Received some good comments/emails recently about the new UConn coach. Since I'm trapped in the house today -- my driveway could double as a hockey rink -- I thought I'd post a couple of those comments here. Feel free to weigh in with your own opinions.

This one is from "No sleeves in West Haven".

"Chip,

I am going on record now to say that I believe Paul Pasquoloni will turn out to be a bad hire. I hope I am wrong, but here are my reasons:

1) He is a 61 year-old man. I would think you'd want a younger guy for a program that is still on the rise
2) His overall tenure at Syracuse was solid, but he essentially presided over their descent into being irrelevant
3) While he was the coach at Syracuse, he took at proud program that had been the dominant program in the Northeast for years and watched Edsall guide the Uconn program right past them in national relevance within a matter of five years. Now they hire him as there coach??

I am sure he is a good coach and he comes across very well. He will probably make your job a lot easier too because he seems like he'd be much easier to cover. Just don't know if he is the right guy…."

I'll address your points as such.
1) George O'Leary is 64, and just led Central Florida to an 11-win season and first national ranking ever. Sure, it's just Conference USA. But ask the Georgia Bulldogs if that matters. Joe Paterno won a national title at 60. Many others have had success coaching in their 60s. Rare is the coach who remains in one place for a decade. We know Pasqual will be committed to UConn until he decides to retire; can't say that about a younger coach. Even Edsall was biding his time to move on.
2) Disagree. His last three seasons were mediocre (though Syracuse was 4-2 and won a share of the Big East title his last year; and really, conference play is priority No. 1). But it was Greg Robinson who led the Orange to irrelevance.
3) UConn took a nose dive in 2005 and 2006, so I don't think that's totally accurate. And Pasqualoni was out by that time, anyway.

I respect anyone who isn't sure Pasqual is the right guy. No one will know until we see the direction the program goes. Let's see what happens first.

And you best wear sleeves outside today. It's freezing!

Here's another, from Pat...

Mr. Malafrone, I know you are busy, but I just have to say a few short words.

Something has been bugging me. What is wrong with the UConn athletics dept? Management higher-ups made a decision recently that I just don't get. In regards to the vacant football head coaching position, they let Mark Whipple slip away in favor of Paul Pasqualoni, why? To save a few bucks. This was a mistake in my opinion.

I always liked Paul Pasqualoni, a Connecticut guy and I think he got screwed at Syracuse. I think he WAS a great coach in college, and he HAD a good record in bowl games. But he is 61. Whipple is a much younger man, with his whole coaching life ahead of him. He too has a good record wherever he went. I remember when he took UNH from obscurity to the D2 national championship game. Same goes for when he coached at UMass. This is a very smart coach. The coach I would have liked to see at UConn. It just made better sense.

I don't know, things go on behind the scenes that the general public will never know. I think Whipple was the man. Mark my words in 5 or 6 years from now.

I wrote a blog back in 2006 about how much I enjoyed UNH football back in the early 1990s. I was a student at another college back then, but my buddies and I used to drive to see those UNH teams because they were so much fun to watch. You have to respect what Whipple accomplished there, as he was the coach who led them to the national tournament for the first time. He would have been a good choice for UConn, too. But lets see what Pasqual can do. And, to be clear, Tony Sparano took UNH to the title game. Whipple was in his fourth year at Brown in 1997.

On an unrelated note, I've settled on "Pasqual" as my official Runway blog shorthand for coach Paul Pasqualoni. I'm only saving three letters, I know. But I had an uncle Pasquale (we called him 'Uzi Pasqual'. And we always shouted it with a big smile we saw him. AAAAY! UZI PASQUAL!! ). He was older and white-haired, always smiling and spoke with such a heavy Italian accent you could only understand every fourth or fifth word. And I realize that last part has little to do with the new UConn coach, who speaks very clear English. But I always thought "Pasqual" was a great name, so that's what I'm going with. Just hope I don't slip and call him 'Uzi Pasqual' at a press conference.