Where would you like to see UConn be in football?

[Rocktheworld]

I thought about it, but Eastern Washington already does it and I wanted to be #original

I think they are more of a “Pinot Red”

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Aloha Husky25,

Why does anybody join athletic forums? We have too much time on our hands. Ha! Go on, admit it! Some do it to be right for at least a little bit of their day. Some do it to try & reconnect to the old school. I'm the latter - but it's difficult to reconnect w/ UConn after 50 years in Hawaii. But I still love the Huskies.

I don't know why you ask the question of me alone. No explanation for singling me out was forthcoming.

I'll tell ya one thing. Except for the mega teams, college football is in a money straight-jacket. Conversely, UConn football "leads" the nation in terms of how much the university subsidizes it - 51%! Not something to be proud of, at any level. And each student is paying about $500 per year to subsidize what has become a perennial Bottom 10 program that is only going to cost millions more in the near future as it continues to lose against real FBS Football schools (most of whom are also losing money). That aint right, IMO.

That's not how any UConn fan wants it to be. That's just how it is. There is no FBS quick fix that will bring UConn football close to a balanced budget or consistent winning in the next 20 years. It's broken & needs immediate fixing. $41 million in debt is not chump change. Time to cut costs across the board. Joining the FCS is just a tool to do that - and that could change again later. No I don't like that. It's just what's necessary.

UConn's national rankings have been steadily declining the last few years. UConn football is a prime contributor to the fiscal problems that are causing that. We can't allow such a great university to suffer such a negative fate. UConn basketball is what has helped with the school's rankings.

IMO, joining FCS is the one solution that can help cut costs, scale back the debt & keep some kind of football on campus with the hope of balancing the budget & fielding competitive teams. Yes, it IS that bad. It's offensive that my school went over the fool's gold cliff with so many others when conference realignment (football uber alles ethic) promised endless riches, but gave UConn unbelievably outrageous cost increases. Stupid leadership. We got left out of the big time conferences & real TV money. Now it's the Bottom 10.

However, Only 24 FBS football programs made money last year. Everyone else had to subsidize. That is a broken model to the sport's sustainability. Here is just one source to that effect:

hc-sp-uconn-sports-athletic-department-finances-revenue-expenses-20190117-2wdp5gimnvhlliwykl6npcmy7u-story.html

So Husky25, I guess the reason I went on the yard's football forum here was to see if anyone else here had the notion to put aside blind X's & 0's fandom discourse for a moment & discuss the sustainability issues for UConn football after so many losses (on the field & on the ledger). I mean the OP asked us where we want UConn football to be. We can't discuss that without addressing the elephant in the room & solutions for keeping UConn football viable, right?

Hey, Husky25, Just like you, I'm a fan. But I also want to be able to express opinions & hear others, even if we don't agree - nothing anyone says on a forum could ever get my goat or offend me. To me, the biggest crime on a forum is when people don't provide the back story & facts to back up an opinion or disagreement. I mean, the thread for "which dorms you stayed in while at UConn?" No nobody really wants to know the dorms. They want to know what you did there, right? The story.

Eh, what's your opinion on where you want UConn football to be & how to get there, brah?

Going for an ocean swim now at Lanikai. Laters.

A Hui Hou,
alohachris

You are a fan? Of what, since it isn't UConn. Just wondering if Whaler11 decided to create you, so he could have another Drop Football person on here! Why not start the AntiUConnFootball forum and invite Whalers11 to join?

 

[Rocktheworld]

You are a fan? Of what, since it isn't UConn. Just wondering if Whaler11 decided to create you, so he could have another Drop Football person on here! Why not start the AntiUConnFootball forum and invite Whalers11 to join?

It’s like whaler is Vader

Harnessed all his hatred, and what it manifested, was a force of positivism in Kinobi whose powers one could not possibly imagine

 

[Purple Stein]

So you’re saying @alohachris was made purely from midichlorians?

 

[Rocktheworld]

So you’re saying @alohachris was made purely from midichlorians?

If midichlorians were made of rum and coconut water

 

[Robertelamin]

You are a fan? Of what, since it isn't UConn. Just wondering if Whaler11 decided to create you, so he could have another Drop Football person on here! Why not start the AntiUConnFootball forum and invite Whalers11 to join?

Did you create aloha @whaler11? It’s time to come clean because we are on to you and your riff raff

 

[Rocktheworld]

Did you create aloha @whaler11? It’s time to come clean because we are on to you and your riff raff

One must always be careful to not troll their own troll

 

[Guapo]

@whaler11 wants to drop football.

IT IS NOW BONEYARD CANON

 

[Robertelamin]

One must always be careful to not troll their own troll

Pffft. Stop blowing up spots failed cross fit bro.

 

[whaler11]

Did you create aloha @whaler11? It’s time to come clean because we are on to you and your riff raff

i couldn’t write that many words in 30 posts

 

[whaler11]

im not sure where huskydogfart got the idea i want to drop football.

because i dont want a marco polo team?

 

[whaler11]

I just hope the new president gets sports and football better than the last one. West Virginia and Louisville had the good sense to hire world beating athletic directors and get out of the way. We had Pendergast, and Warde at our most crucial points. Need a larger than life AD to come along and fix this.

lol yeah... at least she liked duke lacrosse. this guy dreams of being mark spitz

 

[nelsonmuntz]

@ktuck911 you dont have the only candidate in this thread.

Yes, UConn should spend money fielding a water polo team.

It would make more sense to field a Marco Polo team.

One of the greatest posts in football board history.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn football has several problems, but the biggest is the collapse of youth football in the state. How many Connecticut towns have combined teams with other towns just to field a high school football team? How many more will do that in the next 10 years. Where are the Orlovskys and Lutruses and Krugs? These guys were high D1 level talent out of Connecticut, and helped make UConn competitive in football very quickly after UConn upgraded 20 years ago. How much more talent back then came from surrounding states that are going through similar collapses in high school football in the late 2010s?

Every team that rises up is at least partially dependent on getting something from its local recruiting area, and UConn leaned pretty heavily on it the first time around. I don't see that working for UConn again given the decline in high school football in the region.

This is a problem for Syracuse and BC too. College football programs are going to be increasingly dependent on recruiting a shrinking number of states as youth football participation continues to drop in the northeast and west.

 

[LBird33]

Where is our AD these days ??????

 

[Guapo]

UConn football has several problems, but the biggest is the collapse of youth football in the state. How many Connecticut towns have combined teams with other towns just to field a high school football team? How many more will do that in the next 10 years. Where are the Orlovskys and Lutruses and Krugs? These guys were high D1 level talent out of Connecticut, and helped make UConn competitive in football very quickly after UConn upgraded 20 years ago. How much more talent back then came from surrounding states that are going through similar collapses in high school football in the late 2010s?

Every team that rises up is at least partially dependent on getting something from its local recruiting area, and UConn leaned pretty heavily on it the first time around. I don't see that working for UConn again given the decline in high school football in the region.

This is a problem for Syracuse and BC too. College football programs are going to be increasingly dependent on recruiting a shrinking number of states as youth football participation continues to drop in the northeast and west.

That’s a threat to the sport as a whole, for sure.

But, specifically to UConn, they’ve never relied on in-state talent.

First-term Edsall avoided Connecticut high school football coaches likes the plague

 

[nelsonmuntz]

That’s a threat to the sport as a whole, for sure.

But, specifically to UConn, they’ve never relied on in-state talent.

First-term Edsall avoided Connecticut high school football coaches likes the plague

We absolutely relied on Connecticut talent in the early days, along with players from New York, Mass, and other states in the area. The 2004 class alone had Branch, Daleston, Mclean, Deon Anderson, Dewar, Hernandez, Lunn from CT or the surrounding states. That was probably Edsall's best class ever. Hurd and Dan Ryan were from CT. Lutrus who I mentioned before. Kendall Reyes was from New Hampshire. Trevardo Williams was from Bridgeport. Fincher was from Mass.

These were high level D1 players that helped get UConn ranked within a few years of upgrading, and were enabling us to beat teams like South Carolina and Notre Dame.

Most of them weren't even the top players from the state, but back then Connecticut was producing enough talent that we didn't need to get the #1 recruit from Connecticut to still get a nice haul from the state. Those days are over. And New York and New England are trending the same way.

 

[Pudge]

Knock knock

In one moment in a recent home game, I counted 7 Connecticut kids playing defense. In my anecdotal view, neither Indiana or Illinois was replete with InState either - on their entire roster scholarship & walk on.

My view - I grew up in NY & life in NY today - is Connecticut is a good football State. Only slices of greater Boston have a more community football sense, in New England, than good swath of CT. Certainly upstate NY doesn’t. Not LI.

That still makes Bigtime Football a struggle. For whaler11, we ain’t dropping CFB at UConn. Not FCS either. We have to find a sweet spot; we did correctly choose to prioritize our Brand with the BE move. As someone who’s watched Institutions deal with late millennial and the last decades transition on space ... and then reinvest ... I don’t see a modern University walking away from this significant investment. There’s gonna be a UConn Program.

Water Polo? For a second, I thought I was back visiting my cousins in Long Beach CA.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Knock knock

In one moment in a recent home game, I counted 7 Connecticut kids playing defense. In my anecdotal view, neither Indiana or Illinois was replete with InState either - on their entire roster scholarship & walk on.

My view - I grew up in NY & life in NY today - is Connecticut is a good football State. Only slices of greater Boston have a more community football sense, in New England, than good swath of CT. Certainly upstate NY doesn’t. Not LI.

That still makes Bigtime Football a struggle. For whaler11, we ain’t dropping CFB at UConn. Not FCS either. We have to find a sweet spot; we did correctly choose to prioritize our Brand with the BE move. As someone who’s watched Institutions deal with late millennial and the last decades transition on space ... and then reinvest ... I don’t see a modern University walking away from this significant investment. There’s gonna be a UConn Program.

Water Polo? For a second, I thought I was back visiting my cousins in Long Beach CA.

2001 Connecticut was a solid state for finding a few high level D1 caliber talents.

2019 Connecticut is not.

 

[noeynox]

lol yeah... at least she liked duke lacrosse. this guy dreams of being mark spitz

Ugh. I'm hoping he's at least the guy who put into motion going back to the Big East to break the death spiral. What's this about Spitz? Lacrosse, is there a snootier sport than that?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Penn St’s second string QB from Madison had two TDs last night

 

[Guapo]

2001 Connecticut was a solid state for finding a few high level D1 caliber talents.

2019 Connecticut is not.

Eh, the top 7 recruits are all going to one of Michigan, Clemson or Penn State.

That sounds high enough caliber to me.

2019 Top Football Recruits in Connecticut

The 247Sports rankings are determined by our recruiting analysts after countless hours of personal observations, film evaluation and input from our network of scouts.

247sports.com

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Eh, the top 7 recruits are all going to one of Michigan, Clemson or Penn State.

That sounds high enough caliber to me.

Michigan’s obsession with NJ has definitely crept up into CT.

 

[noeynox]

2001 Connecticut was a solid state for finding a few high level D1 caliber talents.

2019 Connecticut is not.

I think you're overstating this. On this current team some of the major contributors are Travis Jones, Kevon Jones, Omar Fortt and Dillon Harris. Surrounding states has guys like Peart and Van deMark. Yes the team isn't good yet, but if there was a guy who neglected CT it was Diaco. He'd go into NJ and load up on a bunch of guys with Bucknell offers.

 

[Guapo]

Michigan’s obsession with NJ has definitely crept up into CT.

I can almost guarantee Harbaugh is a Bon Jovi fan