The 2021 "at least we're not UConn" thread

[OrangeXtreme]

OMG no!

Amherst is weak !

 

[CousCuse]

So he sought out a program with a terrible roster on purpose? That makes sense too. I'm surprised more elite coaches don't do that.

The biggest thing that has happened to college sports is the portal, a smart coach is going to take advantage of it to its fullest extent.

 

[sutomcat]

A few things on this…

Mora was bought out in 2017 for 12.2 million. It was likely paid in a series of installments, with the bulk of the money coming with the first installment.

I know of no instance in the history of college sports where a coach was fired and got he university that did the firing would not pay the coach if he took another job. Some contracts reduce the money the firing school needs to pay based on the salary the coach gets at his next job. If anything, UCLA would want him to get another job to help reduce the money they owed Mora.

Even if Mora did lose some money by taking another job, do you really think he would sit out for 4 years (almost suicide for a football coach) just to earn the last few payments of the buyout? Look what happened to him after being out of coaching for 4 years. He had to take the worst job in FBS to get hired.

Here is a good review of how things actually work in college sports. CousCuse, please take a look.

https://law.marquette.edu/assets/sports-law/pdf/Separation%20Agreements%206.25.pdf

It should be obvious to all that UConn is not going to be getting any highly recruited players during the Mora era. If he is to be successful, he and his staff need to do a great job identifying players with raw talent who can, over a period of years, be developed into serviceable FBS players. UConn needed to find someone who has experience identifying players with high ceilings and developing them into something. Someone from the MAC, the Patriot, maybe the Sunbelt or CUSA. Ideally someone with a strong background in the East who has a solid network of coaching associates he could use to build a coaching staff and start the long building process.

If there is a bell curve for college football coaches, where one end features coaches focused almost exclusively on ability to identify and develop talent, and the other end focuses on coaches focused on recruiting great players, Mora is on the extreme edge of the recruiting side of the curve

When he hired at UCLA, he hired a staff of great recruiters and had great success recruiting his first couple of years. He actually landed a couple of top 10 recruiting classes. But he and his staff were not good at coaching players, developing them, creating game plans, making adjustments, etc. As the players developed by Neihesiel graduated or transferred and he was left with his own players, his deficiencies as a coach were exposed and he was fired.

It is going to be a huge challenge for someone so unfamiliar with the East and with no experience identifying and developing raw talent to be successful at UConn. That is why people are reacting to his hire like this:

Fans, media troll UConn on social media after announcing Jim Mora as new head coach

Plenty of folks were confused by this hire.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

 

[CousCuse]

I honestly can’t tell if you’ve taken on UConn and UMass as your cause celebre and just can’t find a way to keep from dying on this hill, or if you get paid by someone to come here and repeat this stuff. Honestly.

I really will follow any college football. Just so happens that 2 of the more odd cases in college football are UMASS/CONN.

 

[CousCuse]

A few things on this…

Mora was bought out in 2017 for 12.2 million. It was likely paid in a series of installments, with the bulk of the money coming with the first installment.

I know of no instance in the history of college sports where a coach was fired and got he university that did the firing would not pay the coach if he took another job. Some contracts reduce the money the firing school needs to pay based on the salary the coach gets at his next job. If anything, UCLA would want him to get another job to help reduce the money they owed Mora.

Even if Mora did lose some money by taking another job, do you really think he would sit out for 4 years (almost suicide for a football coach) just to earn the last few payments of the buyout? Look what happened to him after being out of coaching for 4 years. He had to take the worst job in FBS to get hired.

Here is a good review of how things actually work in college sports. CousCuse, please take a look.

https://law.marquette.edu/assets/sports-law/pdf/Separation%20Agreements%206.25.pdf

It should be obvious to all that UConn is not going to be getting any highly recruited players during the Mora era. If he is to be successful, he and his staff need to do a great job identifying players with raw talent who can, over a period of years, be developed into serviceable FBS players. UConn needed to find someone who has experience identifying players with high ceilings and developing them into something. Someone from the MAC, the Patriot, maybe the Sunbelt or CUSA. Ideally someone with a strong background in the East who has a solid network of coaching associates he could use to build a coaching staff and start the long building process.

If there is a bell curve for college football coaches, where one end features coaches focused almost exclusively on ability to identify and develop talent, and the other end focuses on coaches focused on recruiting great players, Mora is on the extreme edge of the recruiting side of the curve

When he hired at UCLA, he hired a staff of great recruiters and had great success recruiting his first couple of years. He actually landed a couple of top 10 recruiting classes. But he and his staff were not good at coaching players, developing them, creating game plans, making adjustments, etc. As the players developed by Neihesiel graduated or transferred and he was left with his own players, his deficiencies as a coach were exposed and he was fired.

It is going to be a huge challenge for someone so unfamiliar with the East and with no experience identifying and developing raw talent to be successful at UConn. That is why people are reacting to his hire like this:

Fans, media troll UConn on social media after announcing Jim Mora as new head coach

Plenty of folks were confused by this hire.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

He had other interested parties, UCONN must have made it worth his while. For one, I heard UW was interested.

 

[CousCuse]

JUST DON'T GO AFTER ASIA! NOBODY CAN KEEP CONTROL OF ASIA!!!

You get it. You need to be strong and control the regions you possess in Risk. The ACC needs to put more armies in New England, ASAP.

 

[SU68]

No Chip. I look at conference expansion like a game of Risk. Now the only region that is unclaimed that is of NO any consequence is New England. The ACC has BC there but BC has no fan support. If one of the other P5 moves in and takes New England, that leaves Syracuse on an island, not good. Currently the ACC has total control of New York, Virginia, North Carolina and has the stronger position in Florida and South Carolina. They have OK stakes in Ga and Pa. I think they should add UCONN and UMASS and close out the board and tell Notre Dame to get lost.

FIFY

 

[All4SU]

I really will follow any college football. Just so happens that 2 of the more odd cases in college football are UMASS/CONN.

 

[rrlbees]

He had other interested parties, UCONN must have made it worth his while. For one, I heard UW was interested.

You heard UW was interested huh? And UConn is only paying him a base salary of $400,000. Pretty cheap. The rest is radio, TV, apparel, etc.

 

[sutomcat]

He had other interested parties, UCONN must have made it worth his while. For one, I heard UW was interested.

He is getting 1.5 million. That is chump change for FBS football. Maybe they threw in season tickets for the women’s basketball team?

Mora is a UW alum and was an unemployed former football HC, so yes, bloggers are going to suggest him as a possible candidate. If he had any chance, he would have held off UConn.

 

[Marty McFly]

You get it. You need to be strong and control the regions you possess in Risk. The ACC needs to put more armies in New England, ASAP.

The key is to have a region that is highly valuable and has fewer points to defend. Adding Uconn/UMass has no intrinsic value, it's like having control of Australia and conquering Siam just to get a card.

 

[CousCuse]

He is getting 1.5 million. That is chump change for FBS football. Maybe they threw in season tickets for the women’s basketball team?

I don't know what his contract entails. I have hunch that some of the language deals with compensation if he can make that program a winner and get an invite to a P5 conference. Then he might get a windfall. Somehow they sold him on going there so it would appear there is more than meets the eye.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Sometimes when I read these posts, I think you’re not real. But I know you are.

Your appreciation for the potential of UConn and UMass football is so sincerely unique.

I wonder if you play out an early to mid 90s Calhoun vs Calipari matchup in your head roughly 18 hours per day.

He is the Rutgers Al of New England college football.

 

[CousCuse]

The key is to have a region that is highly valuable and has fewer points to defend. Adding Uconn/UMass has no intrinsic value, it's like having control of Australia and conquering Siam just to get a card.

All the high schools there play football, there is a lot of D2 and D3 as well as FCS football in NE. The market for FBS is underserved. IMO. Smart corporations look for underserved markets and develop them.

 

[rrlbees]

I don't know what his contract entails. I have hunch that some of the language deals with compensation if he can make that program a winner and get an invite to a P5 conference. Then he might get a windfall. Somehow they sold him on going there so it would appear there is more than meets the eye.

Not really at all. He can earn bonuses up to 200,000 a year but not starting till his 3rd year.

 

[Finwad32]

Imagine being a 25 yr. NFL coach, with NFL HC experience, and now coming back to coach UConn.

It’s crazy. And it says something imo. Unless he wanted this route, was happy with retirement, and found personal value in coming back to coach this school.

 

[CousCuse]

He is the Rutgers Al of New England college football.

High praise indeed.

 

[CousCuse]

Imagine being a 25 yr. NFL coach, with NFL HC experience, and now coming back to coach UConn.

It’s crazy. And it says something imo. Unless he wanted this route, was happy with retirement, and found personal value in coming back to coach this school.

It don't add up. There's got to be more involved.

 

[kirbivore]

JUST DON'T GO AFTER ASIA! NOBODY CAN KEEP CONTROL OF ASIA!!!

Kamchatka is the key

 

[kirbivore]

Imagine being a 25 yr. NFL coach, with NFL HC experience, and now coming back to coach UConn.

It’s crazy. And it says something imo. Unless he wanted this route, was happy with retirement, and found personal value in coming back to coach this school.

Very Norman Dale-ish

 

[Marty McFly]

High praise indeed.

 

[Finwad32]

Very Norman Dale-ish

Unfortunately, ain’t no Jimmy Chitwood’s in Storrs.

 

[Finwad32]

It don't add up. There's got to be more involved.

Yeah, like he rode dad’s coat tails and got exposed. But who knows.

 

[orangefog]

Yeah, like he rode dad’s coat tails and got exposed. But who knows.

Knowing UConn, they probably read his dad’s resume and hired junior based on that.

 

[CousCuse]

Yeah, like he rode dad’s coat tails and got exposed. But who knows.

It seems unbelievable that he got fired at UCLA. He won 10,10,9,8 then had a 4 win season and would have finished 6-6 but they fired him before the last game to further screw him over. Then they float out this rep that he's an a-hole. Those BOT people and boosters at UCLA need to look in the mirror.