UConn Needs To Be A Football School To Remain A Basketball School

There is only one thing we learned from the now-completed job search for the next University of Connecticut football coach – UConn is, was and will always be a basketball school.

When Randy Edsall first scampered away to College Park, UConn fans were buzzing with possibilities for the next head man. Former NFL coaches like Eric Mangini were bandied about. Pro coordinators with impressive resumes, like Kevin Gilbride, came to the forefront. Hot college coordinators like Tom Bradley at Penn State and Garrick McGee at Arkansas were legitimate candidates. Arguably the best coach at the FCS level, Delaware’s KC Keeler, was also a serious candidate.

In the end, UConn ended up with the recently-fired Mark Whipple and the elder Paul Pasqualoni as the two final candidates. They are not exactly the type of names that get the blood going. It was, to say the least, a letdown.

UConn ended up hiring Pasqualoni, the former Syracuse coach that led the then-Orangemen to two BCS bowls and two New Year’s Day bowls prior to that, when New Year’s Day was the equivalent of the BCS. He recruited the heck out of Connecticut, furnishing a pipeline from the Nutmeg State to upstate New York. His Syracuse teams, especially in the late 1990s, produced a boatload of NFL talent. There is no question he is a far superior hire to Whipple, who was just fired at Miami, Fla. and was routinely criticized as a coordinator that failed to dramatically improve the Hurricanes’ woeful offensive output from the previous coaching staff. The Hurricanes scored less points in 2010 than UConn did, and every UConn fan hated how ineffective the UConn offense could be at times.

I’m okay with Pasqualoni, though I think any UConn fan would be lying if they said they were pumped. Yes, Pasqualoni is a respected defensive mind and was about to be defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. But Pasqualoni was also fired from Syracuse six years ago because the Orange had devolved into a very mediocre squad for a half-decade. He is now 61 years old. He is not the Jim Tressel the UConn fans were hoping for.

You remember Jim Tressel pre-Ohio State, right? He was the winning I-AA coach but without the big name or the fancy price tag, at least not yet. He had potential. He was an up-and-comer. He was the future.

UConn fans, from the outset, realized the job was not going to lure a big-name coach. UConn isn’t Michigan, we couldn’t call Les Miles or Jim Harbaugh without being laughed off the phone. But the fans were okay with that. We know the potential in the UConn program. We see the new facilities, the still-new stadium and the general feeling that UConn athletics means winning. We saw an opportunity for a coordinator or lower-division coach to finally get an opportunity at the big time.

It didn’t happen.

And during the process, it became increasingly clear that UConn was hamstrung by the fact the basketball coaches need to make more than the football coach. Edsall left because of it. UConn AD Jeff Hathaway’s refusal to increase the salaries of assistant football coaches played a role in driving Edsall away and scaring off exciting, potential candidates.

It’s unfortunate because football is driving college athletics right now. If you look around the country, I bet you could count on one hand the number of BCS conference basketball coaches that make more than the football coach. And I’m pretty sure Geno Auriemma is the only women’s coach making more bank than the football coach. Still, UConn has refused to address this issue and I have this horrible feeling the football program is going to be left behind.

I hope I’m wrong and very wrong but the current UConn administration seems far too content to keep the basketball coaches happy at the expense of the football team. It may make sense locally, since Connecticut is and has been a basketball state, but it could eventually come to the detriment of the basketball teams.

Former UConn AD Lew Perkins has said over and over again that the decision to bring UConn football to the I-A level was to protect the basketball programs. Football is king and football is going to pave the future of college athletics.

When the rumors about superconferences and conference expansion took over the sporting landscape this summer, it was about football. The Big Ten didn’t invite Nebraska for their basketball team. Utah isn’t joining the Pac-12 because they made the Final Four in 1998. Colorado has one of the worst basketball programs in college sports – they’re moving up to the Pac-12.

UConn has one of the best basketball programs in the nation and is situated in one of the most populous areas of the entire country. Did anyone want UConn? No. Why? Because the football isn’t up to par yet. And one 8-5 Fiesta Bowl-losing season isn’t going to change that.

If Jeff Hathaway really wanted to show how much he cared about Jim and Geno, he would’ve opened up the wallet. He would’ve given the new coach – or Edsall – the $2 million per year they deserve. He would’ve increased the salaries for assistant coaches. He would’ve told the athletic department that UConn cannot fall behind in football or it risks losing everything. The superconference era is coming and UConn needs to be ready.

Right now, UConn isn’t ready. Because being ready right now in college athletics means having an elite football program. Not an 8-win program, not a program that makes bowl games, but a program that challenges for a BCS berth year in and year out.

Look at this year’s BCS lineup. If any of the other nine BCS teams lost its coach, would Pasqualoni or Whipple have even been candidates for the job? Of course not.

But for UConn, that was the best we could do. And that’s not good enough.

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