We’re in an awful place

[Exit 4]

It's not so much the geography in my mind - Look at Temple's record last 4 years... having a winning program helps cures a lot of ills.

Yep....and Temple has done a very good job making their program cool in the minds of recruits. They stole our rep for toughness, moxie and surprising athletes - and then took it up a notch. It also doesn't hurt that over the past 20 years urban areas have become cool. And lets face it, SE PA and south Jersey provides for a decent recruiting base.

 

[blue93]

I totally think this is the case. All programs are probably scouting 5X the kids they did 15 years ago. With so many eyes out there and kids/high school coaches and parents also be more aware and able to market themselves, their are much fewer dirty diamonds.

I feel like Randy 2.0 has already been first to many great looking players that in the past he would have been able to keep hidden. What he is fielding now are longer shot kids. Kids that might need 3 years of development rather than say 2.

Lecture on efficient market theory coming in 3...2...1...

 

[billybud]

It used to be that a program's relationship with a group of high schools was a prime recruiting necessity.

Now, recruiting is national...recruiting services abound, coaches can review tapes of 100s of players..better known programs cherry pick good athletes from out of their natural region.

Local knowledge and connections aren't as important, but late developers are still out there to be grabbed.

Once an offer comes in from a good program known to recruit well, folks start looking at that athlete to see what brought the offer...and often a line of offers will follow.

 

[Adios]

Butch, you are correct. I want to see UConn get back to relevance again in men's athletics.

There's much more to life than colleges.

 

[UConnNick]

It's not so much the geography in my mind - Look at Temple's record last 4 years... having a winning program helps cures a lot of ills.

That is largely irrelevant. It means they've out recruited us during that time, which is no surprise.

We have some considerable recruiting advantages over them. Our academics and on campus football facilities are superior to theirs. We both play in off campus stadiums, draw about the same crowds, recruit the same regions, and we are historically basketball first schools. Sure, if you want to live in a big city, albeit bad neighborhood, then advantage Temple. Otherwise they don't have much more to offer.

If winning on the field were necessary to recruit well, no bad teams would ever turn things around. There are plenty of other bad teams that have figured out a way to recruit well enough to win after a down cycle. If Temple continues to bash us in recruiting, we've got major issues.

 

[buddy]

There's much more to life than colleges.

Well, maybe there are the Yankees and Giants. So much for my sports choices.

 

[huskymedic]

That is largely irrelevant. It means they've out recruited us during that time, which is no surprise.

We have some considerable recruiting advantages over them. Our academics and on campus football facilities are superior to theirs. We both play in off campus stadiums, draw about the same crowds, recruit the same regions, and we are historically basketball first schools. Sure, if you want to live in a big city, albeit bad neighborhood, then advantage Temple. Otherwise they don't have much more to offer.

If winning on the field were necessary to recruit well, no bad teams would ever turn things around. There are plenty of other bad teams that have figured out a way to recruit well enough to win after a down cycle. If Temple continues to bash us in recruiting, we've got major issues.

It's not irrelevant when you are referencing the current recruiting cycle which you were. ("The fact that Temple is currently fourth out of 12 conference teams is really disturbing, considering one of the biggest excuses thrown around here for a lack of recruiting success is our geographic location compared with the rest of the league.").

We had one okay year since 2011 and are still in a prolonged down cycle not after one. Outside of the small subset of kids where academics really may matter - kid's want to play for winning programs. If you don't think being 3-9 in back to back years and being in the pit we are in this season doesn't effect recruiting against a team that went to a bowl three years row - I'm not going to be able to change your mind in that regard. We should be able to compete against Temple in recruiting - right now (which was the point) its a struggle.

BTW - Temple's football facilities on campus aren't that shabby anymore.

 

[BugsyCT]

It's not so much the geography in my mind - Look at Temple's record last 4 years... having a winning program helps cures a lot of ills.

And they've been able to do it with a series of solid head coaches - Golden, Addazio, Rhule.

 

[UConnNick]

It's not irrelevant when you are referencing the current recruiting cycle which you were. ("The fact that Temple is currently fourth out of 12 conference teams is really disturbing, considering one of the biggest excuses thrown around here for a lack of recruiting success is our geographic location compared with the rest of the league.").

We had one okay year since 2011 and are still in a prolonged down cycle not after one. Outside of the small subset of kids where academics really may matter - kid's want to play for winning programs. If you don't think being 3-9 in back to back years and being in the pit we are in this season doesn't effect recruiting against a team that went to a bowl three years row - I'm not going to be able to change your mind in that regard. We should be able to compete against Temple in recruiting - right now (which was the point) its a struggle.

BTW - Temple's football facilities on campus aren't that shabby anymore.

Four years ago Temple was 6-6. Then they had two 10 win seasons when Ruhle was still there, although they lost both their bowl games, and last year they finished 7-6 only due to a win over FIU in the meaningless Gasparilla Bowl. That's two winning seasons and two decidedly mediocre ones, and the coach responsible for the two 10 win seasons is long gone. Heck, we even managed to beat them once during that time.

BTW, after a 2-10 season (first year under Ruhle), they signed the second best recruiting class in the AAC.

I'm sorry, but trying to explain away how Temple is repeatedly kicking our ass in recruiting just doesn't fly. There's no excuse for it. If we can't recruit competitively against them, then how do we recruit competitively against anybody else?

 

[Chief00]

Four years ago Temple was 6-6. Then they had two 10 win seasons when Ruhle was still there, although they lost both their bowl games, and last year they finished 7-6 only due to a win over FIU in the meaningless Gasparilla Bowl. That's two winning seasons and two decidedly mediocre ones, and the coach responsible for the two 10 win seasons is long gone. Heck, we even managed to beat them once during that time.

BTW, after a 2-10 season (first year under Ruhle), they signed the second best recruiting class in the AAC.

I'm sorry, but trying to explain away how Temple is repeatedly kicking our ass in recruiting just doesn't fly. There's no excuse for it. If we can't recruit competitively against them, then how do we recruit competitively against anybody else?

I agree this excuse thing doesn’t work. The QB from Avon Old Farms and the STM kid are going to big time programs - and they are from CT.
I am afraid time may have past Randy by. Hopefully I am wrong. But his MD gig was a downward trajectory even with the Big10 and UnderArmour money.

 

[huskymedic]

I agree this excuse thing doesn’t work. The QB from Avon Old Farms and the STM kid are going to big time programs - and they are from CT.
I am afraid time may have past Randy by. Hopefully I am wrong. But his MD gig was a downward trajectory even with the Big10 and UnderArmour money.

So... at this point in time in UConn Football history, you expect/believe a kid w/ a Clemson offer, or a Penn State offer, or a ND offer or a Michigan offer to select UConn over them?

 

[Rewster]

Huskymedic

I have been harping lately on RE talking about UConns academic requirements making it more difficult to recruit. Being our resident expert in recruiting, do you know off hand if Temple taken more high risk kids or kids with academic records we would not be able to accept in the last 5 years? Perhaps more JUCO players. Was Matekavich(sp) or Marchi(sp) victims of our requirements? Have teams like Tulsa taken more JUCO players recently?

Like UConnNick I am particularly peeved about Temple being better than us.
I have said it before, UConn must take kids that any other program in our conference will take. We have no regional benefits like many other schools and lack the tradition. We can’t have higher standards academically. So tired of this being an issue.

 

[huskymedic]

Huskymedic

I have been harping lately on RE talking about UConns academic requirements making it more difficult to recruit. Being our resident expert in recruiting, do you know off hand if Temple taken more high risk kids or kids with academic records we would not be able to accept in the last 5 years? Perhaps more JUCO players. Was Matekavich(sp) or Marchi(sp) victims of our requirements? Have teams like Tulsa taken more JUCO players recently?

Like UConnNick I am particularly peeved about Temple being better than us.
I have said it before, UConn must take kids that any other program in our conference will take. We have no regional benefits like many other schools and lack the tradition. We can’t have higher standards academically. So tired of this being an issue.

I don’t consider myself an expert - just someone who has been following college sports and UConn for awhile. Some people deplore recruiting stuff till the class is signed and delivered. I like the chase (and it has become easier to follow multiple geographies/athletes in the Twitter/Social media age). We all have our opinions (some indeed more far fetched and unrealistic than others).

I was looking for Randy’s specific comment on academics since he’s been back (not recycling his old pre-Maryland concern) the other day and couldn’t find it (i know he referenced it when talking about global UConn challenges). There are kids currently on campus that may not have gotten in previously that have been admitted since he’s been back (and we’ve seen some anecdotal evidence of that without naming names). I think Benedict gets that component and can assist to smooth the road w/ admissions but I just don’t see UConn tossing all academic thresholds out the window for any sport (could be wrong - just my non-UConn alum opinion).

UConn and Temple offer a lot of the same kids and I can only think of one or two over the last 3-4 years that chose Temple over UConn head to head. Matakevich was missed by two UConn coaching staffs and Marchi (despite the transcript noise) was a victim of coaching change.

UConn has been chasing JUCO kids (especially on defense) for a number of recent years (including RE2.0). Are they selective to a fault and not going full Last Chance U mode - I’m sure they are to a point.

I thought I knew most east coast football schools by name fairly well. When Diaco was here I got an education looking up to find what other offers a kid we just offered had... I’d never heard of a majority of the schools. His recruiting killed us.

We can all cherry-pick examples to the contrary of a point but I think UConn’s biggest impediment in recruiting at this point in time is the G5 label foremost (w/ the level kids we are offering and to Randy’s other point that kids are waiting to see if they can pull in a P5 offer up till the end of the cycle) then the program coaching turnover/win/losses. Again, my semi-educated opinion.

“We” can only control the last two...

 

[Milo65]

It's not so much the geography in my mind - Look at Temple's record last 4 years... having a winning program helps cures a lot of ills.

Pennsylvania, Jersey and Ohio are decent recruiting areas.

 

[huskymedic]

Pennsylvania, Jersey and Ohio are decent recruiting areas.

No argument there... we need to do better in PA/Jersey (we had successes there in the past).

 

[Nextmanup]

No argument there... we need to do better in PA/Jersey (we had successes there in the past).

How about the prep schools in Jersey? Are we offering kids from the Laurencevill school, Blair, Peddie, Pingrey or The Hun School?
tons of kids being offered from other schools and going to Syracuse and Penn State from those prep schools..we should look there as well..

 

[huskymedic]

How about the prep schools in Jersey? Are we offering kids from the Laurencevill school, Blair, Peddie, Pingrey or The Hun School?
tons of kids being offered from other schools and going to Syracuse and Penn State from those prep schools..we should look there as well..

Historically we have - Nick Williams, James Atkins and Ryan Van Denmark are the first few to jump in my head. There have been others.

 

[Chief00]

So... at this point in time in UConn Football history, you expect/believe a kid w/ a Clemson offer, or a Penn State offer, or a ND offer or a Michigan offer to select UConn over them?

At some point you create change -or drown in the status quo.

 

[huskymedic]

So... at this point in time in UConn Football history, you expect/believe a kid w/ a Clemson offer, or a Penn State offer, or a ND offer or a Michigan offer to select UConn over them?

At some point you create change -or drown in the status quo.

Cute that you seem to be channeling your innner Randy w/ inspirational quotes but you didn’t answer the question...

 

[Rewster]

I don’t consider myself an expert - just someone who has been following college sports and UConn for awhile. Some people deplore recruiting stuff till the class is signed and delivered. I like the chase (and it has become easier to follow multiple geographies/athletes in the Twitter/Social media age). We all have our opinions (some indeed more far fetched and unrealistic than others).

I was looking for Randy’s specific comment on academics since he’s been back (not recycling his old pre-Maryland concern) the other day and couldn’t find it (i know he referenced it when talking about global UConn challenges). There are kids currently on campus that may not have gotten in previously that have been admitted since he’s been back (and we’ve seen some anecdotal evidence of that without naming names). I think Benedict gets that component and can assist to smooth the road w/ admissions but I just don’t see UConn tossing all academic thresholds out the window for any sport (could be wrong - just my non-UConn alum opinion).

UConn and Temple offer a lot of the same kids and I can only think of one or two over the last 3-4 years that chose Temple over UConn head to head. Matakevich was missed by two UConn coaching staffs and Marchi (despite the transcript noise) was a victim of coaching change.

UConn has been chasing JUCO kids (especially on defense) for a number of recent years (including RE2.0). Are they selective to a fault and not going full Last Chance U mode - I’m sure they are to a point.

I thought I knew most east coast football schools by name fairly well. When Diaco was here I got an education looking up to find what other offers a kid we just offered had... I’d never heard of a majority of the schools. His recruiting killed us.

We can all cherry-pick examples to the contrary of a point but I think UConn’s biggest impediment in recruiting at this point in time is the G5 label foremost (w/ the level kids we are offering and to Randy’s other point that kids are waiting to see if they can pull in a P5 offer up till the end of the cycle) then the program coaching turnover/win/losses. Again, my semi-educated opinion.

“We” can only control the last two...

Thanks HM
The RE article when he mentions the recruiting limitations I believe was in the Hartford Courant late September.I tried to go back to find it online but the articles only go back to 9/30.

It was a short mention about how he could not recruit the same kids as some other teams because of academic requirements at UConn.

Thanks for the insight

 

[Chief00]

Thanks HM
The RE article when he mentions the recruiting limitations I believe was in the Hartford Courant late September.I tried to go back to find it online but the articles only go back to 9/30.

It was a short mention about how he could not recruit the same kids as some other teams because of academic requirements at UConn.

Thanks for the insight

He’s the head coach, his job is influence the removal of obstacles to success - not just complain and deflect blame.

 

[Cubbybear]

A little help in the area of recruiting.Are UC standards of admission that much different than BC ,Syracuse or Temple. Those teams don’t seem to have recruiting issues,

Thoughts?

 

[huskymedic]

A little help in the area of recruiting.Are UC standards of admission that much different than BC ,Syracuse or Temple. Those teams don’t seem to have recruiting issues,

Thoughts?

Semi-educated guess (hardest to easiest)...

BC

Syracuse
UConn


Temple