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What Happened to UConn Football?

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Mar 19, 2021
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Admittedly I’m not a huge cfb fan, and when I do pay attention it’s not to any teams in the northeast, so can someone explain what the hell happened to UConn? I know they were never a powerhouse but it seems like not too long ago they had a string of respectable seasons including making a bcs bowl. Now seeing them down 42 at half to Army…and I thought rutgers fans had it bad.
 
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Talk about a back door cover…. Line was 33 1/2 … 42-0 at halftime turned into a 52-21 final
I have no stats to back this up, but I feel like that happens with Army a fair amount. Part of it is how they play. And part of it is those kids/coaches are not going to run the score up on anyone because they are all class.
 
Likely

1. Less motivation coming out of the half with such a large lead

2. Army coach probably emptied his bench while UConn kept their starters in longer.
 
To think UConn can still say they accomplished more than Rutgers by making a BCS bowl game is astonishing.
 
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Likely

1. Less motivation coming out of the half with such a large lead

2. Army coach probably emptied his bench while UConn kept their starters in longer.

Yes they definitely took the foot off the pedal, and with the offense that they run, it’s very significant
 
Yes they definitely took the foot off the pedal, and with the offense that they run, it’s very significant
Yes they aren’t throwing the ball all over the place or scoring through quick strikes in the air. It is ground and pound. I don’t like that style of football but they have to play that way because of personnel and they are so disciplined in execution that I enjoy watching them run it. When they (or Navy) play true power 5 programs, the other coaches usually marvel at Army’s discipline and execution with that offense. They say they cannot come close to replicating it in practice with their scout teams or reserves, despite usually having better athletes. I will turn Army on if I’m around the house because I love watching those kids.
 
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To think UConn can still say they accomplished more than Rutgers by making a BCS bowl game is astonishing.

And yet accurate. Rutgers has never played in a BCS bowl game and never won a conference championship. UConn won two in the Big East.

For what it’s worth Connecticut scored three times in the second half in the final ended up being 52 to 21. And yes, absolutely, those points came predominantly against the army second string. I take that as progress since we didn’t score against Purdue’s second or third strings.

Connecticut played a true freshman quarterback, who looks good both throwing and running. We ran back two kick offs for TDs, though one was called back. There were some positives on Saturday, although defense remains atrocious.

Got to say as bad as the game was, army fans near us were great and invited us back to their tailgate. If you ever have a chance to see see a game at West Point, you should go it’s an absolute blast. Annapolis is a lot of fun too.
 
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So normally, I wouldn't bump this thread, but apparently you guys are not the only ones to be asking this question. The linked 247 article is a good, largely accurate article on where we were, where we are and where we hope to be.

From darlings to joke: What happened to UConn football?
A good article but really, the power brokers at UCONN looking to revive football seem to have unrealistic goals. Obviously the investments made in infrastructure are hard to walk away from and maybe that is driving this effort. But what is the recruiting base? Where is the talent coming from. New England is low on D1 talent and the little bit there is go to BC or Syracuse and neither if those schools have seen recent success and are trending further down.

Even UCONNs limited football success was against a watered down BE football league that was so bad that the other power football conferences tossed the BE out.

UCONN made the right decision though. Focus on hoops in the BE and hope for a miracle in football.
 
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A good article but really, the power brokers at UCONN looking to revive football seem to have unrealistic goals. Obviously the investments made in infrastructure are hard to walk away from and maybe that is driving this effort. But what is the recruiting base? Where is the talent coming from. New England is low on D1 talent and the little bit there is go to BC or Syracuse and neither if those schools have seen recent success and are trending further down.

Even UCONNs limited football success was against a watered down BE football league that was so bad that the other power football conferences tossed the BE out.

UCONN made the right decision though. Focus on hoops in the BE and hope for a miracle in football.
Lol, I will take our "limited success" of two conference championships and a BCS bowl... the win over Baylor, the win at Notre Dame, the bowl win over "the old ball coach's" South Carolina team, etc. all in our first 10 years of FBS ball. For what it is worth, I always smile a bit when people try to minimize the 2011 or 2014 basketball national championships as well. It smacks of sour grapes to me.

Keep in mind that UConn didn't decide to to emphasize football to save to hoops. The American TV deal sucked and on a net basis it is about the same as the Big East deal (after facility and production costs, etc.) They also weren't going allow the WBB team to telecast games on SNY, which is important to that program. Flying across the country to play teams that no one cared about for virtually no money made no sense. That is what prompted the move back to the Big East. It turned out to be a great move for men's basketball but that wasn't the only thing driving it.

I do agree that northeast is a tough place to recruit. New Jersey is the big recruiting ground and we are in the same shoes you guys are in for basketball there. The big boys come in and cherry pick. So the approach was to pick up the kids who needed to develop and keep them for 5 years. That's how UConn got so many guys in the NFL. It was Edsall's trademark move, but he struggled to replicate in his second tenure. UConn is getting better talent, but it is forced to play them right away. Take a look at the two deep for this week's game:

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The yellow highlighting is the underclassmen. That is just stunning. Hopefully the next coach can develop these guys. I also think that the transfer portal may allow a good coach to get us back up to playing decent football faster than the four years it traditionally takes. Of course, the rub is actually getting a good coach but the scuttlebutt is that the position is generating surprising interest among good candidates and that BoT is willing to pay for right guy.

So hope springs eternal, but as I've said previously, we've got maybe five years to get it done. After that, I suspect the board will take a long hard look at whether they will continue to chase the football dream. If we haven't improved by then, I doubt even the diehard fans will care.
 
UConn people take this whole thing way too personally.

The 2001-2011 thing is irrelevant because that part of the college football business doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s not coming back. UConn just happens to be the northeastern school without a conference lifeboat to protect it at the moment (Temple is on the watch).
 
UConn people take this whole thing way too personally.

The 2001-2011 thing is irrelevant because that part of the college football business doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s not coming back. UConn just happens to be the northeastern school without a conference lifeboat to protect it at the moment (Temple is on the watch).
I know, right? 2011 is so 10 years ago :rolleyes:

FWIW, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Temple and Navy leave the American. You guys can’t fully appreciate how much being in that conference sucked.

I think the American is going to try to bring in Colorado and Air Force. On one hand another academy has to be attractive to Navy. On the other hand, Those two additions make the travel nightmare that the American is for East Coast schools worse.
 
I know, right? 2011 is so 10 years ago :rolleyes:

In college sports, and especially college football, it most absolutely qualifies as ages ago. Think of how conferences have changed or disappeared (like the one that got UConn it’s big bowl bid) since then, how the playoff thing has come into being, how some conferences are signing billion dollar TV deals and others are getting very little, how the NIL thing is now coming into play…. so yeah, 2011 qualifies as ages ago when it comes to college football.
 
In college sports, and especially college football, it most absolutely qualifies as ages ago. Think of how conferences have changed or disappeared (like the one that got UConn it’s big bowl bid) since then, how the playoff thing has come into being, how some conferences are signing billion dollar TV deals and others are getting very little, how the NIL thing is now coming into play…. so yeah, 2011 qualifies as ages ago when it comes to college football.

So is Seton's 1989 championship game relevant at all? Just wondering.

I'll disagree with you. Ten years is not all that long ago for football, unless your like 9 years old, then, I guess, it's ancient history. Now I'll agree that we aren't stealing any recruits from Bama because we we went to a BCS bowl game in 2011, or even that we went to the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015, but for the kids we target, who are all older that 9 years old, going to a BCS bowl in the last ten years matters. We've had recent success and have great facilities. (I wish the Rent was on campus but other than that everything is great even by FBS standards. I can post some pictures... again... if you are interested.) What we need, first and foremost, is coaching. So that is something to watch at the end of the season.
 
Holy shit, keep trying but that dog is dead. You can talk about BCS success all you want, but there is not going to be a sudden inflow of life into a dead program. Did I mention dead? Football independent, in the northeast, zero chance of any resurgence. Less than zero. Dead. Just stop with the diatribe. Program is toast.

Embrace basketball. There’s history, AND future. As for football, well, you know… dead.

This post has more life.
 
I think we have had enough with UConn FB on our board.

Locking the thread.
 
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