While I think that basketball has a legit chance to return to being nationally competitive in short order, I'd pump the brakes on football a little bit. Comparing the two sports is nearly impossible because building a competitive roster in each is so wildly different.
In basketball Hurley can sell past national titles and proximity to home to get top prospects to come to Storrs. Winning matters. One recruiting class of a couple of blue chippers combined with some returning talent could instantly have the program competing in the tournament. You see this all over the country. Basketball is made for a quick turn around, and Uconn is as good of a candidate as any for one.
Football on the other hand requires the building of a program over the span of 4-5 recruiting classes. Miss badly in a particular season and you potentially set your development back years. Edsall has proven to be a great talent evaluator, solid developer at certain positions(bad at others) and quite honestly an average game day coach. That's not a knock on him, but essentially one person's views of his coaching strengths and weaknesses at both Uconn and UMD.
The issue he faces is that his biggest strength is negated a bit in a day and age where there are few hidden gems to build a program on. Kids compete all over the country in prospect camps and Hudl film is readily available for even FCS and D2 Level Athletes. If you can play plenty of people know about it. A decade ago you could find kids who were high end talents who were completely off the radar of major FBS Programs. Kids who played at small schools or in non traditional areas might as well have been playing on The Moon. That's not the case so much anymore.
Since HCRE's greatest strength has been diminished a bit, The program will need to win more head to head recruiting match ups with low end FBS Programs and peer G5 Programs to become competitively relevant. Winning recruiting battles against Wofford, Villanova, and Georgia Southern will field you a team capable of beating those teams. Its not going to beat UCF, Memphis, UH, or USF on any consistent basis. The RB from Texas you landed is a good start, but he alone can't be the centerpiece of a class. Other AAC Schools will have multiple 3* athletes like him and even the occasional 4*. You can't finish 11th or 12th in recruiting every year and expect the school to win its conference. Its not realistic. Recruiting is the lifeblood of college sports. If collectively the staff assembled can't get it done, then you need to find a new staff. There is too much riding on football for it to be a 4-8 Program. For those who believe stars don't matter tune into OSU's Game against Tulane on 9/22. The difference between a program comprised almost entirely of all 4 & 5 * prospects versus one of all 2 and 3* players will be fully on display.
