Give it time... Deleone needs his own players?

I have heard many of these same complaints/issues for the last 6 years with all of our other coaches. Maybe we expect too much ? I watch many other games and it seems like there are many teams who have similar problems. How does Pitt lose to Youngstown and beat Va Tech ? Cuse puts up 40 + points against Northwestern and did not look too bad against USC and then struggles against Stonybrook. I am looking for answers too.

the thing i dont get is we were supposed to have an improved receiving corp this year. i mean we all have seen Michael Smith at least be effective in the past. with even moderate qb improvement, which i think we can fairly say we have, you would think the passing game would have seen at least a marginal bump.

I want DeLeone gone but to be fair, the situations you are using (Ole Miss a couple seasons after Eli left, Temple when they may have been the worst FBS team in the country) likely wouldn't have had positive results if Bill Walsh had DeLeone's duties.

If this is the case (that we expect too much) we may as well give up now.

I don't believe we would be reasonable to expect to turn into Texas Tech circa 2005-2010 in a year or two but I have seen many programs become somewhat competent in an area of weakness in a short period of time. There has to be a way to get our passing game to a level where it can at least at times threaten the teams on our schedule.

you have to admire his consistancy

I still have wonder how good our receivers are, too. Mike Smith was always just average. Phillips had a rep at BC of not liking to get hit, nobody else has really lit it up except on rare occasions. We were talking about adding a transfer from Clemson who had 1 catch for 8 yards last year and ended up not making the team at Louisville... Edsall recruited receivers who could block more than those who were great pass catchers and to some extent we are still living with that legacy I think.

That's code for the obvious fact that Randy couldn't recruit the type of playmakers that are need to have effective offenses at this level. RB? Sure, he did better than fine with. QB's? Only Dan O spoils his stellar performance of not knowing the first thing about the position. WR's? Come on Marcus Easley was wasted for 4.3 years on the bench before Randy even gave him a shot. Randy knows offense - NOT!

We agree on everything but Easley. You forget that he was a walk on. Not a single other D-1A program recruited him either. It isn't like Penn State, Alabama and Texas all thought he was going to be big time. As I recall his only offers were lower level 1AA...2nd point is that he didn't waste away on the bench. He played as a sophomore and as a junior. I think even a bit as a redshirt freshman. Just didn't produce very much. But never let the facts get in the way of a good rant...but over all, we never did really recruit play makers at the wide out position, which is strange since in some ways there are lots of them out there. the other problem was that the guys we got who were highly thought of just never developed.

I'm not in the camp that says our recievers can't play. We shouldn't have to wonder if our recievers are any good, but with this setup we have no idea.

they continue to drop too many balls, they don't get much separation...I think one problem is we have a whole bunch of #2-#3 receivers and no #1. Now that isn't why we didn't throw the ball against Maryland, but it is a problem and will continue to be one until we find a big time pass catcher.

i liked what I've seen of Geremy Davis, but I don't remember the ball going to him last week. Michael Smith is solid if not spectacular, and our TEs are usually good. We're probably the only team in 1A without a passing TD after 3 weeks, and while I'd say our over all SOS 3 games in is probably tougher than average, it did include what was basically a 1AA team. I can't believe that it's our WRs when I saw these same guys catch TDs against our defense in the spring game. Whitmer's averaging about 60% completions so I don't think the fault is on our talent b/c we're making plays when we attempt them. The good news is we're 2-1 after what I'd say is a tougher than average SOS.

For what it's worth there are 5 teams that don't have a passing TD. I don't really know what the problem is. It's hard to see what the WRs are doing on TV... but even when Whitmer seems to have time in the pocket... he still either ends up scrambling for a few yards in the Maryland game... or worse in the earlier games throwing into coverage and getting the int. I think freescooter is right that at least some of our problem is that we really don't have a #1 WR. I mean which WR in our offense do you have to double team, or scheme for... that being said I think the predictability of our offense also doesn't do our WRs any favors..

I don't necessarily discount the problem with play calling, and quarterback play either. But I do think that very average to below average play from the wides doesn't help matters. And this has been an ongoing issue, not a recent one. You can count the number of top flight receivers UCONN has had in the past 5 years on 1 hand and have at least 3 fingers left over. some might argue you would have 4 left over...

Everything old is new again. It seems like we've had these exact same conversations for the last 10 years. We've had top 10 defenses before, predictable play calling, and issues at WR and QB.

Our play calling could be better. Whitmer is going to make mistakes since this is his first few games at this level playing QB. The defense and special teams had to win this game against Maryland (an ACC team that really is better than their record shows), because of Whitmer's past poor decision making on passing plays. However, Whitmer must get better very quickly becuase once we get into Big East play, those are games that we are going to need to pass and run on offense for big time plays. Let's see how the offense does against Western Michigan next week! Hopefully, play calling gets more aggressive for the offense and we can get the passing game going!

I keep reading this quote on a bunch of other threads and I'm seriously confused by this statement. Based on what? Own observations?....no it is based on what we've read by people who write about football for a living vice play/coach football for a living. It is nice to dream and hope that we our going to have a better receiving corps because it almost seems impossible that by now we can't find SOMEONE to be a deep threat, but it is reality and the coaches know it. So far I remember Mike Smith dropping at least 5 balls that should have been caught, Ryan Griffin 3 balls, Shakim Phillips fails to be physical and go up for two jump balls and Geremy Davis only gets open when playing Umass.

Judging the coaches based on what we have read or maybe have seen during ONE open practice isn't fair and is really bad form as a football fan. Disclaimer: I personally am getting sick of the run, run, pass, however, George Deleone has been coaching for 500 years where I have exactly ZERO years on coaching Division 1 football. All I'm saying is I think calling for Deleones head is a little unfair considering this is only the 3rd game of the season....and we are 2 - 1. All we can ask for is improvement week by week and keep winning and I think that is what is happening.....can't complain with that. And those of you that will say 63 yards passing isn't improvement, you're not watching the game close enough.

I get that we have looked inept this year. But Smith led the team in receiving in 2010, Griffin has been an invaluable asset in the past. Has Phillips been a disappointment sure, but Davis is still young and at least has a semblance of prospect. Oh ya and Nick Williams might be the fastest receiver we never throw to... I just don't understand. You may have been more clairvoyant than I and knew this was inevitable, but I honestly thought (even before spring ball) that the receivers would take a step up, if in nothing else at least overall receptions.

Same players but with a different coach (Mike Leach, for instance, when UConn had a shot at him) and you see a much more effective passing offense. And, in turn, a much more effective total offense. One that would have been part of a 3-0 team that was starting to attract national attention. Instead we have Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-elone.

Usually you have to throw the ball a little before a #1 can be eatablished... Just sayin

Another to look at this . . . either the coaching staff needs to improve their game planning and work harder to establish a passing game (something they're not doing) with decent QBing and more effective WR's. Or they need to do a much better job of recruiting these positions. One way or the other, the coaches are woefully underachieving in this regard. Fortunately the defense and special team s are strong enough to mitigate this glaring hole in the program.