What is stopping us from being Temple?

[ktuck911]

I don't buy it. Connecticut fans aren't showing up for a losing team that plays boring football. That formula doesn't work anywhere these days. My wife and kids loved the Cincy game and they aren't even UConn fans really (they like them because I do), let alone football fans. It's just a great venue with good tailgating, good beer and food, a good band and a decent DJ. It isn't a hard sell with several million people nearby. However, a silent stadium and almost no points scored puts a damper on things. They'll be back when the points come back.

Kinda hard to find an argument against this post.

 

[shakes65]

Can anything be done about admissions?

Some positive coaching has been a big factor, geography hurts us a bite, but Admissibility may be the biggest factor. I am convinced they are able to admit a bunch of guys who UConn will not consider. Otherwise, their recruiting base is similar to ours, and all things being equal, our facilities, stadium, fan base would seem to make us a no-brainer.

 

[templefan1]

Including Edsall when he came out of HS.
Dobbs

Just stop. Dobbs never made it to Temple's campus either... Basically Temple said if you get qualified, we will take you. He never qualified.

 

[templefan1]

Just stop. Dobbs never made it to Temple's campus either... Basically Temple said if you get qualified, we will take you. He never qualified.

I just wanted to add that Temple did have the ability to take some grey shirts while in the MAC but that is gone with the move to the AAC. I also think one of the biggest things that Temple has been successful at is talent evaluation. They take guys who fit their system regardless of rankings and other offers. Last year Temple had three players taken in the NFL draft. Non had P-5 offers. This year Temple will most likely have 3 players drafted again (Reddick, D.Dawkins, J. Thomas). This group had 1 fbs offer.

 

[Palatine]

Aspiring to be Temple is stupid.

 

[06029]

Some positive coaching has been a big factor, geography hurts us a bite, but Admissibility may be the biggest factor. I am convinced they are able to admit a bunch of guys who UConn will not consider. Otherwise, their recruiting base is similar to ours, and all things being equal, our facilities, stadium, fan base would seem to make us a no-brainer.

Temple commits 2015 along with offers per Rivals. Ttell me how many would not be admitted at Uconn-
Taiyar Wilson 2* (no offers listed)
Dana Levine 2*; Umass, USF, Cuse (5 other ofers)
Josiah Brown 3*; Idaho, UNM
Jovahn Fair 2*; EMU, Kent State, Ohio (3 other offers)
Jager Gardner 2*,; Akron, UVA, GA Southern
Gregg Webb 3*; Rutgers
Delvon Randall; 3*; no offers (Great Barrington, MA)
Cortrelle Simpson 2*; Albany, Buffalo, CCSU, Toledo (5 other FCS offers)
Dawayne Young 2*; no offers
Chapelle Cook; 3*; BC, Pitt, RU, Wisconsin
Daishaun Grimes; 3*, ENU, Memphis, FAU, FIU
Kareem Ali, JR, 4*; Uconn, BC, Clemson, Duke (about 20 offers)
Roy Pugh 2*, Stony Brook
DeAndre Kelly, 2* Toledo, CCSU, URI, St Francis
Benson Isreal, 2*; Albany, Bryant, Old Dominion
Jeremiah Atoki, 2*; Uconn
Ryqull Armstead 3*; UVA, Old Dominion, Monmouth
Patrick Anderson 2*; Cinci, Miami (the U) Rutgers, Purdue UWV
Jake Roninson 2*; Bucknell, Colgarte, Fordham
TJ Simmons 4*, Auburn, FL, Indiana, KY, Clemson, Notre Dame, Wake Forest (and about 15 more)

Out of that list, I would say the 3 with no other offers might be the answer but that would be on incomplete information at best (the 3* with no offers could suggest academic issues). We can do the same for every year. The fact would remain that your claim about admissions is wrong. 90%+ of their recruits would get into Uconn. 100% of their impact players could get into Uconn.

The admissions excuse is weak and part of a distorted reality hat people want to use to try and explain things when the real answer is they recruit better than Uconn and coach up similar level recruits way better than Uconn over the past 6 years. Nothing more complicated than that.

 

[huskymedic]

Just stop. Dobbs never made it to Temple's campus either... Basically Temple said if you get qualified, we will take you. He never qualified.

Near certain he enrolled at Temple as a partial qualifier. He was on campus and attended classes but never qualified to play football.

 

[templefan1]

Near certain he enrolled at Temple as a partial qualifier. He was on campus and attended classes but never qualified to play football.

That is not how I remember it. So maybe he was a potential grey shirt, which was something Temple did in the MAC because the MAC takes partial qualifiers. None of this applies to Temple now as the Big East and now AAC do not accept partial qualifies. The last recruiting class Temple could do this was the 2012 class. So again, I curious to find out all of these recruits UConn could have had in recent years...

 

[huskymedic]

That is not how I remember it. So maybe he was a potential grey shirt, which was something Temple did in the MAC because the MAC takes partial qualifiers. None of this applies to Temple now as the Big East and now AAC do not accept partial qualifies. The last recruiting class Temple could do this was the 2012 class. So again, I curious to find out all of these recruits UConn could have had in recent years...

You're arguing w/ the wrong person about that... I answered the question about Dobbs (2012 recruit class) that was asked.

 

[HobokenHusky]

Given where we are and our budget in comparison to our peers, we should aspire to be Boise St., and I don't see any reason we can't be. Amp up the uniforms, amp up the offense, get creative. We don't have any type of football style that we are beholden to, and we have a national brand from basketball that we should be leveraging more than we are. We should be able to clean up all the tri-state area recruiting scraps that the P5 teams leave behind - and there is more than enough talent in NJ and NY to make that work.

It's become very clear that if you are not in a P5, the only way people will watch you is if you score a ton of points and are fun to watch while doing it. We are not going to fill up a stadium against our muff schedule with an offense that is more boring than watching paint dry.

 

[UConnJim]

Academics are an issue at UConn relative to schools like Temple and Louisville, but not relative to schools like BC and Rutgers. The issues fall in 5 buckets: Commits not admitted, Prep school kids, JUCOs, Grad school admits, and transfers.

Commits not admitted: James Nixon committed to UConn, but couldn't get admitted and went to Temple. Kenny Tinney committed to UConn, but couldn't get in and ended up at Michigan St. for a short time. Montreal Dobbs committed to UConn, but couldn't get it so he went to Temple, although he never played there. Logan Marchi committed to UConn, but couldn't get in and is now at Temple.

Prep school kids: Prep school kids usually fall into 2 buckets: Kids who need more physical development or kids who need more academic development. In general, UConn has not recruited these kids as they have 2 on the current roster and both were walk-ons. In contrast, Temple has 14 kids who came from prep schools.

JUCOs: Generally, UConn has recruited few JUCOs and has 1 JUCO on the roster. Temple has 2 JUCOs on the roster and Louisville has 15.

Grad school admits: Robbie Frey had trouble getting into the right grad program and went to Kutztown St. Bryce McNeal, a WR transfer from Clemson, couldn't get into grad school at UConn and went to Louisville instead, although he never played.

Transfers: Another area that UConn has not focused on. UConn has 6 transfers on the roster of which 3 are walk-ons. In contrast, Temple has 8 transfers on the roster and Louisville has 7.


If you look at the 2-deeps, Temple and Louisville have greatly benefited from Transfers/Preps/JUCOs. On the 2 deep rosters:

UConn: 2
Temple: 11
Louisville: 11

To summarize: Total Transfers/Preps/JUCOs on current rosters:

UConn: 9 (5 walk-ons)
Temple: 24
Louisville: 22

 

[huskymedic]

Prep school kids: Prep school kids usually fall into 2 buckets: Kids who need more physical development or kids who need more academic development.

You mean kids that reclassify or do a PG year and not just attend and graduate in 4 years (like a Cheshire Academy, Hamden Hall, Choate, Salisbury, Suffield, etc...?)

 

[UConnJim]

You mean kids that reclassify or do a PG year and not just attend and graduate in 4 years (like a Cheshire Academy, Hamden Hall, Choate, Salisbury, Suffield, etc...?)

Kids that do a post grad year.

 

[huskymedic]

Kids that do a post grad year.

Roger...

 

[Rewster]

Academics are an issue at UConn relative to schools like Temple and Louisville, but not relative to schools like BC and Rutgers. The issues fall in 5 buckets: Commits not admitted, Prep school kids, JUCOs, Grad school admits, and transfers.

Commits not admitted: James Nixon committed to UConn, but couldn't get admitted and went to Temple. Kenny Tinney committed to UConn, but couldn't get in and ended up at Michigan St. for a short time. Montreal Dobbs committed to UConn, but couldn't get it so he went to Temple, although he never played there. Logan Marchi committed to UConn, but couldn't get in and is now at Temple.

Prep school kids: Prep school kids usually fall into 2 buckets: Kids who need more physical development or kids who need more academic development. In general, UConn has not recruited these kids as they have 2 on the current roster and both were walk-ons. In contrast, Temple has 14 kids who came from prep schools.

JUCOs: Generally, UConn has recruited few JUCOs and has 1 JUCO on the roster. Temple has 2 JUCOs on the roster and Louisville has 15.

Grad school admits: Robbie Frey had trouble getting into the right grad program and went to Kutztown St. Bryce McNeal, a WR transfer from Clemson, couldn't get into grad school at UConn and went to Louisville instead, although he never played.

Transfers: Another area that UConn has not focused on. UConn has 6 transfers on the roster of which 3 are walk-ons. In contrast, Temple has 8 transfers on the roster and Louisville has 7.


If you look at the 2-deeps, Temple and Louisville have greatly benefited from Transfers/Preps/JUCOs. On the 2 deep rosters:

UConn: 2
Temple: 11
Louisville: 11

To summarize: Total Transfers/Preps/JUCOs on current rosters:

UConn: 8 (5 walk-ons)
Temple: 24
Louisville: 22

Nice job Jim
Looks to me it's an issue. UConn is not Notre Dame or Stanford. We have to get a little dirty if we are going to compete. Otherwise we are singing past the graveyard!!

 

[HomeKing93]

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but to me what's stopping us is a coach who keeps picking inexperienced OCs.

 

[UConnJim]

I made a mistake. Number of Transfers/Preps/JUCOs for UConn is 9.

By the way, if you are not going to accept many Transfers/Preps/JUCOs, it will take longer to turn around a team, especially the OL. Turning around an OL by using high school recruits exclusively, unless you are at a top FBS school that can bring in some freshmen ready OL, would probably take 3 to 4 years as you need to redshirt kids and develop them.

 

[huskymedic]

I made a mistake. Number of Transfers/Preps/JUCOs for UConn is 9.

FIFY

 

[huskyinfl]

Its not admissions... seriously do you think that high schools that produce talent aren't hip to the game yet? They are part of the machine and want their wheels greased & recognition.

I have been in classes with a ton of athletes - they load them into the summer/ in between semester courses. All I want to say is that they really have try hard to fail.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yeah right this second. It's also the best they have ever been in years.

It's not like the Kentucky brand is now going to let them build on 6-6 or 7-5.

And in its conference, Kentucky is the worst football brand...maybe tied with Vandy and Miss State for worst.

In the AAC...who has a strong football brand? Houston? Ok. Cinci? ECU? Maybe. Beyond that is there any brand recognition for any of the other schools in any sport? No. It it a huge edge? No. But UConn would be able to extend its brand to football with success, whereas the others are building a brand from scratch. Navy is a known entity, but not for football really.

 

[FartMan69]

Why does the football team have difficulty admitting post grads when the basketball team obviously does not?

 

[UConnJim]

Why does the football team have difficulty admitting post grads when the basketball team obviously does not?

Pretty simple explanation. You need good grades to get into UConn's grad programs and it doesn't look like they make exceptions. If you look at the 3 men's basketball grad transfers, they went to good schools, so they probably would have no problem getting into grad school: Evans (Holy Cross), Miller (Cornell), Gibbs (Texas and Seton Hall).

At many schools, if they want you as a football (basketball) player, you can get into the grad school.

 

[06029]

Why does the football team have difficulty admitting post grads when the basketball team obviously does not?

They don't have a problem. Edsall did it and PP too. I can't recall his name but the one off the top of my head was a 4* that did a PG that came in on D. RE and PP both took PG kids from Milford Academy and Fork Union. Same with transfers (see Sherieffs, Bryant; although not a 1 year only player).

BD came in with a philosophy that he was not going the Juco or 5th yr senior/transfer route to fix holes in the team. They were quick fixes (or so I was told by numerous posters) that he did not want to do. He wanted to build a program based on 4/5 years in the system. Once again, like his offensive woes, this is on BD. It is not on admissions or the inability to bring in PG year kids. It is his choice.

 

[06029]

Pretty simple explanation. You need good grades to get into UConn's grad programs and it doesn't look like they make exceptions. If you look at the 3 men's basketball grad transfers, they went to good schools, so they probably would have no problem getting into grad school: Evans (Holy Cross), Miller (Cornell), Gibbs (Texas and Seton Hall).

At many schools, if they want you as a football (basketball) player, you can get into the grad school.

You make it sound like Uconn is Harvard or Stanford.

5th year transfers received their degree from their prior school. That means all they need is to be accepted into a masters program at Uconn. I don't think Uconn would deny anyone with a legitimate degree in 4 years from any accredited university if BD said he wanted him on the team. Not when it is okay for BB and for every other school in the country to do it.

BD chooses not to go this route. He did not want 1 year fix players. Why try and win when you are building a culture from scratch?

 

[huskymedic]

You make it sound like Uconn is Harvard or Stanford.

5th year transfers received their degree from their prior school. That means all they need is to be accepted into a masters program at Uconn. I don't think Uconn would deny anyone with a legitimate degree in 4 years from any accredited university if BD said he wanted him on the team.

The NCAA also requires that a 5th year senior is pursuing a graduate degree not offered at the previous school.

 

[06029]

The NCAA also requires that a 5th year senior is pursuing a graduate degree not offered at the previous school.

That is so easily bypassed. How do the kids from FL get their 5th year at BC by enrolling to get their MBA? UF does not have a MBA program? Or was Tyler Murphy getting his masters in comparative philosophy?

Diaco made a choice not to go after 5th year players. Plain and simple.

 

[UConnJim]

You make it sound like Uconn is Harvard or Stanford.

5th year transfers received their degree from their prior school. That means all they need is to be accepted into a masters program at Uconn. I don't think Uconn would deny anyone with a legitimate degree in 4 years from any accredited university if BD said he wanted him on the team. Not when it is okay for BB and for every other school in the country to do it.

BD chooses not to go this route. He did not want 1 year fix players. Why try and win when you are building a culture from scratch?

Two cases in point about grad students. Robbie Frey was not guaranteed admission into the grad program, so he did not play his 5th year as a grad student. Bryce McNeal, a grad transfer from Clemson,committed to UConn, but was not accepted into the grad school and went to Louisville instead. Why? Supposedly his GPA from Clemson was not high enough although he was academically eligible to play football and graduated from Clemson.

Yes, UConn does accept transfers, post grads, and JUCOs, but not in the numbers that many other schools do like Temple and Louisville.

 

[huskymedic]

That is so easily bypassed. How do the kids from FL get their 5th year at BC by enrolling to get their MBA? UF does not have a MBA program? Or was Tyler Murphy getting his masters in comparative philosophy?

I'm only pointing out that it is a stated "requirement" - not that it can't be gamed. I would bet half leave during their first grad term.

 

[UConnJim]

That is so easily bypassed. How do the kids from FL get their 5th year at BC by enrolling to get their MBA? UF does not have a MBA program? Or was Tyler Murphy getting his masters in comparative philosophy?

Diaco made a choice not to go after 5th year players. Plain and simple.

As a matter of fact, Tyler Murphy got his Master's in Administrative Studies at BC, which is a very specialized major and not offered at Florida.

 

[whaler11]

It's fun having a BC fan tell us that the sky is green isn't it.