UConn Football: The Expensive Adventure Continues...

On Labor Day, the University of Connecticut announced the change of plans:  Head Football Coach Randy Edsall and director of athletics David Benedict had come to a "mutual decision that is in the best interest of the UConn football program for Edsall to step aside immediately."  The announcement came after an announcement the previous day that Edsall, in his second tenure as UConn coach during which the Huskies went 6-32, would retire at the conclusion of the season.

On Sunday, Edsall had shared with administration his decision to retire, leading to Sunday’s announcement that he would remain with the team through its final 10 games this season, after an 0-2 start. Ultimately, though, with the benefit of more time to analyze the situation, UConn decided that made no sense, the Connecticut Post reported.

Edsall’s contract ran through 2023.  Published reports indicate that Edsall will be paid his full $1.256 million salary for 2021, while defensive coordinator Lou Spanos takes over running the team, effective immediately.

It is one more chapter in an expensive history of UConn football throughout the past decade, since Edsall departed UConn abruptly, after a considerably more successful 11-year tenure, in 2011.

In September 2017, CT by the Numbers reported that UConn was among a handful universities portrayed as the poster children for the practice of paying multiple head football coaches simultaneously. 

UConn’s situation was listed as among the most costly.  The report, by The New York Times, indicated that “when the Huskies hired Randy Edsall last winter after three losing seasons under Bob Diaco, they got their once and future head coach for a reasonable $1 million salary.”  The article went on to point out, however, that “firing Diaco triggered a $3.4 million buyout.”  Thus, the University is paying $4.4 million in head coach salary this season, to two coaches – one employed by the university, the other not.

At the time of Diaco’s firing, UConn emphasized that taxpayers would not be responsible for the buyout.

"It's not taxpayer money," Michael Enright, who oversees communications for UConn athletics told the Hartford Courant at the time. "It's from division of athletics revenues. So ticketing, concessions, licensing, conference revenue."

The Courant went on to report that “sports-related income isn't the only source of revenue feeding the department's $72 million budget. For the 2014-15 school year, student fees provided more than $10 million and the university contributed $18 million, according to a survey by USA Today. The school has taken pains to say the university's share comes from segregated accounts that do not include tuition or state funds. But critics see the university's and athletics department's budgets as homogenous taxpayer-supported piles of money.”

Fast forward to 2020.  In a Sports Illustrated column last spring, Pat Forde observed that then-Athletic Director David “Benedict and his predecessors, and everyone in a decision-making capacity at UConn, has perpetrated breathtaking administrative malpractice when it comes to football.”  He added, “They have made terrible hires, agreed to preposterous contracts and frittered away what little cachet UConn football ever had.”

Forde continued:  “Nothing signifies the ineptitude of the Huskies better than the contract of current football coach Randy Edsall, which is laden with the dumbest set of bonuses in athletic history. Benedict has padded retread Edsall’s wallet with tens of thousands of dollars for doing useless things like scoring first in a game ($2,000), having a better red zone scoring percentage than his opponent (another two grand) or leading at halftime (also $2k). Edsall has pulled in more than $200,000 in bonuses, according to USA Today, while going a robust 6–30 the past three seasons. He also received a $300,000 retention bonus, as if anyone else on the planet had an interest in hiring him away.

Benedict also signed off on Edsall's hiring his son, Corey, at age 24 to coach UConn’s tight ends. The state ethics board flagged that as a nepotism arrangement, but allowed the younger Edsall to keep his job.” [No word so far on the younger Edsall’s plans for the remainder of the 2021 season.]

Forde also referenced January 2020 reporting by the Hartford Courant “that the Huskies made $3.3 million in revenue and spent $16.6 million in 2019. No other UConn sport came anywhere close to losing that much money.”

Due to COVID, the 2020 football season didn’t happen.  And now this.