Dan Hurley contemplated stepping down from UConn after 2024-25 season

UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley contemplated stepping down after last season, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. He cited the emotional drain of the job trying to win a third straight national championship. Marchand reported Hurley actually had early talks with Fox Sports about making a transition to television.

“I thought about leaving,” Hurley wrote in his new book with author Ian O’Connor. “Taking a gap year. Resigning as head coach of the UConn Huskies.”

Hurley led UConn back to the NCAA Tournament this past season, but they lost in the second round to eventual national champion Florida. Going for three in a row was eerily similar to the Kansas City Chiefs trying to do the same in the NFL with the Super Bowl. Both fell short and Hurley said was under tremendous amounts of pressure, especially with the new landscape of college athletics.

Hurley is 165-69 at UConn since the 2018-19 season. He flirted with the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2024, but opted to stay at UConn to chase that third championship.

“I knew my mind, and I knew my body, and I could feel that I was completely cooked,” Hurley wrote in the book. “Just burnt. I didn’t even know how I was standing. I stared at the office walls, muttering, conducting a brutal review of our season. I didn’t build a strong enough roster. I wasn’t a good leader. I let everyone down in Maui. I lost control, emotionally, at various points. I came in here some days sad and defeated, when I needed to be positive and inspiring. Then I went through the self-lacerating what-ifs: What if we’d played a little bit better in Maui? What if we hadn’t blown that game against Seton Hall? What if we’d been a better seed than an eight seed and hadn’t needed to face a number one in the second round? Who knows?

Dan Hurley almost resigned as UConn head coach after last season

“It was unhealthy to be ruminating this way. I was unhealthy. I desperately needed to get out of town, flee to my standard hideaway, Dorado Beach in San Juan. I needed to do some healing, not think about basketball for a few days. But that wasn’t possible in this new era. The transfer portal and NIL deals made every college player a free agent, so right after the tournament I needed to be in my office, in Storrs. If I left town right then, I wouldn’t have a team for the 2025-26 season. At that point, I wasn’t even sure that I would return for the 2025-26 season.”

Hurley wanted to potentially pursue TV, simply because of the lifestyle. The Huskies coach cited conversations with former Villanova coach Jay Wright, who spent time with CBS, and said that Wright was much happier and actually getting to sleep.

Hurley also mentioned how he is not an “unbreakable machine programmed to seek and destroy opposing teams and officiating crews.” He is human like everyone else.

Going into the 2025-26 season, Hurley said he cherishes his job, players, school, fans and boosters. At this point, he wouldn’t want another job, but he certainly expressed his feelings about burnout and the pressures of the job on his mental well-being.