Bye Week Hits at Perfect Time for Huskies
Photo credit – THE BONEYARD BLOG
The calendar hit one month yesterday since the season opened up on August 29th at Rentschler Field. A new culture was in place, a new mentality instilled in each member of the organization by the new coaching staff led by head coach Bob Diaco. The schedule set the Huskies up perfectly with four home games to open the first month under the new regime. The result? A record of 1-4 with their lone win coming against Stony Brook of the FCS.
What happened? Turnovers, injuries and a complete lack of ability to pass block.
Through five games, the Huskies have turned the ball over on their first possession four times. In the fifth, a fumble recovery in the end zone occurred on the second drive of the game, following an opening drive field goal. Ninety-three yard interception return for a TD? Check. Strip sack that gave an opponent the ball inside the red zone, with a touchdown surrendered four plays later? Check. Thirty-one yard fumble return for a touchdown? Check. A fumble on the first offensive play from scrimmage followed by a touchdown one play later? Check.
UConn has consistently put themselves behind the eight-ball to open games and if ball protection does not improve, the self-inflicted wounds will prevent any further wins in 2014. The errors are not small ones, they are egregious and prevent success from building and growing the culture that Diaco wants to implement. The sixteen (16) points the offense surrendered Saturday against Temple, brings the total to thirty-seven (37) on the year, with five turnovers returned for scores and a safety, not counting the turnovers that eventually led to points. Appalling.
Pass blocking has been nothing sort of a disaster. It got so bad in the road opener against USF that the passing game was shut down altogether, until it was an absolute must down two scores with five minutes to go. Twenty (20) sacks have been surrendered, fourth worst out of 125 teams in the FBS. The rest of the statistics are just as bad. Total offense (120th), rushing offense (119th), yards per rush (120th), passing offense (102nd) and turnovers (106th).
Stats only show part of the story. When you end your starting quarterback’s career, nothing else needs to be said.
So what can happen over the bye week? There’s no doubt frustration is setting in. It has to be. Diaco talked about it following the loss on Saturday and the ‘here we go again’ thoughts that are just a natural reaction.
“I even said this last week [after USF],” Diaco said during his post-game press conference. “I went into the room and they’re kind of looking at me funny, like ‘what are you going to do now?’ And I addressed it, we’re going to do what we do. It’s not Defcon 5. The fact of the matter is up to that point, the ball bounces one way or the other and we’re sitting at 3-1 rather than 1-3.”
“We’re going to correct the mistakes with respect and care and diligence,” he continued. “We’re going to communicate consistently with the players. Our culture is strong and we’re going to continue to build on that. Anytime we see that start to change in any way, we’re going to jump on it, make sure it doesn’t happen. We’re not going to change, we’re going to stay the course. Now, we’re also going to work to improve and look at our systems that just flat either aren’t working or just have too much on them, so we’ll improve those areas. It’s definitely happening with the run game right now, there’s a lot of positive stuff to look at there.”
The run game is a positive to focus on heading into the bye week. UConn running backs broke the 100-yard mark for the first time all season against Temple, rushing for 124 yards. Those yards, however, came on 34 carries, which comes to 3.6 yards an attempt, but it’s an improvement, no matter how small.
Work still needs to be done and there’s only so much a coaching staff can do.
At some point, the player’s need to take accountability. Either they can play or they can’t. Either they can sit on the line, block the man in front of them or it’s next man up.
A 1-4 start, with each game transpiring the way it has should make them want to fight, practice harder and improve. This team should be upset. Based on the comments above, there are indications that the culture has had some cracks the last few weeks. That speaks to the mental fortitude of everyone inside that locker room should doubts be setting in.
On the quarterback front, Diaco reiterated yesterday that he would like to play Tim Boyle every game, but is unsure whether that will be possible. The comments are a little confusing and can be open to interpretation.
“We want to continue to play Tim, when he’s feeling well enough to do that,” Diaco said yesterday. “We want to continue to do that, we want to play Tim in every game. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t. Tim is the quarterback of the future and why wouldn’t we take every opportunity to get him action to get better? We definitely WANT to, I’m not sure we can. It’s still going to be based on how he feels, but moving forward we definitely want to get him in each game.”
Read into that what you will. There isn’t an injury, but it certainly sounds like there is something preventing Boyle from playing additional snaps during games. Whatever it is, time off during this week certainly can’t hurt.
It’s time to regroup, hit the reset button and come back on October 11th, with a whole new outlook in New Orleans.
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