Former head coach of the Orange Paul Pasqualoni has been hired at UConn, meaning the Big East recruiting battles just got more daunting. Just as The Fizz was rejoicing over all of the coaching changes in the Big East last week, now the carousel has stopped and Coach P has gotten off holding the brass ring good for one free ride at the University of Connecticut.
The man that led the Orange from 1991-2004 with just one losing season has taken the head coaching job in Storrs and this does not bode well for Doug Marrone.
Consider that during his tenure, Pasqualoni was responsible for names such as: Donovan McNabb of Chicago, Dwight Freeney of Bloomfield, CT, Keith Bulluck of New City, NY, Donovin Darius of Camden, NJ, Tebucky Jones of New Britain, CT, Rob Konrad of Rochester, NY, and Marvin Harrison of Philadelphia.
Between all of those players, just a handful from his tenure, there are three Super Bowl rings and 21 Pro Bowl appearances.
Now tell me you’re not worried about him poaching players from the region.
Pasqualoni is a native of Chesire, CT and has innumerable ties to the northeast. He coached at Southern Connecticut from 1976-1982, and then went to be the athletic director at Western Connecticut State from 1982-1986 before heading to SU. Donnie Webb wrote not too long ago in¬†The Post Standard about Coach P‚Äôs love of the region saying,¬†‚ÄúHis family has a well-known farm in Cheshire. He and George DeLeone spoke with almost mystical awe about pizza at Sally’s in New Haven. I think P still has his beach home in Rhode Island. Between the pizza and beach house, going home might sound great.‚Äù
Not every body thinks so. Everyone has a place where the sun doesn’t shine, and everyone’s also got an opinion. Syracuse.com commenter “slim1h2o” comically prophesized: (sic’d)
“Discussing the possiblities that coach P going back to college to coach is akin to discussing the possiblities that George Washington will come back from the dead to lead country back to freedom, again.
I’ll bethcha he stays in the pro’s and doesn’t look back at the college level…….‚Äù
Wanna show us where you keep your map with the crosshairs on it?
This hire should worry every coach in the conference. Pasqualoni left, but not on his terms. Jake Crouthamel told it to our friend Bud Poliquin.
“Paul was fired. That’s the bottom line. He was fired. He’s going to have to compete against Pitt. He’s going to have to compete against West Virginia. He’s going to have to compete against all those schools. But is it going to be more of an emotional kind of thing when he lines up against Syracuse? Of course.”
This can only leave Daryl Gross and Nancy Cantor saying, “OH MY GOD! IS THAT…PAUL PASQUALONI’S MUSIC?”
Just when they thought he was gone for good.
Since Pasqualoni’s gone to the NFL, you know he’s got to have some more tricks up his sleeve. We’ll hope he stole more from the Wade Philips playbook rather than the Tony Sparano one, though.
The Fizz has no doubt that Coach P will recruit, and recruit well. The question becomes how much better can Doug Marrone do his job? Brandon Reddish is in the bag. Now how about that Ishaq kid.
(Mike Couzens‚Äô columns, his “Fizzy” observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on orangefizz.net His work can also be regularly found on the doors and walls of bathroom stalls. Additionally, he can be heard every week on the FizzCast. If you‚Äôd like to contact him, his phone number is probably on those very same bathroom stall doors.)
Posted: Mike Couzens
19 responses to “Paul Pasqualoni to UConn is Bad News for Syracuse Recruiting”
Coach P started the slide at SU because he couldnt recruit. He landed those players you named from riding the coattails of Coach Mac.
Congratulations to Coach P. Having said that, SU has nothing to fear from Coach P as it relates to recruiting. There was a reason we fired him. He has been out of the college game for a while and he is over 60 years old. This is a bad move for Uconn on the heals of Edsell. We have nothing to fear from Coach P. I think they will attract the same type of recruits that Edsell was able to recruit. Go Cuse
How many of those Pro Bowl recruits were on the team after 2001?
Funny thing about recruiting … you have to secceed at it EVERY YEAR.
Recruiting a bunch of studs in the 90’s didn’t help SU one bit from 2002-2004.
If you’re not the lead dog, you’re sucking ass. And that sums up the state of the program after 2001.
Rob Konrad was from MA not Rochester… Coach P will not affect us at all. Good riddance Ishaq,,,
@Lou
Born in Rochester but went to high school in Mass.
@Don A.
2011: The year Syracuse stopped sucking ass…and things started tasting a lot better too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTgneLluypg
if he wasnt fired we got RAY RICE and Devin Mccortney … things never get as bad as they were
Don’t forget about Courtney Greene–a high school teammate of Ray Rice and now both of them are in the NFL.
Deleone was coach P’s downfall at SU. He didn’t have the nerve to fire the real person bringing the program down. If I remember correctly the defense was solid but the offense struggled. Instead of firing Deleone he moved him to Defensive coordinator and the rest was history. Be interesting to see what staff he brings in.
“He’s going to be in tune with all the Connecticut high school coaches, and I’m sure he’s going to keep Connecticut talent in Connecticut, which is exciting. We’re all thrilled,” said Petroccio, the head coach at Staples. “To have him back here, it’s so exciting for us, I couldn’t wait to get in the car and drive up here today. Coach P was just the best when it came to high school coach relations.”
‚ÄúI‚Äôve had five or six of my players play for Coach P, either at Western Connecticut or at Syracuse and every kid I had, loved him.”
http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2011/01/pasqualoni_planted_seeds_with.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Case in point, friends.
if I remember correctly, Ray Rice was headed our way and went to Rutgirls when Coach P was fired. Can’t help but think that Ray Ray would have gotten things back on track for SU vs. the Grobbers era. Good luck to Coach P every Saturday except for when he lines up against the Orange!
DA why must everything you write suddenly have a negative twist. I couldn’t disagree with you further on your analogy of Coach P being bad news for our recruiting. Coach P’s biggest weakness was his recruiting. With SU 14 years and you came up with 7 bonafide names. Luck alone at any BCS school will result in that. First Williams, now this. Your reporting seems to be trying to spike readers interest, news flash it just lead me to deleting you from my favorites.
BC Fans are more worried than SU fans should be about Coach P’s return. SU owned NE when P was in his prime. P and Marrone have it all over the BC coach Spaz when it comes to NFL experience and connections. And Marrone has all over P and Spaz as a young exciting coach with an up and coming program who can relate better to 18 year old kids!!
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