OC Frank Verducci Having a Smooth Transition
Photo credit: IrishSportsDaily
Frank Verducci has been a member of the UConn football staff for just one month to the day, but from the sounds of it, he feels like he’s been here since day one. He took part in his first practice of the spring with a brand new staff on Saturday and shared his thoughts on his fellow coaches, after it concluded.
“I just can’t say enough about the guys I work with,” Verducci said as he met with the media inside the Burton Family Football Complex. “You’re working with three former coordinators. They did all the heavy lifting last year as far as introducing our culture and getting it going the way we want it to. In some ways, I tell them all the time, I feel like I’m cheating, like I came in fifteen miles into the marathon. They’ve just done a tremendous job. Today, they made sure I was in the right place at the right time. I’m indebted to them and it’s a pleasure being a part of that staff.”
Verducci shed some light on what he wants to accomplish during these fifteen practices, as he gets to know the guys that will end up playing out his offense on Saturday’s. It’s a breath of fresh air from the George DeLeone era, something Husky fans should enjoy hearing.
“The system we are running is flexible enough that it’s going to accentuate the talents of the individuals,” he reinforced. “I tell the players this all the time, it’s not the plays, it’s the players. If you wanted the whole dictionary of what this offense will look like, it would be volumes, but the biggest thing that I have to get in spring ball is to identify what the individual strengths are, what guys cannot do, eliminate that type of offensive play, scheme, whatever you want to call it and accentuate the things that are going to play to our talent level.”
Verducci was impressed with how the players came out and adjusted to an entirely new system on day one.
“The first day was everything I could’ve hoped for,” he said. “I think it showed the investment that the individual players have put into the program because from an assignment, an alignment and movement standpoint, they were pretty good. They weren’t perfect and you’d like to have perfect, but realistically, this was the first day going into a new system. If that is ground zero, if that’s the starting point, then we’re off to a good start.”
All eyes will be on the quarterback battle, one that will get a little bigger this summer, but the staff has reinforced over and over that they want a starter in place by the end of these fifteen practices. Be it Tim Boyle, Bryant Shirreffs or Tyler Davis that come out and take that starting role, Verducci only wants to see consistency from the most important position on the field.
“If you can be the same guy everyday, then I can gameplan to that,” he said. “If I know what you can’t do, that’s as important as knowing what you can do. But if you’re going to come in one day and be able to throw the ball on time to the flat and then the next day come and be late and get it picked, now I don’t know if I can ever throw the ball to the flat, I don’t know if I can run those routes. But if you come in there everyday and show me you can’t do it, I’m not going to do it. If you show me you can do it everyday, we’re going to accentuate it. So that’s really the value of the process.”
As far as a two quarterback rotation that we all saw last season, the new offensive coordinator does think there are times when it can be used to a team’s advantage. However, his overall thoughts on that plan of attack, should make fans smile.
“I don’t think that’s ideal,” Verducci said.
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