UConn football coach Jim Mora on what it will take for his vision of the program to become a reality…

[RC111]

He is an extremly smart guy and if we can not hold on to him the program is going to regress quickly.

I totally agree. I hate to say it, but for the past few years I've enjoyed tailgating and keeping the tradition of going more than actually watching the football. I love what he's done, and I'm honestly not against throwing some more dollars his way. I just think a lot of people here want and expect a blank check in order to get us into a major conference, and I think that's unrealistic and a bit unfair to the students who are already paying a huge chunk of the athletic budget deficit.

 

[RC111]

When they jack up ticket prices and seat donations next season, I don't want to hear the whining here that I heard on the BB board. We all agree the program needs more cash. Do your part or zip it.

Exactly. That's kind of my point as well. It's not much, but I donate something to the school each year, though I usually choose academic departments since I consider my tickets support for the athletic.

 

[Dizzy21]

These two twitter posts have been from "reporters" who give some little out of context snipit and don't show the rest, write anything about it or the rest of the situation, report anywhere about it, nor give any context or any clue as to what is going on? Seems like a pretty important topic to just be like hey screw it and not have anything else to go along with it if you are a news professional.

 

[huskymedic]

These two twitter posts have been from "reporters" who give some little out of context snipit and don't show the rest, write anything about it or the rest of the situation, report anywhere about it, nor give any context or any clue as to what is going on? Seems like a pretty important topic to just be like hey screw it and not have anything else to go along with it if you are a news professional.

Weekly in-person media availability tomorrow morning…

Can’t imagine there won’t be more followup/color/questions then.

 

[ZooCougar]

Mora doesn’t have an agent.

I’d be shocked if he didn’t have one by now.

 

[RedStickHusky]

We can be thrilled at the trajectory. Doesn't mean anyone thinks we've reached an end state.

 

[freescooter]

Maybe, maybe not. The puppetry program probably doesn’t make money, but it is good for the university and the kids - as are a bunch of other programs/majors/services. Leadership decides what is worthy of investment and how it gets paid for. I think it comes down to this - you can lose money and you can have a losing football program, but you can’t have both. Not forever. I think a winning record at indy football will be subsidized for awhile, but will never be considered “winning”. Mora’s just getting a head start on the push and can’t do it without full support from top to bottom. In the meantime, it has restarted the conversation of big time football when last year we were in nowheresville. This stuff has to be enjoyed at some point or why bother?

It is a university, not a for profit technical school. The puupetry program is world famous. You read about these schools that basically eliminate whole academic departments. They can run a business school with adjuncts.

I heard Amore I think last night just before Cav’s show talking about this. I happened to flip it on in the car so missed the intro, but he was saying Mora was talking about building the program in a more general way, particularly in marketing, presence building the fan base. This sort of fits the ACC narrative I think. Winning football that also draws solid attendance and media following is a much more attractive P5 member than one with only 1 of those things.

 

[freescooter]

This was basically the point I was trying to get at before someone started trolling me and asking me to give a dollar amount for what the budget should be, as if there is a magic number for how much one can live beyond one's means.

We've been in the red for a while, and another year won't ruin enrollment or kill any programs overnight, but at some point the structural problems you've mentioned will need to be addressed.

I mean, you do know that UConn’s annual budget is over $3 billion right? $1.7 billion for Storrs and regional campuses and $1.6 for the medical campus. The athletic department budget is under $100 million. people sometimes lose sight of the big picture. And it is fun to write about how the AD loses money. But the idea that athletics is a moneymaker is relatively new. And we have some “structural” problems too. For example, we don’t own two major facilities. Rentschler Field and the XL. So we pay rent to use those for football, basketball and hockey. Essentially UConn athletics subsidizes the XL Center/Downtown Hartford to the tune of $1.2 millionper year roughly ($40,500 per basketball game x 10 each mens and womens plus 20,500/hockey game x 20 games). Plus 20,000/game in expenses. To some extent it is an accounting thing. It isn’t like Gampel is free but it isn’t a direct cost or if you do pay it is to yourself. Kind of like paying tuition for scholarship players. But it makes the numbers look worse without crediting the benefit to Hartford of having 40 events downtown. Gonna take lots of monster truck rallies to replace that.

 

[Rdkid]

It is a university, not a for profit technical school. The puupetry program is world famous. You read about these schools that basically eliminate whole academic departments. They can run a business school with adjuncts.

I heard Amore I think last night just before Cav’s show talking about this. I happened to flip it on in the car so missed the intro, but he was saying Mora was talking about building the program in a more general way, particularly in marketing, presence building the fan base. This sort of fits the ACC narrative I think. Winning football that also draws solid attendance and media following is a much more attractive P5 member than one with only 1 of those things.

I really believe one of the bigger shortcomings in the athletic department is broadcasting, marketing and fundraising. Nice, capable people currently, not enough of them. That has to change. We are crawling while the majors are sprinting. Maybe the new app network can begin to help close the gap. More money for SIDs, fundraising, marketing, sales is definitely needed. Soccer is a perfect example - barely any coverage or hype around a historically great program that needs a shot in the arm. We are undershooting even in our most popular/successful programs. Mora likely sees this as an outsider - glad he is pointing it out.

 

[huskymedic]

Tuesday press availability:

 

[Dizzy21]

Mora was just asked about his comments. He said so far the support has been great and genuinely seemed to be excited about that. He said you have to think of the future though and always look to push and grow that. Way different impression than the little clips. Then he went into the NIL etc and how that will make them able to compete. He said AD Dave is figuring the best way to get that done and compete without just throwing cash out the window. Talked about keeping the coaching staff and not getting them poached and how he and AD Dave want to be proactive before people offer them and that Benedict has been great about that.

 

[Ajs120102]

This press conference should put any negativity to bed. He seems as thrilled as ever. Big reason why we should get context before clips like that are posted.

 

[Dizzy21]

This press conference should put any negativity to bed. He seems as thrilled as ever. Big reason why we should get context before clips like that are posted.

Pretty absurd the difference in impression between those little clips and what he said. Again, it is really odd that people reporting on UConn would put those clips out knowing how they would come across with no context, I guess that is the world nowadays.

 

[BlueandOG]

I totally agree. I hate to say it, but for the past few years I've enjoyed tailgating and keeping the tradition of going more than actually watching the football. I love what he's done, and I'm honestly not against throwing some more dollars his way. I just think a lot of people here want and expect a blank check in order to get us into a major conference, and I think that's unrealistic and a bit unfair to the students who are already paying a huge chunk of the athletic budget deficit.

I am 100% on board with a blank check for the football program and am willing to donate to support it. Let's go!

 

[LBird33]

Pretty absurd the difference in impression between those little clips and what he said. Again, it is really odd that people reporting on UConn would put those clips out knowing how they would come across with no context, I guess that is the world nowadays.

Our press core isn’t what it once was due to budget cuts at media venues. What’s left is those hunting for clicks

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Pretty absurd the difference in impression between those little clips and what he said. Again, it is really odd that people reporting on UConn would put those clips out knowing how they would come across with no context, I guess that is the world nowadays.

context was always there, for those not hard of thinking. i don't mean u.
u obviously get it.
he said and did the exact same thing almost the minute he started doing the same job at ucla.
it worked as some guy dropped 75mil on the program, and jim kicked in cash as well.
apparently, pre-mora, ucla had a practice field goalpost made out of pvc pipe painted yellow.

 

[Get a Job]

I am 100% on board with a blank check for the football program and am willing to donate to support it. Let's go!

I hope you're a billionaire!

 

[RedStickHusky]

I guess it's a good thing that "Fly off the handle yard" isn't really catchy enough to be a name.

 

[Scrutineer]

This is somewhat concerning..

Realistic? Yes.

Concerning? Only if we aren't committed to winning in today's NIL, Power 5, environment.

Excessive? Nothing he mentioned was out of the ordinary in today's world. It sounded as if he's talking about salaries for the Assistants, facility updating and modernization, social media assets to reach recruits, fans, etc.

 

[Scrutineer]

We were willing to give the disaster in cranberry pants a ridiculous contract because he finished 6-7. There has to be a way to make the economics work for Mora.

But red pants promised we'd be competing for NC's and JM hasn't made that promise yet...........

 

[SubbaBub]

For the purpose of full disclosure:

I have a hunch that I'll hit Powerball on the next drawing (if only one winner, the lump sum payout after taxes will be close to half a billion dollars).

If I do, anything Mora believes he needs to compete for a national title will be covered.

And will will have a men's lacrosse program (and restore many programs that were dropped over the past couple of decades).

Your net would fund Texas for about 4 years.

 

[RC111]

Essentially UConn athletics subsidizes the XL Center/Downtown Hartford to the tune of $1.2 millionper year roughly ($40,500 per basketball game x 10 each mens and womens plus 20,500/hockey game x 20 games). Plus 20,000/game in expenses. To some extent it is an accounting thing.

Some good points here.

 

[Ha Who]

The state has gone from deficit to surplus. The timing of Mora’s message is spot on and yes I believe the AD has blessed this. Spend the money and take a shot at getting into a p5 in the next 5/10 years.

Not to bring politics into the discussion but the state does not have a real surplus. In fact, they are projecting future deficits

 

[huskymedic]

Mora was just asked about his comments. He said so far the support has been great and genuinely seemed to be excited about that. He said you have to think of the future though and always look to push and grow that. Way different impression than the little clips. Then he went into the NIL etc and how that will make them able to compete. He said AD Dave is figuring the best way to get that done and compete without just throwing cash out the window. Talked about keeping the coaching staff and not getting them poached and how he and AD Dave want to be proactive before people offer them and that Benedict has been great about that.

The comments referenced by @Dizzy21 above (follow-up question to Sunday Zoom comment) begin @ 38:50 and run through 41:55.

 

[Kolumbo]

My takeaway. To go from where UCONN was to where it wants to be, we can't settle for incremental improvement. We need transformational change. That's the type of commitment Coach Mora wants. Let's do it.