Turn out the lights

[BugsyCT]

If SMU can come back from the death penalty and win their first game being ranked being down 30-9 at the beginning of the third quarter, there's hope. Might not be in some of our lifetimes.

Still can't believe UConn never beat SMU in football.

Texas school. Apples and oranges.

 

[whaler11]

funny how the usual arrogant blowhards get quiet on sundays after yet another embarrassing loss.

First week of october - the season is essentially over - five of the last 7 games are walkovers. only the having the worst team in the country on the schedule gives any reason to think they won’t be on a 2.5 season FBS losing streak.

 

[Adios]

Texas school. Apples and oranges.

Hey, Yale is in one of the warmer climates in it's conference. Maybe we can create a conference with UB and McGill, and other Canadian schools and dominate that conference!

 

[don356]

There's a reason the AAC didn't keep the auto-bid. If it's not P5, it's a mid-major. Where did everyone but us come from? Argue all you want about how the AAC compares to the OBE. Doesn't change our mid-major status.

That's an entirely different issue between the money conferences wanting more spots and picking the lowest hanging fruit in terms of being able to pry it away. The amount of p5 wins the AAC gets in the out of conference clearly supports it's not different football than the p5. Where the difference is in the top 5 or 6 teams who clearly are pulling the top, top talent each year in the new era. The top tier of the SEC, Osu and the Oklahoma's and Texas of the world are the Duke's and Kentuckys(bball analogy) of the football world. The rest of the p5 are not much different than the AAC. However, i'm not real sure that the current configuration with the last auto bid is really any harder than getting there before, as the guaranteed bid for the BEast was likely going away whatever happened with the league. The bigger issue is it will be very hard to play in that Nati game, but it was an awful steep climb even with the old configuration as well. It's not a fluke that the Smu's, Cincys and Ucf's of the world climb back into very good fball teams fairly quickly given they are getting really good players out of fertile recruiting regions even with repeated coaching changes and some down years. I've said it for many years because it's a fact, football rankings at the high school level are highly regionalized. I don't believe a west coast 4 is better than a midwest or texas 3, etc. etc. There's a lot of underrated talent in these big high school football regions and these schools are getting in on it. If you're going to compete, whether you're Uconn, Rutgers or Bc, you have to find a way to bring more really good players to your program from out of state. That Cincy/Ucf game Friday night was a perfect example. I was blown away Cincy played 23 kids in their defensive rotation, and someone said 28 overall throughout the night. That's crazy depth. You many not have the 5 stars, but when you've got fresh legs and minds out there, you'll win most of your games. Ucf has P5 talent, they've gone from 0 and 12 3 years ago to what they've done the past several years which has included a host of "p5" wins.

The bottom line is if you are really going to try and compete as a D1 program(even independent), you have have to get a coaching(staff) who can bring kids to Ct. Otherwise just go to a lower division as it's a waste of time and money. The road is not any easier as an independent.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

One guy told one of our group he can't give his extra ticket away for games.
People rather rake leaves , clean their garages or pretty much anything rather than go watch Uconn Football.
This is where we are at I'm afraid

 

[RSTuthill]

Interesting thoughts. I think that Randy's tapping into Canada is a natural outgrowth of what you just said, don356. The problem is quality and supply. Geographically UConn has an advantage in Canada.

I have two questions: is UConn a dominant recruiter in Canada, and if not should it be?

Recruiting FB players from Canada is very analogous to Cav recruiting eastern europeans in hockey. Of course, Cav has a much bigger supply available to him at much higher quality.

 

[DefCONNOne]

If they move down, lets drop it. After Michigan and big name schools at the Rent, do we really want to see Maine or Villanova? We can take the $$ and upgrade lacrosse and hire Duke's assistant coach (rumored that USF wants him to start Lacrosse). I don't want Nova as a regular season game in ANYTHING!

Connecticut citizens are bandwagon people, we support winners not losers...look at the Whalers for instance...

Oh, so now it's Duke's assistant coach? What happened to that Johns Hopkins guy you were touting?

 

[zls44]

I have two questions: is UConn a dominant recruiter in Canada, and if not should it be?

No and no. I will never understand the obsession with recruiting a dead area of the sport. Go make half an effort in NJ/FL like literally every other program does.

Stop trying to make Canada happen.

 

[huskymedic]

No and no. I will never understand the obsession with recruiting a dead area of the sport. Go make half an effort in NJ/FL like literally every other program does.

Stop trying to make Canada happen.

There is nothing wrong recruiting Eastern Canada or Europe - it just cant be a primary focus.

 

[zls44]

There is nothing wrong recruiting Eastern Canada - it just cant be a primary focus.

Opportunity cost.

Every day spent recruiting Halifax is a day not spent recruiting Bergen County. Send 2 people to NJ rather than 1 to Nova Scotia.

 

[storrsroars]

There is nothing wrong recruiting Eastern Canada or Europe - it just cant be a primary focus.

Hell, I'd start recruiting in Japan for sumo wrestlers and martial arts experts.

 

[RSTuthill]

Opportunity cost.

Every day spent recruiting Halifax is a day not spent recruiting Bergen County. Send 2 people to NJ rather than 1 to Nova Scotia.

Well, that is the conventional wisdom. But if that is not what they are doing, I won't criticize for trying to think outside the box.

 

[CTMike]

Hell, I'd start recruiting in Japan for sumo wrestlers and martial arts experts.

There’s a billion people in China we just have to find the few hidden gems.

 

[huskymedic]

Hell, I'd start recruiting in Japan for sumo wrestlers and martial arts experts.

BD tried the martial art expert... didn’t work out.

 

[uconndogs]

funny how the usual arrogant blowhards get quiet on sundays after yet another embarrassing loss.

First week of october - the season is essentially over - five of the last 7 games are walkovers. only the having the worst team in the country on the schedule gives any reason to think they won’t be on a 2.5 season FBS losing streak.

*TF? Do you have a problem?

 

[UCFBfan]

Wow! Not one positive, hey we can get there, blah blah blah comment and we're 5 pages in. That is the biggest sign that we are a dead program walking.....

So if we drop to FCS sooner rather than later or, do something I don't really think will happen in killing off the program, how much will the University still have to pay for the Rent? There's no way the state let's the school go scott free and leave that whale of a stadium empty. I believe this to be the biggest reason why football will continue on.

As for a new coach. Go to an Air Raid system. Turn this into a Big 12 type offense. Give zero care about defense (which is basically like our current D) and go all in on scoring and making it exciting. Hold a Madden tournament and the winner gets first shot at coaching the team. Spend the big bucks on recruiters and have the Madden winner the OC. Can't be any worse than what we got!

 

[CTMike]

Wow! Not one positive, hey we can get there, blah blah blah comment and we're 5 pages in. That is the biggest sign that we are a dead program walking.....

No, the problem isn’t the commentary or the negativity - those things are all very rational reactions to what a disaster we are. The problem is that we’ve stunk for a decade with absolutely no indication that the people in charge are capable of making things better.

Even if we had the money to hire properly (we don’t) why on earth would anyone let the people currently in charge make any of the decisions?

 

[LBird33]

One guy told one of our group he can't give his extra ticket away for games.
People rather rake leaves , clean their garages or pretty much anything rather than go watch Uconn Football.
This is where we are at I'm afraid

I had 6 free tickets for the Illinois game. Couldn’t find 6 people who would go. Very sad.

 

[UCFBfan]

No, the problem isn’t the commentary or the negativity - those things are all very rational reactions to what a disaster we are. The problem is that we’ve stunk for a decade with absolutely no indication that the people in charge are capable of making things better.

Even if we had the money to hire properly (we don’t) why on earth would anyone let the people currently in charge make any of the decisions?

Oh I am totally on the negative side! Didn't want to make my post sound the opposite. I was just surprised there was no poster trying to put lipstick on a pig within the first 5 pages.

 

[RSTuthill]

Oh I am totally on the negative side! Didn't want to make my post sound the opposite. I was just surprised there was no poster trying to put lipstick on a pig within the first 5 pages.

Oh, there is no way on the green earth to spin yesterday away. I do think that it makes sense to keep HCRE in place with perhaps a change in OC, but I really do not think that will happen. Not how it works in football.

 

[Pudge]

funny how the usual arrogant blowhards get quiet on sundays after yet another embarrassing loss.

First week of october - the season is essentially over - five of the last 7 games are walkovers. only the having the worst team in the country on the schedule gives any reason to think they won’t be on a 2.5 season FBS losing streak.

Not quiet. Sad. Wondering what the next move is. But ... WE don't blow smoke insulting folks - as the know-it-all R us - on economic apocalypse collapsing all Capital investment. Like an idiot.

The Big East is clearly the right move. Basketball will fire up the fan base and the State. It will be fairly easy to point out the better regional and national Brand ... versus playing in Tulsa or NO. MSG will be the Rose Bowl of our wishes.

Yesterday was a Big Loss - not unexpected.

 

[storrsroars]

This will probably come off as an overly optimistic, if not naive, post, but what the hell.

Was watching the Steelers game. Mason Rudolph was having a decent game, got knocked out cold. Devlin Hodges, a rookie who was all time FCS passing champ from Samford came on and acquitted himself very well. Drove for a TD and FG, could've won the game if not for Smith-Shuster's fumble.

Quality guys at skill positions exist. Not sure how you find them and convince them to come to UConn vs an FCS school, but there are some quality players out there. Someone like Hodges would be far ahead of any current UConn QB. He was being considered by some SEC schools, but likely wouldn't see the field much. Most offers came from Southern Conference schools.

Not saying UConn would've/should've/could've gotten this particular player, but I'd imagine this sort of thing happens often, and if there's one thing UConn can sell to skill players, it's immediate playing time, or at least the opportunity to seriously compete for starting jobs. I don't know if UConn has ears/feet on the ground in Deep South recruiting areas, but if not, why?

 

[ZooCougar]

Up until this point I cut Edsall some slack. He had two coordinators quit on him. He was paying one from his own paycheck.

But we have only been competitive in one game. We look bad against anyone. Even Wagner. We would look bad against Trinity or Wesleyan of we played them next.

That’s coaching. There are lots of teams that are short on talent, but often times you can tell they are well coached. That’s not the case here.

 

[Milo65]

This will probably come off as an overly optimistic, if not naive, post, but what the hell.

Was watching the Steelers game. Mason Rudolph was having a decent game, got knocked out cold. Devlin Hodges, a rookie who was all time FCS passing champ from Samford came on and acquitted himself very well. Drove for a TD and FG, could've won the game if not for Smith-Shuster's fumble.

Quality guys at skill positions exist. Not sure how you find them and convince them to come to UConn vs an FCS school, but there are some quality players out there. Someone like Hodges would be far ahead of any current UConn QB. He was being considered by some SEC schools, but likely wouldn't see the field much. Most offers came from Southern Conference schools.

Not saying UConn would've/should've/could've gotten this particular player, but I'd imagine this sort of thing happens often, and if there's one thing UConn can sell to skill players, it's immediate playing time, or at least the opportunity to seriously compete for starting jobs. I don't know if UConn has ears/feet on the ground in Deep South recruiting areas, but if not, why?

And Samford finished 4th in their conference last year. With that being said, a diamond in the rough can come out of FCS, or G5, but we are expecting Edsall to find 22 plus diamonds. We can’t even find one. When this thing started, it was competing in a BCS conference, that turned into trying to move the program to a P5. Now that both of these ships have sailed and our school is sitting in the Big East, what’s the point?

 

[Purple Stein]

Wow! Not one positive, hey we can get there, blah blah blah comment and we're 5 pages in. That is the biggest sign that we are a dead program walking.....

The biggest sign is we have no flipping schedule for next season, IMHO.