Phil Steele's College Footbal Yearbook...

[coachcap]

Picks UConn dead last in the AAC. I don't see it.

 

[sportsart]

A lot of "outsiders" think last year was based on talent alone. We know better.

 

[Dooley]

Not surprising. It will be tough for anyone outside of CT to pick UCONN to make a bowl game. I don't think too many CT media will pick them to make a bowl game either. That doesn't change my opinion of this year's team. I think we have a 7 win season in us.

 

[weyuo]

Let UConn be the team that comes out of nowhere and spanks people. Watch how fast that band wagon gets crowded.

 

[SubbaBub]

Predicting big things for Tulane and Memphis is he?

 

[Husky68]

Didn't even finish last with PP, so UConn gets worse and everyone else stays same or gets better? He's big on coaching improvement comes big in 2nd year of coach, he fails to account for: 1. relatively early hire and full staff, 2. how bad PP/GDL were as coaches, 3. how bad S&C training was, 4. running game talent is going to be good if not very good, 5. if someone beats out the CC who quarterbacked the last 3 games UConn is ok there, 6. receiving kids are really good, 7. Diaco was excellent defensive coach and will likely bring good scheme to bear given talent, 8. kick returns were worse than bad last year and will be better, 9. have some serious talent in the D backfield, 10 played lot of last year with little or no TE production either in passing or blocking and expect Diaco to solve that re schemes and or player improvement/changes.

When I look at above I wonder how won any games last year. So USF, Memphis and Temple which finished behind UConn last year get better and Tulsa and Tulane finish ahead also. His UConn pick will not help his "best conference estimater stat" for this year.

Problems on OL are there, that's to be figured out but no GDL who is replaced by Foley and S&C improvements see decent chance to get by early and get better later (1st AAC game is 4th game and 1st 3 teams are USF, Temple and Tulane so should be better for harder part of AAC schedule) ; young guys in DL and LBs will have to step up.

 

[whaler11]

He's rating 125 teams and writes up the positions in 4 hours a team.

He rates the players low because they have had low recruiting rankings and they lost a ton of production from a bad team.

Because the players are low, the positions are low and that is where he builds the team levels from.

His system doesn't like the team. It's a good system but far from perfect. It's not like he's sitting around contemplating every small factor that a fan would know.

It may be accurate about this team and it may not. It's not personal it's just how he operates. What he thinks doesn't actually matter BTW.

Almost nobody is going to like this team going into the year. Someone took the time to reverse engineer the Golden Nugget lines that have been released. Whoever set those lines has UConn as one of the absolute worst teams in the country. Like 75th out of 78 that could be reverse engineered.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This season is all about results on the field.

There isn't any buzz for this program due to the past three seasons. The whole football world is in "show me" status.

 

[ktuck911]

Picks UConn dead last in the AAC. I don't see it.

Bulletin board material...

 

[tduconn]

It's disappointing, but if he offers his opinions on all teams using the same criteria, e.g. past performance, lost personnel, retained personnel, new personnel "the knowns" as opposed to hopeful assumptions and speculations by rabid fans (I am one) ...."the unknowns"..... if I was an outsider reporting on any team, I'd probably offer the same conclusion.

It's like Chin Diesel suggested ......."show me"

 

[Sprague03]

ESPN contributor Phil Steele grades East Carolina's QBs as the eight-best unit in the nation.

 

[Dooley]

ESPN contributor Phil Steele grades East Carolina's QBs as the eight-best unit in the nation.

What I take from this is that Phil Steele now works for ESPiN?? Looks like I am going to stop buying his magazines.

 

[Sprague03]

does this mean ECU might beat uconn IF their QBs are that good?

 

[freescooter]

If you look at this team and what they lost, you would have to rank them pretty low, I think. There are some guys with potential, but until they actually perform, that is pretty meaningless. And the offensive line scares me a lot. Love that Mike Foley is back and I think that this will be a huge positive over time, but I can't fault anyone for saying it will take at least a year to turn the mess that was left behind into straw never mind gold. Having said all that, my personal view is that we win 6. Stony Brook, Army, Memphis, Temple, USF, Tulane, and maybe beat SMU to get 7.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

He's rating 125 teams and writes up the positions in 4 hours a team.

He rates the players low because they have had low recruiting rankings and they lost a ton of production from a bad team.

Because the players are low, the positions are low and that is where he builds the team levels from.

His system doesn't like the team. It's a good system but far from perfect. It's not like he's sitting around contemplating every small factor that a fan would know.

It may be accurate about this team and it may not. It's not personal it's just how he operates. What he thinks doesn't actually matter BTW.

Almost nobody is going to like this team going into the year. Someone took the time to reverse engineer the Golden Nugget lines that have been released. Whoever set those lines has UConn as one of the absolute worst teams in the country. Like 75th out of 78 that could be reverse engineered.

Phil Steele is pretty good. Just listen to him, he will tell you.

Kidding aside, he is probably the most accurate of any major preseason prognosticator. He picks the right stats, and he doesn't lean nearly as heavily on 4 year old recruiting rankings as the other publications. He still uses them, but more as a last resort that a driving factor in his predictions. He does have a history of underrating UConn too.

That said, we should not get angry with Phil Steele over this prediction. I think it is wrong, but not by a lot. I think UConn is better than Tulane, Memphis and Temple, and roughly equal with USF, SMU and Tulsa. I think the AAC football will be a lot like basketball, where there will be a group at the top, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and ECU, that lose a handful of games combined to the teams at the bottom.

It is amazing that we got to this point. 2012 was really a lost year for UConn. The defense was incredible that year, allowing 310 ypg, only 2.7 ypc and sacking opponents 33 times. A defense like that should win 10 games. Unfortunately, Deleone was killing us on the other side of the ball, with a terrible running game (we can't run a 160 pound back between the tackles 15 times a game?) and an avalanche of TO's (-14). That team should have been so much better, and could have changed the trajectory of the entire program.

Now we are starting over. Every prior year there were a few players on each side that we can latch onto and say that we are solid at these 10 or 12 positions before even accounting for new starters or guys that needed to improve. Who are those guys this year? Jones, Adams and Melifonwu are good, but they better be prepared to make a lot of tackles and hold coverage for 10 seconds plus, because there is nothing of note up front. I like Davis, Mateas, Foxx, DeLorenzo and Cochran, but Cochran doesn't even have the job yet and DeLorenzo is a change of pace back. By my count, we have 5 sacks returning off a defense that wasn't that good last year. This could be the worst UConn team since 2001.

The best thing going for us is that much of the AAC sucks too. As bad as UConn looks on paper, Stony Brook, Temple, @Tulane and Army should be victories. @USF, @ Memphis, and SMU at home in December are all winnable. UConn will be 2 TD or worse underdogs in the other 5 games.

 

[Palatine]

This means less than nothing. Pasqualoni's misuse of personnel bordered on the criminal. DeLeone's inability to design a game plan to beat Towson (or even put up 20 points against them) showed a level of incompetence rarely seen in any sport in Storrs.

 

[jackl]

This means less than nothing. Pasqualoni's misuse of personnel bordered on the criminal. DeLeone's inability to design a game plan to beat Towson (or even put up 20 points against them) showed a level of incompetence rarely seen in any sport in Storrs.

Totally in agreement, could we get those guys arrested for their criminal acts? Oh wait they would probably use a dementia defense.

 

[ktuck911]

Not surprising. It will be tough for anyone outside of CT to pick UCONN to make a bowl game. I don't think too many CT media will pick them to make a bowl game either. That doesn't change my opinion of this year's team. I think we have a 7 win season in us.

AMEN BRO!

 

[CTMike]

Truth is, we were always underrated, even pre-Pasqualoni. The P years were just more ammo for that view. Diaco will surpass expectations.

 

[uconndogs]

It is amazing that we got to this point. 2012 was really a lost year for UConn. The defense was incredible that year, allowing 310 ypg, only 2.7 ypc and sacking opponents 33 times. A defense like that should win 10 games. Unfortunately, Deleone was killing us on the other side of the ball, with a terrible running game (we can't run a 160 pound back between the tackles 15 times a game?) and an avalanche of TO's (-14). That team should have been so much better, and could have changed the trajectory of the entire program.

Exactly my view of the world.

I am almost always against letting a coach go early in a contract and certainly during the season, but Ward made absolutely the right decision. P was hopelessly over his head and was literally destroying the program.

 

[businesslawyer]

I am not optimistic about this season. Two many question marks in the pits on both sides of the ball. Therefor, I have better things to do with my time than act offended when outsiders think we will suck.

Especially given that we get to play the 12 games on our schedule regardless of what anyone thinks of us.