UConn Football recruiting

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Art Stephenson
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UConn Football recruiting

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"They're up against so many obstacles at this point. Conference affiliation is only the beginning," said ESPN college football writer Ivan Maisel. "That's an issue, but the bigger issue is inventory, players. You're in an area where your home base does not produce a lot of FBS-quality players and the marketplace isn't getting any less crowded.
"Now, all of a sudden, you're going from competing against Syracuse and Rutgers on equal footing for the same kids in the same league ... now Rutgers can sell the Big Ten and going to the Rose Bowl. Syracuse can sell going to the Orange Bowl. If UConn goes in there, they can say, `You might get to go to one of those bowls, but it's going to depend on how good someone else is (because of the Big East's recently reduced BCS status).' That's a tougher sell."
Perhaps that's why UConn continues to find it difficult to land those four- and five-star high school recruits. According to scout.com, the highest UConn recruiting class since the program went to the FBS was 53rd in 2007. It was also the last time the Huskies landed a four-star recruit (Tyler Lorenzen). Since then, UConn's recruiting class standings were 70th (2008), 76th (2009), 69th (2010), 81st (2011) and 66th (2012).
And it's only going to get harder.
"Syracuse is a viable program again," Maisel said. "Maybe (UConn) can take advantage of the fact that Boston College is down, but if they hire the right guy (BC hired Steve Addazio of Cheshire away from Temple last week), then you're dealing with BC. The Big Ten is going to come into New Jersey even harder now, the ACC is going to come up and get into New England. UMass is another FBS program. Now, they're not threatening anybody, but it's another school that's now looking for 25 players.
"The same logistical problems that UConn has dealt with haven't gone away and have probably increased."


Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/UCo ... z2ErktSfFR

With Rentschler Field, the Burton Family Football Complex and the Mark R. Shenkman Training Center, UConn has spent close to $150 million in football infrastructure. But according to Maisel, if the Huskies want to compete with the big boys, a lot more is going to have to be done.
"They've done everything they can do in the arms race," Maisel said. "But all you've done by spending the money in the arms race is kept your place at the starting line. The starting line always changes. I'm not belittling what they've done, but that's the kind of stuff you have to do just to stay in the game. That's the ante and the ante goes up all the time in college football. They've kept their chair at the table, but there are other things that are still the problem."
MONEY DOESN'T HURT
"The tradition and the passion at UConn is at Gampel (Pavilion)," Maisel said. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's great, but football hasn't developed that yet and it's harder to develop in football than basketball. If you don't have the history and the passion, you can develop it, but it takes an enormous amount of resources."
Think about it: When NIKE founder Phil Knight started pouring money into Oregon's athletic programs -- he's donated an estimated $300 million, including $68 million for the new football facility currently under construction -- the Ducks went from a decent 70-48 record in the '90s to a sparkling 99-39 record from 2000-09. They are a stunning 55-10 in the past five years.
And at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys were a horrific 41-68-3 in the decade of the 1990s. Until 2001, they had 11 losing seasons in 12 years. But when Texas oil magnate Boone Pickens donated $70 million to refurbish the football stadium that now bears his name in 2003, and then gave an additional $165 million to the football program in 2005, Oklahoma State has gone 81-45 and will have appeared in seven straight bowl games when it faces Purdue in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Jan. 1.
"You look at the schools, the non-traditional powers that have succeeded over the last decade, and what do they have in common?" Maisel said. "Oregon and Oklahoma State both have sugar daddies who have spent eight, nine figures of money on the program. I don't know that (athletic director) Warde Manuel's found that guy yet. I would think that if that kind of person was in Connecticut and loved Connecticut football, we would have heard of him by now."
Plus, it takes winning.
"There's a lot to that, there really is," Pasqualoni said. "Win. It's like Al Davis said, `Just win, baby.'"
But back-to-back 5-7 seasons doesn't exactly get the blood boiling. Neither does the fact that attendance at Rentschler Field has decreased basically every year over the past five seasons, dropping from a per-game average of 39,331 in 2008 to just 34,672 in 2012. Year 3 of the Pasqualoni era had better bring about a big change in play and the number of victories. The Huskies need to get back to challenging for the Big East title, going to bowl games and becoming a top-50 program again.
"I think top 50's absolutely within reach," Maisel said. "They've already been there but they have to get back. It's a combination of the right coach, being right for that university, because UConn does not have so much of what the top 50 have in terms of tradition and passion."
But it's trying to get there. The Huskies have Michigan (Big Ten) coming to Rentschler Field next September, have a home-and-home series with Tennessee (SEC) in 2015 and 2016 and will play Virginia (ACC) in a home-and-home series in 2016 and 2017. And of course, there's that continuing rumor of Notre Dame at Fenway Park in 2014.
"Everybody's on the table," said. "There's no conference that we wouldn't look at for the right opportunity. To have Michigan coming in, that's obviously a big game for us. Now, every year you're not going to get a Michigan into your stadium, but we have Tennessee coming in and Virginia coming in and we're working on other opponents. We have to keep thinking abou


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