A Quarter of the Season Complete – Where Are We?
After the first quarter of the season, UConn’s record stands at 1-2, with one unimpressive win against Stonybrook, and two losses against better, nonconference teams in BYU & Boise St. at home. In three short weeks, the team has experienced some major changes. Our starting QB has retired, and true sophmore Tim Boyle looks destined to burn his redshirt season once again. DL Angelo Pruitt & OL Bryan Paull have left the team as well due to injuries. Many players have seen time on the field, and we’ve gotten the chance to see what some of our true freshman can do. For me, specifically, it’s been a roller coaster of emotions toward how I feel about the program, but overall, although the record may not show it, I believe we’re heading in the right direction.
THE GOOD
1.) Geremy Davis – Guy is a stud, and the best NFL WR prospect UConn has had. He can dominate the game, is a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses, and has a great set of hands. 16 catches, 256 yards and 2 TD’s on the season, he looks poised to surpass his stats from last season. Also helps that he’s an even better person, and a true leader for this young team. I really feel that we will look back at the leadership provided by these captains during the 2014 season as a major reason for why the program gets turned around.
2.) Play-Calling – Yes, there have been some head scratchers in various situations, but overall it’s been good. We’ve become so accustomed to 1st & 2nd down runs up the middle, followed by an incomplete pass, that anything different was going to be an upgrade. There’s variety, yet there’s balance. Lot of guys getting involved in a multitude of ways, and I think we’ll see more variety as we head into conference play.
3.) Defense – They’ve played well as a group. Linebackers in coverage and deep secondary play have to improve, and we’d all love to see more of a pass rush, but as a whole, they’ve been pretty solid. Boise’s RB may be the best RB we see all season, and the defense bottled him up all day. Teams don’t even throw in Byron Jones’ direction, and Campenni looks like he has the tools to be the next great interior DL at UConn.
4.) Discipline – This team rarely commits penalties. Such a long way away from Pasqualoni’s tenure. Guys look focused throughout the game and in all fascets of the game. We’ve had very few false starts, delay of game, or too many men penalties. Those were weekly occurances under the former regime. I think this has been the biggest, and maybe most important change that needed to be made by Diaco, and so far, he’s clearly done it. Best of all, the clock management or utilization of timeouts has not been an issue. Adjustments are actually being made during the game. The coaching staff is miles ahead of our previous one on so many levels.
THE BAD
1.) Turnovers – They’re killing us. Three straight games, three different RB’s have fumbled the ball in the first quarter. We are not good enough to recover from these types of mistakes week in and week out. The INT Whitmer threw deflated the entire stadium down 3 against Boise. We’ve got to find a way to take care of the ball, yet maintain an aggressive approach.
2.) Offensive Line/Running Game – I have to say, this is what disappoints me the most. I get that we probably don’t have the talent Edsall had during his time. I get that these kids are 3 years behind most schools due to a poor conditioning program under the previous regime. But we’ve got to be able to run the ball if we ever want to have success as a program. We play in the Northeast, it gets cold as the season goes on. We’re never going to be a team who throws it around 60 times a game. I think we have the pieces, and I think the OL will benefit the most from a whole year in Balis’ strength & conditioning program. The good news is that we’re young, and these boys have the size, they just have to fine tune their technique and perfect the schemes.
3.) Retirement of Casey Cochran – I totally get it, and I support his decision fully. His whole life is ahead of him, still has a full ride at great university, and will have plenty of opportunities to stay in football. So it’s hard to feel too awful for him. However, it sucks anytime a kid’s career is cut short due to injury. Especially a kid who showed flashes of being the QB this program has been waiting on since Danny O. We’ll never know what Casey would have become at UConn on the field, and it’s a shame he couldn’t display his talent for his last two years for the UConn faithful.
LOOKING AHEAD – THE NEXT QUARTER
At USF, Temple at home, followed by a trip to Tulane. None of these teams scare anyone, and before the season, I predicted wins in all three of these games. I’ve not been blown away by what I’ve seen from UConn the first three weeks, but something tells me the beginning of conference play is going to really fire up our squad. These are three winnable games, and I expect UConn to win all 3. I’ll take a 2-1 record, but I see no reason why they can’t win all 3. Think of this, UConn would be 4-2, 3-0 in conference play heading into ECU. I think that’s what we need to be for us to have any shot in that game. This trio of games can really ascend this season into the start of something really great, and something that we haven’t seen in a long time…..A BIG game: WITH MEANING! I assume ECU will be undefeated in conference at that time, so heading into that game 3-0 in the AAC would be huge. I’m hoping for it, and I really think there’s a shot it happens.
by 
