OT: Report: Pat Narduzzi turns down offer to become UConn’s coach

[Cootface]

You are ignoring the fact that the University of CT, as an institution, has more to offer than just conference affiliation.

For a football player? No. No, it doesn't. Just like you aren't going to be seeing any super stud 5 star recruits joining the UMass football team either.

 

[sutomcat]

Coaching matters.

I read your post. Other than Rutgers being in a better conference, all those things have been in place during the years RU has watched UCONN win BE championships and UCONN beat them on the field. We won BE championships while coming last year after year in recruiting.

We hardly ever, if ever, beat Rutgers for recruits under Edsall. It's only under PP that we started winning head-head battles. We have more 3 star players for next year - even with PP being fired - than Edsall ever had.

I can tell from the Diaco press conference that some players are going to want to play for him and fact is that if you are honest, UCONN as an institution, has a lot to sell to players other than just conference affiliation.

Even without winning many battles, we put 5 guys in the NFL draft last year - I really don't buy the talent gap that you might imagine exists by reading the recruiting rankings. Fact is that the recruiting rags absolutely suck at evaluating talent in this part of the country. There are plenty of prospects who are 2 stars who can play. The bigger question is can Diaco ID them and can he coach them up?

We have a kid coming in who ran for 490 yards in his last game in hs. He has 3600 yards and 64 TDs on the season. 3 stars? Really?

If Ollie is a better coach than Hopkins, UCONN will win more games. If Diaco is a better coach than Shafer, we will win more games. Its not that complicated.

We've seen it. Calhoun was an outstanding coach and UCONN was top dog in the BE for a quarter century. Edsall was a better coach than GROB and we won 5 straight season by an average of 20 points.

If Calhoun went to Rutgers and spent 25 years, do you really doubt whether or not they would have multiple NC's?

If Brian Kelly went to Rutgers instead of Schiano, do you really doubt they would have been to a BCS game by now?

Coaching matters in college athletics. More than any other thing. How else can UCF be so much better than USF? How can Boise be so much better than Washington over the past 10 years? How can UCONN beat SU for 5 years in a row by a total of 97 points?

Coaching matters.

So your fall back position now is that the greatness of your new football coach is going to overcome all the daunting challenges UConn faces trying to become a good football program.

I like Diaco, he has a good background and I think someday he will be a fine HC. But it is a big step up from a coordinator position to the HC position. It is going to take time for him to adjust, especially given the current state the UConn football program. Can he be successful recruiting at a school like UConn? He goes from one end of the spectrum to the other...things will be a lot different for him. He is going to have to be great at finding diamonds in the rough, coaching up players to reach their maximum potential, creating great gameplans, being a master motivator, etc.

If I were a UConn fan, I would have hired someone with a background more suited to what is needed there. Someone like Clawson, who has proven he can make silk out of sow's ears. Maybe Diaco can do this well...he at least had some experience working with UConn caliber players when he was coaching in the MAC. This is a risky move but it might work out well. There are some parallels to Addazio. Except Addazio had the advantage of coaching at a BCS school.

Good luck. Maybe someday we will meet you again in a bowl game. Crazier things have happened.

 

[storange]

So your fall back position now is that the greatness of your new football coach is going to overcome all the daunting challenges UConn faces trying to become a good football program.

I like Diaco, he has a good background and I think someday he will be a fine HC. But it is a big step up from a coordinator position to the HC position. It is going to take time for him to adjust, especially given the current state the UConn football program. Can he be successful recruiting at a school like UConn? He goes from one end of the spectrum to the other...things will be a lot different for him. He is going to have to be great at finding diamonds in the rough, coaching up players to reach their maximum potential, creating great gameplans, being a master motivator, etc.

If I were a UConn fan, I would have hired someone with a background more suited to what is needed there. Someone like Clawson, who has proven he can make silk out of sow's ears. Maybe Diaco can do this well...he at least had some experience working with UConn caliber players when he was coaching in the MAC. This is a risky move but it might work out well. There are some parallels to Addazio. Except Addazio had the advantage of coaching at a BCS school.

Good luck. Maybe someday we will meet you again in a bowl game. Crazier things have happened.

Its a good hire if he hires assistants that know the recruiting territory in the Northeast (and the difficulty of building a program in the football talent desert of New England and the northeast)

 

[Moontan]

Think before you hit send

Better yet, follow Herm Edwards' advice:

"Don't press send."

 

[HOFCeluck]

I would start away from other message boArds of my team just put up a Greg Robinson calibre season.

 

[storange]

I lived in Syracuse the day Calhoun was hired and I remember having lunch with a group of SU fans after we won our first BE championships. Its was unanimous that this was a one-time thing and what was great about the BE was that everyone a turn take their shot against SU and Georgetown. When I suggested that UCONN might stick around, everyone was convinced that it would never happen. Turns out Calhoun was a great coach and stuck around. Could Ollie be even better?

When UCONN joined the BE, this board was unanimous that is would be at least a decade before UCONN could even give SU a game.

yea but we were all high that day. I also told my son that day " If your not first , your last !"

 

[sutomcat]

yea but we were all high that day. I also told my son that day " If your not first , your last !"

True!

Also, the only time this board was in total agreement on anything was when we agreed we would never all agree on anything. That was rule one of football club.

Ever since then, we have been Syracusefan.com, Home of the Contrarians (The Agreeable Disagreers).

 

[Alsacs]

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/connecticut/2003.html
http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/connecticut/2007.html

Oops.

LOL, OMG I am so ashamed the almightly UConn has two 9 win seasons you surely put me in my place. Good luck in the future.