Football today!

[Chief00]

Of course it’s wishful thinking. Nobody is saying the defense was good last year. They were terrible. I just think it’s hard to lay the blame on Edsall and Crocker after one year of a new scheme with kids whose only other offers were from Little Sisters of the Poor.

If by the end of this year there isn’t any progress being made, I think it’s fair to start questioning the direction of the defense.

The talent excuse will be used all year - valid but I think it’s deeper.

 

[BlueDogs]

Of course it’s wishful thinking. Nobody is saying the defense was good last year. They were terrible. I just think it’s hard to lay the blame on Edsall and Crocker after one year of a new scheme with kids whose only other offers were from Little Sisters of the Poor.

If by the end of this year there isn’t any progress being made, I think it’s fair to start questioning the direction of the defense.

You should be able to turn a D from inept to servicable in one year to two years tops. If these guys don’t show major improvement to baseline mediocrity, it’s unforgivable. Aggression and mentality can cover for many limitations. I’ve yet to see any gang tackling or dudes flying to the ball after an entire season and one spring practice season in the books.

 

[Nextmanup]

It works fine for me! All that rooster information on one sheet.

Tons of mistakes on it though.. mostly class grades

 

[Chief00]

There’s no doubt the defense was trending towards what it is now under Diaco’s watch, he just didn’t have enough time to F it up on his own.

But he spent more of his time trying to mess-up the defense than offense.

 

[RSTuthill]

Hmmm ... I didn't pick up on the class year typos. Didn't even look at them. Thought we all knew those already anyway. No? Wonder if that was deliberate?

 

[Nextmanup]

Hmmm ... I didn't pick up on the class year typos. Didn't even look at them. Thought we all knew those already anyway. No? Wonder if that was deliberate?

Not home to check right now but I think one mistake if I recall correctly is Buss listed as a freshman and he’s a junior this year!!

 

[ZooCougar]

Did we win?

 

[BugsyCT]

Basic stuff like tackling & getting angles on the runner you've gotta get right. Learning that would help compensate a little for the lack of everything else.

 

[Woof 101]

Ah yes, I'm sure a roster printout with incorrect class listing will be "great fodder for other teams to post for sure." This is definitely on other teams' radars.

See reply below...

LOL - Chief was referring to format not accuracy of player vital details - did not even look at that level of detail. Lighten up!

Chiefoo, I knew a lighten up reply would come, just not sure from who. I agree with you the one page layout was very good. I fully understand many would find this meaningless. Here is my point of view on the topic.
First I have no thoughts about this being fodder for other teams, that is Stain putting words in someone eases mouth. As a fan or a coach I care very little about what other teams see or hear. I worry about my team only. My point is we are advertised as a world class university. Someone got paid to produce the game day roster, not sure what either of you do for a living but way less mistakes would have one fired in mine. This is unacceptable even if done by volunteers at a collegiate level.

There was a large number of recruits at the game, most that I saw attending prep school. One would have to think those parents want their son getting a top level education, the roster loaded with mistakes does not give the impression of a concern for detail. It also provided a false image of how many players will I have to beat out to get on the field for the recruit. Randy is VERY detail oriented and I am sure would not have liked to seen what the parents did until after the fact.

Getting away from that somewhat I had two ND and a UMass fan with me at the game. UMass guy a former player in their hall of fame and a regular at our games now with a strong interest and support unless playing Mass of course. The ND guys I have been trying for a couple of years to convince they can root for more than one team. I am making in roads as one has a grandson taking interest. Hard to get him to buy tickets though after seeing the roster showing the team made up of mostly freshman and sophomores. He proclaimed you guys are not going to win a game this year! I did advise him to go on line for an accurate account of the team.

Overall had a great day honing our tailgating skills while enjoying the only day in sometime that the weather resembled that of spring. Enjoyed the pleasure of a one beer visit at our location by Treavardo Williams '13. Well spoken, big smile kind of guy and proud to be a Husky.

 

[Nostical]

When you breathe on the QB and they call the play dead, you can't really judge anything. No one on D was going to jack someone up and no one on O was going to pancake anyone.

Right on.
Stars of the game to my eye were:
O—Buss, O’Reilly, McLain, Pindell and Scott.
D—Fortt, Hahn, Migliaccio, Terry.
S—Tarbutt
Line play was tough to evaluate.
I’m more optimistic than most about this year’s team. They all seem to have a work ethic I haven’t seen the last few years and their effort from now to summer practice should bear results for many. Several players said there is much more communication and unity this year. One defensive player told me “Last year I wouldn’t even say hi to other players except my buddies. This year I’ve been talking to everyone. We’re a much closer group. It’s awesome.”
Whatever that may actually mean for on-field success, it was certainly sincere, and I think it bodes well for autumn.

 

[Husky68]

You can't judge Crocker until the players he has can grasp the scheme, let him build upon it and oh yeah, get the right players into it. He turned Villanova into an outstanding D so it isn't like he doesn't know his schemes or how to coach a D. Last year, the players did not "buy in" and the lack of talent forced him to do things like "play 10 yards off the ball" , something he never did at Nova.

Regarding his hire, name some bad assistant coach hires Randy has made when he was here before? Randy knows assistant coaches

I guess I just don't buy the "You can't judge Crocker until the players he has can grasp the scheme, ... get the right players into it." Of course you can judge him, just take into consideration all the factors. He had a very experienced up front squad, were geared to 4-3-4 schemes, some experience at DB, speed an issue (especially pass rush), etc.. He chose how to implement his 3-3-5 scheme with what he had and the results were the results. I'm assuming he was trying to win every game and it was not a Diaco type 12 game pre-season gearing to be better in 2019. So basically HCRE has no beefs with Crocker (at least publicly) so he has judged Crocker's performance as good or at least good enough.

According to Massey (have no idea how they determine their stats but at least they are quantifiable) UConn for 2017 has:
Overall rating 108
Strength of schedule 75
Offense 105
Defense 101
This was out of 130 listed teams. In AAC Tulsa, SMU and ECU listed as worse defenses; that kind of makes sense to the eye test that we would be lumped in with them.

What surprised me was that according to Massey UConn's offense in 2017 was lower rated than the defense, hmmmmmm. In 2016 it was way the other way with UConn's offense rated lower than over 100 Div1a schools (given the last few game debacles) in addition to all the Div1 schools while the defense was rated in the high double digits.
So according to Massey UConn's offense was relatively worse than it's defense in 2017! So maybe looking at 2017 performance the defense wasn't so much worse than the offense, it just looked that way since the 2016 offense was so bad even being 105 out of 130 on offense looked good in 2017!

So based purely on Massey ratings Lashlee's offense was worse than Crocker's defense. Boy you would not have gotten me to say that. Better go check my internet coaching history to see what else I've missed.

 

[Banta55]

You can't judge Crocker until the players he has can grasp the scheme, let him build upon it and oh yeah, get the right players into it. He turned Villanova into an outstanding D so it isn't like he doesn't know his schemes or how to coach a D. Last year, the players did not "buy in" and the lack of talent forced him to do things like "play 10 yards off the ball" , something he never did at Nova.

Regarding his hire, name some bad assistant coach hires Randy has made when he was here before? Randy knows assistant coaches

Truth be told Villanova had much more defensive talent..

 

[Palatine]

Truth be told Villanova had much more defensive talent..

Yet, miraculously, Diaco beat Villanova and Crocker's defense.

 

[UConnJim]

After Don Brown left, UConn's D has been deteriorating. In 2016, Diaco's last year, UConn's Total Defense ranked #65, which was the worst performance by a UConn defense in a decade. And, Diaco's defense in 2016 was made to look better by his ball control offense. (By the way, there is a high correlation between a team's offensive time of possession and it's total defense ranking. It's pretty logical as the more time an offense has the ball, the more plays they can run.) In 2017, UConn changed the defensive scheme with a roster that was not made to run the defense, and ran a fast paced offense which was ranked 75th in time of possession, and the defense imploded. In 2018, the defensive stats should look better as the team will be more comfortable running the 3-3-5 and the offense probably won't be as fast paced. I'm not saying the defense WILL be better, but the defensive stats should be better.

As for talent, Diaco did not recruit any decent edge rushers and it was obvious last year. Plus, Diaco's defense gave wide cushions to receivers which masked our DBs' lack of speed. It will take time to upgrade the talent, but I like what i have seen so far.

In my opinion, year 2 will be another tough year for the defense, but 2019 should be a much better year.

 

[RSTuthill]

I have high hopes that the O can run the ball a little and get close to the golden mean of 50-50 run-pass with a lot of different looks and sets to disguise what will happen. If they can do that, it will go a long way towards increasing time of possession and take the pressure off the D.

I have no opinion on whether the D will be better or worse than last year. Last year was so gawd-awful it is kinda like UConn is in uncharted territory. Hard to imagine it could get worse, but I have said that about lots of things this last year. And then it only got worse.