Anyone willing to share their letters?
This was my poor attempt. It was impossible to keep it short and simple so I ended up going pretty Spackler...
Dear Mr. Manuel,
I am not a UConn alumnus but I was raised in Connecticut and have been an ardent UConn fan since I started following college sports and became a passionate follower of the UConn football team when they made the upgrade to Division 1 football. Over these past 10 years, I have lived the ups and downs of UConn football and I thought you should know that in all that time, I have never been more pessimistic about the state of this program as I am today.
This is not about our most recent loss to Cincinnati or even the soap opera that is conference realignment. My analysis on the performance of this team was based on a complete season and looking back now, it is clear to me that the offensive coaching staff and Head Coach Pasqualoni are not up to the task of moving this program in a better direction and need to be replaced.
I’m sure you are as familiar with the dismal offensive statistics as I am. Prior to the Cincinnati game, we ranked in the bottom five of all FBS teams in Scoring Offense and the bottom 10 of all FBS teams in Total Offense. Those two statistics alone should be reason enough to merit a change in the offensive coaching staff but if you want to look beyond the quantitative and examine the qualitative, the “eye” test leads to a similar conclusion. This group did not lack for talent, particularly at the skill positions – we had returning 2nd team All-Big East performers at Tight End and Running Back along with returning our leading receiver from 2010 in Michael Smith. Chandler Whitmer was broadly considered a significant upgrade from our starting QB last year. Even the offensive line, which was considered our weakest link, had senior leadership with Masters and Bennett and returned both Kevin Friend and Steve Greene as starters from last year.
Despite having this talent available, we never executed on the game plan that the offensive coaching staff was looking for and seemed to take a significant step backwards from last year’s performance (when we had a walk-on starting QB). While I understand that coaches don’t throw or catch the ball (or do anything else on the field),
if they cannot come up with an offensive scheme that matches the abilities of the players that they have, then a new direction is needed. In addition, like many fans, I was frustrated that, even though we were never able to master our “base” offense, we constantly attempted to introduce a wildcat offense that failed to move the ball and often took away from our offensive rhythm / caused the unnecessary wasting of Time Outs. Perhaps our offense should have spent its limited practice time to get better at our “base” offense as opposed to being sub-par in multiple systems?
With respect to Head Coach Pasqualoni, I appreciate that popular theory is that a Head Coach needs several years to bring in “his” players before you can truly judge him. That being said, Head Coach Pasqualoni has made many decisions over the past two years which are completely unrelated to the players on the field which make me doubt his abilities as a head coach. Specifically clock management and the use (or non-use) of Time Outs at the end of 1st halves and games in general has been abysmal. In addition, in similar situations (end of half or game), we have often run plays that involved multiple exchanges of the ball when a kneel-down would have sufficed with much less risk involved whether it be a potential turnover or a potential player injury. These poor decisions are unrelated to the players on the field and are indicative of poor head coaching ability.
Beyond those on the field decisions however was a quote from Head Coach Pasqualoni during his interview with the ABC sideline reporter after the first half of the Cincinnati game. In that interview, he was asked what the team needed to do in the 2nd half to win the game (a standard question) and
his response was to play for a close game in the fourth quarter. I understand these interviews are not supposed to be particularly informative – they are a requirement of getting your game televised. That being said, Head Coach Pasqualoni’s statement seemed to be an admission which implied that he was coaching the game to just keep it close. I don’t understand how a coach can approach a game thinking that they are coaching for the fourth quarter. Doesn’t it imply that you expect to be unsuccessful at performing substantially better than the opponent in the first three quarters? Extrapolate further and it is really an indictment of his expectation of player / coach performance in the game; he doesn’t seek to win the game on each possession but rather try to keep it close until the fourth quarter so we can steal a win? As a fan, I hope you can appreciate that this philosophy is extremely frustrating and provides some explanation for our poor performance in various games earlier in the year and last year as well (both wins and losses).
These coaches have created a style of football for UConn which, from a fan’s perspective, does not generate excitement or optimism. Our schedule was relatively weak this year given the replacement of West Virginia by Temple in the Big East. This team had a great defense that performed very well statistically (Top 20 Scoring Defense and Top 10 Total Defense prior to Cincinnati game) and, in most games, was the only reason UConn was remotely competitive. If a team cannot even win half of its games with such superior performance on the defensive side of the ball, it is a clear commentary on the performance of both the offensive staff as well as the Head Coach.
This team, despite having the same unsatisfactory record of 5-7 as they did in 2011, has regressed offensively from last year. Coach DeLeone took personal responsibility for the Offensive Line this year and that unit performed far worse than they had in previous years under Coach Foley. That change in coaching responsibility was either made or approved by Head Coach Pasqualoni and is another apparent error in judgment. Two teams that beat us this year (Western Michigan and North Carolina State) have already terminated their head coaches’ contracts for sub-par performance. I hope you can appreciate that, while two years is not the ideal time frame to judge a coaching staff, in this case many fans, including myself, feel that it is more than sufficient. If no action is taken and the existing coaching staff is retained, I fear for the development of this program, both on the field and in the stands and in the hearts and minds of UConn alumni and local supporters such as myself.
Thank you in advance for listening to the perspective of the fans. I know I am not alone in my opinions and that others have also contacted you – some more coherently than others. We all have the same goal which is to support the UConn athletic programs and see them succeed at the highest level of competition. In order to achieve that, it seems apparent to me that changes need to be made as soon as possible.
Regards,
