Can Coach Pasqualoni Meet the High Expectations of Storrs?
The University of Connecticut enters 2011 trying to defend their first ever Big East Championship and BCS bowl berth. They are also entering their first ever season in the football bowl series without Coach Randy Edsall. Ever since the Huskies began their transition to Division 1-A in 1999, Edsall had been the coach. He has the most games coached in school history with 144 as well as the most victories with 74. UConn had won at least eight games five of their last seven years under him. Those last seven seasons (the time since UConn became a member of the Big East) also saw them finish first or tied for first in the conference twice.
Randy Edsall’s coaching ability cannot fairly be argued. He has gotten a ton out of below average recruits. His “coaching up” of those recruits almost singlehandedly kept UConn football alive. And yet, some Huskies followers blame Edsall himself for the coaching up he had to do. He was, by any measure, a poor recruiter. Whether that can be blamed on him or on the lack of desire for top talent to play in Storrs, Connecticut remains to be seen.
New head coach Paul Pasqualoni will have some lofty expectations to live up to as soon as he steps foot on campus. After all, the Huskies were one of only 10 teams in the nation to make a BCS bowl game last season. It seems unlikely their recent national success will continue. It seems hard to believe Connecticut will ever make a BCS bowl game again and yet the door is open for Pasqualoni to bring in some higher tier players and supply UConn with talent somewhere other than the running back position.
The Huskies season kicks off on a Thursday night with questions abound but none bigger than how the man with the headset, the new sheriff in Storrs, will fare.
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