The View From Section 241
Courtesy of businesslawyer
In the irony of ironies, for an hour or two of the UConn-Maryland game there it looked like former Head Coach Randy Edsall was going to revive our program. When I rolled in to the blue lot at 5:40, I was parked rows, rows further away from what I would have expected. It looked to me like we sold out all the normal seats, and sold some tickets in the temporary bleachers to boot. A higher percentage of fans wore blue than, say — ever. And, while not as enthusiastic a crowd as we would have had for a big night game if we were any good, the crowd stated incredibly into it given how our team and program has gone. And, to their credit, the players seemed to play with more heart than against Towson. That having been said, it should be obvious to anyone who watched the game that what P has done to our program is not going to be solved short term just by changing coaches. The difference in team speed between the two teams was astounding, especially when you consider that last year I wouldn’t have told you there was a difference. Now, part of that is actual speed, but part of that, to be fair, is mental speed — the ability to use your physical speed because you are not thinking but running with the confidence that your body is taking you in the right direction. Our DL does not have a single pass rusher on it. We’ve wasted three years listening to this clown talk about prototypical bodies, and what we’ve got are a group of DLs with not one guy who started undersized and grew into a small DE who can actually generate a pass rush. And our OL utterly sucks. Lack of physical talent? Guys being held back by the zone schemes that P made clear in his presser we are still running? Both? I don’t know, but I know this — the game was over when Kevin Friend limped off and Xavier Hemingway came on. I’m sure he’s a good young man, but I don’t see a RT who is big enough to get it done. And I say that having watched him be overrun for two games. So what happened? Stop wasting my time about play calling and schemes. Yes, I liked the way they ran the freeze option, but the bottom line is coaching aside the vastly superior team won, and we were only able to stay in the game for 30 minutes because they kept shooting themselves in the foot early. Everyone here needs to wake up and smell the coffee — firing P and GDL now is not going to save this season. We are going to have to struggle for a few bad years while we restock the talent. Whether we do that Edsall’s way or find a new strategy, who knows. But we will have to do it while we suck and play in a suck conference . Good luck.
Offense, defense and specials? I’m suck of the comments about McCombs. No one here as any reason to think he is less a player today than he was as a frosh, when he was competent to fairly good. The OL sucks. Plain and simple. There are not holes, and putting a TB in who is less accomplished at finding them isn’t going to help. If we had John Delahunt (or Steve Brouse or Danny Murray) lined up next to Hemingway at TE, we could help Hemingway in protection. We don’t. McQuillan is an H Back (although I thought he played well) and Parker is a walk-on. How we didn’t recruit TEs earlier …. The WRs as a group may have been our one bright spot. I love Davis, even though he didn’t have a great game, right down to how he wants to block LBs on short yardage runs (a la Marcus Easley before he became a star), and if Phillips has now put it together to, that’s a good sign. And I get both the praise and the criticism of Whitmer, but I really think some of the judgments are unfair given how poor the OL is and the lack of a credible running game.
On D, I have very little to say. Credible performances by Taylor Mack and Smallwood, but beyond that …. Other LBs aren’t making plays, too many missed tackles, not enough of a pass rush and too many blown coverages and angles (yes, Mr. Melinfonwu, I am talking to you despite your physical talent). I really don’t want to bash people individually, because the D’s failure is a team effort. But it starts with the lack of any semblance of a pass rush, and that starts with the fact that we have guys who look like DTs playing DE. Our “prototypes.” When we “fixed” a “problem” that had been working well with the Osundes and Campbells and Trevardos and Wittens and other guys who were recruited when they weighed 220 and less.
And can we not lose fact of the fact that, for all that went wrong, that may have been the worst special teams game I remember UConn playing since the blocked punts day at Chapel Hill. If Lemelle isn’t going to catch the ball because he’s worried about fumbling, put someone else back there. Cole Wagner is not playing like a senior leader. And the inability of the coverage team to down a punt inside the ten was disheartening.
So that’s all I can muster the enthusiasm to say. I thought the crowd’s effort was more than good considering. I do think the team played hard. But, unfortunately, I don’t see firing P, and switching from zone to man blocking, in the middle of the season as a panacea that is going to instantly cure all (which is not to say I wouldn’t like to try it). Whether or not you liked him, Edsall had a plan for what could be accomplished short term in Connecticut and how he was going to accomplish it. P, at best, has a generic plan that isn’t working. Given the lack of talent and the conference fiasco, I hope to God the next coach will have a plan that makes sense for and can be implemented at UConn. Whether it’s the plan that people on this board think is the way to win or not. Oh — and please, no more speculating about whether we would take Edsall back, o.k.? First, the answer to that has always been “no thanks,” and second, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Despite the anger of the MD fanbase for him blowing up a decent team two years ago, this year’s team is going in the right direction, will go bowling and if they don’t win 8 this year I fully expect them to next year.
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