pasqualoni fired. gerg hired.

[PhatOrange]

What type of coach is going to take that job when next year its a league of 5 non-BCS conference and their are better football programs in that conference.

The same type of coach that any non-bcs team hires. An up and comer. Plenty of D1AA coaches looking to make the jump up as well as plenty of coordinators.

 

[Scooch]

Agreed it was a bad spot, but not sure if it was a bad decision at the time. UConn needed a stable influence, one with a reputation for discipline and no-nonsense. P brought that, brought recruiting good will and connection both in NY and NJ from his Syracuse days as well as his Connecticut roots. I figured at the time he was a place holder until someone more permanent- and exciting- could be found, but as he's the kind of guy most of us would want our sons to play for, I thought he'd be serviceable. Not flashy, probably not winning big, but able to compete with the Leftovers of the BE.

Hindsight says I was wrong, but given the circumstances of the time of his hiring, it was, to me, an understandable move.

I'm certainly no soothsayer, but I disagreed with UConn's decision and I was pretty adamant about it at the time.

My point of view was opposite of your's. I felt that UConn was plenty "stable" in the sense that Edsall used a totally unappealing style to grind a way to four seasons of 9-4, 8-5, 8-5, and 8-5. I didn't see how that was sustainable, since everyone said their recruiting was still pretty lousy.

UConn has no natural recruiting base and, IMHO, needed a young, innovative guy that could lure under-recruited, but athletic, kids to a creative, high-flying system that would level the playing field for them. P & D were plenty innovative in the 90s, but was hard to see them being that today.

 

[SWC75]

Pasqualoni's undoing once again was his inability to develope a QB.

The curse of Mike Vick continues.

I just called into Bud and the Manchild, where they are discussing Coach P's firing. Jim Lersch said that his sources on the hill say that in the later years of Pasqualoni's tenure here he "lost his focus on recruiting and tried to win games through strategy" and without players that were as good as we had in the 90's it didn't work. He thinks the same thing may have happened at Connecticut.

Recruiting has got to be the biggest grind for a college coach. You have to evaluate hundreds of players, choose the ones to focus on and then try to sell the program to them, (i.e. beg them to come and win games for you). Coach P didn't seem like the salesman type and maybe he just got tired of it. It happens to a lot of them. I think that's what actually happens when people say "the game has passed him by". There's nothing new strategically in football. Teams may do more of some things and less of others. It's the recruiting grind that takes successful coaches down sometimes.

 

[SWC75]

Towson - 18-33
Maryland - 21-32
Michigan - 21-24
Buffalo - 12-41

He was rightfully fired.

Weird. He lost to Maryland and Michigan, both of whom are undefeated by a total of 14 points. That's actually laudable. He lost to Towson and Buffalo by a total of 44 points. That got him fired.

 

[rrlbees]

Skip Holtz


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scooch]

when teams realized you could run the option, stretch the defense, and not throw the ball backwards, the athletic QBs he had success with almost by default had other choices.

i would love to know what his offensive numbers were out of the shotgun with mcnabb. i bet they were amazing - other schools took that, did it all game, and added the read option handoff wrinkle.

once the freeze option vanished, they didn't have an offensive identity.

Yep, the run of athletic, African-American QBs that spanned McPherson, Graves and McNabb was a truly innovative era for SU, and P (& D) were very much architects of that. Once the rest of college football realized they shouldn't be making those kids only play RB and WR our advantage evaporated.

 

[Millhouse]

There's nothing new strategically in football. Teams may do more of some things and less of others.

the only way that's true is if you look at things at an incredibly basic and superficial level. something like "it's all still running throwing catching blocking and tackling"

 

[Alsacs]

The same type of coach that any non-bcs team hires. An up and comer. Plenty of D1AA coaches looking to make the jump up as well as plenty of coordinators.

Yeah, and when an up and comer takes that job UConn officially becomes a mid-major which is what I was saying. While I don't care for UConn and I received more insults as a traveling fan when I went to Syracuse-UConn football game there in 2011 I feel UConn doesn't deserve to be kicked to the curb while other lesser programs are allowed to stay in the BCS.

 

[GFTakedown]

They should bring in a Joe Moorhead(Fordham HC/ex-OC at UConn), Rob Ambrose (Towson HC), Chuck Priore(Stony Brook HC) or Dave Cohen(Rutgers DC/ex-Hoftra HC). Like Opus said thy won't be getting a MAC. I don't think they would have a good chance at getting a top OC/DC on BCS teams either with all of the questions.

 

[Rocco]

Brett McMurphy ‏@McMurphyESPN 8m
Paul Pasqualoni will receive a $750,000 buyout

The Paul Pasqualoni Player's Lounge in the IPF.

 

[SWC75]

Yep, the run of athletic, African-American QBs that spanned McPherson, Graves and McNabb was a truly innovative era for SU, and P (& D) were very much architects of that. Once the rest of college football realized they shouldn't be making those kids only play RB and WR our advantage evaporated.

To be honest, there were both African-American and mobile quarterbacks before McPherson-Graves-McNabb. Ben Schwartzwalder's first quarterback, Bernie Custis, was one. But I think DeLeone, (going back to the coach Mac era), proved you could pass off the option and that mobile quarterbacks could be good passers, too. That may be why McNabb chose SU over Nebraska.

 

[SWC75]

They should bring in a Joe Moorhead(Fordham HC/ex-OC at UConn), Rob Ambrose (Towson HC), Chuck Priore(Stony Brook HC) or Dave Cohen(Rutgers DC/ex-Hoftra HC). Like Opus said thy won't be getting a MAC. I don't think they would have a good chance at getting a top OC/DC on BCS teams either with all of the questions.

Bring back Coney Island Dave!

 

[Millhouse]

Yep, the run of athletic, African-American QBs that spanned McPherson, Graves and McNabb was a truly innovative era for SU, and P (& D) were very much architects of that. Once the rest of college football realized they shouldn't be making those kids only play RB and WR our advantage evaporated.

throwing the ball forward is better than throwing it backward

a) make the defense defend the whole field

b)simplify offense while giving the QB the choice to run

until recently, offenses chose between a and b

spreading people out and including passes in the choices that qbs make

we got to see parts of it - bubble screens were the basic packaged play, we screwed that up because spence didn't get why you ran them.

mcnabb was best in the shotgun not throwing the ball backwards. wish we could mix those players with modern offenses. not blaming pasqualoni, it took a while for the whole profession to get it figured out and get it out of their heads that you can't run out of a spread shotgun offense

 

[Scooch]

To be honest, there were both African-American and mobile quarterbacks before McPherson-Graves-McNabb. Ben Schwartzwalder's first quarterback, Bernie Custis, was one. But I think DeLeone, (going back to the coach Mac era), proved you could pass off the option and that mobile quarterbacks could be good passers, too. That may be why McNabb chose SU over Nebraska.

Of course. There was Major Harris, Andre Ware and Tommie Frazier too. But it's undeniable that many, many, college programs were not at all interested in having athletic, A-A kids play QB. That ignorance was a benefit to SU.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

Its still September. UCOnn is not USC.

That changes tomorrow (the part about it being September, not the part about USC.)

 

[Alsacs]

Pat Forde ‏@YahooForde
Worst Hires of 21st Century: UConn (Paul P), Cuse (Robinson), FIU (Ron Turner), USM (E. Johnson), UNM (Locksley) or UT (Dooley)? Pick one.

I would go 1. Robinson 2. Locklsey 3. Johnson 4. Coach P 5. Dooley 6. Turner

 

[llandz]

UConn needed to get rid of P and bring in a big time coach if they have any chance of being picked up by one of the Big conferences. Otherwise they can kiss the football program goodbye at this point because they dropped rapidly to a team with no relevance to anyone.

 

[Stern]

Pasqualoni is NOT a head coach. Period
In over his head

 

[Scooch]

UConn needed to get rid of P and bring in a big time coach if they have any chance of being picked up by one of the Big conferences. Otherwise they can kiss the football program goodbye at this point because they dropped rapidly to a team with no relevance to anyone.

That's what UConn needed to do in late 2010. And not necessarily a "big time" coach, but a big time performer. They didn't, and Louisville's in the ACC.

Oops.

 

[TampaNole]

UConn needed to get rid of P and bring in a big time coach if they have any chance of being picked up by one of the Big conferences. Otherwise they can kiss the football program goodbye at this point because they dropped rapidly to a team with no relevance to anyone.

No worries. The CT AG is likely preparing to file suit against someone, or some entity, as I type.

 

[Scooch]

No worries. The CT AG is likely preparing to file suit against someone, or some entity, as I type.

Our new AG doesn't really do that. The guy that did is a Senator now. Ugh.

 

[Madbiker]

Schiano to UConn when he gets fired in a few weeks? Has a new coach from the outside ever taken over a program midseason?

I'm sure he really wants to go to a mid major in the dumpster fire AAC.

 

[sufandu]

I have always liked and respected Coach P. But this is not a case of "undying love." It is not yet October 1. IMHO college coaches should not be fired four games in.

He's not four games in. He's 28 games in and has lost 18 of them, one to an FCS school. I will never feel sorry when a millionaire gets fired for doing a subpar job. Being a good guy does not equal competence. He needs to do what he's good at, be a position coach where he gets to teach fundamentals.

 

[Moontan]

Bring back Coney Island Dave!

I actually spoke to him last week and expect to see him on Saturday.

 

[sufandu]

Yep, the run of athletic, African-American QBs that spanned McPherson, Graves and McNabb was a truly innovative era for SU, and P (& D) were very much architects of that. Once the rest of college football realized they shouldn't be making those kids only play RB and WR our advantage evaporated.

It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that P was an architect of using athletic African-American QB's. McPherson and Graves were both recruited under Mac when P had nothing to do with the offense. P followed the template given to him when he took the job. D, however, was certainly significant with developing our option game in the late 80's and early 90's.