When UConn hired David Benedict to replace the departing Warde Manuel as its athletic director, fans around the northeast responded with a resounding “this guy seems fine.” At the time, some fans still clung to dreams of a power conference invite, and Benedict’s background at Noted Football School Auburn was seen by many as an indication that the school would continue to prioritize football going forward.
To say that the intervening years have been eventful for the UConn athletic department would be a bit of an understatement. And through it all, Benedict has (mostly) led the school through a series of major challenges.
While certain former athletic directors were known for making weird, risk-averse choices that actually turned out to be wildly damaging, Benedict has been aggressive. And while the results haven’t always been perfect, it’s clear that the athletic department is in the best position it has been since UConn first entered Realignment Hell. Let’s take a look at the highlights:
1 While we initially were fond of Bob Diaco’s beautiful hair and skin wacky behavior and briefly improved football team, he ultimately demonstrated that he wasn’t the person for the job. After Diaco reneged on an agreement with Benedict to hire an established offensive coordinator, Benedict fired Diaco and replaced him with donor-favorite Randy Edsall. While this hasn’t shown any benefits on the field, and while the deal strictly doesn’t save the program money, it inspired donors who liked Randy during his first run with the program to help fund the move, and also to give enough money to the program to further upgrade the facilities and replace the locker room. So while Edsall hasn’t proven to be the guy to bring the program back to prominence respectability functionality, the program will be on better footing going forward than it would have been under Diaco.
2 Kevin Ollie was Warde Manuel’s home run hire (that he only made because Jim Calhoun forced him to), the former player who made good when he came back and won a national title in 2014. The ensuing years, unfortunately, were unkind to Ollie, and after one NCAA tournament appearance in his last four years, Ollie was fired “for cause,” totally only because of some NCAA violations and not because he had, in the eyes of everyone watching, stopped doing his job. Benedict then targeted Dan Hurley, the best coach who was potentially available, and hired him despite suitors from power conferences like the ACC. Hurley’s first year showed signs of improvement, and his current recruiting has fans very excited about the future. This was a difficult move that prior ADs would likely have been unwilling to make, as it represented an acrimonious split with Ollie (whose suit against the school is still ongoing), and required some creative legal wrangling to get out of paying Ollie the remaining $10 million left on his very smartly written contract. At this point, I can’t imagine there are any UConn fans who are still second-guessing it.
3 When Benedict was hired, he was most highly touted for his fundraising ability, and since his arrival, the school has announced plans to build or upgrade venues for baseball, softball, and soccer, with plans coming for a hockey arena in the future. Baseball’s new home will be online this spring, with the new Morrone scheduled to be ready by next fall. Construction is well underway on the new Rizza Family Performance Center (partially funded by a historic $8 million donation from former UConn soccer player Tony Rizza in 2014), which will house locker rooms, coaches’ offices, training equipment and more for the men’s soccer, women’s soccer, baseball, softball and lacrosse teams.
4 The biggest and most aggressive move that Benedict has made was to finally take control of UConn’s athletic future and leave the AAC, a decent-enough league that was a terrible fit for UConn, for the Big East. This was a move that has essentially been on the table since the old Big East broke up, but it was too daunting. Football rules the college athletics landscape, but UConn has been a basketball school, and making a basketball-first decision was unheard of. Of course returning to the Big East would be great for basketball, both in terms of quality and proximity of competition. But what of football? The program was floundering in the AAC, recruiting terribly and getting blown out regularly. But without a league, what would happen to…
5…the football schedule? Well, it turns out that leaving the AAC may actually result in a better football schedule, not only in terms of the number of interesting, exciting opponents, but also regarding the proximity of those opponents. With most of the 2020 schedule now announced (and in case you didn’t know, that is why I’m writing this blog post), and with five power conference programs on the slate for 2020, it’s getting much harder to argue that there’s any real downside to leaving the AAC. Additionally, Benedict earned his salary here more than almost anywhere else. 2020 was the year we were all prepared to accept a hideous schedule, as many Twitterinos pointed out that there were few programs with openings available for next season. Somehow, Benedict managed to break up several scheduled games, claiming both opponents, and put together a schedule that includes a number of high-profile matchups, as well as competitive regional rivals that will be fun to (maybe) beat if things go really well.
So in just a few short years, Benedict has already built a legacy at UConn that will be much better and more significant than at least the last two Athletic Directors the school has had. Hopefully UConn can keep him around for a bit longer, but even if not, it’s clear he was the right person for the job.
