Time to Think Big

[Carl Spackler]

The only thing you are right about is that you are one of the people I had in mind in terms of the endless factually incorrect optimism. You can't let someone take something away from you? Seriously? Can you root for the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the pennant this year? Do you know anyone who lost a loved one to a drunk driver? Things are taken away from us all the time. For me, our football program, that played with heart and toughness the vast majority of the time, is long, long gone. And no amount of empty words you throw forth as if you know so much more than anyone else here can change that.

I will be in my seat Saturday night, and I will still be the first person up in Section 241 on virtually every defensive third down. But do I spend all week between games thinking of UConn football? Will I care Saturday night about every play the way I lived and died on every play four years ago in Ann Arbor. No, I won't. Bully for you if you're able to.

WTF? Do we have a football program or not? You weep for the past. I look to the future.

And don't ever presume to think what I might know about life and death.

 

[businesslawyer]

WTF?

And don't ever presume to think what I might know about life and death.

Let me take a step back. I did not mean to make this personal in any way, and I absolutely don't pretend to know about your situation or wish you anything other than peace and comfort for any loss you've suffered in your life.

But some people can watch relatives whose lives become trainwrecks and love them the same way, and others have to take an emotional step back for their own protection and mental health. As to the UConn football program, I have done the latter. I can watch players and coaches who have a plan but aren't good enough lose. But please don't presume to tell me I have to be emotionally attached to what has been a clear trainwreck from the moment the ball was put in the air on third and long in Nashville, at which moment it became clear that P cared not a damn about what UConn football was or how it had gotten to where it had, but only about rebuilding it in his image. Which, by the way, had already failed in a place that (at the time P was there) had many built in advantages over us.

 

[Jimdish255]

Classic case of two people who are both beyond smart enough to grasp the reality of the situation but one who chooses to delude himself every week as gameday approaches hoping for the players to somehow turn things around with one herculean effort. And even if they do with that effort, with the bounce of the ball and the blown call, what are we left with going forward? A lifeline for the status quo and the rationalization for every gameday to be another groundhog day. Just having a hard time buying into the Knute Rockne routine when our history tells us preparation trumps rhetorical skills.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Let me take a step back. I did not mean to make this personal in any way, and I absolutely don't pretend to know about your situation or wish you anything other than peace and comfort for any loss you've suffered in your life.

But some people can watch relatives whose lives become trainwrecks and love them the same way, and others have to take an emotional step back for their own protection and mental health. As to the UConn football program, I have done the latter. I can watch players and coaches who have a plan but aren't good enough lose. But please don't presume to tell me I have to be emotionally attached to what has been a clear trainwreck from the moment the ball was put in the air on third and long in Nashville, at which moment it became clear that P cared not a damn about what UConn football was or how it had gotten to where it had, but only about rebuilding it in his image. Which, by the way, had already failed in a place that (at the time P was there) had many built in advantages over us.

Every human being is different, and handles things differently. I believe you honor those that have died, by living your life with every bit of enthusiasm and passion that you have for whatever it is you do. When someone is gone, they aren't coming back, and grieving is a necessary thing and absolutely a healthy thing, and everyone does it differently, but grieving? You cannot let it overcome you - or it can be as detrimental as NOT grieving.

Forgive me now, for getting a little presumptious. You seem to be grieving the loss of the UCONN football program you loved. I get it. My point to you, now, is that there is a time for grieving, and there is a time when you need to be able to move on from grief and function. We are only talking about football here, not old age, not disease, not warfare, not drunk (or doubly now texting) driving, or murder, but whatever. We all take UCONN football serious.

We are on the eve of the biggest home football game in the 117 (?) Butch? 117 years I think, of history of UCONN football. Maybe just ask yourself if there would be a better time to grieve the loss of the program that ended at the Fiesta Bowl in 1 January 2011. If there isn't a better time - for you - then that's who you are, and there is nothing wrong with that. I should have respected that more, and I apologize.

Although, I do bet that if we were sitting face to face, I could find a way to get you fired up again for UCONN football in a way that is very different than you portray yourself now, going through motions in the stadium, but I'm not, and I won't be, so I won't try.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Anyone who thinks exciting offensive football requires a spread option air raid something or other just doesn't understand the joys of smash mouth football.

Manti Te'o being two steps too slow is a delicious bonus.

Relying on old fashion "smash mouth football" is what got UConn into this mess in the first place. Modern college football is shootout football (think Alabama v Texas AM or Georgia v South Carolina). High speed offenses not UFC/Sumo wrestling matches. Top notch athletes (the kind UConn will need to recruit) want excitement and notoriety. The Packer's of the 1960's ain't walking through the door anytime soon.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Hell has frozen over. It absolutely has. I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with both Biz and FairfieldFan (don't think that's ever happened). This program has been terribly diminished under the PP reign.
Four years ago when UConn went out to Michigan, I truly believed that anything was possible and that they had a good shot at winning (and maybe without that stupid fumble ????). Even in the Fiesta Bowl, I believed UConn had a shot . . . despite their impotent offense. But now, UConn has been shafted, deliberately (ESPN is that you?) left to die on the side of the road, and frozen out of the 5 conferences that will really constitute college football.

They absolutely didn't deserve that. They had jumped through all the necessary hoops and had given a great account of themselves in less than 10 years. I've now reached the point where I am rapidly losing interest in college football altogether (something I never would have guessed). I just don't want to go back to rooting for a Penn State or a Florida or a Michigan because my home state never got in the game at that level. Finally, though, my good old State U was up and running . . . . and then we got f---ed and f---ed ourselves with the "over the hill" gang.

So I get it. Hard to get behind this ghost of a program. Besides if we want to root for a program that was once somebody on the big time college landscape - and is now a nobody - we've got Yale. And if you're willing to travel a bit further, we've got Army.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Seriously? You can't let somebody 'take' something like this from you, unless you let them. I won't let them. They cannot erase what was done in the past, and from now, until the day that they succeed or leave, it should be in their faces constantly. THe bowl victories. The conference titles. Kicking the shiete out of Syracuse.

I don't see the behavior that you describe as adamantly from the people there, but I do see it in the media, and that is annoying. I've been clear in my assessment. This is year 3. This is without a doubt, Paul Pasqualoni's program now.

Carl, I did not say that they took something from me, I said it felt like they were trying to. Someone can try to steal from and fail at it. If they failed at it because you prevented it does this mean you are not allowed to be angry with them for trying to steal from you?

Anyone who was reasonably involved as a fan of the football program during the last few years of RE's tenure knows everything we accomplished and how great many of those accomplishments felt. Unfortunately this is a very small part of the college football universe and the bulk of this universe not only does not fully recognize what we did accomplish, their belief (that it wasn't as it appeared and didn't warrant any accolades) is continually being reinforced by the inept geezers who currently are the face and voice of the program.

They won't steal any memories from me but what they are doing to the program is far worse than merely guiding us through a few bad seasons.

 

[businesslawyer]

Relying on old fashion "smash mouth football" is what got UConn into this mess in the first place. Modern college football is shootout football (think Alabama v Texas AM or Georgia v South Carolina). High speed offenses not UFC/Sumo wrestling matches. Top notch athletes (the kind UConn will need to recruit) want excitement and notoriety. The Packer's of the 1960's ain't walking through the door anytime soon.

LMFAO. With all due respect, maybe the stupidest post ever. So winning smash mouth football under FHCRE is responsible for the mess we are in under P who gave it up without replacing it with anything?

 

[junglehusky]

LMFAO. With all due respect, maybe the stupidest post ever. So winning smash mouth football under FHCRE is responsible for the mess we are in under P who gave it up without replacing it with anything?

And then he goes on to try to say he was on board back when UConn played Oklahoma, and at Michigan... somehow I doubt TDH's weekly rant on throwthrowthrow is a recent phenomenon, or that he didn't have the same rant back when we were running the ball with Todman, Dixon, Brown with success.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

LMFAO. With all due respect, maybe the stupidest post ever. So winning smash mouth football under FHCRE is responsible for the mess we are in under P who gave it up without replacing it with anything?

That was quite amusing. I also loved the part about Alabama being a team that relies on shootouts (due to one game this year while they are rebuilding from multiple national championships). Evidently Alabama hasn't believed in smash mouth football recently.