UConn Staff Crushing It | Page 3 | The Boneyard

UConn Staff Crushing It

Hathaway was way worse than Warde.

Hathaway alienated Calhoun and Edsall, that latter arguably playing a role in destroying our football program. He failed in fundraising, and he failed in improving our branding despite the fact that we had a pretty good football program when he was here, and both basketball programs were perennial national powers. Warde had a much tougher job selling us taking over a mess of a football program, and a men's basketball team that was no longer a top 25 team year after year.

Also while ultimately results are what count, Diaco was a hire that at least made sense, he was a strong candidate, and a top coordinator from a power school was a very reasonable hire. PP everyone knew was a disaster from the start.
 
If you judge Manuel on football alone, sure you could chalk it up as a failed tenure. He rolled the dice on Diaco and came up with snakeeyes. FB is a major component of the job, and even the most important at most schools, but if you judge him on what his job responsibilities actually were, it's much better. Fundraising and pushing for new facilities and getting in Hockey East are major successes. Getting a functional athletic department where all the sports have the academic support and managing all the egos. All of those things may not be important to you, but they're important to the university.
 
kemba said:
Hathaway was way worse than Warde.

Hathaway alienated Calhoun and Edsall, that latter arguably playing a role in destroying our football program. He failed in fundraising, and he failed in improving our branding despite the fact that we had a pretty good football program when he was here, and both basketball programs were perennial national powers. Warde had a much tougher job selling us taking over a mess of a football program, and a men's basketball team that was no longer a top 25 team year after year.

Also while ultimately results are what count, Diaco was a hire that at least made sense, he was a strong candidate, and a top coordinator from a power school was a very reasonable hire. PP everyone knew was a disaster from the start.
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You couldn't be more correct. Spot on 100%
 
kemba said:
Hathaway was way worse than Warde.

Hathaway alienated Calhoun and Edsall, that latter arguably playing a role in destroying our football program. He failed in fundraising, and he failed in improving our branding despite the fact that we had a pretty good football program when he was here, and both basketball programs were perennial national powers. Warde had a much tougher job selling us taking over a mess of a football program, and a men's basketball team that was no longer a top 25 team year after year.

Also while ultimately results are what count, Diaco was a hire that at least made sense, he was a strong candidate, and a top coordinator from a power school was a very reasonable hire. PP everyone knew was a disaster from the start.
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But you have to admit that he got a lot of face time on the football field making presentations for the returning Soldier Heros down to cub scout award winners. I guess you had to fill up time when the red shirt guy was on the field. He was really good at that and sucked at most everything else. How he made it on to the Men's Basketball selection committee I'll never know. I guess he rode the coat tails of the Hall of Fame coaches who disliked him immensely .
 
kemba said:
Hathaway was way worse than Warde.

Hathaway alienated Calhoun and Edsall, that latter arguably playing a role in destroying our football program. He failed in fundraising, and he failed in improving our branding despite the fact that we had a pretty good football program when he was here, and both basketball programs were perennial national powers. Warde had a much tougher job selling us taking over a mess of a football program, and a men's basketball team that was no longer a top 25 team year after year.

Also while ultimately results are what count, Diaco was a hire that at least made sense, he was a strong candidate, and a top coordinator from a power school was a very reasonable hire. PP everyone knew was a disaster from the start.
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Hathaway also SUCKED at fund raising, alienated big $$ donors like Burton and Schenkman...decimated the Compliance Department then showed a savings in his operation budget and argued VERY hard for a raise. Allowed the APR issues to become a problem. Did ZERO facility improvements (the ones that happened under his watch were planned and funds were raised by Perkins). hathaway was a complete ZERO as a AD.
 
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junglehusky said:
If you judge Manuel on football alone, sure you could chalk it up as a failed tenure. He rolled the dice on Diaco and came up with snakeeyes. FB is a major component of the job, and even the most important at most schools, but if you judge him on what his job responsibilities actually were, it's much better. Fundraising and pushing for new facilities and getting in Hockey East are major successes. Getting a functional athletic department where all the sports have the academic support and managing all the egos. All of those things may not be important to you, but they're important to the university.
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He also seems to have hit a home run in hiring Mike Cavanaugh to run the men's hockey program, Mckenzie who has basically rebuilt the women's hockey program from the burnt out dumpster left to him be Heather Lindstat, he hired JJ Clark for women's track & field (he won 2 national championships at Tennessee) and Kris Grunwald who is slowly turning around the Women's volleyball program. Warde may have swung and missed with Diaco but with his other hires he seems to have made solid good long term hires.
 
jackl said:
But you have to admit that he got a lot of face time on the football field making presentations for the returning Soldier Heros down to cub scout award winners. I guess you had to fill up time when the red shirt guy was on the field. He was really good at that and sucked at most everything else. How he made it on to the Men's Basketball selection committee I'll never know. I guess he rode the coat tails of the Hall of Fame coaches who disliked him immensely .
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I would watch him scmoozingwith the fans at basketball games. Never made eye contact with him for fear he would come over to talk to me.
 
My view on Warde:

Football: Diaco was a huge swing and a miss. The miss was understandable; he hired a big name Broyles Award winning DC from one of the biggest football programs out there. However, he did miss, and then he doubled down on the stupidity by drafting up and agreeing to a gigantic extension after a 6-7 season, answering a question that nobody was asking. This further hurts our monetary situation worse than it was already hurting. Dave Benedict seems to have saved the day, likely with some behind-the-scenes donor work that needed to happen to offset the ridiculous extension.

Basketball: Had to have Kevin Ollie shoved down his throat by a Hall of Fame legendary coach. Then proceeded to mishandle KO's contract situation, and arguably had to pay him a premium price on the re-negotiated contract. What a mess.

Hockey: Great hire. Cavanaugh is the man, and Warde should get full credit there.

Facilities / Donors: Also, great work there as well.

It's a mixed bag for sure. To compare him to Hathaway is ridiculous because Hathaway was the undisputed worst AD in the history of UConn Athletics. But he also wasn't anywhere near the rock star people claim(ed) him to be. Dave Benedict is off to a great start, and it will be interesting to see what we will ultimately say about him a few years from now. Which brings me back to: the staff really crushed it with recruiting, right??? ;)
 
uconnell said:
How do you know the Hall of Fame coaches disliked him intensely? Has to be Calhoun and Geno which I don't believe. So proof please.
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You have to be kidding me...it is a well known fact that besides Calhoun and Edsall, Geno and pretty much every other coach in the athletic department "hated" Jeff Hathaway! Dislike is too soft a term for their feelings on that a s s hat! If you are a Jeff Hathaway supporter please just go away no...you won't last here long!
 
FDNY99 said:
You have to be kidding me...it is a well known fact that besides Calhoun and Edsall, Geno and pretty much every other coach in the athletic department "hated" Jeff Hathaway! Dislike is too soft a term for their feelings on that a s s hat! If you are a Jeff Hathaway supporter please just go away no...you won't last here long!
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Sorry, misunderstood the post. Agree about Hathaway, there is much to be disgusted about that hasn't even been discussed.
 
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kemba said:
Hathaway was way worse than Warde.

Hathaway alienated Calhoun and Edsall, that latter arguably playing a role in destroying our football program. He failed in fundraising, and he failed in improving our branding despite the fact that we had a pretty good football program when he was here, and both basketball programs were perennial national powers. Warde had a much tougher job selling us taking over a mess of a football program, and a men's basketball team that was no longer a top 25 team year after year.

Also while ultimately results are what count, Diaco was a hire that at least made sense, he was a strong candidate, and a top coordinator from a power school was a very reasonable hire. PP everyone knew was a disaster from the start.
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Let's not forget how Hathaway handled the Fiesta Bowl ticket purchase situation. Granted, some of it was the bowl's doing, but IIRC, he chose not to subsidize the students (as so many other programs do) and allow them to get out to AZ at a reasonable price, nor offer inducements to the UConn fan base to attend. So we ended up with minimal student participation at the game, as well as alumni attendance, and it gave us a black eye on the prominent national stage. You could argue that it was one of the major factors in UConn not being perceived as a rising program, but rather as it being a fluke. Hathaway just did not see the big picture.
 
2Infinity said:
Let's not forget how Hathaway handled the Fiesta Bowl ticket purchase situation. Granted, some of it was the bowl's doing, but IIRC, he chose not to subsidize the students (as so many other programs do) and allow them to get out to AZ at a reasonable price, nor offer inducements to the UConn fan base to attend. So we ended up with minimal student participation at the game, as well as alumni attendance, and it gave us a black eye on the prominent national stage. You could argue that it was one of the major factors in UConn not being perceived as a rising program, but rather as it being a fluke. Hathaway just did not see the big picture.
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Hathaway thought he was the big picture!
 
Hathaway sold his contacts in the hoops world to the moron that is president at Hofstra. Part of this idiot's plan was to dump football and join the A-10. Hathaway sold him that he could do that. Football is long gone..and Hofstra is still waiting to join the A-10 in hoops.
 
UConnDan97 said:
My view on Warde:

Football: Diaco was a huge swing and a miss. The miss was understandable; he hired a big name Broyles Award winning DC from one of the biggest football programs out there. However, he did miss, and then he doubled down on the stupidity by drafting up and agreeing to a gigantic extension after a 6-7 season, answering a question that nobody was asking. This further hurts our monetary situation worse than it was already hurting. Dave Benedict seems to have saved the day, likely with some behind-the-scenes donor work that needed to happen to offset the ridiculous extension.

Basketball: Had to have Kevin Ollie shoved down his throat by a Hall of Fame legendary coach. Then proceeded to mishandle KO's contract situation, and arguably had to pay him a premium price on the re-negotiated contract. What a mess.

Hockey: Great hire. Cavanaugh is the man, and Warde should get full credit there.

Facilities / Donors: Also, great work there as well.

It's a mixed bag for sure. To compare him to Hathaway is ridiculous because Hathaway was the undisputed worst AD in the history of UConn Athletics. But he also wasn't anywhere near the rock star people claim(ed) him to be. Dave Benedict is off to a great start, and it will be interesting to see what we will ultimately say about him a few years from now. Which brings me back to: the staff really crushed it with recruiting, right??? ;)
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I agree except for the Diaco extension piece. I don't know enough to say whether the buy out amount was too much, but losing a coach to Rutgers after a bowl season would haven been a tough pill to swallow. It's easy to look back now and think the move was crazy, but WM was trying to get UConn seriously considered for the Big 12 push, and starting over with a new football coach would have been tough.

In hind site...losing BD would have been a good thing. But at that time, I get why he did what he did to keep stability in the football program at that time.
 
ShakyTheMohel said:
I agree except for the Diaco extension piece. I don't know enough to say whether the buy out amount was too much, but losing a coach to Rutgers after a bowl season would haven been a tough pill to swallow. It's easy to look back now and think the move was crazy, but WM was trying to get UConn seriously considered for the Big 12 push, and starting over with a new football coach would have been tough.

In hind site...losing BD would have been a good thing. But at that time, I get why he did what he did to keep stability in the football program at that time.
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At the time, there was more than enough data to show that Diaco was plum crazy. And the amounts of the re-negotiation were outlandish. Especially the buy-out money, with amounts that were mostly unheard of from a "non-P5" school. It was a bad move even at the time...
 
UConnDan97 said:
At the time, there was more than enough data to show that Diaco was plum crazy. And the amounts of the re-negotiation were outlandish. Especially the buy-out money, with amounts that were mostly unheard of from a "non-P5" school. It was a bad move even at the time...
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Maybe I am misremembering, but I don't remember a lot to talk on here about it being the wrong move. I remember a bit of surprise, but not full on comments that it was a mistake.

Don't you remember all the 8-4 predictions on here? (Including me). Hard to believe we were all thinking that an extension was a bad move if we thought the team would win 8 games.
 
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ShakyTheMohel said:
Maybe I am misremembering, but I don't remember a lot to talk on here about it being the wrong move. I remember a bit of surprise, but not full on comments that it was a mistake.

Don't you remember all the 8-4 predictions on here? (Including me). Hard to believe we were all thinking that an extension was a bad move if we thought the team would win 8 games.
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I even remember a 15-0 prediction from someone... :eek:
 
FDNY99 said:
Hathaway sold his contacts in the hoops world to the moron that is president at Hofstra. Part of this idiot's plan was to dump football and join the A-10. Hathaway sold him that he could do that. Football is long gone..and Hofstra is still waiting to join the A-10 in hoops.
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Just amazing that a president would put so much faith in him...especially after what he did here at UConn!
 
2Infinity said:
Just amazing that a president would put so much faith in him...especially after what he did here at UConn!
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Understandably, one doesn't know what one doesn't know.... and we hired a Broyles award winner that could not manage the last 2 minutes of a hAlf or game (among other things well discussed here).
 
ShakyTheMohel said:
Maybe I am misremembering, but I don't remember a lot to talk on here about it being the wrong move. I remember a bit of surprise, but not full on comments that it was a mistake.

Don't you remember all the 8-4 predictions on here? (Including me). Hard to believe we were all thinking that an extension was a bad move if we thought the team would win 8 games.
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I think the idea of an extension was a little surprising considering the .500 record, but it wasn't off the wall. The odd part though were the terms...they WERE off the wall! I can't believe that WM ( and I liked how he did many positive things here) felt compelled to offer such a lucrative deal. I'm convinced that as bad as BD was at hiring his assistant coaches, he was quite the opposite with hiring his agent. ;)
 
huskypantz said:
Right, because the number of stars on high school recruits determined by "independent sources" whose primary goal is to drive subscriptions with college fan bases is what defines a program. On-field performance, NFL alums - all just window dressing.
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Absolutely correct. I'd love to see the percentage of four and five stars who make it in college and/or pro. Watch Coach Edsall coach up threes and twos. He's done it before.
 
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UConn66 said:
Absolutely correct. I'd love to see the percentage of four and five stars who make it in college and/or pro. Watch Coach Edsall coach up threes and twos. He's done it before.
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Coaching up three's and two's is ok but can they beat Alabama? Oklahoma? Michigan? Until UConn finishes a season or two in the top 10 they will always be considered a basketball school and to tell ya the truth it would be nice to hear them be considered a national power in football. I thought I'd see extraterrestrials on the White House lawn before I saw the Red Sox win a World Series but it happened. Back in the 80's thinking some coach from Northeastern would bring UConn basketball to a Final Four, never mind win multiple National Championships, would have had me laughed out of any bar in New England. Yet it happened. So why not Edsall putting together a few 10+ win seasons, cracking that 4 & 5 star ceiling and bringing us to the promise land in football.
 
weyuo said:
I thought I'd see extraterrestrials on the White House lawn before I saw the Red Sox win a World Series but it happened.
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You sure? What if they look like us?
 
When Hathaway was here the decision makers that put him in charge sucked.. They knew nothing about FBS level football either...
 
SeoulHuskyFan said:
You sure? What if they look like us?
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ed8cbd50e9ca4869b87625474522796d.png
"Or do they look like the 2004 Red Sox?"
 
weyuo said:
Coaching up three's and two's is ok but can they beat Alabama? Oklahoma? Michigan? Until UConn finishes a season or two in the top 10 they will always be considered a basketball school and to tell ya the truth it would be nice to hear them be considered a national power in football. I thought I'd see extraterrestrials on the White House lawn before I saw the Red Sox win a World Series but it happened. Back in the 80's thinking some coach from Northeastern would bring UConn basketball to a Final Four, never mind win multiple National Championships, would have had me laughed out of any bar in New England. Yet it happened. So why not Edsall putting together a few 10+ win seasons, cracking that 4 & 5 star ceiling and bringing us to the promise land in football.
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It's a double-edged sword - there is no doubt that there is inherent bias in the star system. That said, there are plenty of legit 4-5 star "home runs" out there. The star system usually gets it wrong on the guys who don't get looks from the big programs (often kids from Canada and the Northeast), they don't bother reviewing tape and even if it did it wouldn't matter as they can't evaluate it. Boise St did a great job of winning with guys who graded out "average" but came together as a team and beat big-time programs. Houston did the same, as did WVU back in the day (a little more talent, but examples like Pat White going there to play QB instead of WR or DB in the SEC). This board does a good job of associating offers to talent instead of stars to talent, but since we recruit in spaces where the top tier schools do not, some kids just never get a look. We can be a top 25 school without consistently bringing in 4 star kids, but we have to start pulling a few in here and there as the "miss" rate is lower as you climb up the star rankings.
 
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