UConn Names Warde Manuel AD

[BNich]

Rivals gave him 2 stars. He had no other BCS offers. Looks like an under the radar transfer from Buffalo.

Lol. Best post I have read all day. Bravo sir.

 

[Sean]

I like the sound of this guy. Young up and comer, but has experience being an actual AD in addition to his experience at one of the premier schools in America. Jacobs saying that people are surprised it took this long to get a premier job, even better.

I don't know who the other candidates were, and I wasn't in the interview room - but I'm glad to have Warde here and look forward to what he has in store.

 

[Dann]

You realize he was an associate AD at Michigan prior to becoming the AD at Buffalo.

yes. read my other posts. i read the stuff. this was the atleast. i just worded it wrong typing...

if things happen then he turns out to be a great hire and he has my support as a fan but i'm just trying to be real about the hire.

 

[huskysupporter]

I like the sound of this guy. Young up and comer, but has experience being an actual AD in addition to his experience at one of the premier schools in America. Jacobs saying that people are surprised it took this long to get a premier job, even better.

I don't know who the other candidates were, and I wasn't in the interview room - but I'm glad to have Warde here and look forward to what he has in store.

I also like the move. He had experience at a big BCS school as an associate AD. He then took a position at a non BCS school and from all appearances did well. SO he has the experience at a big BCS school, and did well when he ran the show at another school. Sounds like a young, talented AD. Perfect.

 

[Dann]

question to those happy with this hire
-do you want uconn to go to another conf? to be apart of a better tv contract? etc on that front?

while he has michigan exp, it wasn't in the past couple years when all of this stuff became very important. what makes you think or buy into him as the guy?

just wondering? not knocking the guy. i'm just worried about that aspect of his resume.

 

[Adios]

Now the B1G looks more like a possibility down the road. Can only hope.

 

[SAMCRO]

HOLY CRAP, this board has turned into quite the group of haters, complainers, and folks displaying quite a sense of entitlement. Wow!

As for the hire, I like it. He had success at Buffalo......BUFFALO (which is not an easy place to be successful in his role. He has connections to the B1G and ACC. Judging from the honours he received nationally in his field, I gather that he is thought highly of amongst his peers.

Welcome to UConn sir.

 

[junglehusky]

FWIW I don't think UConn was ever going to go poach a big time AD from another major "name" school, if that's what fans were expecting. And UConn fans shouldn't be surprised that they went for a guy whose bio stresses academic success and women's sports since that's been a part of the UConn name since the '90's. And I don't know how much stock people put in advance degrees but he has both a master's and PhD in social work, plus an MBA. I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

[Woof 101]

In Susan I trust....Now we have to give it time just like PP..........

 

[Dann]

Now the B1G looks more like a possibility down the road. Can only hope.

this is what i hold out hope for. that he is a connection we need to make the move that we didn't have before. but they make no hint of it, or atleast i didn't see it. he was at buffalo while all other important bcs stuff was happening, so how connected is he i guess is the question??? i hope he does well but i'm not exactly soldright now and no, being on the womens dinner conf board for sports doesn't help just like uconn girls bball isn't a piece of the puzzle for conf expansion. FOOTBALL AND BCS are the key terms i want to hear about.

 

[Devland]

um

Could it be as bad as hiring a basketball coach from Northeastern? sarcasm off

 

[junglehusky]

Dan, I'm not too worried about the AD's connections to other conferences or TV. He probably already has some of those connections but being a (more than) competent AD with communication skills I would imagine he can build those relationships as our needs dictate. (Look at all the committees he's been on). The AD's aren't the captains on conference alignment, the presidents are and I think not only did we get a great one in Herbst but she comes with those connections, and we know she was working the phone lines back in the fall. Main thing is, can those two work together like Woodward and Bernstein, Batman and Robin, peanut butter and jelly?

 

[UConnJim]

He looks like a really good hire!

 

[Dann]

Could it be as bad as hiring a basketball coach from Northeastern? sarcasm off

really? thats where your going to go with this? chesus, i'm not saying this guy was a biddy league bball coach from hartford or anything, i was just of the opinion that we had a couple specific things that we were looking for on resumes. and example of that would be someone who is at a bcs school the past couple years and knows whats going on behind doors with schools and confs. warde while he did great things at buffalo was at any time during those years sitting in a room with tv and other important ppl. just my 2 cents.

All i know is that alot of people here aren't sold on PP as our football coach. now call me silly but his resume looked good compared to this guys. PP had expierence at another bcs school, went to a bcs game and then took his junk to the nfl. doesn't get to much ebtter for uconn then that. yet everyone is loving warde for the job at hand. what????

i'm just trying to look at whats going on in the colege world and where i want uconn to be. good luck to the guy, hope he lands us a invite and bcs bowls and bball ships and so on...

 

[auggie22]

some nice quotes from the article, including several, notable big 10 leaders and a dukie for good measure:
Lloyd Carr, Head Football Coach (1995-2007), Assistant Football Coach (1980-94), University of Michigan“Warde had a very good playing career at Michigan, and he was the type of player that you wanted in your program. He was a very good student, good in the locker room, and was a team player. He then developed an excellent background in athletic administration here at Michigan and then at Buffalo, as he gained experience working in academics, fundraising, and a number of different sports. He is a bright person and an excellent communicator. I think that the coaches and student-athletes at Connecticut will really embrace what he stands for.”
Gene Smith, Director of Athletics, Ohio State University“First of all, Warde and [his wife] Chris are very good people and have a great family. Warde is a leader in our industry, and he understands the challenges that one faces in trying to run a collegiate athletic program. I also think he is going to be a huge asset to the university outside of athletics, as he really understands how all of higher education operates.”
Kevin White, Vice President and Director of Athletics at Duke University,
“Simply said, Warde Manuel represents a brilliant appointment at UConn! Warde has very quickly become one of the most respected leaders within college athletics. He is strong and determined, perhaps humble to a fault, highly empathetic, certainly task-oriented, and inordinately passionate about providing the very best student-athlete experience possible. Above all of that, Warde is a guy that – all day, every day – simply ‘drips with integrity.’ Unequivocally, the Huskies couldn’t have made a better hire!”

 

[Dann]

Dan, I'm not too worried about the AD's connections to other conferences or TV. He probably already has some of those connections but being a (more than) competent AD with communication skills I would imagine he can build those relationships as our needs dictate. (Look at all the committees he's been on). The AD's aren't the captains on conference alignment, the presidents are and I think not only did we get a great one in Herbst but she comes with those connections, and we know she was working the phone lines back in the fall. Main thing is, can those two work together like Woodward and Bernstein, Batman and Robin, peanut butter and jelly?

i respect that. but my thing is my thing is uconn is late to the party, we know that after getting JH out of here. so a guy having to build relationships takes time. I was looking for a guy/gal with relationships already had becuase the big east is falling apart quick as were seeing the past week. how much time do we really have?

 

[SAMCRO]

i respect that. but my thing is my thing is uconn is late to the party, we know that after getting JH out of here. so a guy having to build relationships takes time. I was looking for a guy/gal with relationships already had becuase the big east is falling apart quick as were seeing the past week. how much time do we really have?

Dan, based on all the committees he's on as well as the complimentary quotes from AD's, President, and coach of B1G and ACC schools, I'd say he already has those relationships, and they're pretty good relationships at that. None of this guarantees UConn will receive an immediate invite to the ACC or B1G of course, but it sounds like the guy is held in high regard.

 

[Dann]

bottom line for those that think i'm hating, im not. he was a ok hire in my mind right now. not a great 1 and not a bad 1. hope he turns out to be a great hire and to the moon with stuff....he has my support as all in the program do but i just wanted to see more i guess. i guess not many people were thinking like me but the whole time we were looking for ad, on my mind was how and where are we going to go based of that hire and how can that person make that happen. the expierence and work seems good from what i read, but it wasn't whta i thought was most important and most needed for uconn right now. good night.

 

[gabect]

Love the hire, especially from a conference politics perspective. Asst. AD and degree from Michigan, prior AD experience, fundraising & budgeting track record. Can't ask for much more.

 

[uconNYC]

just hope we dont see Buffalo too many times on our schedule

 

[Sean]

Dan, with the Big East falling apart, this guy definitely has the connections to get Buffalo added to replace them.

No idea how you missed that.

 

[ruskin]

This is how the football coach search SHOULD have been conducted. . . .we got a young guy with experience running his own program (quite successfully, it appears) and solid experience as an assistant at the BCS level. Did I know who this man was 30 minutes ago? No. But people didn't know who Urban Meyer was coming out of Bowling Green, either. Welcome to Storrs, Warde.

EDIT: just saw another post saying PP's resume is "better" than Manuel's. Respectfully disagree, apples and oranges. Can't argue that PP didn't have success at Syracuse, but the program was in decline in last few years before he got pushed out. And of the all the ways you can describe PP, a young up-and-comer is not one of them, which it seems Manuel is.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Dan, based on all the committees he's on as well as the complimentary quotes from AD's, President, and coach of B1G and ACC schools, I'd say he already has those relationships, and they're pretty good relationships at that. None of this guarantees UConn will receive an immediate invite to the ACC or B1G of course, but it sounds like the guy is held in high regard.

Absent the baggage and Hathaway's worminess (sic), Manuel also appears to have "Lew Perkins' size-ability". Time to put his former DE-size in high gear.

 

[rich1122]

Dan, with the Big East falling apart, this guy definitely has the connections to get Buffalo added to replace them.

No idea how you missed that.

Falling apart. We get rid of low life Pitt and Cuse and get Boise, Navy and Memphis for Basketball. I would say that we are far from falling apart.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I remember this guy from an interview he gave prior to the International bowl and he seemed impressive enough. I really like the fact that his young and that he has experience within a legitimate, elite athletic department (Michigan) as well as experience running the show at a northeast, state university.

I believe that this played a major role:

'From an academic standpoint, teams at Buffalo enjoyed incredible academic success. When Manuel arrived at UB, there were four programs - football, men's basketball, wrestling, and baseball - that fell far below the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) cut score of 925. With a focused academic plan, all four teams posted a four-year APR rate above the cut score and at the end of 2009-10, 10 of UB's 20 sports had scores of 975 or above.'

I don't believe that our fight with the NCAA over eligibility for the 2013 tournament is over and I think that among other things, the new AD's mandate to improve APR scores will be a large part of our presentation to the NCAA.