2022 > Jim Mora era begins…

[huskymedic]

LBs Jackson Mitchell & Marquez Bembry…

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Pudge]

MANIACAL Effort

See: this is by design. You have a 1-11 returning team with a dollop of new infused talent. But the special sauce is ... young coaching energy ripping through these early days. UMASS + Temple have new staffs; Buffalo too. We - MORA - grabbed 30-35 year olds. The enthusiasm and push. You don't have 20-30 year coaching veterans with that much juice.

There is a video we can all watch of HC Don Brown doing this mat drill at UMASS. A 66 year old (trust me - I am not that far from his grey) is just not the same as Coach Diabate leading his drill. Just looks foolish.

 

[huskymedic]

Mora kills me…

 

[Exit 4]

Mora kills me…

Too California cool?!?!

I'm loving thee new vids....Yeah I often do...no surprise.

PS - watched the video a dozen times already.

 

[ZooCougar]

Meanwhile at UMass.

 

[TheDrifter75]

Meanwhile at UMass.

I see some intensity I could get behind if I was a fan. I prefer what we got but I wouldn't downplay that

 

[hardcorehusky]

Meanwhile at UMass.

Where's the part where they chase a chicken?

 

[Husky68]

LBs Jackson Mitchell & Marquez Bembry…

That is what linebackers are supposed to look like.

 

[Watchdog]

Meanwhile at UMass.

They're going to need a lot of time on that mat. Soft looking bunch of players. Nothing like the UConn guys.

 

[Bongo Fury]

They're going to need a lot of time on that mat. Soft looking bunch of players. Nothing like the UConn guys.

It’s old school wrestling exercises. I don’t see it as negative

 

[businesslawyer]

They're going to need a lot of time on that mat. Soft looking bunch of players. Nothing like the UConn guys.

That “soft looking bunch of players” totally dominated us on both sides of the line of scrimmage last season. Just sayin ….

 

[businesslawyer]

MANIACAL Effort

See: this is by design. You have a 1-11 returning team with a dollop of new infused talent. But the special sauce is ... young coaching energy ripping through these early days. UMASS + Temple have new staffs; Buffalo too. We - MORA - grabbed 30-35 year olds. The enthusiasm and push. You don't have 20-30 year coaching veterans with that much juice.

There is a video we can all watch of HC Don Brown doing this mat drill at UMASS. A 66 year old (trust me - I am not that far from his grey) is just not the same as Coach Diabate leading his drill. Just looks foolish.

It would be interesting to know whether Mora was dead set that the assistance coaching roster had to get younger, or whether going younger was an attempt to save money to allow the huge increase in non-coaching football personnel that we’ve seen.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Where's the part where they chase a chicken?

You gotta eat lightning and crap thunder!

 

[gioff2323]

It would be interesting to know whether Mora was dead set that the assistance coaching roster had to get younger, or whether going younger was an attempt to save money to allow the huge increase in non-coaching football personnel that we’ve seen.

Can it be an AND?

 

[History Geek]

That “soft looking bunch of players” totally dominated us on both sides of the line of scrimmage last season. Just sayin ….

Beat me to that. In the end, the be-all and end-all are the on-the-field results. Full stop.

 

[Pudge]

It would be interesting to know whether Mora was dead set that the assistance coaching roster had to get younger, or whether going younger was an attempt to save money to allow the huge increase in non-coaching football personnel that we’ve seen.

Having started businesses from scratch (and they are production driven decentralized) ... and given this thought over the last few months, I say confidently that Mora did this by design. Look at the comparables. Take 8 new coaching regimes and think about the structure of each. Look at what Edsall/Pasqualoni/Diaco did at Connecticut. The selections (given he had Mazzone + Spanos + a West Coast network) is very interesting ... and we have few clues. But, he did something that none of the others I thought about did. (Buffalo, UMass, Temple, Delaware, FIU, UVA, VaTech, Duke) It has some geographic spread; with some new areas to anything UConn has surveyed in the last 20 years. But - except Spanos + Allen - there is a typology. And he certainly could have found an extra $50k here or there to get 45 year old/20year experience assistants. The money argument is refuted when you see about 7 or 8 new staff positions.

Started with Charlton. Barthel is well known and how West Coast Mora connects with Allen/Barthel/Diabite is odd networking. From his home in Sun Valley, ID. I think both Spanos + Mazzone was helpful in an advisory role; plus we know AD Dave Benedict is near always when football was involved. Watching these practices leads me to the next gut feel ... energy from 35 year olds is a whole lot different than top down Edsall coaching. Mora invests in these young coaches AND gave them more oomph in recruiting/crafting the roster than we have seen before.

 

[CL82]

That “soft looking bunch of players” totally dominated us on both sides of the line of scrimmage last season. Just sayin ….

Oh no. They dominated last year’s team.

 

[History Geek]

Oh no. They dominated last year’s team.

Perhaps. After the past ten years I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

[huskymedic]

Nice to see Cam Ross…

 

[Austin316]

Nice to see Cam Ross…

Hyping me up for both sports!

 

[huskymedic]

Lace ‘em up…

 

[Palatine]

Is there another Donald Thomas out there?

 

[DoctorWho85]

Oh no. They dominated last year’s team.

They dominated last years team where Spanos basically gave up the defensive coordinator duties to be HC. I fully believe the defense is going to night and day difference this year. They won't be shackled by Edsall who had to have his hands in everything. The offense will cannot be any worse than it was last year so only makes the defense better and the schedule is marginally easier.

 

[CL82]

They dominated last years team where Spanos basically gave up the defensive coordinator duties to be HC. I fully believe the defense is going to night and day difference this year. They won't be shackled by Edsall who had to have his hands in everything. The offense will cannot be any worse than it was last year so only makes the defense better and the schedule is marginally easier.

I hope so. The last decade of UConn football has left me very skeptical of preseason optimism.