Warde Manuel should be fired

[FfldCntyFan]

If I recall correctly, he even dragged his feet on the Geno Auriemma contract extension. Some might think that was not a big deal, but it allowed time for speculation that Ohio State was courting him, and it probably drove the price up on the final five-year deal. Geno's worth the money, but another example of Warde not being a "rock star". Still, I could forgive him of all his past transgressions if he did the right thing here on the football side...

....but it's 6:05pm, and PP is still the coach...

I also heard that he was seen in the grassy knoll.

 

[WestHartHusk]

I also heard that he was seen in the grassy knoll.

If WM was at the grassy knoll we'd be talking about what Kennedy did in 1964 as president.

 

[junglehusky]

Completely disgusted that PP is still our head coach. Shows the country that 0-4 is acceptable at UCONN. Lose to Towson at home? No problem. Get blown out by friggin' Buffalo? No biggie. Can't beat USF, W Michigan, Temple, etc? Who does?

We need to flood McHugh's email box too if he's the reason Warde isn't pulling the trigger.

WM did use the exact word "unnaceptable", but go ahead and continue with your story.

 

[UConnDan97]

I also heard that he was seen in the grassy knoll.

Not sure where you're going with this, but I'll play. Warde had been talking to the media since August of 2012 about getting Auriemma's contract done. The contract was finalized on, I believe, March 26th of 2013. That's seven months of working on the contract, and it seemed to have been finalized after the media started reporting on the Ohio State speculation.

At the time, and even now, it sounded to me like Warde was trying to play himself a little "hardball". He ended up losing, and thankfully so. Geno is worth the near-11 million dollar contract he now has....and not a dime back...

 

[Chief00]

Unacceptable means more of the same in UConn bureacratic speak.

 

[Ts5034]

I dont post on the football board much but It has officially hit the fan. This is the absolute worst case scenario for the football program over the last 12 months. The worst part is, i think there are UConn fans out there who are pulling for the team to go 0-12 just to see PP fired. At the same time if this team were to somehow get into a bowl game, I dont know if thats good or bad because the team played like garbage overall.

 

[FDNY99]

I dont post on the football board much but It has officially hit the fan. This is the absolute worst case scenario for the football program over the last 12 months. The worst part is, i think there are UConn fans out there who are pulling for the team to go 0-12 just to see PP fired. At the same time if this team were to somehow get into a bowl game, I dont know if thats good or bad because the team played like garbage overall.

Pasqualoni doesn't need to go 0-12 to get fired...I think that decision has been made but a guy named Larry McHugh is getting both P and his life long buddy GDL a stay till the end of the season.

 

[uconnbill]

Bill we can go after Larry McHugh though!

I like Larry a lot and have known him for a number of years. But something needs to be done and maybe his stepping down would be taking one for the team. He is still involved with the Chamber in Middlesex county and can still be on the board of trustees just not in charge.

 

[FDNY99]

I like Larry a lot and have known him for a number of years. But something needs to be done and maybe his stepping down would be taking one for the team. He is still involved with the Chamber in Middles e x county and can still be on the board of trustees just not in charge.

Bill I would really like to know if Larry is involved in keeping P & GDL around right now. If he is he needs to step down from the BOT asap!

 

[UConniki]

Bill I would really like to know if Larry is involved in keeping P & GDL around right now. If he is he needs to step down from the BOT asap!

Who the is Larry McHugh, what is his job @ Uconn ?

 

[huskymedic]

Who the is Larry McHugh, what is his job @ Uconn ?

Chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees. Governor nominated - House of Representatives confirmed.

 

[BlueMAB]

Who the is Larry McHugh, what is his job @ Uconn ?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=larry+mchugh+uconn

 

[Adios]

Chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees. Governor nominated - House of Representatives confirmed.

I usually avoid politics, but this b*stard really duckked up our football program. At least over the past 2+ years. And he thinks he's doing the state a favor with keeping PP around??

 

[Limbo Land]

First off Losing to Buffalo is not that shocking. I was at the Ohio State/Buffalo game at the beginning of the season and they pushed OSU around in the Shoe. They are a tough hard nosed team and Uconn fans were blinded based on past history. Buffalo has way better talent then we do at this point.

That being said if Warde doesn't fire P or GDL by next week he will lose any credibility he had left and he must lay out for the fans why he is being painfully slow at pulling the trigger. I for one never blamed Manuel for keeping him on the third year since this was the year that his recruits would start to make an impact. But that experiment has come and gone. We just are underperforming and we need change to save whatever face we still have. Keep Weist at OC. Move MIke Foley to Interim HC and O Line.

 

[Adios]

First off Losing to Buffalo is not that shocking. I was at the Ohio State/Buffalo game at the beginning of the season and they pushed OSU around in the Shoe. They are a tough hard nosed team and Uconn fans were blinded based on past history. Buffalo has way better talent then we do at this point.

That being said if Warde doesn't fire P or GDL by next week he will lose any credibility he had left and he must lay out for the fans why he is being painfully slow at pulling the trigger. I for one never blamed Manuel for keeping him on the third year since this was the year that his recruits would start to make an impact. But that experiment has come and gone. We just are underperforming and we need change to save whatever face we still have. Keep Weist at OC. Move MIke Foley to Interim HC and O Line.

It's not completely up to Warde Manuel. It's up to some dirtbag named Larry McHugh. He has more influence than anyone else. The CT high school coaches association loves PP and McHugh. And McHugh was a high school coach. So....

I had a friend of mine who is a UMD grad send me an e-mail laughing at what happened. And his team is now ranked. With Edsall as head coach.

 

[superjohn]

No sugarcoating it, Warde has been a huge failure, he's sat back and tried to convey an image of being a steady leader, the UConn brand is strong and it will just sell itself. He tries with this nonsense as we're in this conference hell, our football team is in absolute flames, Warde is a disaster at this point. Thank god for Jim Calhoun, Kevin Ollie and Geno Auriemma. We will not win a single football game this year.

 

[freescooter]

No sugarcoating it, Warde has been a huge failure, he's sat back and tried to convey an image of being a steady leader, the UConn brand is strong and it will just sell itself. He tries with this nonsense as we're in this conference hell, our football team is in absolute flames, Warde is a disaster at this point. Thank god for Jim Calhoun, Kevin Ollie and Geno Auriemma. We will not win a single football game this year.

superjohn,
You & I have had our disagreements over the years, but on this one we are absolutely on the same page. He has been, well the Paul Pasqualoni of athletic directors. If Pasqualoni is still the head coach come Tuesday morning, both of them need to clean out their desks on Wednesday.

I sort of agree with the earlier post that said Manuel was brought in to be a manager and that he is just the wrong guy for the position when everything changed in the conference world. I'd only add that he was also brought in because of his reputation for cleaning up the APR mess at Buffalo(1). We needed a wheeler-dealer type of leader. We got a cautious monitor. He is going to follow the prevailing wisdom, even if prevailing wisdom drives the program over another cliff.

(1) upstater will dispute Warde's role in upgrading Buffalo's APR scores. I rely on UB's own website which credits him with that accomplishment.

 

[uconnbill]

Boycott the Middles e x Chamber of Commerce which is a joke anyways. It's the most powerful chamber in one of the most business unfriendly states in the US - brilliant Larry. Get a Chairman of a major corporation with some big bucks.

That is not Larry's nor the Chamber's fault, that is the legislators and Governor in Hartford's fault.

 

[willie99]

thank you Warde, and from listening to you finally speak on the subject, I have a great deal more confidence in you now

 

[BlueMAB]

I'm curious. The people who were ready to can Manuel....what did you think he meant by the word "unacceptable"?

 

[BlueDogs]

I'm curious. The people who were ready to can Manuel....what did you think he meant by the word "unacceptable"?

Waiting to the place burned down to the ground is not leadership. He waited until his was starting to go into the fire. He is entirely unimpressive and gets no credit for doing the obvious after having numerous opportunities to lead and make a change. I hope there was other forces tying his hands and he is not as incapable of making a decision as history has shown on this and even KO. Burton is dead-on in recommending an active conference solicitation effort. Manuel fumbled on that as well. He is singularly unimpressive.

 

[junglehusky]

Waiting to the place burned down to the ground is not leadership. He waited until his was starting to go into the fire. He is entirely unimpressive and gets no credit for doing the obvious after having numerous opportunities to lead and make a change. I hope there was other forces tying his hands and he is not as incapable of making a decision as history has shown on this and even KO. Burton is dead-on in recommending an active conference solicitation effort. Manuel fumbled on that as well. He is singularly unimpressive.

You were the kind of brat kid who pestered their parents for some expensive toy for Christmas, and then threw a tantrum on Christmas morning when the toy was the exact one you wanted with a different color, weren't you? You ruined Christmas for the whole family BlueDogs! I hope you're happy!!

Anyway, right now WM has an incomplete. See who he hires in December. Then see how that coach performs. Then be unimpressed or impressed. The long term trajectory of the football program under the new hire will be 80% of how WM is judged.

Oh and on the KO hiring - it should be obvious to anyone that what WM was doing was showing that he was the boss, he was in control and he wouldn't kowtow to JC without doing his job to make sure KO was the right man for the job.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Wow....simply....wow

 

[BlueMAB]

So you didn't know what he meant by the word "unacceptable" and you have no idea what process he had to go through to gain approval to fire a coach with a $750,000 buyout and close connections to the chairman of the BOT. Got it.

On top of that, I can't believe people are still criticizing how he handled Ollie. Calhoun put him in an impossible position, and took away all his authority with the timing of his retirement that essentially forcing him to hire Ollie. Ollie was lucky to get the opportunity and he'd be the first to say that. He did extremely well, and Manuel got a deal done, what is there to complain about, that it didn't meet your preferred schedule? (Rhetorical question)

This nonsense about him being incapable of making a decision is amazing.

He locked up Ollie, which almost all of us wanted. He fired PGDL, which almost all of us wanted. Criticizing the timing of the former ignores the fact his authority was undermined by someone who wouldn't be held responsible if the decision was the wrong one. Criticizing the latter requires you know exactly what the process was for firing PGDL.

In either case, we got what we wanted, but this is New England so we must find something to complain about.

 

[BlueDogs]

You were the kind of brat kid who pestered their parents for some expensive toy for Christmas, and then threw a tantrum on Christmas morning when the toy was the exact one you wanted with a different color, weren't you? You ruined Christmas for the whole family BlueDogs! I hope you're happy!!

Anyway, right now WM has an incomplete. See who he hires in December. Then see how that coach performs. Then be unimpressed or impressed. The long term trajectory of the football program under the new hire will be 80% of how WM is judged.

Oh and on the KO hiring - it should be obvious to anyone that what WM was doing was showing that he was the boss, he was in control and he wouldn't kowtow to JC without doing his job to make sure KO was the right man for the job.

I've called it correct with respect to PP for a long while, and I'm not impressed with Manuel. Big deal. You can disagree. I've also stated that TJ will get the job done. Mark my words. I just don't see the need to congratulate a guy for doing what was obvious and over due.