What is the Point?

[Vowelguy]

Someone threw Duke and Kansas out there. There are also schools like Indiana, Iowa State, Missouri, and South Carolina that went through absolutely abysmal extended stretches.

Northwestern 3-62-1, 1976-81
(with an NCAA record 34 game losing streak)

 

[noeynox]

Northwestern 3-62-1, 1976-81
(with an NCAA record 34 game losing streak)

Amazing to me how little perspective we have. Losing in CFB SUCKS! We are not unique. All these schools overcame their losing problems and image when they hired a winning guy that understood the challenges to the job at their respective schools. We are no different.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

I'm sorry. Of all the things to worry about when you plan for a football season, no sane AD should be worried about what happens if I fire my coach two games into the season and then the interim coach has to miss a few games because of illness. Please. You can have the best positional coaches around, and those skills don't necessarily translate into having someone who will be a good interim coach.

My take: A management succession plan is a basic principle in any organization, even law firms. Given the money the state spends on college sports, UConn should be prepared for any eventuality.

 

[amishboy]

I will begin by stating that all of the whining, the crying about how we should just give up on FBS football reminds me of the early to mid 1980’s. Before we hired JC there was an army of fans, journalists, academics and politicians claiming that we needed to drop our men’s basketball program down a level as we could never compete in the Big East.

Actually, before Calhoun was hired, our Big East records were:
1979-80 20-9 (3-3 in BE)
1980-81 20-9 (8-6)
1981-82 17-11 (7-7)
1982-83 12-16 (5-11)
1983-84 13-15 (5-11)
1984-85 13-15 (6-10)
1985-86 12-16 (3-13)

Compared to football, these look pretty good; we might’ve been slipping in the BE, but at least we were still beating the old Yankee Conference schools.

Our FBS football program, OTOH, is losing to UMass and Holy Cross, and has now lost 11 straight. Our next opponent, Yale, lost to HC 20-17; HC beat us 38-28.

 

[Bomber36]

We never considered dropping down in hoop. Not good studf

Did you even read it…it was an argument against dropping anything, with a lot of other good info mixed in.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We never considered dropping down in hoop. Not good studf

Who qualifies as "we"? Roughly 36-38 years ago there was quite a bit of noise from a number of people (who similar to those today with football had no say in the decision making process) about leaving the Big East because it was a level we couldn't compete in (yes, this was a ridiculously short-sighted point of view). Those voices were within our fan base, our government, journalists and school employees.

I was a freshman when Corny and McKay were freshman, first heard of the Idea of the Big East in the spring of 1979 and found out we were joining about a month after that. Everyone seemed to like the idea until Corny/McKay/Aleksinas graduated and we fell to the bottom third of the conference. Not long after that came the whining.

 

[CL82]

Who qualifies as "we"? Roughly 36-38 years ago there was quite a bit of noise from a number of people (who similar to those today with football had no say in the decision making process) about leaving the Big East because it was a level we couldn't compete in (yes, this was a ridiculously short-sighted point of view). Those voices were within our fan base, our government, journalists and school employees.

I was a freshman when Corny and McKay were freshman, first heard of the Idea of the Big East in the spring of 1979 and found out we were joining about a month after that. Everyone seemed to like the idea until Corny/McKay/Aleksinas graduated and we fell to the bottom third of the conference. Not long after that came the whining.

Yep, the notion that we couldn’t compete and thus should drop down was talked about in radio shows and written about in columns.

 

[History Geek]

Who qualifies as "we"? Roughly 36-38 years ago there was quite a bit of noise from a number of people (who similar to those today with football had no say in the decision making process) about leaving the Big East because it was a level we couldn't compete in (yes, this was a ridiculously short-sighted point of view). Those voices were within our fan base, our government, journalists and school employees.

I was a freshman when Corny and McKay were freshman, first heard of the Idea of the Big East in the spring of 1979 and found out we were joining about a month after that. Everyone seemed to like the idea until Corny/McKay/Aleksinas graduated and we fell to the bottom third of the conference. Not long after that came the whining.

Yup I remember that clearly. My four years on campus coincided with Perno's last four years. "We are the only non-urban campus in the league" and "Why would any top-level basketball prospects want to go to school at a cow college?" were common refrains. All it took was a great hire to not only help us compete with the rest of the Big East, but to take us to heights none of us now 55 or older could ever have imagined.

So, to the "drop football" crowd, especially those in the UConn administration, shut the duck up and invest in the program. When the right person is eventually hired, the Rent will fill up again, the TV money will improve, we will be better positioned for whatever the realignment landscape looks like, the profile of the entire athletic department and the university as a whole will continue to rise, and we will see a return on that investment.

 

[History Geek]

Do you want to know what rock bottom is? When your star point guard gets expelled for bringing a gun into Ted's during his senior season, that's rock bottom. Calhoun raised basketball from THAT floor.

 

[Vowelguy]

Do you want to know what rock bottom is? When your star point guard gets expelled for bringing a gun into Ted's during his senior season,

who was that?

 

[History Geek]

who was that?

Earl Kelley

 

[J187Money]

The donors need to step up as well. The school can't fix this in a vacuum.

Nice that donations for athletics went from $14.4M in 2019 to $26.4M in 2020, but places like Wisconsin have annual contributions to their overall foundation that are larger than our entire foundation. ($373M in 2020 and our entire foundation is $476M).

That being said - we don't need a fortune - just need to be able to spend $5-7M a year on coaches and that will fix a lot. We are already spending the rest of the money and have the facilities.

UCONN only has 18K donors, and there are more than 18K students. That's why we are behind. We know we aren't ever going to get the TV money that some other schools are going to get. If we don't fund the program ourselves, then who will?

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Earl Kelley

That's Earl "Machine Gun" Kelley.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

nope, not gonna do it.
not going fcs. not even on the radar.
suck it up, fix the problems, move on to better days.

 

[TMB4405]

The two biggest reasons that outweigh everything else is that as a “major” public institution we have to play football. Not doing so would basically move us to small time. Just look to what has grown Uconn to the point it is today. Largely It was basketball success. That fueled a lot of what happened for the school. That “intangible” asset can not be measured in dollars. The current world and its emphasis on football driving the bus makes football critical.

Second is there is the possibility of actually making money on football if we start winning again. We will never generate the revenues that Alabama does but there is enough to make it a moneymaker on an annual basis.

I pray we get the right coach and can get moving in correct direction. I love this school and our sports teams but this program is slowly draining the life out of me.

 

[huskymedic]

Worth the read…

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Honest question…. Why should we remain committed to FBS football? We are uncompetitive, under resourced, and poorly led. What’s the point? I was a season ticket holder until the kids got in the way and I wish we could succeed… but it’s not working. Why continue when there is nothing institutionally to suggest this could ever be turned around.

I feel your pain roomie, but we have to stay the path. There's a lot going on with being FBS football. Being part of it, and hopefully successful with the next hire, adds to the prestige of the university. You are who you associate with and we want to associate with the large land grant research schools.
I believe in AD David Benedict and that he will make the right hire for us. Keeping the BOT, CT coaches, and large influential donors out of the process is step 1.
I think we could sort of be New England's team. Bring in teams folks want to see and play an exciting and competitive brand of football and let's see where it goes. Competitive with the occasional upset would be great. I'm disappointed in the level of play Saturday, but I'm willing to give them a bit of a pass based on the coaching upheaval due to Covid, though I won't give them a pass for the apparent lack of effort at times. I have seen signs with this team (Jackson Mitchell, Tyler P, Nate Carter, and Keelan Marion to name a few) and am super excited to see who the new coach and staff is, much like my anticipation for the Hurley hire.
Let's go get some Pepe's!

 

[J187Money]

As bad as the publicity has been around the program (and bad being bad not bad meaning scandal) - there is an intrinsic value of having a program v. not having a program or having an FCS program. And the marketing value is worth something. Ultimately the school is getting paid for what constitutes advertising for the university.

If you want to scrap football completely? I could understand that. But moving to FCS just gives you most of the expenses without any of the upside.

 

[History Geek]

Not sure but it had enough “pop” to get him in a heap of trouble

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Honest question…. Why should we remain committed to FBS football? We are uncompetitive, under resourced, and poorly led. What’s the point? I was a season ticket holder until the kids got in the way and I wish we could succeed… but it’s not working. Why continue when there is nothing institutionally to suggest this could ever be turned around.

Sorry, but I am going to disagree. When I heard UConn was going to upgrade, I thought we couldn't be competitive and I was AGAINST IT! When The Rent opened and we played Indiana, I was there. I went to a few games and saw that they were competitive. We beat ND, Baylor and other P5 teams. We had a coach who got players in the NFL.

After, we played in a New Year's Bowl game - the Fiesta Bowl against OKLAHOMA - the coach left and the moronic AD hired a coach Connecticut High School coaches wanted, instead of a coach who would keep UConn competitive, we failed. We can be competitive again and I'm sure AD DB will hit a Home Run in his hire.

 

[Bomber36]

Do you want to know what rock bottom is? When your star point guard gets expelled for bringing a gun into Ted's during his senior season, that's rock bottom. Calhoun raised basketball from THAT floor.

 

[Bomber36]

Kelly wasn’t actually kicked off the team until the year after this incident…for failing a class, according to this article. No gun involved as far as I can tell.

Earl Kelley, kicked off the University of Connecticut basketball... - UPI Archives

Earl Kelley, kicked off the University of Connecticut basketball team last week for failing a class, is receiving passing grades from the NBA, according to...

www.upi.com

 

[History Geek]

Kelly wasn’t actually kicked off the team until the year after this incident…for failing a class, according to this article. No gun involved as far as I can tell.

Earl Kelley, kicked off the University of Connecticut basketball... - UPI Archives

Earl Kelley, kicked off the University of Connecticut basketball team last week for failing a class, is receiving passing grades from the NBA, according to...

www.upi.com

Fair enough. The idea of the gun probably was part of the rumors that swirled around campus at the time. Still obviously really bad.

 

[Bomber36]

Fair enough. The idea of the gun probably was part of the rumors that swirled around campus at the time. Still obviously really bad.

Agreed, kidnapping is a bad thing to do. I can see how the gun rumor would start. He eventually got it together, but he had some bad times.

NEW HAVEN 200: Wilbur Cross' Earl Kelley led nation in scoring in 1982

Prior to the start of the 1981-82 high school basketball season, college coaches felt Earl...

www.nhregister.com