I think little reminders like these are important for us fans. When HCBD was hired, it was a tidal wave of positive energy and momentum. A lot of talk about winning and how much value UCONN offers in recruiting. In other words, "the sell job". And it made sense because the staff had to play catch up to retain current recruits and find a few of their own in such short period of time. Keeping Newsome and bringing in a guy like Diggs, for example. But now that Signing Day has come and gone, it's time to sweat and bleed some blue. From a few articles written from the Horde in the past few days, there really seems like the culture and atmosphere in the program was completely poisoned. Coaches vs Players. Corporate Professionalism (read: boring). Disconnected. Cliques. Distrust. All of these point to traits of a coaching staff that had completely lost touch with what present-day kids need/want for motivation.
The last few days is a good reminder to level set those expectations. It takes a long time to change a culture of any large entity and UCONN Football will be no exception. 2014 should be viewed as a year to evaluate whether or not the kids are buying in. Are they in shape? Are they excited on the sidelines? Are they ready to play? And perhaps most importantly, if they lose, are they ready to get off the mat? The most frustrating thing, for me, from last year was hearing all of the scripted rhetoric from the coaches and players after a loss about technique, fundamentals and watching film. There was no fire in any voice. Even after losing to TowNson, all we got was a bunch of players shrugging it off as if to say "oh well, we'll just have to watch more film". I want to see players p1ssed off after losses. I want to see some pride. I want to see a team that continues to fight until the game clock reads 00:00 no matter how many times it has been punched in the mouth. For far too long, aside from a few games here and there, it seemed as though this program refused to fight through adversity to get game momentum back on their side. Whenever an opponent scored or created a turnover, you can read the players' body expressions: heads down, shoulders slouched, blank stares, sitting on the heated/cooled benches expressionless (while the opponent's sidelines are fired up). There was no fight and that's the first thing that this program needs again. My favorite Husky team (2009) had fight and I will ALWAYS love them for it. If the 2014 fights through games, from start to finish and regardless of score, then we will know that the program is back on track and on the upswing again.
