The truth is...UConn will probably not be a national player in football.
It is what it is...the administration made a choice that gives the premier sport the best chance to be elite.
UConn football has a chance to move up from bad to something better...but finishing ranked is probably years away, if in the picture at all.
It's all about coaching, coaching, coaching in football, much more so than in basketball. Basketball, yes coaching is important, but much more so than in football, recruiting is EVERYTHING in college basketball.
The reason I make this distinction is back in the early 2000's UConn football HAD coaching, coaching, coaching. RE1.0 had surrounded himself with the best coaching crew in the Big East...Rob Ambrose, Todd Orlando, Joe Morehead, and a couple others. UConn football was on it's way, but things happened and that staff was completely gone by 2011.
If RE2.0 can assemble a similarly talented staff, then all UConn football needs is a couple years, either independent or not. What worries me is it's 17 years later with a lot of water having passed under the bridge and I wonder if Coach Edsall has the same fight in him that he had 20 or so years ago when Toner hired him. Not saying he's not the same, just wondering, and I hope I'm 100% wrong.