UConn Names Warde Manuel AD

[Waquoit]

I love the hire. He is a football guy, with a football background from one of the most tradition-rich programs in the country. He sharpened his skills in a tough environment bringing more success and recognition to the Buffalo program than anyone could have expected.

Good points. I think that's just what we were looking for.

 

[mattp]

i think many of you are overlooking that he's on the NCAA Committee for Academic PErformance or whatever it's called. it should help us on the academic side of things, which had been becoming a little bit of a problem. maybe he'll figure how to get us in the 2013 NCAA tournament. as far as scheduling, we pretty much all hated our 4 game home and home scheduling of Buffalo, and while it might be a black mark on JH for setting it up, Manuel did a good job from his end in getting it done. Buffalo's improved a lot over the last decade. i'm pretty excited for this hire. plus he looks friendly

 

[Chuck Tilson]

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/genrel/021212aad.html

Well I like the fact he Played football at Michigan! Hathaway couldn't play darts! Didn't fit AD mould in my small opinion.

 

[HuskyOfLeisure]

More importantly, will he use any of the information he reads on the Boneyard to make institutional decisions?!?!

 

[TexanMark]

He was an associate AD at Michigan and got his own dep't. at Buffalo, one of the worst in FBS. In three years he took their overall budget from $11 million to $25 million, and was on the 40 under 40 list, which is huge. He's on a ton of important NCAA committees. I'll trust their judgement.

Shaking head yes...looks to be a great hire.

 

[Buffalofan425]

I'm a student at the University at Buffalo and I would like to address some things.

First of all, we are one of the youngest D1 programs in the nation, let alone D1 FBS. Second of all, we have been to the NIT (someone before said we haven't).

UB is an exceptionally good academic school. All of our programs are ranked within the top 10% in the nation. It's a flagship school of NY's system. We have 30,000 kids...20,000 of which are undergrad, and 10,000 of which are grad. I'm from Massachusetts so I am very familiar with UConn. We are ranked 111th in the nation overall by USNWR.

Now onto athletics. We have had a decent athletics program at UB for over 110 years (started in 1890's...our school was established in 1846). We reinstated our athletics program in the 1980's...(we were D3) and then we instantly became D1 in the 90's. We became a member of the MAC in '99. Have we had a successful football team? Probably not. Our budget every year used to be $4.5 million. What is UConn's right now? 75 million? 50 million? Right now our budget is $25 million. Probably less than half that as yours. Is that UB's fault? I don't think so. NY state cuts our budget so much that we get squished. Warde was the guy that made things happen at UB. He increased our budget 5x over 6 years.

If you think that Buffalo is not big time right now, have another look at the pre-warde era. Today we were on ESPN 3 times. 7 years ago, we wouldn't even be mentioned in months.

 

[TRest]

I'm a student at the University at Buffalo and I would like to address some things.

First of all, we are one of the youngest D1 programs in the nation, let alone D1 FBS. Second of all, we have been to the NIT (someone before said we haven't).

UB is an exceptionally good academic school. All of our programs are ranked within the top 10% in the nation. It's a flagship school of NY's system. We have 30,000 kids...20,000 of which are undergrad, and 10,000 of which are grad. I'm from Massachusetts so I am very familiar with UConn. We are ranked 111th in the nation overall by USNWR.

Now onto athletics. We have had a decent athletics program at UB for over 110 years (started in 1890's...our school was established in 1846). We reinstated our athletics program in the 1980's...(we were D3) and then we instantly became D1 in the 90's. We became a member of the MAC in '99. Have we had a successful football team? Probably not. Our budget every year used to be $4.5 million. What is UConn's right now? 75 million? 50 million? Right now our budget is $25 million. Probably less than half that as yours. Is that UB's fault? I don't think so. NY state cuts our budget so much that we get squished. Warde was the guy that made things happen at UB. He increased our budget 5x over 6 years.

If you think that Buffalo is not big time right now, have another look at the pre-warde era. Today we were on ESPN 3 times. 7 years ago, we wouldn't even be mentioned in months.

A: I thought UB would be ranked a lot higher than 111 by USNWR.

B: Was the basketball facility a renovation of existing space, or a new project and how much did it cost? How much was paid by private funds vs. state dollars?

 

[Buffalofan425]

Ok good, because many seem to dismiss UB's academic accolades.

Warde had to fight for private donors a lot. I believe the practice facility came out of private donation $$.

It should also be noted that our arena (Alumni Arena) had a $6.2 million upgrade this past fall and winter. We got a whole new sound system, lighting system, video production suite, and a HUGE HD videoboard. It was funded by many organizations...but I believe the main funds we got it from were private.

 

[Buffalofan425]

Also one more thing. Warde is a BIG guy. I had the honours to take his wife's coat last weekend at an American Heart Association Ball in Buffalo. Warde stands at what it seems to be 7 feet tall.


Fun fact: his wife's name is inscribed in that very expensive coat of hers'.

 

[FDNY99]

Thanks Upstater

Manuel's considered a great guy and my dealings with the AD office are mostly through basketball. Solid students, some have some real talent and may do it for a living. I have one of those right now. Always comes to class except for games (and really, it's hard to overestimate how much time they miss because of games; it's incredibly difficult).

What I like about the way the AD is run that diverges from a, let's say, SEC mentality? They allow their students to venture into the university and take classes/majors that suit them. This is not par for the course at many places.

From reading the comments here, the fundraising stuff and the AAU is overblown. Buffalo is hanging by a thread when it comes to the AAU, and UB does not fundraise well. Jumping from $11 million to a $25 million budget is practically due to increased subsidies from the university in a time of cuts. Maybe that's the only criticism of Manuel, he was mildly tone deaf in speaking of the budget increase. It's part of his job to defend his turf, and that's appreciated. He has to do it. But, better to keep it short and sweet. It's a bit difficult to defend openly.

That being said, every job is different. He is well-liked so that may indeed translate to increased fundraising. He may experience greater challenges with the academic side at UConn, I don't know why that would necessarily be the case. I don't think it should, but it may be. I hope he's successful and stays at UConn a long time because that will mean UConn is successful. For someone born 2 months before I was, he has grown kids! and that's impressive to me. Can't imagine having a child at 25.

I can't say much about his coaching selections. Turner Gill was a homerun for Buffalo who then kinda flopped at Kansas, but that may say more about Kansas than it says about Gill. I like the bball coach a great deal but he's been here longer than Manuel. The football coach was a MAC assistant who became a Cincy assistant and didn't seem to be the most imaginative choice out there. I believe the game in the MAC is knowing the region and that tends to take precedence over other things, even though Gill came out of left field and did just fine. It's hard to recruit to Buffalo for football, IMO, and though you can promise students a solid education, there's not much jump to the program.

In fact, I've been saying for years they should ditch it and start a top notch hockey program instead. I feel pretty strongly that Buffalo would be one of the best hockey schools in the nation in short order. Having lived in Conn. and Boston and several other towns with strong hockey (Providence, Ann Arbor, etc.) Buffalo is by far and away the most hockey-crazed place I've ever lived in.

All in all, a good hire, but I think it's also impossible to predict what he'll do given the huge differences between Buffalo and UConn.

Oh, I left out the best thing. He does very well in marketing and certainly raised AWARENESS of the athletic programs.

 

[BNich]

Looks like we found another potential preferred walk-on in Manuel. In the courant.com article it says he is 6'5" and over 300 lbs. That's a big dude!!

The article was a great read by the way. I really like what I have read about him. Seems like a great hire and the right man to captain the ship that is Uconn Athletics.

Also, some very interesting comments about Calhoun and the future of the Uconn men's basketball program. Coincidence that Calhoun is currently sidelined?

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...l-column-0214-20120213,0,7891546.story?page=2