UConn football’s instant turnaround under Jim Mora: How did Huskies get to bowl (Chris Vannini@The Athletic) | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UConn football’s instant turnaround under Jim Mora: How did Huskies get to bowl (Chris Vannini@The Athletic)

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DMTCYNAW said:
Coach Mora has heard a lot of stuff, surely. much more than this. And I have been very impressed by his ability to not talk about headline-making gossip, especially things that entail the reputation of another person who is not given a microphone to fairly respond (regardless of what we feel about them, which is 100000000% irrelevant). You were not there, I was not there, and neither was the reporter looking to sensationalize an ill-rationalized moment by JM at the microphone (IMO JM messed up a little bit by opening up the opportunity to start gossip). He (JM) is not perfect though, and I trust enough to believe that his intent has never been to further trash the name of his predecessor. Even if these things are true, they. don't. matter. moving. forward. Like not even a little bit. We are where we are, and it is what it is. onward.
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How would you been impressed if you never heard it? Wouldn't that be one of those if a tree falls in the Forrest does it make noise type things?

At the end of the day we've seen credible posters say they have inside knowledge of said predecessor feeling the school quit on him by going independent, so he quit on them. Only problem, was he quit on his players, who as we have seen this year had better talent than was ever apparent under the prior regime and had no intention of quitting themselves. Many cite the independent schedule and exciting opponents as reasons to come here.
 
I've seen quite a few posts stating that it was RE's decision to cancel the 2020 season. Was this documented anywhere? Can anyone provide any evidence of this? Asking as I heard an entirely different story (from a reasonably well placed source) and would like to go back and call him out if he lied.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
I've seen quite a few posts stating that it was RE's decision to cancel the 2020 season. Was this documented anywhere? Can anyone provide any evidence of this? Asking as I heard an entirely different story (from a reasonably well placed source) and would like to go back and call him out if he lied.
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Agreed. The practical logistics of when we cancelled seem to dictate this was an AD/practical decision. Mind you that more than a few of our opponents also canceled seasons (and then reneged later on), we didn't really have the ability to construct a schedule.
 
Speaking of The Athletic, I have a few 30 day passes to gift to folks that are interested. And yes, I know that NYT subscribers can read it, and yes, you can find articles on wayback or archive machine, however DM if you want.
 
Bongo Fury said:
The governor said they could play. It was up to UConn.
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Yes, but who could they play?

If I had to guess fully, both sides are probably correct, somewhat. The decision to cancel, initially, was probably the ADs/etc. The decision not to play ad-hoc, the way UMass did, was probably HCRE's.
 
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Bongo Fury said:
The governor said they could play. It was up to UConn.
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Yeah, but he also said the opponents for home games would have to quarantine for 2 weeks before the game and UConn would have to quarantine for 2 weeks after road games. The AD even explored being a fill in for other teams that had games cancelled. Then there was the problem of more than half the schedule being cancelled by the other teams either because they shut down ( at least 2 Big 10 teams) or went to a conference only schedule (ACC). I don’t remember who exactly was on the schedule but playing wasn’t really practical at least early in the season. At best it was a judgement call later. It certainly clear cut. If we had still been in the AAC, we could and likely would have played. As an Independent it was problematic at best. UMass played I think 3 games. One was made on like a Tuesday. And 1 other was cancelled at the last minute. It wasn’t that valuable for them and likely wouldn’t be for us.
 
I understand the circumstances with scheduling in 2020 but gone from your team for 8 months, come on. If Mora ever does leave this program to either go else or retire (praying he’s here for good). I am 1,000 percent certain Mora would tell his team in person, and put the program in position for the next HC.

What’s done is done. We have moved onto bigger and better things this is already behind us, let’s move on.
 
Honestly at the time I thought that doing what UMass did was pretty demeaning to the team. Dragged the team around to places without proper preparation to get pounded. I still feel that way. For what? To say you played a “season?”
 
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Connecticut's travel restrictions at that time were the strictest in the country. If we travelled for an away game, we would then have needed to quarantine upon return.

As an independent, all games were under contract and we could have been liable for costs of any individual game that was canceled because of our being unable (due to state restrictions) to play that game.

It wasn't coincidental that Notre Dame played a conference schedule that year.

I'm very confident that the story I was told, that cancelling the entire season was the only feasible answer financially, was correct.
 
I understand that the season had to be cancelled because of COVID rules and the difficulty in scheduling games. What I don't understand is why a head coach would not be 100% on campus to help his team during the disruptive season even if they are just working out in pods.
 
jostar1 said:
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This is very personal for him. Why? Is it because we won the football game or the fact that UConn Basketball (w+m) and Hockey (w+m) are nationally ranked and are trending up? Another fact, a new coach and staff took a one win team and is now in a bowl. What a butt hurt little dope. We should all ask him when BC’s bowl game is.
 
Stinger92860 said:
This is very personal for him. Why? Is it because we won the football game or the fact that UConn Basketball (w+m) and Hockey (w+m) are nationally ranked and are trending up? Another fact, a new coach and staff took a one win team and is now in a bowl. What a butt hurt little dope. We should all ask him when BC’s bowl game is.
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Better to just not engage him. We know how pathetically bad BC sports are. People have tweeted it to him all the time. It's better to just pretend he doesnt exist.
 
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freescooter said:
I have heard, and this sort of confirms for me, that Edsall felt like the school basically abandoned football when it left the AAC. Especially when they did it without getting his input. He just basically quit on them the way he felt they quit on him. I’m not defending him. Just reporting what I was told.

I love Mora though. The guy can absolutely coach. He had every excuse in the book tailor made:
1. Didn’t have “his guys.”
2. Lost his DC 2 weeks before the start of the season
3. Lost his starting qb in the first half of game .
4. True frosh backup qb.
5. Skill positions decimated by injuries
And on and on. He took none of them and just went out and won 6 games including a ranked team and our arch enemy.
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Mora telling DB during their weekend interview getaway that "I will never concede a football game".
 
Alum1620 said:
There is no defending him if that is true though as if he quit because of that you resign or retire and don’t to what he did which is sign another contract with said school and quit while under contract.
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didn't quit taking a pay check.
 
Stinger92860 said:
Dimauro is an A Z Z. What a jealous m f e r .

He is calling Mora a liar. He is calling the players liars. Watch this escalate.
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This should wonders for DiMauro getting access to anyone in the UConn athletic Dept.
Not that DiMauro wants access. He'd rather just fire from the hip with speculation than actually be a journalist who gets info from all relevant people on the story and then write an informative aticle.
 
A different perspective of the same situation. Whether he should have stayed in Storrs and guided repair of the damaged ship in person or left for FL and supervised from afar is an opinion. If there were any players on campus I feel that the HC should have been there. I don't know the dynamics of the situation so it is hard to judge. The article was from May of 2020 so the issues with the 2021 season were not in play at the time.

www.courant.com

Huskies at home: UConn coach Randy Edsall urging his football players to push each other

Each morning, UConn football coach Randy Edsall sends out a round of motivational texts to his players, and he is urging them to push each other, albeit digitally. “I’m telling them, yo…
www.courant.com www.courant.com
 
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UConnRock said:
A different perspective of the same situation. Whether he should have stayed in Storrs and guided repair of the damaged ship in person or left for FL and supervised from afar is an opinion. If there were any players on campus I feel that the HC should have been there. I don't know the dynamics of the situation so it is hard to judge. The article was from May of 2020 so the issues with the 2021 season were not in play at the time.

www.courant.com

Huskies at home: UConn coach Randy Edsall urging his football players to push each other

Each morning, UConn football coach Randy Edsall sends out a round of motivational texts to his players, and he is urging them to push each other, albeit digitally. “I’m telling them, yo…
www.courant.com www.courant.com
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Mora gave the players point of view so I believe that he may have been doing all of the required work with the athletic department and coaches to not be fired then but didn’t communicate with the players during that time period.
 
UConnRock said:
A different perspective of the same situation. Whether he should have stayed in Storrs and guided repair of the damaged ship in person or left for FL and supervised from afar is an opinion. If there were any players on campus I feel that the HC should have been there. I don't know the dynamics of the situation so it is hard to judge. The article was from May of 2020 so the issues with the 2021 season were not in play at the time.
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That's a good find. So none of this is a secret. Apprently nobody cared enough about the program to raise an eye at the time.
 
I dealt with di Mauro once ona tangentially related sports issue. He wrote a column about how somebody (a local sports figure)was being treated badly by a local agency. He never called to get the agency’s side. He didn’t do the research necessary to no the facts. He didn’t even actually talk to the guy allegedly being mistreated who was working with us, and was ticked at the article because he figured if the facts came out he would look bad. DiMauro Presented as facts things that were completely erroneous. It was just totally made up.
 
Waquoit said:
That's a good find. So none of this is a secret. Apprently nobody cared enough about the program to raise an eye at the time.
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The article is from May 2000. UConn closed the campus in mid March and players weren't expected on campus until July so Edsall being remote in May was expected and not a problem. It does become a problem IF after the 2000 season was cancelled in early August Edsall went to Florida for months when the players were on campus working out in pods.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
Connecticut's travel restrictions at that time were the strictest in the country. If we travelled for an away game, we would then have needed to quarantine upon return.

As an independent, all games were under contract and we could have been liable for costs of any individual game that was canceled because of our being unable (due to state restrictions) to play that game.

It wasn't coincidental that Notre Dame played a conference schedule that year.

I'm very confident that the story I was told, that cancelling the entire season was the only feasible answer financially, was correct.
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Restrictions were not as strict as Massachusetts. In general they were more strict in northeast states but CT wasn’t that bad overall.
 
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