Starting Quarterback

[businesslawyer]

I don't want to be negative, but Mora has butchered the QB position so badly since last year.

1) Fagnano never, ever should have started Week 1. Nicky Charlton, all-time bad OC, HAD to get his boy in, and it ruined the season. The fact he's still on the roster is embarrassing.
2) If TR wasn't healthy to start Week 1, how do you not start Zion? I don't care about the kid's numbers, but he is a WINNER. He was a dominant winner in HS and was winning at UConn, which no one had done in a decade. He brought this team to a bowl game. Enough said. The fact that Fagnano was chosen to start over Zion is among the most disrespectful, slap in the face things I've ever seen. If Fagnano was a blue chipper from a P5 school, sure. But he was a mediocre at best QB from FCS Maine. Just an absolute disaster.
3) I don't really care TR had a bad spring. It's practice to quote Allen Iverson. Some guys are gamers and don't preform well in practice. Anyone saying Fagnano or a true freshman should start over TR because of spring ball is stuck in a fantasy land. Is TR the best QB? Of course not. Is he the best QB on the roster before yesterday? Absolutely. By all accounts he was a great ambassador for the program, and to kick him to the curb is another disrespectful move by Mora. Granted, if he was causing problems this spring + his poor play, I'd 180 on this point. But if he got shown the door purely for throwing a few spring picks, that's pretty rash to just chase a shiny new toy, which again hasn't worked out ever for us.
4) Now, we're giving the QB position to 1) a guy who hasn't played in 3 years and was maybe good vs teenagers a half decade ago 2) a guy who wasn't even that good at Maine or 3) a true freshman who hasn't played a single snap at this level. Again, absolute disaster once again. With that said, if Fagnano plays 1 meaningful snap this year, I'm out. I can live with the the other options. There is no way that guy should see a football field at this level other than to hand the ball off or kneel it.

I'm not even going to go into the fact we hired another OC with a very questionable track record at the FCS level so whoever the QB is probably won't even be set up for success, just like the guys were under Charlton.

1. If you really don’t want to be negative, you suck at it.

2. If you really are “out” if Fagnano takes one meaningful snap, thank you for your interest in UConn football.

3. If one wants to be realistic, from what we saw when healthy of Fagnano and Roberson there was not such a great separation either way that if one clearly outplayed the other this spring they shouldn’t be #1 heading into fall.

4. Finally, your lack of logic is astonishing. We have Fagnano because he played I-A, but we elevate TR because he was good enough out of High School to start at Penn State even though since high school nothing? Coaches are only grading on who will help us win next year (luckily), and the Staff’s decision here was not as if Fagnano beat out someone who had really performed.

 

[Hogoff]

Says 11 but 4 of the last 5 games he had 0 TDs… including UMass. But hey if you guys wanna sign up for that again go ahead

Definitely not saying I want that. It was a genuine question.

 

[JMick]

Someone from Reddit was saying that we'll now have his mother in our message boards all the time. Hopefully this isn't some overbearing helicopter parent type stuff.

Eh it wouldnt be the first time. Parents on boards are fine, imo. As long as they aren't throwing people under the bus or saying things they really shouldn't.

I just hate the idea that he was possibly guaranteed a starting spot. But who knows if that's what he meant.

 

[Buffett10]

Eh it wouldnt be the first time. Parents on boards are fine, imo. As long as they aren't throwing people under the bus or saying things they really shouldn't.

I just hate the idea that he was possibly guaranteed a starting spot. But who knows if that's what he meant.

He wasn’t guaranteed anything but an opportunity to compete

 

[Bonamassa]

With all of the bickering this thread is a direct reflection on how extremely frustrated we all are with UConn Football. We desperately need something good to happen. It's been years. I wish the team and all of us good luck this year. We're good fans.

 

[uconnbill]

My issue with Fagnano is his lack of arm strength which I saw at the Blue White scrimmage.

 

[Huskyforlife]

The coaches thinking Fagnano was better is exactly why lots of us don't think they can evaluate QBs. We went from Zion being the future, to Roberson not living up to his recruiting profile, and Fagnano being predictably mediocre. Maybe Evers will break the streak of misevaluation, but I'm not sure where anyone is getting their optimism?

 

[Huskyforlife]

This edition tells you how the staff feels about our remaining options btw.

 

[UConnJim]

This edition tells you how the staff feels about our remaining options btw.

Disagree. Welliver is basically a HS kid and McDonald is a R-Fr. They weren't going to start the season with them as QB. Fagnano has one year of eligibility left. Evers has potential as a top recruit, but has yet to prove it on the field, but he has 3 years of eligibility left and he has trained 2 years at high end FBS schools. You have to continue to bring in better talent and have kids compete for playing time.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Disagree. Welliver is basically a HS kid and McDonald is a R-Fr. They weren't going to start the season with them as QB. Fagnano has one year of eligibility left. Evers has potential as a top recruit, but has yet to prove it on the field, but he has 3 years of eligibility left and he has trained 2 years at high end FBS schools. You have to continue to bring in better talent and have kids compete for playing time.

They literally have the same amount of experience.

 

[uconnfan68]

Disagree. Welliver is basically a HS kid and McDonald is a R-Fr. They weren't going to start the season with them as QB. Fagnano has one year of eligibility left. Evers has potential as a top recruit, but has yet to prove it on the field, but he has 3 years of eligibility left and he has trained 2 years at high end FBS schools. You have to continue to bring in better talent and have kids compete for playing time.

Yes for last sentence, but if you watched last year there were a few freshman qbs that were playing, and playing quite well. Give me the best today.

 

[UConnJim]

They literally have the same amount of experience.

So, a top recruit with 2 years at Oklahoma and Wisconsin has the same experience as McDonald (1 year) and Welliver (should be prom season) have the same experience? Ok.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Fagnano dropped 290 yards and 2 TDs against BC while playing with Maine and throwing to inferior receivers in an offense that you yourself have called terrible.

His FCS TD:int ratio was approximately 45:10. You called him a terrible FCS quarterback, but those numbers are hardly terrible. I'm all for whoever gives us the best chance of winning. I don't understand how you judge a guy so harshly who played against an arguably top 25 defense in NC State and another couple quarters banged up. If he could drop 2 TDs against BC, I'm willing to bet he could hand 2 on Sacred Heart if that's your made up litmus test.

You make it sound as if Roberson was pushed out when in all likelihood he saw that he was lower on the depth chart than he wanted to be. I don't get what makes you think Fagnano is getting favorite treatment after his old coach is gone.

Several good points. Unfortunately I don know Maine had inferior receivers to UConn.
UConn's receivers quantatively were near the bottom (or top?) for dropped passes and couldn't get separation.
Injuries haven't helped but the WR room has been awful for several years in a row.

 

[Chin Diesel]

1. If you really don’t want to be negative, you suck at it.

2. If you really are “out” if Fagnano takes one meaningful snap, thank you for your interest in UConn football.

3. If one wants to be realistic, from what we saw when healthy of Fagnano and Roberson there was not such a great separation either way that if one clearly outplayed the other this spring they shouldn’t be #1 heading into fall.

4. Finally, your lack of logic is astonishing. We have Fagnano because he played I-A, but we elevate TR because he was good enough out of High School to start at Penn State even though since high school nothing? Coaches are only grading on who will help us win next year (luckily), and the Staff’s decision here was not as if Fagnano beat out someone who had really performed.

Put me in the camp of tuning out if Fagnano takes a meaningful snap .
Yes, Fagnano had no business starting over Turner last year.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Open minded on the whole QB thing

How good are the QB’s at Wiscy that were ahead of Evers?

Like that Fagnano didn’t turn and run when Charlton “moved on”

Love the potential of McDonald and Welliver, hope to see one get serious reps this year

Felt fine about Mora throughout the “what’s up” thread

Roberson must have agreed he was #3 and moved on

Feel good about Husky FB, let’s go

I would guess they are several orders of magnitude better than Roberson could ever hope to be, especially with being hampered by old injuries.

 

[RC111]

Several good points. Unfortunately I don know Maine had inferior receivers to UConn.
UConn's receivers quantatively were near the bottom (or top?) for dropped passes and couldn't get separation.
Injuries haven't helped but the WR room has been awful for several years in a row.

Sad, but true. In theory, our receivers should have been miles ahead. I don't have a strong affinity for Fagnano, I just don't understand the love for Roberson to the point of denigrating another player so bad. A lot of Roberson's numbers came during garbage time. That much was clear to me, and I believe Mora even alluded to padding numbers during a presser.

I would have absolutely been fine seeing Zion get his shot last year. I think Fagnano was originally chosen because, in theory at least, he protects the ball better than Zion. The problem with that thought process is that we have had the most anemic offense in D1 for a decade. Zion made way too many unforced errors for my liking, but the effort was unquestionable and he at least tried to make SOMETHING happen. I would have taken him over Roberson in a heartbeat last year cause he'd actually won us games the year before.

The "don't lose games" offensive mentality stopped us from getting pummeled to the same degree as years past -- we lost a lot of close games -- but it didn't stop us from losing. I would have loved to see Zion taking more risks and trying to win us more games.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

OK, who votes for unproven QB?

The non-starter is always the best option for many fans.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Roberson played 11 games as he threw 30 passes (Fagnano threw 9) against Georgia State with 2 TDs. So, let's throw out Tennessee and Sacred Heart and Roberson threw 8 TD passes in 9 games. Not good enough.

Last year, it appeared as if Roberson had not fully recovered from his leg injury and it seemed like he lost some of his speed. It seemed like he was throwing better than 2022, but he was not throwing as well as UConn needs at QB. UConn has had 2 different sets of eyes evaluate the QBs and both sets did not put Roberson as the #1 QB.

Loved TR, but he had no longer had enough burst running and had below average arm strength so not surprised he was surpassed by other candidates.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I’m hopping on the Tuck Truck. McDonald for QB1!

 

[Forte]

Does anyone mind if I change all the current boneyard slinging to something pretty cool that MAY have already been mentioned, probably by Medic, and if it has I apologize. I couldn't find it via a search of the BY. Pretty cool piece here on the helmet cams we have been seeing on our QB's ... maybe even led to the turn over we are seeing at QB post spring..

Just one fun clip included/shown but the center got burned bad by Gourdine, not much time to throw, the throw that was made didn't allow Buckman to catch it in stride with tons of space around for more yards ... unless that was by design?

https://gopro.com/en/us/news/gopro-football-helmet-cam

 

[CL82]

Does anyone mind if I change all the current boneyard slinging to something pretty cool that MAY have already been mentioned, probably by Medic, and if it has I apologize. I couldn't find it via a search of the BY. Pretty cool piece here on the helmet cams we have been seeing on our QB's ... maybe even led to the turn over we are seeing at QB post spring..

https://gopro.com/en/us/news/gopro-football-helmet-cam

I'd love to see some of this footage.

 

[Forte]

I'd love to see some of this footage.

What is crazy is the go pro sits inches above helmet that already sits inches above the eyes. In the clip you can see how hard it is for smaller QB's to see anything over those line Giants vs. taller QB's. Its amazing what Wilson can do in the NFL though he does a lot on the move.

 

[ktuck911]

Honestly I never thought Boyle was that good. In high school he had very good receivers. Maybe not by Texas standards but by CT ones. 1 played at Central I think. One played at Bates. Another played FCS too as I recall. He was throwing to guys who were just better than the guys trying to cover them. In college I didn’t think he was that good, either. But I also think he was misused and maybe with better coaching could have been a solid but not great player

We played musical chairs at HC a lot.. Never helps a QB... PLUS,, we're UCONN... we never emphasize offense (that's been that way Day 1 of FBS)... Thank God JM got the memo (finally) and we're starting to address the issue (on paper right now it looks that way anyways)...

 

[ktuck911]

Mora presumably didn't pull Roberson's scholarship, he recruited another player to compete for the position. Roberson (it appears) decided to leave and not compete. So I don't understand how Mora is faulted here at all (and I have been a Roberson supporter).

Tea leaves say otherwise y friend... always have at this level of football... especially when you're trying to sell a product... we've leveled up in a sense..

 

[businesslawyer]

Put me in the camp of tuning out if Fagnano takes a meaningful snap .
Yes, Fagnano had no business starting over Turner last year.

So when Zion walked away, how many G-5 schools said “yes, that guy is a winner and we should bring him in?”

I am not knocking what the young man did. He came in and was part of a team that figured out how to beat some good teams at home. But don’t you think there is a reason for the answer to my question?