Coaching search…

[Stinger92860]

Ok we now have confirmation from Jersey Man. Has anyone received any updates from Florida Man?

Golden is from Colt’s Neck NJ and attended Red Bank Catholic, same school as Donald Brown, otherwise it would be insignificant. Though it likely is insignificant anyway, lol.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

If it is Golden I hope AD Dave Benedict asked for specifics for how he, Golden, will turn things around with the dumpster fire of a team. He needs to present a timeline of expected game results. If we continue to have losing seasons fire him immediately. We cannot have the repeated fake assurances of prior coaches that things will turnaround in the next season. UConn needs to hold all coaches accountable.

 

[metsfan2323]

If it is Golden I hope AD Dave Benedict asked for specifics for how he, Golden, will turn things around with the dumpster fire of a team. He needs to present a timeline of expected game results. If we continue to have losing seasons fire him immediately. We cannot have the repeated fake assurances of prior coaches that things will turnaround in the next season. UConn needs to hold all coaches accountable.

Golden turned Temple around by playing a super easy schedule. Not Kidding.

Go to his Wikipedia page and look it up for yourself. Golden's most impressive win at Temple was beating UCONN in 2010 in Philly. I'm not kidding look it up for yourself.

Based on that if we are hiring Golden because he turned Temple around I hope we are also announcing we are joining CUSA so we can get that super easy schedule going. Also not kidding.

 

[coachcap]

I think you're being too rigid in your thinking/interpretation.

-It's no secret that UConn is highly unlikely to become a P5 power any time soon (perhaps, never).
-A strong coach to rebuild us to respectable levels will also likely have aspirations to use us as a resume-builder to move to a rebuild project at a mid/high P5 school. Within 3-5 years. This would be something definitely discussed by the prospective coach/AD David Benedict (not forced upon the potential hire) during interviews/negotiations
-AD David Benedict counters in the discussion with "that's great, but we need to have a strong action plan for succession as UConn football absolutely cannot afford to suffer another decline/drawn-out HC search". The OC/DC can be someone both agree about. Not forced by either side.

The above process is more than reasonable and takes care of the 3 issues you raised.

WRT #2, any D1 level athletic coach worth his/her salt should want to come to a school where the AD makes it clear that they have very high expectations that must be met, or face real consequences. Also, that the AD will have their back to help make it happen.

AD's at great D1 schools pull strings all the time when it's necessary.

I'm not being rigid, just sensible.
-Great coaches mentor their assistants, so that the assistants aspire to someday be head coaches themselves. The head coach just wouldn't want his future successor shove down his throat. How did Lashlee & Edsall work out?
-Of course athletic directors have final say on anything pertaining to the Department, but they hire head coaches to run various teams & defer to the Coaches expertise.
-If a newly hired head coach is hired with the stipulation the an assistant is his designated successor, it can only lead to divisiveness & second guessing, not harmony in the work place.

 

[UCONNRPh]

Remember some of these people we think we want might not be interested in coming here

True, but some may view it as a challenge reminding them of why they went into coaching to begin with........for the kids and the fun of the game

 

[Kolumbo]

There are a lot of pros & cons with this job. I think it is a tremendous opportunity for the right guy. UCONN overall is a P5 level Athletic Department. P5 salary, budget, resources, and facilities. Anyone who would fail would blame the situation. The guy who could succeed will be handsomely rewarded. I think it's more a matter of the right guy finding UCONN. The young confident guy who seeks a challenge. The guy who understands that many dreams come true, and some have silver linings, one who lives for his dreams, and a pocket full of gold.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I don’t know about another 5 years. Use the roster here and use the portal correctly and 2-3 years should be achievable.

 

[huskyblooz]

Golden turned Temple around by playing a super easy schedule. Not Kidding.

Go to his Wikipedia page and look it up for yourself. Golden's most impressive win at Temple was beating UCONN in 2010 in Philly. I'm not kidding look it up for yourself.

Based on that if we are hiring Golden because he turned Temple around I hope we are also announcing we are joining CUSA so we can get that super easy schedule going. Also not kidding.

No different than Schiano, who went 28-48 in the Big East. Back then there were 8 teams. You played 7 league games and 5 OOC. He feasted on SWAC schools, Buffalo and Army when they were very weak.

 

[BigTenFan]

What will be the benchmark of success? Everyone has a different outlook. Michigan is 7-1 and fans think they are underachievers. A loss to Ohio State again this year and the season is a failure
How will UConn measure success. How many wins are needed to move the needle?
How many fans in the seats?

 

[noeynox]

I don’t know about another 5 years. Use the roster here and use the portal correctly and 2-3 years should be achievable.

Like i said, the Wyoming, Vanderbilt, HC, and UMass games were all there for the taking. Need a HC and staff that makes a difference when the talent on the field in games is basically even. All this talk of worst team in FBS history, our 2018 team was way more terrible than this one and its not even close. Only Pindell made that team somewhat presentable. The next coach has to get the QB situation sorted out fast, but there are pieces here on both sides of the ball to be better record wise than we have been.

 

[noeynox]

What will be the benchmark of success? Everyone has a different outlook. Michigan is 7-1 and fans think they are underachievers. A loss to Ohio State again this year and the season is a failure
How will UConn measure success. How many wins are needed to move the needle?
How many fans in the seats?

6-6, 7-5, 8-4 will be good years. Any more than that will be great years. Edsall never won 10 games here his 1st go around either. 4-8, 5-7 years will be tolerable. 3 wins or less terrible.

More than wins or losses will be competitiveness and exciting football. Diaco had them competitive but boring as shat, and that started sending fans away. It was brutal sitting there watching the game against UVA we eventually won. Like watching paint dry. Edsall's 2.0 teams never looked like they had a chance. Hard to give up fall Saturdays to go to a stadium and feel like that.

 

[UConnJim]

Schiano has done a decent job in stabilizing Rutgers. He brought in a number of transfers and he seems to have improved recruiting. He has a veteran team this year and he is not starting freshmen and sophomores, so there could be a dropoff next year. But, he is the poster child of what happens if you hire a defensive minded coach - your results are dependent on how good your OC is. Here are the points Rutgers has scored over the past 6 games: 13, 13, 13, 7, 20, 3. On paper, Rutgers OC has a good resume and he did a decent job last year, but the results aren't there this year. Who is to blame?

College football has changed and you have to be able to score points. Sabin saw how college football was changing and he has been able to attract great offensive coaches to Alabama to score points. Alabama can throw money at assistant coaches and they can hire many off the field offensive coaches. UConn can't do that. What UConn can do is pay an offensive minded head coach more than he can make as a top P5 OC.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Would it be crazy to think that AD David Benedict is looking to orchestrate a "2 for 1 special"?

-Hire a HC with a history of rebuilding a similar FBS program (e.g., Golden w/ Temple) who is still reasonably young and has aspirations of using the turnaround as a stepping stone to another crack at a high-level FBS coaching job

-Plus, bring in a current younger hot FCS (or even D2) coach that would come in as OC/DC and take over the program after the rebuild starts gaining steam?

Something like a Golden / Chesney special?


I know this is something like what we thought could happen with Edsall/Lashlee, but I dont think AD David Benedict was able to pull all the strings necessary to get the right coaches in to make that plan work (i.e., Edsall was the rate-limiting part of the plan).

A Golden Chesney Special sounds like something you'd read about on Urban Dictionary.

 

[uconnric]

Golden turned Temple around by playing a super easy schedule. Not Kidding.

Go to his Wikipedia page and look it up for yourself. Golden's most impressive win at Temple was beating UCONN in 2010 in Philly. I'm not kidding look it up for yourself.

Based on that if we are hiring Golden because he turned Temple around I hope we are also announcing we are joining CUSA so we can get that super easy schedule going. Also not kidding.

I don’t share your tremendous dislike for Al Golden. He’s obviously familiar with NE recruiting as well as Florida. He turned around a moribund Temple program. Whoever the new coach is, he’ll have to embrace the transfer portal. With all the new FBS members, recruiting has probably become much more competitive, especially for the 3 star players in the southern states. You have to supplement recruiting with the transfer portal.

I’m not saying that Golden is the answer, but I have faith in whoever Dave chooses. The RE II hire was made under some pretty dire timing circumstances, this hire won’t be.

 

[ZooCougar]

He seems Randy like in terms of his career record.

Well, Golden actually has a winning record at a P5 school.

 

[ZooCougar]

Golden turned Temple around by playing a super easy schedule. Not Kidding.

Go to his Wikipedia page and look it up for yourself. Golden's most impressive win at Temple was beating UCONN in 2010 in Philly. I'm not kidding look it up for yourself.

Based on that if we are hiring Golden because he turned Temple around I hope we are also announcing we are joining CUSA so we can get that super easy schedule going. Also not kidding.

Easy schedule. They were literally the worst team in FBS by miles. They weren’t even a poop stain in your underwear. We came from trailers, they had to borrow trailers and only got to use them once a week. If you were a doormat you scheduled Temple to get an FBS win. He also impacted UConn and Rutgers recruiting. Not opinion, fact.

One guy has proven to turn around a total doormat’s doormat. Another guy is a career FCS guy at a school that doesn’t even award the full complement of scholarships. I’m not sold.

 

[ZooCougar]

I don’t share your tremendous dislike for Al Golden. He’s obviously familiar with NE recruiting as well as Florida. He turned around a moribund Temple program. Whoever the new coach is, he’ll have to embrace the transfer portal. With all the new FBS members, recruiting has probably become much more competitive, especially for the 3 star players in the southern states. You have to supplement recruiting with the transfer portal.

I’m not saying that Golden is the answer, but I have faith in whoever Dave chooses. The RE II hire was made under some pretty dire timing circumstances, this hire won’t be.

I’m not excited about Al Golden. But I’m confident that we would improve.

I prefer an offensive minded Head Coach. I think we need to put points on the board and be fun to watch. I think that will help the team stand out.

 

[drayenob]

There are a lot of pros & cons with this job. I think it is a tremendous opportunity for the right guy. UCONN overall is a P5 level Athletic Department. P5 salary, budget, resources, and facilities. Anyone who would fail would blame the situation. The guy who could succeed will be handsomely rewarded. I think it's more a matter of the right guy finding UCONN. The young confident guy who seeks a challenge. The guy who understands that many dreams come true, and some have silver linings, one who lives for his dreams, and a pocket full of gold.

 

[Yup!]

There are a lot of pros & cons with this job. I think it is a tremendous opportunity for the right guy. UCONN overall is a P5 level Athletic Department. P5 salary, budget, resources, and facilities. Anyone who would fail would blame the situation. The guy who could succeed will be handsomely rewarded. I think it's more a matter of the right guy finding UCONN. The young confident guy who seeks a challenge. The guy who understands that many dreams come true, and some have silver linings, one who lives for his dreams, and a pocket full of gold.

More pros than cons in my opinion but I agree. Sounds like a Hurley kind of hire to me. Passionate, not afraid of a challenge, young, confident, leadership, and not afraid to win now. UConn has a P5 level Athletic Department, my point, and that’s exactly how Dave will sell UConn. Great post!

 

[giddyup]

Well, Golden actually has a winning record at a P5 school.

I have no real beef with Golden. He will make us average which better than where we are by a mile. He’s just not what I would hope for. He’s 59-59. He didn’t do much in Miami with all the assets in the world to put them back to relevancy. Defensive minded coaches are not going to get it done in nowadays. Rules are too favorable to the offense with targeting, no hands to the face, QB protection, etc.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I don’t share your tremendous dislike for Al Golden. He’s obviously familiar with NE recruiting as well as Florida. He turned around a moribund Temple program. Whoever the new coach is, he’ll have to embrace the transfer portal. With all the new FBS members, recruiting has probably become much more competitive, especially for the 3 star players in the southern states. You have to supplement recruiting with the transfer portal.

I’m not saying that Golden is the answer, but I have faith in whoever Dave chooses. The RE II hire was made under some pretty dire timing circumstances, this hire won’t be.

I prefer him to Lashlee. Lashlee is more exciting but a question mark if he can manage a team. I view him and Orlando about the same but will be optimistic whoever they get.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Ok we now have confirmation from Jersey Man. Has anyone received any updates from Florida Man?

Check out omgitswicks Tik Tok, Instagram or FB pages. Best Florida Man out there.

 

[SubbaBub]

I think he wants another HC job. He’s not coming back into a P5 school even with a winning record at Miami.

The Temple rebuild was even more impressive than rebuilding UConn would be. That place was dead, had no support and no prospects. And they were a thorn in Edsall’s side every time we played them with recruits that were our castoffs.

I’d argue that Golden was the coach that the Apologistas thought Randy was.

Is he the sexy hire? No way. But Bob Diaco was a sexy hire.

I can argue PP was more accomplished when he took the UConn job than Golden is right now. They are both unloved retreads. You'd be just as likely to be better off with a guy stepping up to a job.

Which is really the point, I guess. We have no right to expect an obvious savior to fall into our lap, nor can we expect the eventual hire to be a consensus slam dunk when announced. I'm willing to judge based on eventual performance, but are Golden's red flags better than the unknowns of trying to scoop a rising star?

I just feel like Golden is one of the obvious names and that suggests we are looking very hard. A more credible candidate than Skip Holtz. (seriously, Skip Holtz?) I refuse to believe AD David Benedict cares that little about his professional reputation and for me that spills over into the Golden rumor even if he is the best guy we can get. If he is, then take the flyer on a guy who will work his ass off.

 

[SubbaBub]

6-6, 7-5, 8-4 will be good years. Any more than that will be great years. Edsall never won 10 games here his 1st go around either. 4-8, 5-7 years will be tolerable. 3 wins or less terrible.

More than wins or losses will be competitiveness and exciting football. Diaco had them competitive but boring as shat, and that started sending fans away. It was brutal sitting there watching the game against UVA we eventually won. Like watching paint dry. Edsall's 2.0 teams never looked like they had a chance. Hard to give up fall Saturdays to go to a stadium and feel like that.

I think the odd 5-7 year is tolerable once we get out of the <4 win streak. Won't be after that. We can schedule 6 wins a year as an independent. Win the games you're supposed to win, FCS, G5, bottom half of the P5, pull the occasional upset and be bowl eligible more years than not.

The other expectation is to bring name opponents to East Hartford. Not exactly, "play like a champion today" but we'd fill the building regularly.

 

[06029]

what Does UConn really need today?
program builder
hungry/ young enough to know what success will lead to
great recruiter with knowledge of the base geographic recruiting hot spots
charisma, although I put that way down on the list
a pan that includes who his key coaches will be and what budget he needs to get them
a history of replacing under performing coaches
not afraid of a contract with lots of incentives

What does the coach need fromUconn
commitment to fund good coaches all the way down to the position level
the ability to stretch on 10% of the recruits every year with admissions
willingness to accept a 90% graduation rate
not afraid of the transfer portal
in other words, what every P5 coach gets from his school

Golden actually checks all those boxes. He will be the best recruiter as HC since RE 1.0 and will be a lot better than that. Knows the NE, FL and the Delmarva. Big success in VA over his career. He will get UConn to a winning record within 3 years. Not sexy hire, not a splash, although more of a splash than FCS coaches or assistants and certainly not anyone that will make this board happy. Until he starts winning.

I will take him over almost every realistic name floated on this board.