Who's your list for next HC?

[Yup!]

Moorhead is not coming here. I do not believe we will win a game this year.

A good salesman can sell anything. It’s Dave’s job to sell the hell out of this program and offer up some money if we want to see change. We’re all upset, and as fans we should be, but let’s wait a couple of months to see how this plays out. We may get one of these coaches that we think is out of the question. The good news is there’s a lot of good coordinators and HCs out there and we have a head start in the hiring process.

 

[sub legacy]

Does anyone think Tom Herman would even entertain UConn? He currently has an obscure title with the Chicago Bears, last I checked.

 

[metsfan2323]

Probably a longshot but how about Sean Desai, current Chicago Bears Defensive coordinator. Graduate of Shelton high school and I believe a classmate of Orlovsky. This guy is actually a former college professor, so we know he is smart and can teach. Just throwing it out there.

 

[Sportsfan71]

With the arguments I made I’m sure he would be considered. I guess that’s up to Dave to decide not is. With Spanos accomplishing what I listed I’m sure it’ll be difficult for Dave to look the other way, he would at least give Spanos an interview.

Yup, and I’m Santa too

 

[NowInStorrs]

John Grass makes $300k and is 68-22 as HC at Jacksonville State, who just beat FSU.

That said he's at his alma mater and has lived in Alabama for like his entire life so...

 

[metsfan2323]

Not sure if anyone brought this name up yet so I'll bring it up, Shane Day current QB coach for the Rams and UCONN offensive coordinator for our three game winning streak at the end of the 2013 season. I bet he would entertain the position.

 

[Sportsfan71]

Can we get Lashlee now? Would he come back here if the price is right? There are other incentives for him to come back here. Spanos could remain as DC, or DC and associate HC.

Why in the world do we want Spanos? This defense has been horrible, pass…

 

[metsfan2323]

Why in the world do we want Spanos? This defense has been horrible, pass…

I will say this in defense of the defense, nothing is more demoralizing for a defense than an inept offense.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Didn't Charlie Strong have a spotty record at Texas and USF.

Charlie Strong can recruit. If he’s available, sign him up at all costs.

 

[Yup!]

Yup, and I’m Santa too

Oh

 

[Sportsfan71]

Exactly why nobody on this staff needs to be considered..

 

[Sportsfan71]

Don’t tell anyone…

Oh

 

[Chin Diesel]

Byron Leftwich.

Currently a consultant for the offensive coordinator on Tampa Bay Bucs. He could be on the lookout for a position with authority and control.

 

[huskysupporter]

Zero idea why I thought for one second Moorehead would come here. He will get a nice P5 job after this season or next.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I understand you (and many other UConn fans) don’t think there’s a difference. Primarily because of the disdain that UConn fans had for being in that league. I’m letting you know from talking to players- that’s not true.

Drew, not naming names but can you share the context. For instance, are these guys from the PP era? Are they from outside the program? etc.

 

[Husk1881]

I see a lot of posts about UConn being an impossible job. We probably hired the 3 worst candidates we could have found. PP was over the hill for 7 years. BD didn’t even practice offense (true story from a buddy of mine who played under him) and RE 2.0 didn’t even try to put a competitive product on the field and only blames his players. If we had even a mildly competent head coach and average at best coordinators this program could easily have strung together some decent years. We have an OL coach calling plays right now on offense. We really don’t need to over complicate this hire. Just don’t get a washed up retread with no desire but to fill up his pension or a coordinator that every other school in the country passes up. That said… I think Moorehead is out of reach. There are tons of other successful offensive minded coaches who would love the opportunity to make 7 figures. Trust that AD Dave will make the right call just like he did with basketball.

 

[Milo65]

Great throwback and looking at it quite prophetic.

 

[tzznandrew]

Great throwback and looking at it quite prophetic.

Yeah, wow. A great—and sad—watch all these years later.

 

[storrsroars]

Great throwback and looking at it quite prophetic.

Thank you for bringing that back. Some of my best work here.

 

[BlueandOG]

Probably a longshot but how about Sean Desai, current Chicago Bears Defensive coordinator. Graduate of Shelton high school and I believe a classmate of Orlovsky. This guy is actually a former college professor, so we know he is smart and can teach. Just throwing it out there.

I am a proud graduate of The Ripper (aka Shelton High) and can attest to the greatness of all of my fellow valley football alums. However, hard pass on any of us as the next UCONN head football coach. We need someone with a record of winning as a head football coach at some level. No assistants or coordinators.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

Something I feel like we’re not focused enough on in this thread is recruiting. There was some back and forth about what side of the ball the HC should specialize in… defense is safe, offense is definitely more exciting and probably more important at this point. We all want someone with a proven track record of producing (or helping to produce) wins.

That said, the top 3 attributes we’re going to need are:
1. Recruiting
2. Recruiting
3. Recruiting

Talent wins. Plain and simple.
I think Moorehead would be great. I think he’s more attainable than some would like to believe. I think Lashlee is more attainable than we might think as well.
I also like the sound of the guy from the Giants who was mentioned towards the beginning of this thread. Many of you have brought up great FCS coaches too. Whoever it is needs to be able to recruit first and foremost. Everything else takes a backseat.

At this point, we’re a tough sell to even 3 star recruits. We need someone who can get them
in here, and maybe eventually even some
4 star guys. CT might not be a hot bed, but if you scale that up to New England or even the northeast, you might be talking about a decent pool of D1 talent. We need to keep those kids here.
I have a friend at the Brunswick School in Greenwich. Kids in their program as well as the NE prep schools they play get Big 10 and SEC offers all the time. Ideally, we need to keep those players here.

It felt like we were overmatched at every position vs Purdue. Nick Saban could walk through that door, but without ball players, even he’d have a tough time. We need someone here who will bring in talent.

 

[UConnDan97]

Thank you for bringing that back. Some of my best work here.

"We still have Geno and the girls."

Classic stuff. Wish it wasn't so damned accurate...

 

[CCSUblue]

Here is a recap on names that have been tossed about.

Some have been omitted that I have deemed stupid suggestions. (Mangini, Kelly)

I have included wanted names regardless of the likelihood of them taking on the job. So even if JM or RL arent coming, they are the two names tossed around the most and hence top the list. The top 4 on the list seem to be the mist discussed names, others added as they have popped up. Only included names that someone agreed with.

Joe H. is bolded as my first choice.

Joe Moorhead - OC Oregon
Rhett Lashlee - OC Miami
Jamey Chadwell - HC Coastal Carolina
Will Healy - HC Charlotte

Joe Harasymiak - Co DC Minnesota
JaJuan Seider - RB Penn St
Liam Coen - OC QB Kentucky
Bill O'Brien - OC Alabama
Phil Longo - OC UNC
Jason Candle - HC Toledo
Sean Lewis - HC Kent State
Bob Chesney - HC HC
Sean Spencer - DL NYG
Eric Mele - RB Miss St
Matt Canada - OC Steelers
Charlie Strong - AHC ILB Jaguars
Curt Cignetti - HC JMU
Tom Herman - OA Special Projects Bears
Willie Taggert - HC FAU

Happy to edit for any others that have been discussed and I overlooked.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

AD David Benedict should be on the phone with current UConn NFL players to try and get them to commit to donating $1MM per year for the next 4 years to be used for the salary pool. That extra amount for salaries would go a long way in attracting good candidates to turn around the progra

How many NFL players do you think we have and what do you think they get paid?

Something I feel like we’re not focused enough on in this thread is recruiting. There was some back and forth about what side of the ball the HC should specialize in… defense is safe, offense is definitely more exciting and probably more important at this point. We all want someone with a proven track record of producing (or helping to produce) wins.

That said, the top 3 attributes we’re going to need are:
1. Recruiting
2. Recruiting
3. Recruiting

Talent wins. Plain and simple.
I think Moorehead would be great. I think he’s more attainable than some would like to believe. I think Lashlee is more attainable than we might think as well.
I also like the sound of the guy from the Giants who was mentioned towards the beginning of this thread. Many of you have brought up great FCS coaches too. Whoever it is needs to be able to recruit first and foremost. Everything else takes a backseat.

At this point, we’re a tough sell to even 3 star recruits. We need someone who can get them
in here, and maybe eventually even some
4 star guys. CT might not be a hot bed, but if you scale that up to New England or even the northeast, you might be talking about a decent pool of D1 talent. We need to keep those kids here.
I have a friend at the Brunswick School in Greenwich. Kids in their program as well as the NE prep schools they play get Big 10 and SEC offers all the time. Ideally, we need to keep those players here.

It felt like we were overmatched at every position vs Purdue. Nick Saban could walk through that door, but without ball players, even he’d have a tough time. We need someone here who will bring in talent.

4Ever, we won’t be able to pull off what you want for quite a few reasons and even if we were able to try there is no guarantee of success.

Landing someone who could bring in the level of (developed) HS talent your posts suggests would require a sales job that I’m not sure is possible and a financial commitment the school couldn’t carry out with better resources, top level leadership and political support.

The last time I can remember a school attempting this was ~15 years ago when UNC brought in Butch Davis (who in his prior collegiate head coaching job assembled as much talent as any school ever had). The had a better situation than we could reasonably hope for in the near term, added top level assistants across the board and put in every possible effort to add talent (even stretching the rules a bit too far) and they still failed to get the results a hire of that magnitude should achieve.

Whoever we bring in will need to understand and accept quite a few things in order to succeed.

• There are challenges unique to this job but they are challenges, not road blocks.
• There will be people within the top levels of the school, government and local media who not only will believe football success is unimportant, but detrimental to their interests.
• He will (to some extent forever but absolutely until we do achieve success on the field) need to continually find undeveloped talent and build them into quality pieces after two, three years in the system.
• He will need the vision to realize what the program can become if we start winning at a reasonably high level. This place can become something special. Not many realize this but the person who does will be able to endure the background noise trying to kill the program
• There are benefits attainable here that can only be matched with a job at a handful of schools outside of the P-5.
• We still have facilities equal to at worst the middle of P-5.
• We are the flagship school and clearly largest amateur brand in a densely populated, affluent state.
• We have demonstrated in the not too distant past that our home field can be an electric environment when things are going well.

We need someone who will be willing to endure the slings and arrows of the naysayers for a few years.

We need someone who will embrace the climate and build a program that can win in sunny 90 degree weather, rainy 60 degree weather and snowy 30 degree weather.

We need someone who will be willing to view this job with a long term focus (even if he isn’t viewing it as a destination job) as for a time being, talent will need to be built by bringing in raw kids who likely won’t contribute (beyond perhaps special teams) for a few years and install a system to support this.

We need someone with the vision to establish recruiting ties in various hotbeds (NJ/PA/OH; MD/VA; FL; GA; TX) as (regardless what many want to claim) we don’t develop sufficient local talent to support a football roster and too often those with top talent are looking for larger profile programs.

We need someone who will be willing to embrace an independent schedule, with the pitfalls of such a schedule: home and road games falling where they may, not in a standard sequence; a couple of annual games against G-5 schools we have no attachment to offset with a couple games against top programs as a payday (believe it or not a few top programs built themselves this way 4-5 decades ago).

This can be done and this can be done well but it will take a comprehensive plan and support from above the AD position (which may be the most difficult part).

 

[Hskies4Ever]

How many NFL players do you think we have and what do you think they get paid?


4Ever, we won’t be able to pull off what you want for quite a few reasons and even if we were able to try there is no guarantee of success.

Landing someone who could bring in the level of (developed) HS talent your posts suggests would require a sales job that I’m not sure is possible and a financial commitment the school couldn’t carry out with better resources, top level leadership and political support.

The last time I can remember a school attempting this was ~15 years ago when UNC brought in Butch Davis (who in his prior collegiate head coaching job assembled as much talent as any school ever had). The had a better situation than we could reasonably hope for in the near term, added top level assistants across the board and put in every possible effort to add talent (even stretching the rules a bit too far) and they still failed to get the results a hire of that magnitude should achieve.

Whoever we bring in will need to understand and accept quite a few things in order to succeed.

• There are challenges unique to this job but they are challenges, not road blocks.
• There will be people within the top levels of the school, government and local media who not only will believe football success is unimportant, but detrimental to their interests.
• He will (to some extent forever but absolutely until we do achieve success on the field) need to continually find undeveloped talent and build them into quality pieces after two, three years in the system.
• He will need the vision to realize what the program can become if we start winning at a reasonably high level. This place can become something special. Not many realize this but the person who does will be able to endure the background noise trying to kill the program
• There are benefits attainable here that can only be matched with a job at a handful of schools outside of the P-5.
• We still have facilities equal to at worst the middle of P-5.
• We are the flagship school and clearly largest amateur brand in a densely populated, affluent state.
• We have demonstrated in the not too distant past that our home field can be an electric environment when things are going well.

We need someone who will be willing to endure the slings and arrows of the naysayers for a few years.

We need someone who will embrace the climate and build a program that can win in sunny 90 degree weather, rainy 60 degree weather and snowy 30 degree weather.

We need someone who will be willing to view this job with a long term focus (even if he isn’t viewing it as a destination job) as for a time being, talent will need to be built by bringing in raw kids who likely won’t contribute (beyond perhaps special teams) for a few years and install a system to support this.

We need someone with the vision to establish recruiting ties in various hotbeds (NJ/PA/OH; MD/VA; FL; GA; TX) as (regardless what many want to claim) we don’t develop sufficient local talent to support a football roster and too often those with top talent are looking for larger profile programs.

We need someone who will be willing to embrace an independent schedule, with the pitfalls of such a schedule: home and road games falling where they may, not in a standard sequence; a couple of annual games against G-5 schools we have no attachment to offset with a couple games against top programs as a payday (believe it or not a few top programs built themselves this way 4-5 decades ago).

This can be done and this can be done well but it will take a comprehensive plan and support from above the AD position (which may be the most difficult part).

I agree with everything here. But even underdeveloped or diamond-in-the-rough type players need recruitment. I don’t think for two seconds we’re going to be a school that just brings in studs, but we need to be able to get classes that are going to be consistently in the 50 to 80 range and coach them up from there.