Back in early December, shortly after coach Paul Pasqualoni finished up another 5-7 season, he met with UConn athletic director Warde Manuel about the program and where it's going. Here's what we wrote at the time:
One of the biggest criticisms of the 2012 team -- the offensive play-calling -- apparently came up (in the meeting). A source with knowledge of the meeting told (the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner that Manuel suggested that someone other than offensive coordinator George DeLeone call the plays next season.
On Tuesday, DeLeone was reassigned on the coaching staff and someone else will, in fact, be calling plays next season. The New Haven Register's Jim Fuller caught up with Manuel at Tuesday evening's Louisville-UConn women's game to get his reaction to the news.
"I don't want to comment on that until we have our coordinators," Manuel said. "I’ll comment when we have hire our coordinators."
Fuller writes that he had heard Manuel had met with the team shortly after the season and "lit into them … telling them to get with the program or head for the exits and that head coach Paul Pasqualoni has his full support."
Manuel told Fuller on Tuesday, "I talked to them but it wasn’t because I felt like I needed to stand up for the coaches and I think they knew that. It wasn’t a question about that but it was making sure they understood that we need to continue to work, we need to continue to get better and depending on their effort, the coaches’ effort, everybody in the room’s effort including mine that we have to put ourselves in the right position to do the right things and be prepared to have success."
Apparently, getting better included stripping DeLeone of his play-calling duties. And although Manuel fully supports Pasqualoni, is an important one for the coach who is 10-14 since coming to Storrs in 2011.
"Every game and everything we do is designed and should be designed to win and have success and when we don’t have a winning record we have to work even harder, work smarter and put ourselves in position in the right positions to do the right things to make success happen," Manuel said. "Every season is important and when you don’t win whether it is one season, two seasons you have to get down to the work and make things happen."
