2021 Coaching Carousel picking up riders… | Page 33 | The Boneyard

2021 Coaching Carousel picking up riders…

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Dodd sticking w/ his same old narrative. Hope Mora eats his lunch...




Jim MoraCNo matter who got this job, you must wonder about UConn's commitment to football after leaving the AAC for basketball reasons. There is an ongoing limbo there as an independent. However, Mora seems committed having served as a Huskie offensive analyst in 2021. He went 46-30 in six seasons at UCLA.

The fact that Dodd actually stated that Mora (a defensive oriented HC) served as a offensive analyst for UConn in 2021 show a pretty high level of cluelessness about both Mora and UConn. A 5 second google search for "UConn offensive analyst" shows how Mazzone served in that role. Dodd has zero credibility in posting an opinion about UConn's hire
 
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What's the same old narrative? That if this school cared about football first, second, and third, like most schools, we wouldn't have gone independent? That's a very reasonable conclusion. I hope the move to independence works as much as anyone else, but let's be honest -- we did it because we needed to for basketball.

If you want to criticize Dodd, it would be for failing to notice the commitment to increasing the non-coaching football staff. But that's a lot to expect a national writer to be aware of at every school.

Do I think the grade itself is too low? Yes. But who cares what someone writes that is arbitrary and an opinion.
It is an old narrative. I would argue that UConn left the AAC due to the lack of money, to save men's and women's basketball, and to rebuild football. Can you imagine being in a conference for football and basketball with UAB, FAU, UNC Charlotte, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, USF, Tulane, Tulsa,... Both basketball and football would have collapsed due to lack of interest.

Look at the 2022 football schedule as UConn plays 4 P5 teams, 2 local interest G5 teams, a local FCS, the defending MWC champ,... That is way better than an AAC football schedule especially with UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston leaving.
 
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Dodd sticking w/ his same old narrative. Hope Mora eats his lunch...




Jim MoraCNo matter who got this job, you must wonder about UConn's commitment to football after leaving the AAC for basketball reasons. There is an ongoing limbo there as an independent. However, Mora seems committed having served as a Huskie offensive analyst in 2021. He went 46-30 in six seasons at UCLA.


The point is that ... BL ... with Dodd or McMurphy, you can write the column as soon as you see the topic. His words aren't about Mora. They are his disdain for us being an independent; but he goes further. UMass is an independent and he graded Brown higher and had a few nice things. It is frankly anti-UCONN bias. Like Calhoun stunned them with logic one exchange.

I don't see how you can give Jerry Kill and A and Mora one of your lowest grades. Just personal opinion of a guy who has slunk from a top sports media chair back a few pegs.
 
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It is an old narrative. I would argue that UConn left the AAC due to the lack of money, to save men's and women's basketball, and to rebuild football. Can you imagine being in a conference for football and basketball with UAB, FAU, UNC Charlotte, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, USF, Tulane, Tulsa,... Both basketball and football would have collapsed due to lack of interest.

Look at the 2022 football schedule as UConn plays 4 P5 teams, 2 local interest G5 teams, a local FCS, the defending MWC champ,... That is way better than an AAC football schedule especially with UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston leaving.
This ^^^^, anyone with a little vision should have known that the AAC was gonna implode into C-USA version whatever. So actually the only move for self preservation, of the entire AD, was the only move Uconn controlled itself . But clowns like Dodd somehow want to spin the same old narrative, even when Uconn doing nothing and after the alphabet soup of what's now left of the so-called AAC is there for him to see. Which would have been a disaster, for FB too, if Uconn had stayed put.
 
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What's the same old narrative? That if this school cared about football first, second, and third, like most schools, we wouldn't have gone independent? That's a very reasonable conclusion. I hope the move to independence works as much as anyone else, but let's be honest -- we did it because we needed to for basketball.

If you want to criticize Dodd, it would be for failing to notice the commitment to increasing the non-coaching football staff. But that's a lot to expect a national writer to be aware of at every school.

Do I think the grade itself is too low? Yes. But who cares what someone writes that is arbitrary and an opinion.

It was actually the "commitment to football" narrative/commentary and grade I was referring to. Jerry Kill to independent New Mexico State gets an A- and Don Brown to independent UMASS gets a B- but Mora gets a C and the commitment/independent limbo mention. Independence is what it is (but remember Dodd was also pushing UConn to CUSA recently).

... but I agree, in the end, its just one yahoo's opinion (albeit one w/ a big bullhorn).
 
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Dodd sticking w/ his same old narrative. Hope Mora eats his lunch...




Jim MoraCNo matter who got this job, you must wonder about UConn's commitment to football after leaving the AAC for basketball reasons. There is an ongoing limbo there as an independent. However, Mora seems committed having served as a Huskie offensive analyst in 2021. He went 46-30 in six seasons at UCLA.

I automatically dismiss anyone who uses the collection of letters that create "huskie"
 
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Dodd sticking w/ his same old narrative. Hope Mora eats his lunch...




Jim MoraCNo matter who got this job, you must wonder about UConn's commitment to football after leaving the AAC for basketball reasons. There is an ongoing limbo there as an independent. However, Mora seems committed having served as a Huskie offensive analyst in 2021. He went 46-30 in six seasons at UCLA.

I read the article and it was horrible. I personally think Brian Kelly at LSU may be an epic failure and if anyone has noticed, Oklahoma has actually started to decline slightly since Riley took over there (going from BCS playoff contender to 1-2 loss, top 10 team.. I mean, I'd take that but still...) and USC is a much harder place to win than Oklahoma. I think the Brown hiring at UMass is a HUGE win for UMass (especially if Harbaugh takes off from Michigan and some of those players from CT/MA transfer)...

Even his recap on Mora makes no sense... it's basically "uconn independent limbo" stuff which if he took 5 seconds to look at the fan base, I'd say a good 75% of the fan base is happy with being independent vs. being in a G5 - also nothing about how Mora has done more to recruit CT/Northeast than any incoming coach ever or the fact he's already grabbed two former 4-star caliber QB transfers.
 
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It was actually the "commitment to football" narrative/commentary and grade I was referring to. Jerry Kill to independent New Mexico State gets an A- and Don Brown to independent UMASS gets a B- but Mora gets a C and the commitment/independent limbo mention. Independence is what it is (but remember Dodd was also pushing UConn to CUSA recently).

... but I agree, in the end, its just one yahoo's opinion (albeit one w/ a big bullhorn).
Its an odd take to give a coaching hire a grade based on the past commitment to the program. Under the explained reasoning, Nick Saban or Lincoln Riley would also have been a C as it had nothing to do with how good a coach we got.
 
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It is an old narrative. I would argue that UConn left the AAC due to the lack of money, to save men's and women's basketball, and to rebuild football. Can you imagine being in a conference for football and basketball with UAB, FAU, UNC Charlotte, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, USF, Tulane, Tulsa,... Both basketball and football would have collapsed due to lack of interest.

Look at the 2022 football schedule as UConn plays 4 P5 teams, 2 local interest G5 teams, a local FCS, the defending MWC champ,... That is way better than an AAC football schedule especially with UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston leaving.

The fact that you answered the question by putting mens and womens basketball in the first sentence proves my point. Maybe this move will work for football and maybe it wouldn't have. But we did it because we needed to for basketball.
 
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The fact that you answered the question by putting mens and womens basketball in the first sentence proves my point. Maybe this move will work for football and maybe it wouldn't have. But we did it because we needed to for basketball.
The AAC, especially after UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati left, was a problem for ALL UConn AAC sports except maybe baseball. If you can't see what a disaster the AAC was becoming for ALL UConn sports, I don't know what to say. Football was not going to turn around staying in the AAC after the Big 12 raid.
 
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The AAC, especially after UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati left, was a problem for ALL UConn AAC sports except maybe baseball. If you can't see what a disaster the AAC was becoming for ALL UConn sports, I don't know what to say. Football was not going to turn around staying in the AAC after the Big 12 raid.
True, especially going forward, as I posted before (below), Uconn has an abundance of local/eastern road games and (count em') only 1 future game west of the the Mississippi as an Indy. While half of the (14) schools in the new AAC are now west of it. So yeah, despite Dodd's played out narrative, the BE/ Indy was a better move for FB too.

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The AAC, especially after UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati left, was a problem for ALL UConn AAC sports except maybe baseball. If you can't see what a disaster the AAC was becoming for ALL UConn sports, I don't know what to say. Football was not going to turn around staying in the AAC after the Big 12 raid.

LMAO. Did we make the decision after the Big 12 raid? No, of course not. We made the decision to leave the old AAC. And we made it for basketball. Whatever happens after we made our decisions is irrelevant. Other than to show that Benedict made a good decision.
 
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LMAO. Did we make the decision after the Big 12 raid? No, of course not. We made the decision to leave the old AAC. And we made it for basketball. Whatever happens after we made our decisions is irrelevant. Other than to show that Benedict made a good decision.
When the Big 12 studied expansion and reviewed the candidates before Oklahoma and Texas left, it was obvious to Benedict and UConn that UConn was not on the short list for expansion and would not get an invite when the ultimate expansion happened. Add in the crappy new media deal and UConn had to make a move.
 
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LMAO. Did we make the decision after the Big 12 raid? No, of course not. We made the decision to leave the old AAC. And we made it for basketball. Whatever happens after we made our decisions is irrelevant. Other than to show that Benedict made a good decision.

Yup, we even requested to stay in the AAC for football only and the AAC rejected the idea.

Gotta give AAC football some credit, one of their teams made the 4 team playoff this year. Most thought it was impossible.
 
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I read the article and it was horrible. I personally think Brian Kelly at LSU may be an epic failure and if anyone has noticed, Oklahoma has actually started to decline slightly since Riley took over there (going from BCS playoff contender to 1-2 loss, top 10 team.. I mean, I'd take that but still...) and USC is a much harder place to win than Oklahoma.

WTH. Riley finished his tenure at Oklahoma with a 55–10 record and the highest winning percentage in the history of coaches at the OU program. He made 3 trips to playoffs. Quite the decline.
 

FfldCntyFan

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There is an old adage "just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that it is wrong".

Few outside of the UConn fan base can understand why we would leave a conference that sponsors football. UMass & NMSU would jump at the chance to join the AAC (which I imagine is why his grades for their respective hires were so generous) but they won't have that option. We are in a better position (for all sports save baseball) having left the AAC but they don't understand what we would have lost in terms of tier 3 revenue on women's basketball alone if we remained in that conference.

We don't have ND's options as an independent in football but, similar to ND, we have better options and better revenue potential as an independent than we would in the AAC. The better situation in terms of revenue for other sports and lower travel costs is an added bonus.

They don't need to understand now, when we climb the mountain it will be very obvious to them.
 
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LMAO. Did we make the decision after the Big 12 raid? No, of course not. We made the decision to leave the old AAC. And we made it for basketball. Whatever happens after we made our decisions is irrelevant. Other than to show that Benedict made a good decision.
For being a lawyer this is one of the most uneducated responses you could give. The writing was clearly on the wall the Big 12 was going to expand, maybe not as soon as they did, but regardless it was obvious the best teams from AAC would be taken when it did. That being said in your argument they left for basketball, if they were still in the AAC after the Big 12 picked off who they did wouldn’t you likely be complaining why they didn’t do something sooner to avoid this?

Now that the dust has settled, regardless of timeline when it happened, would you still prefer to be in the AAC of the future or Independent as they are now?
 
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For being a lawyer this is one of the most uneducated responses you could give. The writing was clearly on the wall the Big 12 was going to expand, maybe not as soon as they did, but regardless it was obvious the best teams from AAC would be taken when it did. That being said in your argument they left for basketball, if they were still in the AAC after the Big 12 picked off who they did wouldn’t you likely be complaining why they didn’t do something sooner to avoid this?

Now that the dust has settled, regardless of timeline when it happened, would you still prefer to be in the AAC of the future or Independent as they are now?

I don't understand why some want to engage in revisionist history. We did leave the AAC for basketball and to save travel costs on our non revenue sports. We wanted to keep football in the AAC and they said no.
 

FfldCntyFan

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I doubt that BL needs defending and normally I prefer poking fun at attorneys (as opposed to supporting them) but I don't see how anyone can claim that the writing was on the wall for B12 expansion (it took the loss of their two most valuable assets).

A few years back that conference went through the motions of looking at expansion candidates and determined that no available (AAC) school provided value equivalent to the share of revenue they would take. There was mo reason for anyone to believe that they would try again when they did without needing to replace a loss in membership.
 
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Few outside of the UConn fan base can understand why we would leave a conference that sponsors football. UMass & NMSU would jump at the chance to join the AAC (which I imagine is why his grades for their respective hires were so generous) but they won't have that option. We are in a better position (for all sports save baseball) having left the AAC

We don't have ND's options as an independent in football but, similar to ND, we have better options and better revenue potential as an independent than we would in the AAC. The better situation in terms of revenue for other sports and lower travel costs is an added bonus.
True, that's why Dodd still spinning Uconn doesn't care about FB because of their Indy status, in his ranking the coaching hire article, is so played out. It's like he doesn't know how to look at a map or like he's trying to sell shares of Colonial Realty to anyone who will listen.
 
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I doubt that BL needs defending and normally I prefer poking fun at attorneys (as opposed to supporting them) but I don't see how anyone can claim that the writing was on the wall for B12 expansion (it took the loss of their two most valuable assets).

A few years back that conference went through the motions of looking at expansion candidates and determined that no available (AAC) school provided value equivalent to the share of revenue they would take. There was mo reason for anyone to believe that they would try again when they did without needing to replace a loss in membership.
And of those schools it was clear UConn was far down on the list IF they were to expand when they first flirted with it. The best viable option for UConn to build a better resume was to take matters into their own hands, put basketball in a conference it could have more success in and frankly figure it out for football. UConn staying in the AAC was not doing anything to build any of the sports, and again I’ll go back to, if this move didn’t occur and then the Big12 took Houston Cincy and UCF would you be happy still being in the AAC for either sport? If your answer is yes to that, I’d love to hear why.
 

SubbaBub

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As of this morning there was zero downside to leaving the AAC. After all the flack the AD and school have received over CR, I'm happy to give them credit for seeing it coming and being proactive during this latest round.
 

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