgdl then proceeded to screw up the oline and call a horrible game. Bottom line, we should have won 7-8 games last year and 5-6 this year.

 

[FDNY99]

If we're all being fair, PP only gets credit for two full classes of recruits and three players from the 2011 class. So his classes are all freshmen and sophomores. Having said that, here is the list of PP players that played in the game against Memphis:

Mateas, Norris, COCHRAN!, Bradley, Campenni, Ashiru, Donohue, Melifonwu, Stewart, Jh. Williams, Green, Floyd, Clax, Samra, Lemelle, Myers, Parker, and Rugg.

If you want to put an asterisk on Samra and Rugg, that would be fair. They only saw scrub time in the fourth quarter. However, as Noeynox so kindly reminded you, our rising star of a QB would not be here if not for PP. Also, a notable missing player from that list due to injury is Shakim Phillips. I'm not trying to defend PP. But many of his underclassmen recruits have already become a large part of the two-deep. By my last calculation, the two-deep had about 50% of PP's guys, which is probably unheard of, since it means that you are littered with underclassmen in your two-deep.

PP was a horrible game-time coach, who couldn't motivate his players, couldn't figure out when to call a timeout, and couldn't make halftime adjustments, along with putting his faith and trust into a wreck of an OL/OC coach. But the idea that he didn't recruit quality players or that he couldn't teach something to them during their stay here isn't true. He can find them, and he can teach them, but he just couldn't manage them...

Isn't Dalton Gifford a PP recruit?

 

[TouchdownHusky]

There are two components to recruiting - talent evaluation and the sales pitch. Edsall could evaluate talent - and he was incredibly good at it. Edsall was a horrible salesman in comparison to other BCS coaches. We won very few recruiting battles against BCS foes. Coach P seemed to be batting a higher percentage against our BCS competition. The higher you get in the CFB food chain, the less you need the former skill and the more you need the latter.

This is definitely one of the best observations we are gonna read here on the BY with respect to coaching and UConn's search for a new HC. Got this assessment to a T.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

There is one additional factor that appears to have escaped those in this thread. A major part of this is teaching. RE and his staff were excellent at teaching many under-recruited kids. P & GDL merely wanted kids who were already fully developed (I'm not sure that even Alabama gets enough of these to win) and then game coach. Compounding the problem, they minimized the importance of strength/condition training and moved our best teacher (Foley) out of his role.

I've heard from quite a few people who would have seen enough over the past number of years that while many of P's recruits came in with much greater accolades, there has been little evidence in practices to demonstrate that they have been any better than the kids RE brought in over his last half dozen years at UConn (one went so far as to claim most did not measure up). This was attributed by all as more to the fact that there was far less teaching going on after RE left than there was under RE but the main point is that without providing proper instruction to these kids so they can improve, the rankings they are given coming out of high school does not matter at all.

 

[UConnDan97]

Isn't Dalton Gifford a PP recruit?

I had the same thought, but he committed in November of 2010, about two months before Edsall's departure...

 

[UConnDan97]

There is one additional factor that appears to have escaped those in this thread. A major part of this is teaching. RE and his staff were excellent at teaching many under-recruited kids. P & GDL merely wanted kids who were already fully developed (I'm not sure that even Alabama gets enough of these to win) and then game coach. Compounding the problem, they minimized the importance of strength/condition training and moved our best teacher (Foley) out of his role.

I've heard from quite a few people who would have seen enough over the past number of years that while many of P's recruits came in with much greater accolades, there has been little evidence in practices to demonstrate that they have been any better than the kids RE brought in over his last half dozen years at UConn (one went so far as to claim most did not measure up). This was attributed by all as more to the fact that there was far less teaching going on after RE left than there was under RE but the main point is that without providing proper instruction to these kids so they can improve, the rankings they are given coming out of high school does not matter at all.

I don't believe that. I don't believe it for one second!

Yawin Smallwood, although recruited by Edsall, never played a down for the man. He is now NFL quality to the point of leaving for the draft early. Sio Moore had his best years under PP, as did Trevardo and the corners Gratz and Blidi. Now some are going to argue that it was Don Brown's teachings and not PP's. Fine if you want to argue that. But then you would have to also argue that it was Orlando's teachings and not Edsall's.

Even Ryan Griffin admitted that he grew and learned a great deal under PPGDL. The bottom line is that they couldn't manage a game worth a damn, and didn't put people in formations to win games. They couldn't make halftime adjustments to save their lives (in fact, I can't think of even one example of a halftime adjustment that was positive in the 28 game stretch). And they botched every important clock management decision that was available to be botched. Sprinkle in the incessant wildcat that they refused to abandon, and you have the UConn legacy of PPGDL. It wasn't a lack of training up the players. It was just a lack of everything else...

 

[uconndogs]

I think Edsall paid absolutely no attention to the recruiting services, Conn. high school coaches or the media when he recruited. I think he focused on kids he felt he had a realistic chance to land and who measured up athletically. I think the Graham Stewart saga during his recruitment held no appeal to him and he simply moved on to better prospects - media, UF and recruiting stars be damned. He and his staff then did an excellent job of developing the talent they did land.

My sense is that P paid more attention to the hype around recruiting and trying to land his prototypes. I think he probably landed some talent. On the development side I have to believe it was a total and utter cluster duckk. The progress that this football team made in the second half of the season under TJ is remarkable. As an example, the OL is a completely different animal, and I can only assume that TJ said to Foley, please fix this mess and there was enough talent to do that in the middle of a season.

 

[noeynox]

Spot on Dan. By far the biggest issue for PPGDL was they couldn't ajdust to a counter punch. We came out last year against Temple, and the first two drives we looked like world beaters. Temple adjuster their defense to take away the middle of the field and PPGDL had nothing. Literally nothing. They also didn't utilize other players, like Delorenzo, when other players were ineffective. Think sticking with Johnny Mac, after already burning Nebrich's redshirt. Their idea of innovative was that god awful, momentum killing, wildcat. Kendall Reyes also credited PP with helping to teach him how to use his hands more.