Where We Are Headed....

[Nostical]

....Into the top 15 of Public Universities. The rationale of what US News considers in their analysis can be questioned, and who knows about the politics, but most accept this list as the currently recognized benchmark of rankings. Two things jump out: The strength of California's State University system----and with our current #21 ranking, how many schools are surprisingly beneath us. SH plans on us cracking the top 15. When we do we'll be in pretty good (and desirable) company. Don't bet against her.

 

[FDNY99]

And by thhis time next year Nos...an ENTIRELY new football staff top to bottom!

 

[Hoophound]

When does US News do the next rankings? I am curious what effect all of the recent hiring of faculty will have on our ranking.

 

[Dann]

i am 100% on board with susan and i think she can and will get uconn into the top 15. didn't uconn crack the top 20 a year ago then fall to 21 this past year? she clearly gets it and shes going all out for the aau and other academic stuff to be done asap. shes doing her half for the b10 invite and has us in good shape on he end. my issue is i don't think she understands athletics so she looks for a "rockstar" to handle it, which is fine for a prez to do. but what she thinks she found and what she actually found are 2 different things. she found the ed cooley of athletic directors. all talk and show, a bit fat and extremely poumpus to u in person. this person will always show a big game then when it comes time he has a small dick and no x or o's. this is my issue as warde has not handled anything right.

hell he told P to have some one else call plays and this is your last year here. how the can u as a ad do that? u basically just told your HC who while sucking here has a shitton of connections everywhere else that hes just a 1 million dollar babysitter for the next 12 months then hes gone. thats the worst strategy i have ever seen. and all u ass clowns here are ok with it. what did P do? well right away instead of doing a extra spray of offers like every other school, he sat on a couple juco leads that wern't happening anyway and then called it a day until after the holidays to fill his class. he basically folded up shop as why does he care about recruits that will never play for him now? it just pains me to watch this and everyone here can't grasp it. your to focused on bull crap to see all the signs and other telling things. our fball program is getting completely right now by a guy who doesn't have the expierence to lead the dept. simple as that. P may or may not be a good HC, but hes not stupid hes been around a bit. if u think you can honestly try to be a nice guy by telling P hes here for 1 more year then gone and he will try hard your kidding yourself. this is still a business. P responded to it by shutting down recruiting and then slowly getting his boys or ppl that matter to him off the isalnd.

2 coaches left so far, more will soon. its just a joke of epic portions and it pisses me off here becuase i can't get 1 dam person to see it. when we joke on here that some of us should be working for uconn its all fun, but the sad thing here is i could right now pick 20 posters out here who some i like and some i dont care to read but none the less would have us all set in a matter of days compared to where we are now and thats a dam fact. thats how bad this dumpster fire is. everyone here once again fell under the rockstar status daze when he months late gave ko a contract. oh thats a sign he gets it blah blha. no, its a sign that he lost the war he was trying to have and hes going to lose us a lot more if we don't get his fat ass a job at dunkin donuts soon. he has destroyed this program in a matter of months. a simple yeas p your job is safe would have been a lot better then what he told him. now we have a lame duck staff who is goin to half ass recruit until they are gone. u watch 3 of the 4 local teams do coaching changes this winter, we wont gain a dam thing from that in fact we lost brown to bc so we actually somehow managed to lose in it. un real. remember all those great ct prospects in 2014 i talk about? how do u expect to land them? and so on down the line with issues. !!!!!!

 

[Nostical]

Here's the US News list of Public Universities for 2013 (based on early 2012 data gathering). We are 21. We were 27 in 2010 and 20 in 2011. Look for in the teens next year. California may be bankrupt but their University System is incredible.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandr...ges/rankings/national-universities/top-public

 

[metsfan2323]

and all u ass clowns here are ok with it.****!!!!!!

who exactly are you talking to? 90% of us want Warde to grow a pair and clean house.

 

[Dann]

who exactly are you talking to? 90% of us want Warde to grow a pair and clean house.

clealry the other 10% then. i would say its more like 20% to 80 but hey 90-10 if u think thats what it is more to ya. warde and susan got a grand total of like 30 different fans to write or call about the issue this fall. no matter how many times those 30 fans tried it wasn't enough. to many here want to say hey well u know this and that becuase why else blah blah.

we need action and a leader! and got mountain man from the show duck dynasty.

 

[auggie22]

USNWR publishes their rankings each September, using data from the previous fall class. There are a handful of measures used in their methodology that are well known ( e.g. Sat scores, acceptance rate, 6 year grad rate, student faculty ratio, etc ). They often change the weighting of these measures, and each school has some variability in the metrics that they report, so it is difficult to say where UCONN will fall when the rankings are reported again; but we do know that the school has reported some significant increases with the fall 2012 freshmen class in areas that were weighted heavily last year.

They will not see any benefit from the faculty hiring program in USNWR terms until the 2015 rankings. But the hiring program will influence several of the measures, not just student:faculty ratio. A top ten ranking is "doable" in the long-term.

 

[Adios]

Interesting to note we are now ahead of Rutgers.

 

[Dooley]

Interesting to note we are now ahead of Rutgers.

The ranking places Connecticut ahead of Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota, Michigan State, Iowa, and Indiana.

 

[Jimdish255]

The ranking places Connecticut ahead of Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota, Michigan State, Iowa, and Indiana.

T-46 Nebraska

 

[Dooley]

i am 100% on board with susan and i think she can and will get uconn into the top 15. didn't uconn crack the top 20 a year ago then fall to 21 this past year? she clearly gets it and shes going all ****ing out for the aau and other academic stuff to be done asap. shes doing her half for the b10 invite and has us in good shape on he end. my issue is i don't think she understands athletics so she looks for a "rockstar" to handle it, which is fine for a prez to do. but what she thinks she found and what she actually found are 2 different things. she found the ed cooley of athletic directors. all talk and show, a bit fat and extremely poumpus to u in person. this person will always show a big game then when it comes time he has a small dick and no x or o's. this is my issue as warde has not handled anything right.

hell he told P to have some one else call plays and this is your last year here. how the **** can u as a ad do that? u basically just told your HC who while sucking here has a ****ton of connections everywhere else that hes just a 1 million dollar babysitter for the next 12 months then hes gone. thats the worst ****ing strategy i have ever seen. and all u ass clowns here are ok with it. what did P do? well right away instead of doing a extra spray of offers like every other ****ing school, he sat on a couple juco leads that wern't happening anyway and then called it a day until after the holidays to fill his class. he basically folded up shop as why does he care about recruits that will never play for him now? it just pains me to watch this and everyone here can't grasp it. your to focused on bull crap to see all the signs and other telling things. our fball program is getting completely ****ed right now by a guy who doesn't have the expierence to lead the dept. simple as that. P may or may not be a good HC, but hes not stupid hes been around a bit. if u think you can honestly try to be a nice guy by telling P hes here for 1 more year then gone and he will try hard your kidding yourself. this is still a business. P responded to it by shutting down recruiting and then slowly getting his boys or ppl that matter to him off the isalnd.

2 coaches left so far, more will soon. its just a joke of epic portions and it pisses me off here becuase i can't get 1 dam person to see it. when we joke on here that some of us should be working for uconn its all fun, but the sad thing here is i could right now pick 20 posters out here who some i like and some i dont care to read but none the less would have us all set in a matter of days compared to where we are now and thats a dam ****ing fact. thats how bad this dumpster fire is. everyone here once again fell under the rockstar status daze when he months late gave ko a contract. oh thats a sign he gets it blah blha. no, its a sign that he lost the war he was trying to have and hes going to lose us a lot more if we don't get his fat ass a job at dunkin donuts soon. he has destroyed this program in a matter of months. a simple yeas p your job is safe would have been a lot better then what he told him. now we have a lame duck staff who is goin to half ass recruit until they are gone. u watch 3 of the 4 local teams do coaching changes this winter, we wont gain a dam thing from that in fact we lost brown to bc so we actually somehow managed to lose **** in it. un ****ing real. remember all those great ct prospects in 2014 i talk about? how do u expect to land them? and so on down the line with issues. ****!!!!!!

While I agree with wanting P fired, especially if GDL wasn't canned (which it looks likely that he won't be), allow me to play devil's advocate with you here. So take it easy on me with your reply because I too am frustrated at seeing all of our local competitors make positive coaching changes (my guess is that Cuse has somebody good lined up if Marrone leaves too).

Perhaps Warde is thinking along the lines of 2013 being an important year in terms of wins and losses and he thinks making a coaching move would:
1) lose players due to transfer, thus making it more difficult to field the best possible two-deep all season long;
2) limit his ability in his coaching search (i.e. - he wouldn't be able to bring in a spread guy this late in the game knowing the new coach would only have spring and summer practices to implement an entirely new system). He'd likely have to bring in a pro style coach if he views a coaching style change would crush UConn football with the possibility of a 2-10 season as a result of the new style learning curve and lack of the new coach's recruits.
3) lose currently committed recruits and not allow a new coach time to retain or find his own recruits

Warde is banking on the familiarity with the existing coaching staff and a third year of P's recruits to turn the program around and get back to a bowl game to give UConn fans an opportunity (perhaps our final opportunity) to show that we will travel to a bowl game in big numbers. My guess is that he views making a coaching change presents too much risk at this point. Given the difficulty of UConn's early season schedule and typical learning curve, unless he hired Urban Meyer, for a new coach, he knows UConn can't afford to open up 1-for-September. Now I'm not saying Pasqualoni is going to guarantee winning and a bowl game, but I think Warde is looking at the complete body of work from 2012 and aside from that putrid Syracuse disaster, the team played hard in every game. Warde probably feels like the kids responded to Coach P and they give the program the best chance at getting through the early part of the schedule and in position to get to 6-7 wins.

The dangerous part in this gamble is the risk of alienating the fanbase. Warde likely figures that the strength of the 2013 home schedule should keep the Rent full (if it doesn't, that's on us the fanbase). One significant but underrated reason why UConn is still on the CR sidelines is national perception that our fanbase sucks. People remember that UConn sold 2,771 tickets to the Fiesta Bowl and don't care that OU sold 5,567 to the same game and UConn fans bought tickets through StubHub. The national media saw 2,771, ran with it, and painted UConn as the black eye of bowl games instead of giving UConn credit for getting to a BCS bowl so quickly in their brief history. OU doesn't eat from the sports world because they're OU and because the B12 wrote a hefty bailout check to save face. It's hard to blame Warde for 1) hiring the wrong coach and 2) not realizing the urgency of the sluggish Fiesta Bowl ticket sales and not finding some relief from our bigger donors knowing that there was not going to be a Big East bailout check coming Storrs way. Warde wants one more bowl game opportunity to give our fans a chance to prove that we belong on the big stage, soothe and massage donors, and wash the taste of the Fiesta Bowl out of the national perception's foaming mouths. It's bowl game or bust for P and the players. They're all in this together...get to a bowl game and you protect your beloved coach. Don't and he's out and you're likely going to be stuck playing NNNNNNBE 3.0 for your collegiate career. If Coach P finishes 2-10, Warde will HAVE to answer that by significantly increasing the budget for football coach and bring in a guy that re-engergizes the Connecticut fanbase and national perception.

So in summary, I think Warde is getting a pass from many fans because they know this is all Hathaway's mess. Hathaway's uninspired coaching search and hire (and alienating major donors), bringing in a golden goose as his credits are rolling, is to blame here. Warde used 2012 to evaluate the team's energy levels and while everybody here is sick to their stomachs that the team didn't get to a bowl game with our easier schedule, he saw effort and he saw a good finish to the season in beating UL and Pitt. Hopefully, the weakest link of our program will be removed or, at the very least, have his role significantly reduced. I don't see any way that UConn will win 7 games against our 2013 schedule with GDL calling our plays or coaching our OL. But all we can do as fans in the meantime is rally around the team, pack the Rent, and hope it gets to a bowl game so we can sell our allotment and show the football world that we belong.

 

[Jimdish255]

I give you credit for trying to make sense of the current predicament. I just don't think there is any deep thought process going on other than respecting P's opportunity to have a 3rd year to prove himself, and an unwillingness to turn the whole thing upside down after 2 years. There's also the $$ thing. So we wait and hope against all reason that things will get substantially better. Well some of us hope for that, others hope for the opposite and others (count me in) just wait for the inevitable (if delayed) changes that need to be made. We slip back some more and then make a change with things left in a poorer situation than 2 years ago. The program not seen as a winner on the field, left an orphan by an AD who was not aggressive when he needed to be having misjudged the climate of CR. Unless someone has an inside line as to promises made that's where we'll be when the ball drops again next year. And some of us north of 50 will hope the time horizon for positive change is realized sooner rather than later.

 

[thatguyed]

I think it's great that UConn is breeding a bunch of smart kids who can, at least, spell Pasqualoni. Let them all hopefully use it for a "Thank you Coach Pasqualoni for your effort, good luck in your next position" note very soon.

 

[pj]

I give you credit for trying to make sense of the current predicament. I just don't think there is any deep thought process going on other than respecting P's opportunity to have a 3rd year to prove himself, and an unwillingness to turn the whole thing upside down after 2 years. There's also the $$ thing. So we wait and hope against all reason that things will get substantially better. Well some of us hope for that, others hope for the opposite and others (count me in) just wait for the inevitable (if delayed) changes that need to be made. We slip back some more and then make a change with things left in a poorer situation than 2 years ago. The program not seen as a winner on the field, left an orphan by an AD who was not aggressive when he needed to be having misjudged the climate of CR. Unless someone has an inside line as to promises made that's where we'll be when the ball drops again next year. And some of us north of 50 will hope the time horizon for positive change is realized sooner rather than later.

I agree. Warde looks weak by waiting until the decision to dismiss P is obvious to everyone (one more, 2-10 or 3-9, year). That way he can't be criticized. He looks like he fears criticism of his personal decisions more than he fears failure of the university.

To keep P and give hope for the next season, you had to retain Don Brown and get rid of GDL. Warde didn't do that.

The only upsides for this decision is that he saves money on the severance and he may be in a better position to hire a coach next year if UConn lands in a decent conference in the meantime. But he's not proactively positioning us to look more attractive to a conference. He's positioning us to be better placed financially to tolerate a descent to MAC status.

I don't mind the KO stuff at all because Ollie was always going to succeed and always going to get a good contract, and there weren't more than a couple good players available by the time JC stepped down so recruiting wasn't affected. But I hate the senseless tightening of academic standards for athletes -- Warde needs to stand up to Susan on that if it's her doing -- and I hate the retention of GDL and loss of Don Brown, and I hate the lack of marketing of the football program and I hate the failure of marketing UConn to conferences.

I hope we're not going to continue failing, but Dan is right, the athletic department needs to raise its game for us to be competitive.

 

[huskymedic]

But I hate the senseless tightening of academic standards for athletes -- Warde needs to stand up to Susan on that if it's her doing

PJ - not sure I understand the statement above... Are you looking for two separate admission standards - one for general students and another for student athletes? Hasn't the standards to get accepted into UConn raised each year?

Not arguing that higher academic standards can be a hurdle - just trying to understand the point.

 

[FDNY99]

Just so things are clear about strict admissions requirements...that started Austin and Hogan while Hathaway was AD. It is something that Edsall constantly bitched about...and was one of the many reasons he went to MD. This is nothing new...and with APR issues of men's bb team...it isn't going to get relaxed any time soon. For this you can thank Calhoun!

 

[Woof 101]

i am 100% on board with susan and i think she can and will get uconn into the top 15. didn't uconn crack the top 20 a year ago then fall to 21 this past year? she clearly gets it and shes going all ****ing out for the aau and other academic stuff to be done asap. shes doing her half for the b10 invite and has us in good shape on he end. my issue is i don't think she understands athletics so she looks for a "rockstar" to handle it, which is fine for a prez to do. but what she thinks she found and what she actually found are 2 different things. she found the ed cooley of athletic directors. all talk and show, a bit fat and extremely poumpus to u in person. this person will always show a big game then when it comes time he has a small dick and no x or o's. this is my issue as warde has not handled anything right.

hell he told P to have some one else call plays and this is your last year here. how the **** can u as a ad do that? u basically just told your HC who while sucking here has a ****ton of connections everywhere else that hes just a 1 million dollar babysitter for the next 12 months then hes gone. thats the worst ****ing strategy i have ever seen. and all u ass clowns here are ok with it. what did P do? well right away instead of doing a extra spray of offers like every other ****ing school, he sat on a couple juco leads that wern't happening anyway and then called it a day until after the holidays to fill his class. he basically folded up shop as why does he care about recruits that will never play for him now? it just pains me to watch this and everyone here can't grasp it. your to focused on bull crap to see all the signs and other telling things. our fball program is getting completely ****ed right now by a guy who doesn't have the expierence to lead the dept. simple as that. P may or may not be a good HC, but hes not stupid hes been around a bit. if u think you can honestly try to be a nice guy by telling P hes here for 1 more year then gone and he will try hard your kidding yourself. this is still a business. P responded to it by shutting down recruiting and then slowly getting his boys or ppl that matter to him off the isalnd.

2 coaches left so far, more will soon. its just a joke of epic portions and it pisses me off here becuase i can't get 1 dam person to see it. when we joke on here that some of us should be working for uconn its all fun, but the sad thing here is i could right now pick 20 posters out here who some i like and some i dont care to read but none the less would have us all set in a matter of days compared to where we are now and thats a dam ****ing fact. thats how bad this dumpster fire is. everyone here once again fell under the rockstar status daze when he months late gave ko a contract. oh thats a sign he gets it blah blha. no, its a sign that he lost the war he was trying to have and hes going to lose us a lot more if we don't get his fat ass a job at dunkin donuts soon. he has destroyed this program in a matter of months. a simple yeas p your job is safe would have been a lot better then what he told him. now we have a lame duck staff who is goin to half ass recruit until they are gone. u watch 3 of the 4 local teams do coaching changes this winter, we wont gain a dam thing from that in fact we lost brown to bc so we actually somehow managed to lose **** in it. un ****ing real. remember all those great ct prospects in 2014 i talk about? how do u expect to land them? and so on down the line with issues. ****!!!!!!

Dan, love your love for our dogs...Having said that I have to question how you can back Susan 100% in one sentence and tear her to shreds in the next.
I think you are 50% behind her here.

This being 100% in academics and 0% in sports. Just say'n ...

 

[pj]

PJ - not sure I understand the statement above... Are you looking for two separate admission standards - one for general students and another for student athletes? Hasn't the standards to get accepted into UConn raised each year?

Not arguing that higher academic standards can be a hurdle - just trying to understand the point.

Yes, I do think athletes should be subject to lower academic standards than non-athletes. As they are at every school, including Harvard. But UConn's standards for athletes aren't as low as its peers. That's a problem for competitiveness. I think it's short-sighted and foolish.

 

[huskymedic]

PJ - not sure I understand the statement above... Are you looking for two separate admission standards - one for general students and another for student athletes? Hasn't the standards to get accepted into UConn raised each year?

Not arguing that higher academic standards can be a hurdle - just trying to understand the point.

Yes, I do think athletes should be subject to lower academic standards than non-athletes. As they are at every school, including Harvard. But UConn's standards for athletes aren't as low as its peers. That's a problem for competitiveness. I think it's short-sighted and foolish.

I guess that leads to how much lower... Should it be based on a sliding scale depending on how many "stars" they have or ppg average? Should there be a limit of how many lower threshold kids each team (FB, MBB, WBB, BB, Hockey, etc...) can take a year?

Slippery slope when there are no regulations outside of NCAA eligibility core requirements. Agree it's a competitive challenge though.

 

[Jimdish255]

I agree. Warde looks weak by waiting until the decision to dismiss P is obvious to everyone (one more, 2-10 or 3-9, year). That way he can't be criticized. He looks like he fears criticism of his personal decisions more than he fears failure of the university.

To keep P and give hope for the next season, you had to retain Don Brown and get rid of GDL. Warde didn't do that.

The only upsides for this decision is that he saves money on the severance and he may be in a better position to hire a coach next year if UConn lands in a decent conference in the meantime. But he's not proactively positioning us to look more attractive to a conference. He's positioning us to be better placed financially to tolerate a descent to MAC status.

I don't mind the KO stuff at all because Ollie was always going to succeed and always going to get a good contract, and there weren't more than a couple good players available by the time JC stepped down so recruiting wasn't affected. But I hate the senseless tightening of academic standards for athletes -- Warde needs to stand up to Susan on that if it's her doing -- and I hate the retention of GDL and loss of Don Brown, and I hate the lack of marketing of the football program and I hate the failure of marketing UConn to conferences.

I hope we're not going to continue failing, but Dan is right, the athletic department needs to raise its game for us to be competitive.

Not liked because you agreed with me, but for reading between the lines. Warde doesn't want to burn bridges and that's usually the high road to take. We're just in a tough situation where the time to make a move would have been weeks ago, so now we marinate.

 

[HartfordHank]

I guess that leads to how much lower... Should it be based on a sliding scale depending on how many "stars" they have or ppg average? Should there be a limit of how many lower threshold kids each team (FB, MBB, WBB, BB, Hockey, etc...) can take a year?

Slippery slope when there are no regulations outside of NCAA eligibility core requirements. Agree it's a competitive challenge though.

My daughter attended a camp at the College she eventually attended. As part of the camp they had a session for the parents where they outlined what is expected from students to get admitted to the school. She said they received about 5,000 applications. They were then divided into three groups, about 1500 who the school thought could really excel at the school and would be aggressively recruited, about 1500 who they did not feel had the academics to succeed at the school and would not be offered. The remaining 2000 were kids who were felt could succeed at the school academically. Coaches, band directors, and other groups were provided the list of 3500 kids who admissions felt could succeed a the school and would admit any student on this list based on a request from the head of that department.

Schools have to admit kids who they are confident can succeed academically. If you cannot you should not be at the school. These are Student-Athletes, not Athletes who might be students as well. My biggest problems with one and done's is they are to often never doing academics. Maybe just enough first semester to be qualified for second semester. Too many do not even finish second semester.

If I were king of the NCAA I would tie scholarships to graduation rates. Start with an appropriate number of scholarships for the sport and then the school maintains them as kids graduate. If a kid does not graduate that scholarship goes dormant until that kid would have graduated. Would dramatically change the face on NCAA Athletics.

 

[weyuo]

If I were king of the NCAA I would tie scholarships to graduation rates. Start with an appropriate number of scholarships for the sport and then the school maintains them as kids graduate. If a kid does not graduate that scholarship goes dormant until that kid would have graduated. Would dramatically change the face on NCAA Athletics.

Agree 100%. Make the Calipari's of the world weigh their recruiting decisions. Would be almost like a amateur athlete version of the salary cap.

 

[freescooter]

If I were king of the NCAA I would tie scholarships to graduation rates. Start with an appropriate number of scholarships for the sport and then the school maintains them as kids graduate. If a kid does not graduate that scholarship goes dormant until that kid would have graduated. Would dramatically change the face on NCAA Athletics.

I've been calling for something like this for years. If a kid leaves school early his scholarship is unavailable until his class graduates. Obviously the impact would be felt most in basketball. Not so much in football, maybe some in baseball. So if you recruit a one and done guy, you better be sure you can live with 1 less scholarship for the next 3 years. You'd force coaches to recruit kids they felt would stay for the full 4 years, and as you say, change the face of college athletics over time. Force those guys who only want a place to hang out until they become draft eligible to go to the D-league or to Europe or even force the NBA to revisit its silly 1 year out of high school rule. Clearly there would have to be exceptions for guys who legitimately transfer, and even guys who flunk out or get kicked out of school because you never want there to be an incentive to keep people who are dangerous or simply can't cut it, but it is absolutely workable.

As far as the question of whether athletes should get " preferential treatment" in terms of meeting certain standards, I don't have a problem with it up to a point. But I do think it is important that the admissions people have input into the process.

 

[Husky68]

Even though I've made my Rock Star jokes on Suzy's guy, can't imagine he told PP:
"hell he told P to have some one else call plays and this is your last year here." Had heard of the request on play calling.
Am ok with not firing PP after 2 years, but that is because don't think RS is good enough to pull it off, not that he shouldn't do it.
So if not firing PP how does he handle OC role and play calling and player usage: says change OC. Simple as that. Offense not good enough based on personnel (someone needs to make that call, it's RS's job to do so), tell PP to change it. He defies a direct order, you fire him.