Yeah Dave kept giving lifelines to the football HCs and they refused to accept the help. Why we didn't keep Mazzone around, either, is beyond me.
Edsall was worse than the worst of Diaco. Hindsight is 20/20, but the hope was to recapture past glory. Hope should never be part of the plan.
The call that DB was forced to make was Bob Diaco or Randy Edsall. If we were moving away from Diaco, the only option he was given was Edsall.
Diaco was a complete train wreck and he was falling apart at the end of his tenure. Randy was a short term plan to make the football competitive again before it was handed over to the next coach. I don't think anyone had any idea that he was going to phone it in as much as he did.
It was clear that with Diaco we were on a sinking ship. At the time it made sense to immediately jump off a sinking ship--a natural reaction. Unfortunately, it turns out we were jumping into alligator infested waters with Edsall. It turns out we would have been better off floating in the sinking ship for a little bit until help arrived instead of jumping into the water and getting eaten alive by the alligators. Little did we know at the time.
Diaco gave the admin no choice but to let him go. He rejected Kill and was resistant to any suggestions. The recruiting went south as his philosophy was length over speed. RE V2 offered an adult in the room. Unfortunately, he wasn't the right guy anymore and it showed.
I don't disagree with any of that. But seeing where Edsall brought the program and where we are now....I'm not convinced at this point that we would have been better off letting Diaco continue down his bat- crazy black hole for another year or two and then turning everything over to a real upcoming coach.
They are liquid meds. First word is the name of a New England state. Second word is the meal in the middle of the day
It's kinda if the person's job to ascertain if the person they are hiring can do the job. In any event, the misktake was letting him stay a minute past the end of season 2. Record level futility should nevet be accepted as "part of the process". Can't imagine how divided that team was under him. Benched a bunch of guys that helped get to a bowl game to go 1-11, in horrid fashion.
Yeah, it ended up being a train wreck. I think Covid bought him an extra year when arguably, his handling of it could've been grounds for dismissal.
RE brought in Ryan Van Demark, Travis Jones and Christian Haynes. All in the NFL. He still had eye for talent, but he was stuck in time. Once we left the AAC, Edsall was done. You can't really blame him as we did pull the rug out from underneath him. And, what coach would have hung around after the terms of engagement were changed from when they were hired? Bottom line, it was a bad move by the University and Benedict has been playing catch up ever since.I don't disagree with any of that. But seeing where Edsall brought the program and where we are now....I'm not convinced at this point that we would have been better off letting Diaco continue down his bat- crazy black hole for another year or two and then turning everything over to a real upcoming coach.
Heck, knowing how it all turned out, we would have been better firing Diaco and letting Any Baylock be a figure-head head coach and hiring a young and hungry OC and DC and letting them run with it for a bit until we could get the resources necessary to get a real head coach and funding.
I agree with this. And it was a good thing that the governor was brought in on the process. We don't know what the "runway" was, but Dave Benedict knows. It needs to become the basis of a plan for football. Benedict ranted: "I’m tired of being disrespected as a brand, nationally, because of football". Maybe this kick in the pants was what they needed.
A follow up interview/presser is warranted with all that this thread is suggesting. Kind of like an anti-Yormark approach - honesty about a plan and whether or not the support exists to pull it off in the very real world we are trying to survive in.
They need a plan that involves the President, the Athletic Department, the Board of Trustees, the governor and the legislature. A plan that involves goals and a financial commitment to the state university to succeed at football. If this latest round of realignment hasn't shocked them, then nothing will. David Benedict can't be the only one trying to figure out where the money is going to come from. If the will and financial commitment aren't there, then football should be dropped. There is no point to limping along for the next 5-10 years.
If they were now going to start planning, they done messed up Ja-Queline. Maybe your right though, they may now finally realize that having elite, non matched hoops isn't good enough if you treat football like an afterthought.
Lamont needs to reach out to Murphy to ask him not to undercut the State's efforts to secure tens of millions of dollars every year. Murphy's incredibly tone deaf and shortsighted on this issue.
One thing you left out. We need a billionaire. Like make Jeff Bazos an honorary grad … see if that works!
I think we need to pursue private equity/capital because we don't have the massive donors and we actually fit the profile of a private equity target - we have upside revenue potential. And, honestly, we need better marketing and outreach functions within the AD and the university as a whole. UConn and CT overall are rich in work ethic and results, but below par in telling the story. Bring in outside money and expertise to maximize AD results and financials. Money goes to money. If we bring in the PE, we get into a power conference and the UConn AD boats will rise to amazing heights.