2018 Season: #TimeToWork > Spring Game 4/14 @ Noon

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Lot/GateTimes:

 

[huskymedic]

Nice grab by Rose (#91)

 

[Chief00]

So when Crocker’s defense plays poorly this year, will it be Dunn’s fault like it was Lashlee’s last year?
By all reports I am getting, the offense has been smoking the defense in practice. We will see Saturday how that plays out but Randy already appears to be giving Crocker excuses due to lack of DL’s. It’s really a puzzle for me why Crocker has focused on recruiting DB’s when we are so hurting up front.
I am beginning to think his scheme and personnel thinking just doesn’t translate from 1AA to D1. Stud DL linemen are needed at the D1 level - you can’t get away with playing 8 DB’s, a couple of LB’s as down linemen and a fat guy who can’t run as nose tackle.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Ostrout: The Bristol Press - Ex-Huskies RB Dixon exhorts UConn football to put it all on line

 

[BlueDogs]

So when Crocker’s defense plays poorly this year, will it be Dunn’s fault like it was Lashlee’s last year?
By all reports I am getting, the offense has been smoking the defense in practice. We will see Saturday how that plays out but Randy already appears to be giving Crocker excuses due to lack of DL’s. It’s really a puzzle for me why Crocker has focused on recruiting DB’s when we are so hurting up front.
I am beginning to think his scheme and personnel thinking just doesn’t translate from 1AA to D1. Stud DL linemen are needed at the D1 level - you can’t get away with playing 8 DB’s, a couple of LB’s as down linemen and a fat guy who can’t run as nose tackle.

Truth be spoken. My guess is we will take a beating on D again. We don't have the size or power to blunt good D1 offensive schemes. I'd just pound up the middle forcing the DBs to come up and then stretch the field vertically and horizontally in the pass game. Make them give me 6 yards a pop or get beat deep. Basically, what happened last season.

 

[Tdaley]

Randy mentioned Friday night that it will take two more recruiting classes to get the personal at the level it needs to be for Uconn to succeed. People should expect that watching our defense this year will still be a painful experience again. We may have one of the worst defensive lines in the country and linebackers who are not much better. In fact, our best defensive lineman may not even be on campus yet. How scary of a thought is that?

 

[Exit 4]

Randy mentioned Friday night that it will take two more recruiting classes to get the personal at the level it needs to be for Uconn to succeed. People should expect that watching our defense this year will still be a painful experience again. We may have one of the worst defensive lines in the country and linebackers who are not much better. In fact, our best defensive lineman may not even be on campus yet. How scary of a thought is that?

Sounds like we need to score 45+ to win. Thanks for confirming what we feared.

Btw -if the staff is still that down on our LB corp, then lets hope we find some sort of JUCO or grad transfer this spring. We reeled in Mensah, Sterling and Eli Thomas late in the process last year.

 

[Husky68]

So when Crocker’s defense plays poorly this year, will it be Dunn’s fault like it was Lashlee’s last year?
By all reports I am getting, the offense has been smoking the defense in practice. We will see Saturday how that plays out but Randy already appears to be giving Crocker excuses due to lack of DL’s. It’s really a puzzle for me why Crocker has focused on recruiting DB’s when we are so hurting up front.
I am beginning to think his scheme and personnel thinking just doesn’t translate from 1AA to D1. Stud DL linemen are needed at the D1 level - you can’t get away with playing 8 DB’s, a couple of LB’s as down linemen and a fat guy who can’t run as nose tackle.

I don't understand the lack of questioning the defensive coaching last year. 3-3-5; 3-4-4, 4-3-4 whatever, you still need to cover opponents offensive threats, field of play and attack opponent QB. HCRE2.0 never seemed to place any/enough responsibility for poor positioning/angles of defensive players on coaches. Clemson and Alabama run a 3 up front defense (yet mostly looked like 5 or 6 at LOS), but look at the athletes they have up front; our guys could not generate any rush or containment with defensive line and linebackers (plus extra safety); they were often in no man's land (neither rushing or in short coverage) giving opponents offense plenty of time to pick defense apart.
Defensive team last year had very poor results, why so little is attributed to defensive coaches is not understood by me. By far the worst passing defense in all of Div-1 and nary a peep about "coaching".
Does defense get a pass this year again due to "need our recruits". Slowing the game down to reduce opponents possessions and scoring is not the same as improving the defense.

 

[Husky68]

Randy mentioned Friday night that it will take two more recruiting classes to get the personal at the level it needs to be for Uconn to succeed. People should expect that watching our defense this year will still be a painful experience again. We may have one of the worst defensive lines in the country and linebackers who are not much better. In fact, our best defensive lineman may not even be on campus yet. How scary of a thought is that?

Not buying what he is selling on defense. Sure, give me better Jimmy's and Joe's on defense and I'll run a better defense, no matter what the scheme. He has who he has on defense (plus any adds) for next year, his job is to get the defensive coaches to make it work. We are not talking about a bad defense last year we are talking about the worst passing defense in all of the 128 Div-1 schools - by far. Coaching at this level of football matters, a lot. EXECUTE your job.

 

[Chief00]

I don't understand the lack of questioning the defensive coaching last year. 3-3-5; 3-4-4, 4-3-4 whatever, you still need to cover opponents offensive threats, field of play and attack opponent QB. HCRE2.0 never seemed to place any/enough responsibility for poor positioning/angles of defensive players on coaches. Clemson and Alabama run a 3 up front defense (yet mostly looked like 5 or 6 at LOS), but look at the athletes they have up front; our guys could not generate any rush or containment with defensive line and linebackers (plus extra safety); they were often in no man's land (neither rushing or in short coverage) giving opponents offense plenty of time to pick defense apart.
Defensive team last year had very poor results, why so little is attributed to defensive coaches is not understood by me. By far the worst passing defense in all of Div-1 and nary a peep about "coaching".
Does defense get a pass this year again due to "need our recruits". Slowing the game down to reduce opponents possessions and scoring is not the same as improving the defense.

Good summary - and truth be told - Crocker’s defense was worse than Disco’s. It’s so counter intuitive to basic logic. Ross Perot use to talk about the national deficit as the aunt living up in the attic that was kept out of mind out of sight. It seems to be how Randy is addressing the Crocker DC issue. At some point, there will be a reckoning. Sure, better talent will help but that alone doesn’t explain being caught out of position or out flanked on the chess board too many times.

 

[Chief00]

Randy mentioned Friday night that it will take two more recruiting classes to get the personal at the level it needs to be for Uconn to succeed. People should expect that watching our defense this year will still be a painful experience again. We may have one of the worst defensive lines in the country and linebackers who are not much better. In fact, our best defensive lineman may not even be on campus yet. How scary of a thought is that?

Are you referring to Jones?
It seems like a strange suggestion after seeing poor blocking for many years, but Chief would recommend moving an offensive linemen to defense - we are that desperate both in terms of talent and bodies. Crocker’s love affair in targeting DB recruiting has worsen the imbalance the last two years. Jones, who may be our best DL with upside, was recruited as an OL and switched to defense late in the process.

In his dreams, I really think Crocker would go with eleven DB’s.

 

[SubbaBub]

Need to run a scheme based on the players you have until you can recruit the talent you want.

Last season was an unmitigated disaster. Zero redeeming value. Can't have a repeat, even if the talent isn't what we are used to having on D.

D is mostly about effort and execution.

 

[kris1]

I don't understand the lack of questioning the defensive coaching last year. 3-3-5; 3-4-4, 4-3-4 whatever, you still need to cover opponents offensive threats, field of play and attack opponent QB. HCRE2.0 never seemed to place any/enough responsibility for poor positioning/angles of defensive players on coaches. Clemson and Alabama run a 3 up front defense (yet mostly looked like 5 or 6 at LOS), but look at the athletes they have up front; our guys could not generate any rush or containment with defensive line and linebackers (plus extra safety); they were often in no man's land (neither rushing or in short coverage) giving opponents offense plenty of time to pick defense apart.
Defensive team last year had very poor results, why so little is attributed to defensive coaches is not understood by me. By far the worst passing defense in all of Div-1 and nary a peep about "coaching".
Does defense get a pass this year again due to "need our recruits". Slowing the game down to reduce opponents possessions and scoring is not the same as improving the defense.

Are you referring to Jones?
It seems like a strange suggestion after seeing poor blocking for many years, but Chief would recommend moving an offensive linemen to defense - we are that desperate both in terms of talent and bodies. Crocker’s love affair in targeting DB recruiting has worsen the imbalance the last two years. Jones, who may be our best DL with upside, was recruited as an OL and switched to defense late in the process.

In his dreams, I really think Crocker would go with eleven DB’s.

Need to run a scheme based on the players you have until you can recruit the talent you want.

Last season was an unmitigated disaster. Zero redeeming value. Can't have a repeat, even if the talent isn't what we are used to having on D.

D is mostly about effort and execution.

Congrats on being clueless....

 

[JMick]

Good summary - and truth be told - Crocker’s defense was worse than Disco’s. It’s so counter intuitive to basic logic. Ross Perot use to talk about the national deficit as the aunt living up in the attic that was kept out of mind out of sight. It seems to be how Randy is addressing the Crocker DC issue. At some point, there will be a reckoning. Sure, better talent will help but that alone doesn’t explain being caught out of position or out flanked on the chess board too many times.

it was about equal and we graduated a ton of starters from Diaco's squad. Diaco didn't recruit D1 athletes so we were forced to play a bunch of freshman. They should improve as sophomores.

 

[Hornet22]

Here’s my two cents on this entire mindset about the poor defense. Hard to argue that it was extremely porrous and downright atrocious at times. There was missed assignments and tackles galore.
The reason why Crocker runs a 3-3-5 is because UConn doesn’t have big ole country lineman that can stuff run lanes and stud ends that can get around the edge and generate pressure followed by sick LB’s to clean up the mess ala a gazillion tackles at the second level.
So what does he scheme? Same as a host of other college coaches do when they just lack that pizzazz up front to get the job done. They run this defense to get and extra athletic safety/LB that can help supplement extra blitzes and stunts to confuse the offense and generate pressure that way. Problem is, with this defense (and pretty much sports period) you have to have assignment integrity. Blow an assignment here and you’re left exposed. And yes, better players/athletes help because you can mitigate the blown assignment with makeup speed and athleticism to make plays. SO, when you have more experienced, athletic and confident players, with this scheme, you can wreak havoc on an offense or at worst hold your own. I believe he had neither last year. There was a bunch of freshman that played (coupled with over matched guys due to lack of commitment to the program and lack of skill and strength) and you have the product that you guys are all bashing.
This year, at a minimum, the team is more experienced. I assume their is more assignment integrity because this is Year 2 in this scheme. And quite frankly, it seems like this team is way more invested in the unit as opposed to the individual. Strength and Conditioning seems to be way more advanced than last year. Add in a solid recruiting class that will only enhance the competition within practice starting in the summer and you have the makings of a better looking product on the field. This is only year two fellas. Sure it’s frustrating as fans but undoing and rebuilding six years of bad recruiting, lack of accountability and trash coaching takes time. We must be patient with this. I, for one, can see the change happening. Just seeing the old players coming back and offering their support coupled with what I see via twitter and solid reporting gives me confidence that the ship is being righted.
All my opinion of course but I rather think that way. It’s a choice of course.
I choose optimism.

 

[Scrutiner]

Here’s my two cents on this entire mindset about the poor defense. Hard to argue that it was extremely porrous and downright atrocious at times. There was missed assignments and tackles galore.
The reason why Crocker runs a 3-3-5 is because UConn doesn’t have big ole country lineman that can stuff run lanes and stud ends that can get around the edge and generate pressure followed by sick LB’s to clean up the mess ala a gazillion tackles at the second level.
So what does he scheme? Same as a host of other college coaches do when they just lack that pizzazz up front to get the job done. They run this defense to get and extra athletic safety/LB that can help supplement extra blitzes and stunts to confuse the offense and generate pressure that way. Problem is, with this defense (and pretty much sports period) you have to have assignment integrity. Blow an assignment here and you’re left exposed. And yes, better players/athletes help because you can mitigate the blown assignment with makeup speed and athleticism to make plays. SO, when you have more experienced, athletic and confident players, with this scheme, you can wreak havoc on an offense or at worst hold your own. I believe he had neither last year. There was a bunch of freshman that played (coupled with over matched guys due to lack of commitment to the program and lack of skill and strength) and you have the product that you guys are all bashing.
This year, at a minimum, the team is more experienced. I assume their is more assignment integrity because this is Year 2 in this scheme. And quite frankly, it seems like this team is way more invested in the unit as opposed to the individual. Strength and Conditioning seems to be way more advanced than last year. Add in a solid recruiting class that will only enhance the competition within practice starting in the summer and you have the makings of a better looking product on the field. This is only year two fellas. Sure it’s frustrating as fans but undoing and rebuilding six years of bad recruiting, lack of accountability and trash coaching takes time. We must be patient with this. I, for one, can see the change happening. Just seeing the old players coming back and offering their support coupled with what I see via twitter and solid reporting gives me confidence that the ship is being righted.
All my opinion of course but I rather think that way. It’s a choice of course.
I choose optimism.

No matter what people have said, I believe they're hoping you're right, but it's hard for some to have optimism after the last seven years. I'm with you and thinking the Jones' boys will be positive additions and we'll get a transfer or two up front to help hold things together. Let us pray...........

 

[Tdaley]

Here’s my two cents on this entire mindset about the poor defense. Hard to argue that it was extremely porrous and downright atrocious at times. There was missed assignments and tackles galore.
The reason why Crocker runs a 3-3-5 is because UConn doesn’t have big ole country lineman that can stuff run lanes and stud ends that can get around the edge and generate pressure followed by sick LB’s to clean up the mess ala a gazillion tackles at the second level.
So what does he scheme? Same as a host of other college coaches do when they just lack that pizzazz up front to get the job done. They run this defense to get and extra athletic safety/LB that can help supplement extra blitzes and stunts to confuse the offense and generate pressure that way. Problem is, with this defense (and pretty much sports period) you have to have assignment integrity. Blow an assignment here and you’re left exposed. And yes, better players/athletes help because you can mitigate the blown assignment with makeup speed and athleticism to make plays. SO, when you have more experienced, athletic and confident players, with this scheme, you can wreak havoc on an offense or at worst hold your own. I believe he had neither last year. There was a bunch of freshman that played (coupled with over matched guys due to lack of commitment to the program and lack of skill and strength) and you have the product that you guys are all bashing.
This year, at a minimum, the team is more experienced. I assume their is more assignment integrity because this is Year 2 in this scheme. And quite frankly, it seems like this team is way more invested in the unit as opposed to the individual. Strength and Conditioning seems to be way more advanced than last year. Add in a solid recruiting class that will only enhance the competition within practice starting in the summer and you have the makings of a better looking product on the field. This is only year two fellas. Sure it’s frustrating as fans but undoing and rebuilding six years of bad recruiting, lack of accountability and trash coaching takes time. We must be patient with this. I, for one, can see the change happening. Just seeing the old players coming back and offering their support coupled with what I see via twitter and solid reporting gives me confidence that the ship is being righted.
All my opinion of course but I rather think that way. It’s a choice of course.
I choose optimism.

Love your optimism and your analysis of our defense. I do suspect we will see some improvement in the secondary and at least better speed in our linebacking positions. Still, the defensive line scares the hell out me. I do on the other hand have great hope that our offense will be very good this year. Lets hope that there is enough of an improvement on defense that we can win some 40 to 30 type games this year.

 

[Hornet22]

Love your optimism and your analysis of our defense. I do suspect we will see some improvement in the secondary and at least better speed in our linebacking positions. Still, the defensive line scares the hell out me. I do on the other hand have great hope that our offense will be very good this year. Lets hope that there is enough of an improvement on defense that we can win some 40 to 30 type games this year.

Absolutely. My head isn’t in the sand as I’m fully aware that the really good teams in our conference are at full stride with recruiting and depth and experience. And we had to play them. All we can ask for during year two of a rebuild is to see the buyin and toughness from the players. I’m not even looking at wins and losses at this point because as fate has it, marginal teams can both win and lose should the wind break their way. So predicting 2,3 or 4 wins is guesswork at best. I just want to see a team that competes until the whistle and shows toughness. Sure there will be missed tackles and blown assignments. And if anyone watches football, that happens on Saturdays and Sundays galore. We just want to see less of that, more fundamentally sound tackles and lots of heart.
Once the culture changes the wins tend to take care of themselves.
Can’t wait til Aug 30th!!!!!!

 

[uconnphil2016]

I'm gonna be on a retreat in Washington, CT, so I can't come to the spring game. I'm gonna need some detailed reports from you all! Really bummed I'm missing out.

 

[BlueDogs]

The lack of fundamentals on D was atrocious and they didn't get better over the season. That has little to do with scheme. That said, I'd rather see them in a basic D and getting after it than playing games masquerading coverage and pressure. The DBs were incapable of rushing up field, they couldn't take on or get off blocks, or make tackles. Half of D is intensity and aggression, and we lack basic physicality. Many 1AA teams would put up better defensive numbers than we did . Our personnel is less than optimal but they just aren't as bad as Crocker made them. If there is one fault with a Randy it's stubborn refusal to change. Crocker should have been out the door after last season.

 

[Chief00]

Here’s my two cents on this entire mindset about the poor defense. Hard to argue that it was extremely porrous and downright atrocious at times. There was missed assignments and tackles galore.
The reason why Crocker runs a 3-3-5 is because UConn doesn’t have big ole country lineman that can stuff run lanes and stud ends that can get around the edge and generate pressure followed by sick LB’s to clean up the mess ala a gazillion tackles at the second level.
So what does he scheme? Same as a host of other college coaches do when they just lack that pizzazz up front to get the job done. They run this defense to get and extra athletic safety/LB that can help supplement extra blitzes and stunts to confuse the offense and generate pressure that way. Problem is, with this defense (and pretty much sports period) you have to have assignment integrity. Blow an assignment here and you’re left exposed. And yes, better players/athletes help because you can mitigate the blown assignment with makeup speed and athleticism to make plays. SO, when you have more experienced, athletic and confident players, with this scheme, you can wreak havoc on an offense or at worst hold your own. I believe he had neither last year. There was a bunch of freshman that played (coupled with over matched guys due to lack of commitment to the program and lack of skill and strength) and you have the product that you guys are all bashing.
This year, at a minimum, the team is more experienced. I assume their is more assignment integrity because this is Year 2 in this scheme. And quite frankly, it seems like this team is way more invested in the unit as opposed to the individual. Strength and Conditioning seems to be way more advanced than last year. Add in a solid recruiting class that will only enhance the competition within practice starting in the summer and you have the makings of a better looking product on the field. This is only year two fellas. Sure it’s frustrating as fans but undoing and rebuilding six years of bad recruiting, lack of accountability and trash coaching takes time. We must be patient with this. I, for one, can see the change happening. Just seeing the old players coming back and offering their support coupled with what I see via twitter and solid reporting gives me confidence that the ship is being righted.
All my opinion of course but I rather think that way. It’s a choice of course.
I choose optimism.

In my opinion we lost our two best defensive players - Foley and Diggs. His scheme was executed very poorly or was inherently flawed. I like Randy but spinning the blame for a very bad defense on Lashlee’s is beyond ridiculous even knowing who hired who.

 

[kris1]

The DBs were incapable of rushing up field.....

Interesting...I think you solved the problem. We were playing with 11 DBs.

 

[JMick]

The lack of fundamentals on D was atrocious and they didn't get better over the season. That has little to do with scheme. That said, I'd rather see them in a basic D and getting after it than playing games masquerading coverage and pressure. The DBs were incapable of rushing up field, they couldn't take on or get off blocks, or make tackles. Half of D is intensity and aggression, and we lack basic physicality. Many 1AA teams would put up better defensive numbers than we did . Our personnel is less than optimal but they just aren't as bad as Crocker made them. If there is one fault with a Randy it's stubborn refusal to change. Crocker should have been out the door after last season.

I strongly disagree. Look at who was coaching them on fundamentals: high school coaches and diacos staff. If returning players still look terrible this season then I'll agree with you. Until then there's not enough data. Crocker was dealt a bad hand and Edsall knows it.