UConn Football Insider: Game Day Is Where It Matters, Practice Is Where It Starts (Des) | The Boneyard

UConn Football Insider: Game Day Is Where It Matters, Practice Is Where It Starts (Des)

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I'm curious, I was under the belief that every practice during the regular season would be open to the media, which was a shocker to the horde. If that were the case, while I don't expect an article from every practice, how about a tweet or two from those that could attend? "practice was good today", "practice sucked today, they need to step it up", etc. This is a borderline ridiculous request, of course, but if the practices are open, why not take advantage?

"Last but certainly not least at least in my eyes, Diaco is loosening up things for the media. It had gotten to the point where I wouldn't go to access periods because players were not made available to us. The low point for me came at the "Dog House" party which was in between my driving home from the women's basketball regional in Albany and flying to the Final Four. I showed up even though I was beyond exhausted after not getting home from Albany until 3 in the morning because I was told players were available but they were not. We ended up having six minutes of player access in the 14 practices before the spring game. Well, today came the shock of all shock when Diaco told the media that we can show up at any practice we want, stay as long as we want and have access to players (other than true freshmen). Assistant coaches will be available after Wednesday practices during the season. There will be restrictions on what we can take video of but this was a welcome change and one that should benefit the program in the long run." - Jim Fuller, June 8th runway rambling
 
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DCUconnfan said:
I'm curious, I was under the belief that every practice during the regular season would be open to the media, which was a shocker to the horde. If that were the case, while I don't expect an article from every practice, how about a tweet or two from those that could attend? "practice was good today", "practice sucked today, they need to step it up", etc. This is a borderline ridiculous request, of course, but if the practices are open, why not take advantage?

"Last but certainly not least at least in my eyes, Diaco is loosening up things for the media. It had gotten to the point where I wouldn't go to access periods because players were not made available to us. The low point for me came at the "Dog House" party which was in between my driving home from the women's basketball regional in Albany and flying to the Final Four. I showed up even though I was beyond exhausted after not getting home from Albany until 3 in the morning because I was told players were available but they were not. We ended up having six minutes of player access in the 14 practices before the spring game. Well, today came the shock of all shock when Diaco told the media that we can show up at any practice we want, stay as long as we want and have access to players (other than true freshmen). Assistant coaches will be available after Wednesday practices during the season. There will be restrictions on what we can take video of but this was a welcome change and one that should benefit the program in the long run." - Jim Fuller, June 8th runway rambling
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I believe that is what will begin to happen!
 
DCUconnfan said:
I'm curious, I was under the belief that every practice during the regular season would be open to the media, which was a shocker to the horde. If that were the case, while I don't expect an article from every practice, how about a tweet or two from those that could attend? "practice was good today", "practice sucked today, they need to step it up", etc. This is a borderline ridiculous request, of course, but if the practices are open, why not take advantage?
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You mean like this?

NHRJimFullerSep 09, 7:13pm via TweetDeck
Just got home from #UConn's football practice & would say last time I saw the offense look that sharp was the '13 season finale

They cannot tweet/tape/post during practices. Des and Jim do a pretty good job getting info out about practice happenings, often w/ a link to the story/blog developed on what they saw.
 
Do we really need a UConn grad to report on UConn sports (or other UConn news). I don't subscribe to the Courant (mostly as a result of the lack of news they provide, sports or otherwise), but I think being critical of a writer because he went to one of the top ranked communications schools in the country seems off base. Would a UConn grad report everything was great and we look ready to take on the Tide come national semis?
 
gioff23 said:
Do we really need a UConn grad to report on UConn sports (or other UConn news). I don't subscribe to the Courant (mostly as a result of the lack of news they provide, sports or otherwise), but I think being critical of a writer because he went to one of the top ranked communications schools in the country seems off base. Would a UConn grad report everything was great and we look ready to take on the Tide come national semis?
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Let's have a Giants fan cover the Patriots. Yes, it actually makes a difference. Because a UConn grad is more likely to actually care for the school and know to market the school the best he/she can.
 
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Why stop there, why not require U Prez, AD, all coaches, all announcers, all donors, all everything tangentially related to the school be held down by grads. Do you really believe every team's beat writer is a fan of the team he/she is covering?

A writer's job is different than that of a cheerleader or a marketer. Perhaps the reason the Courant does not waste a lot of space on UCFB is that their readership does not care. If you don't like the quantity or quality of what is written, well that's different. But taking a shot at a guy because he went to a certain school at a time UConn was playing 1AA FB is odd, at best.
 
Writers are low paid. Helps to have actual passion in what you write about. Simple. The other jobs you listed are far better paying. Now if you want me to give an example of an non-alum AD who lacked passion for the school, hello Jeff Hathaway.
 
Butch said:
Why do we have a Syracuse grad writing for us?
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Butch said:
If the Courant was smart, they'd hire UConn grads to cover UConn sports.
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Butch said:
Writers are low paid. Helps to have actual passion in what you write about. Simple. The other jobs you listed are far better paying. Now if you want me to give an example of an non-alum AD who lacked passion for the school, hello Jeff Hathaway.
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#2.jpg
 
Butch said:
Writers are low paid. Helps to have actual passion in what you write about. Simple. The other jobs you listed are far better paying. Now if you want me to give an example of an non-alum AD who lacked passion for the school, hello Jeff Hathaway.
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Please just stop.
 
Butch said:
Why do we have a Syracuse grad writing for us?
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It could be worse. We could still have:

Shawn Courchesne

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Savor this one because it's probably not a stretch to say the UConn football team likely doesn't win another game until 2016.

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
After going 2-10 in 2014 most people have been saying the only direction UConn football could go was up. Maybe that was a bit optimistic.
https://twitter.com/ShawnCourchesne
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Have to figure chances are pretty good tonight's 20-15 win over Villanova was the last victory for Bob Diaco as the UConn football coach.
https://twitter.com/ShawnCourchesne
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Aug 30
45,000 people for a Little League baseball game. That's like a whole season of attendance for UConn football at Rentschler Field.

Yup. There's your former Courant UConn football beat writer. Someone who apparently hates UConn football with a passion and wishes it ill will.



 
It'd be nice if our beat writers could be UConn homers and shills for the program. But that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
 
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Stairmaster said:
It'd be nice if our beat writers could be UConn homers and shills for the program. But that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
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It makes for better stories if the beat writers are not fans. It makes their writing far more objective. If you want an example of what I mean go back to 2011-2013. Dez was all up Pasqualoni's backside because he once coached for Syracuse, Dez's own alma mater. His skin got proportionally thinner as the calls for Pasqualoni's job got louder. It absolutely affected Dez's objectivity.

Syracuse has a world renowned journalism program. UConn's is not as well know.
 
Back to the article.

Boy is this a refreshing change for what manifested itself on the field last year.

"...something tweaked coach Bob Diaco, who bellowed, "If you don't know this, you won't play, it's that simple."

How much better this than the Barney, the Purple Dinosaur BS from 2014? Just the fact that practices are open tells me that the players are up to speed enough that they won't be embarrassed in practice. They won't be distracted by the fear of a beat writer publishing their litany of mistakes.

Just flat out refreshing.
 
ASweet3781 said:
It could be worse. We could still have:

Shawn Courchesne

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Savor this one because it's probably not a stretch to say the UConn football team likely doesn't win another game until 2016.

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
After going 2-10 in 2014 most people have been saying the only direction UConn football could go was up. Maybe that was a bit optimistic.
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Have to figure chances are pretty good tonight's 20-15 win over Villanova was the last victory for Bob Diaco as the UConn football coach.
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Aug 30
45,000 people for a Little League baseball game. That's like a whole season of attendance for UConn football at Rentschler Field.

Yup. There's your former Courant UConn football beat writer. Someone who apparently hates UConn football with a passion and wishes it ill will.
Expand ...

I thought he was a when he covered UConn football. Didn't think he could become an even bigger . I see he moved ahead in his career since "leaving" the Courant. :rolleyes:
 
I remember his trying to integrate a supercross motorcycle theme into one of his football stories at one point. Really odd how he got the UConn football assignment.
 
.-.
Butch said:
Just voicing an opinion. Most of our writers suck.
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It's the way Journalism is going. Most of "our" writers sucking is more a function of the Law of Proportions, than The Courant hiring sub-par writers compared to the rest of the country.

Bloggers are catching up in quality to the formal journalist and Twitter is cutting into their scoop-getting ability. On top of that, technology exposes the consumer to more writers and information from around the country. The 24/7 new cycle has become 60 seconds/60 minutes.
 
ASweet3781 said:
It could be worse. We could still have:

Shawn Courchesne

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Savor this one because it's probably not a stretch to say the UConn football team likely doesn't win another game until 2016.

Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
After going 2-10 in 2014 most people have been saying the only direction UConn football could go was up. Maybe that was a bit optimistic.
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Sep 3
Have to figure chances are pretty good tonight's 20-15 win over Villanova was the last victory for Bob Diaco as the UConn football coach.
Shawn Courchesne ‏@ShawnCourchesne Aug 30
45,000 people for a Little League baseball game. That's like a whole season of attendance for UConn football at Rentschler Field.

Yup. There's your former Courant UConn football beat writer. Someone who apparently hates UConn football with a passion and wishes it ill will.
Expand ...
Wow. Did Diaco run over his dog or something? This sounds pretty personal.
 
sportsart said:
I thought he was a when he covered UConn football. Didn't think he could become an even bigger . I see he moved ahead in his career since "leaving" the Courant. :rolleyes:
Expand ...

He wanted nothing to do with writing about UCONN Football. Was more interested in covering dirt track racing in Stafford Springs. What a bitter dude he is.
 
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