UConn football has not been good recently, to put it mildly. The Huskies have played in only one bowl game the past seven seasons and won more than five games just once since they miraculously made that Fiesta Bowl in 2010. Ever since joining the AAC in 2013, the program’s highest finish has been tied for third in a six-team division.
So yeah, not good.
As you can expect, this has led to even smaller crowds at home over the years. The NCAA officially says UConn averaged 20,335 (in a 40,000 seat stadium) per home game in 2017, a figure smaller than some FCS schools like James Madison and Montana and a bit inflated given one of the “home” games was against Boston College at Fenway Park.
Well, it seems that the athletic director at the school is not all that happy at fans staying home when their team needs them and proceeded to call them out a bit this week at the AAC’s annual media day/clambake.
“We need our fan base to step up and be accountable if they want to have a quality football program and quality programs in general,” David Benedict told the Journal Inquirer. “You’ve got support the programs through thick and thin. That’s what great programs do. We have to try to re-engage our fan base and get them to start buying into that.
“But it’s really about creating an accountability with our fan base to have them take some ownership, just like coach (Randy Edsall) is trying to get his team to take some ownership and be accountable for what they’re doing.”
We’re sure all the fans are thrilled at being questioned about coming out to watch a sub-par product on the field and will quickly buy some season tickets as a result of these comments...