Former Syracuse head coach and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni was introduced as the Huskies new head football coach at a news conference Jan. 14 at the Burton Family Football Complex.
Jeffrey Hathaway, UConn director of athletics, made the announcement a dozen days after head coach Randy Edsall, who led UConn to its first Bowl Championship Series game at the Totsitos Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day, resigned on Jan. 2 to become head coach at the University of Maryland.
“Our focus in this search was on coaches that had (Division) I-A and/or NFL experience,” Hathaway said during the crowded news conference. “Involving our outstanding interviews with every candidate that we met with, the only person that we had follow-up conversations with was Paul.”
Pasqualoni is a native of Cheshire, Conn., where he was an assistant football coach at Cheshire High School. As a college coach, he helped lead Syracuse to 16 bowl games between 1987 and 2004 both as an assistant coach and head coach, and previously served as head coach at Western Connecticut State University, taking the team to the NCAA Division II Playoffs in 1985. Between 1976 and 1981 he was an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Southern Connecticut State University. Since 2005 he served as a coach in the National Football League, first as a tight ends coach and linebackers coach for the Cowboys, moving to the Miami Dolphins for two years as defensive coordinator before returning to Dallas last year as defensive coordinator.
During the first year of a five-year contract, Pasqualoni will be paid a total of $1.5 million, including a base salary of $350,000 and additional public relations and media fees of $1.1 million. His salary will rise over time during the contract period to $1.9 million.
“I’m excited about this challenge, charged with continuing the development of the excellence of this football program, its high level of play,” said Pasqualoni, a 1972 graduate of Penn State University who joined the team as a walk-on before earning a varsity letter. “Our mission, our goal is to continue the growth and development of UConn football.”
At several points during his remarks, Pasqualoni noted his past as a high school coach and the presence of so many Connecticut high school coaches who attended the announcement of his appointment as UConn’s 29th head football coach in the team’s 115-year history.
“I started my career as a ninth grade coach at Cheshire High School. I felt at that point I had the best football job in America,” he said “(Connecticut’s high school coaches) are an outstanding group of men. I feel a part of them. They know that whatever we have is theirs. And this facility and UConn football is here for them, their support and promotion of football in the state of Connecticut.”
Hathaway noted that high school football coaching associations from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York each had sent along “very strong messages to me and to the University about the respect they have for Paul Pasqualoni,” adding that the new Husky coach’s extensive contacts at the high school level are in key areas for recruiting talented student-athletes that are “vital to UConn’s success.”
In a statement, the executive director of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association, John Fontana, said: “He is excellent at getting the high school coaches in various states to believe in his program. Paul will have a good rapport with the coaches in Connecticut. When you build a program like UConn has, you go step-by-step and Paul will get them to the next level. He will win the state over and get everyone committed to the program.”
Pasqualoni said that only six years removed from his Syracuse coaching days, he continues to have contact with coaches in areas with football talent such as Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, D.C., and in Canada.
As he listened to Pasqualoni responding to questions from reporters, a smile crossed the face of Larry McHugh, chairman of UConn’s Board of Trustees and a former Connecticut high school football coach.
“Most important to me is that he is a teaching coach and in fact his academic rate of graduation has been very, very good at Syracuse,” McHugh said. “There’s a lot of young coaches out there who can use Paul Pasqualoni as a role model; somebody who has had great success at every level and has come back home. I think that’s so important and to recognize the fact that Connecticut football has come so far, so quick. And Randy, Lew Perkins and Jeff deserve the credit for that.”
UConn’s newly appointed president, Susan Herbst, arrived from Atlanta for the news conference to meet Pasqualoni, whom she had spoken with over the telephone during the search process.
“What struck me most was when I talked with Paul is how much he cared about the students as students,” she said. “With Paul it’s really genuine. He understands it. I think a lot of it is he came up through high school. He was a teacher and he sees the longer term for these kids. They may or may not go on to professional sports and what’s most important is that they graduate and get their degree, as he put it, to be citizens and leaders no matter what field they’re in. I think that’s the most important part of college sports.”
When questioned about rising standards for admission of student-athletes to UConn and whether he could recruit students who could meet the higher academic requirements, Pasqualoni said that while an assistant coach at Syracuse, he was assigned to monitor his players in their study hall.
“I’ve got a real good idea of what this is going to take,” he said. “We’re very confident we can recruit within those guidelines and that we can bring those student athletes here. We’re going to give them an opportunity in a very supportive program and point them in a direction to be successful academically.”
The Dallas Cowboys issued statements in support of Pasqualoni from head coach Jason Garrett and Jerry Jones, the owner/general manager.
Garrett said: “Paul is as good a person and as good a football coach as anyone that I have had the privilege to be associated with in my time as a player or coach in the NFL. He has everything that a college program would want from a leadership perspective. He knows the game, and he is very effective at coaching and teaching every aspect of the game. We wish nothing but the best for Coach P. and his family. I know our players and his fellow coaches here in Dallas will miss him very much.”
“The University of Connecticut has hired a quality man of great integrity and a wonderful football coach,” said Jones. “He is a leader, a great communicator, a dedicated professional and a winner. We are grateful to Paul for his contributions, and we wish him the very best with this new challenge.”
Former Syracuse quarterback Donovan McNabb of the Washington Redskins said his college coach found “a perfect fit” at UConn.
“Coach P knows how to teach, he knows how to recruit, he knows how to run a college program,” McNabb said. “I loved playing football for Coach P. I grew in many ways while at college – as a person, as a student and as an athlete – and I owe a lot of that to Coach P.”
John Dorsey, an All-American linebacker for the Huskies in 1983 who is now director of college scouting for the Green Bay Packers said: “He will keep the tradition going of what we have accomplished here at UConn over the last 10 years. I can’t tell you what he means to high school coaches from all over the country. It’s a perfect match.”
