Randy Edsall's First Move at UConn - Call A Kid Who Committed 7 Months Ago While He's At An Awards Banquet To Pull His Offer 2 Weeks Before Signing Day
HSS NJ – Ryan Dickens beamed for the crowd Sunday night, his mind racing over all he had accomplished and the future he was ready to tackle.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior linebacker from Raritan High School had just been honored with a 2016 Mini Max Award for his football excellence, strong academics and devotion to community service, which includes roles in teen suicide prevention, breast cancer awareness and fundraisers for families in crisis.
Dickens also had his most important decision locked up, having verbally committed seven months earlier to accept a scholarship offer to play football for the University of Connecticut. He wore UConn T-shirts to school, chatted in group text messages with other UConn recruits and had already planned to major in business. Now, he was only 17 days from signing his name to a National Letter of Intent and making his dreams official.
Or so he thought.
Dickens’ cell phone rang while he and his parents, Matt and Patti, were still in the parking lot of the awards banquet in Princeton Junction Sunday night. UConn coach Randy Edsall was on the other end. Ryan Dickens excitedly answered the phone, but in an instant his world was shattered.
Edsall was calling to tell Dickens the unthinkable: The school no longer had a scholarship for him.
“And the next thing you hear is Ryan’s like, ‘You’re kidding, right?’” Patti Dickens said. “And then he put the phone on speaker and Edsall said, ‘No, Ry, we just decided we’re going to go in another direction. We don’t have a spot for you.’”
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Welcome to the awesome world of the NCAA! Where it takes a legal degree and months of time wading through red tape and jumping through hoops to try and find a place you can transfer to and find a better situation for yourself without sitting out for 6 years…but if you’re a coach, you can just pack your shit and head off to the next paycheck, and by the way all those commits you promised spots to, LOL fuck em.
UConn’s decision to pull Dickens’ scholarship was a gut-punch for several reasons, including the timing, his parents said. Dickens had originally committed to UConn and head coach Bob Diaco in June of 2016, effectively shutting down his recruiting process and prompting him to refuse overtures from other schools.
UConn fired Diaco in late December and hired Edsall — who had previously served as head coach of the Huskies from 1999 to 2010 — on Dec. 30. Dickens worried about his scholarship offer, but Edsall called on New Year’s Day to assure Dickens the school still wanted him and his scholarship was safe, his parents said.
UConn linebackers coach Jon Wholley even met with Dickens at Raritan Thursday to talk about signing day and his upcoming visit to UConn on Jan. 20, Dickens’ 18th birthday.
Three days later, the scholarship was gone.
Listen who am I to argue with Randy Edsall right? I mean he does this professionally. When you’re a lifetime 96-104 coach you’ve obviously got the game all figured out. Like that’s almost .500. One 8 game winning streak and you’re right there. So if Randy Edsall thinks a 2016 Mini Max winner and “an all-state player who racked up more than 300 tackles as a three-year starter and led Raritan to a state title in 2015″ isn’t cut out for UConn football, then he’s not cut out for it. I mean it’s not all about football either, there’s always the personality concern when you’re trying to run a clean program. Maybe this kid who “has a 3.9 grade-point average, competes on the wrestling team and is actively involved in several charities, including the RAINE Foundation, which his family founded and provides food, clothing and other necessities for families in crisis” is, actually, a bad kid. A locker room cancer.
Gotta see both sides.