2021 expectations | Page 2 | The Boneyard

2021 expectations

huskysupporter said:
I think the difference between 2-5 wins comes down to coaching philosophy and QB play.

HCRE has hinted they will open offense up more.

And average QB play would allow them to win a couple more games other than the FCS teams.

Defense will still be poor, especially in the back end exacerbated by the lack of pass rush.

I do have high hopes for Jackson Mitchell. There was a time, long long ago that UCONN churned out NFL caliber linebackers every year. I think Mitchell can be that type of player.
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I agree. I think Mitchell can definitely be that type of player. Excited to see how he does this year
 
If our o-line is weak and our pass rush is weak it's going to be a long season. I have no idea but it's reasonable to be concerned. Outside of QB, the o-line and pass rush are probably the most crucial determinants of success or failure unless you have a couple of freak athletes on offense. Success or lack thereof impacts every other positional aspect of your game.
 
Nextmanup said:
My predictions for the oline.. 1st team
LT Van Demark
LG Chris Fortin
C Sydney Walker
RG Christian Haynes
RT Dylan niedrowski

2nd.. Center Rooney.
Lundt- LT. That’s all I got
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Really hoping that Lundt can live up to his (size) potential and take over at right tackle. Jonathan Pace is another upperclassmen with size and athleticism at tackle, hopefully he has thrived in his transition to offense the way the Big Dane did a few years back.
 
freescooter said:
I think Edsall is basically trying to reprise his first run. The program was a disaster under Diaco by most accounts. He recruited 1aa level talent and it showed. Small and slow. Edsall being Edsall decided to rebuild from the ground up which tells me that he had an understanding with AD Dave that this would take time. Then he got handed the Big East move which made it even tougher. I think Edsall will get at least another year. If we show progress even without wins he definitely will.

Recruiting has been pretty good all things considered. You just look at kids like the frosh receivers and look at us out recruiting a couple of P5 kids this year and you know we are finally landing D1 players again.
In some ways I think we lucked out with COVID in the sense that last years schedule while interesting was pretty difficult. Squeezing more than 2 wins out would have been tough. It is tough to evaluate teams off last year’s mucked up schedule but it sure looks like 2021 is far more reasonable. Yeah, Clemson and UCF will be very difficult, to put it mildly, but Pudue was bad. MTSU was bad Wyoming was bad, Vandy was bad, UMass (why aren’t we playing them on rivalry weekend?) Fresno was just ok and if it was home instead of away I think we have a shot, Army was a little difficult to evaluate given they played 3 FCS teams.
What I’m saying is that this isn’t the SEC West we are playing. It kind of reminds me of Edsall’s early 1a schedules. Maybe he sneaks out 6-7 wins if things go right. Then build on that.
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Over-all good points. So you think, we just luck out with Covid, avoiding a difficult schedule that would produce perhaps 2 wins? I think, you often make your own luck and that’s exactly what Randy did. He gets paid another million plus this year. Who else would pay him that?
 
We have been through this before Chief. We had over half our schedule cancelled by the opponents. We maybe do a UMass and play 4 games sometimes not knowing who until the Monday of game week. Football isn’t like basketball. Lots more preparation and game planning. I doubt UMass gained anything from going 0-4 all on the road.

But I also think this is a much morr manageable schedule and I agree with Drew that we need to win football games again.
 
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huskysupporter said:
I think the difference between 2-5 wins comes down to coaching philosophy and QB play.

HCRE has hinted they will open offense up more.

And average QB play would allow them to win a couple more games other than the FCS teams.

Defense will still be poor, especially in the back end exacerbated by the lack of pass rush.

I do have high hopes for Jackson Mitchell. There was a time, long long ago that UCONN churned out NFL caliber linebackers every year. I think Mitchell can be that type of player.
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When will we finally have a pass rush? Its been a long time coming. We need to show a pulse there this upcoming season...
 
National championship hangover and we win 3 or 4 games. RE will complain “if only we had more time to lift and train”. He will then push for 2022 off for safety purposes and we can resume in 2023
 
ktuck911 said:
When will we finally have a pass rush? Its been a long time coming. We need to show a pulse there this upcoming season...
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Doesn’t look like anytime soon. Need speed off the edge whether it’s someone standing up or with their hand in the dirt. We just lack speed all over.
 
Whoever they pick to lead the offense has to have a winning mindset. If they can do that and not wait until the 4th game to get a touchdown pass I think we will steal a couple games
 
huskysupporter said:
Doesn’t look like anytime soon. Need speed off the edge whether it’s someone standing up or with their hand in the dirt. We just lack speed all over.
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Here's hoping you're wrong and that these kids, with a whole year, developed their techniques and now have football speed (reaction time, diagnose quickly and play).... We better see something there. Can't survive without it...
 
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I'm hoping we play the games. That would be an improvement.

Aside from that, I have no idea what the missed season will mean. We could be worse than ever, or better than we expect. It's just a complete unknown. Will last year's freshmen play like sophomores or freshmen?
 
I really don’t want to make predictions at this point. Could be 2, could be 6 wins- yeah that’s the range (like most have already said).

Would like to keep key players healthy and play the Fresno game before making a real prediction.

With a full year off I hope the coaches used it to really bone up their schemes. They had a great fall to watch all types of play calling. So much to absorb. I’m not expecting magic, just to see some creativity slipped in... more misdirection/counters and more control in situational football. Defense needs far more creative blitz schemes, our guys that blitz don’t get home and the opposing QBs have been good at finding that open receiver.
 
I am hoping that my support for the Huskies football does not get me ridiculed at work on Monday mornings. So a 4-win season gets me out of that problem. I am nervous about the Yale game but think we can win that one, Umass and Holy Cross, and surprise in one other.
 
UCFBfan said:
Honestly I'll be happy with watching UConn football again. I fully expect to yell at my TV, ask out loud what the heck they were doing all last season, and questioning if Randy should come back for another season. All while going on the BY and reading people jumping off the deep end and possibly joining them at times.

I'll be happy with a complete, uninterrupted CFB season that can have continuity and not postponed games all over the place. I'll be happy if stadiums can have some fans and are able to allow Marching Bands back in so we don't need fake noise or music.

Those are my expectations for next season. As for this team, I set the bar real low every year and they always seem to find a way to go even lower. So I'm expecting to go 0-12 and be ranked last in total Offense while our defense plays their hearts out for the first part of the season until Clemson rails us for 60+ and our D is so demoralized that they can't pull this team anymore.
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Great. Now we’ll find a way to be 0-13. Doomed.
 
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I'm really curious how the QB play will look for us. If some of our QBs were able to work on things over this long break (playbook, fundamentals, etc.), then we might really be pleasantly surprised.

This will be the most difficult undefeated prediction I've ever made... mostly because I can't figure out how many games we'll actually play. 10-0? 13-0? This is tough. But nobody beat us in 2020, so I haven't been wrong about my prediction in years...
 
freescooter said:
Fresno (3-3)
Holy Cross fcs
Purdue ( 2-4)
Army (9-3)
Vanderbilt (0-9)
UMass (0-4)
Yale FCS
Middle Tennessee (3-6)

There are possible wins there.
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I left out 2-4 Wyoming. My point is that there ought to be say 3 games where we are favorites (UMass HC Yale), 3 where we are huge dogs (guess) and at least right now 3 I’d call stretches Army Purdue, Fresno) and 3 that are winnable. Depending on how things go we might or might not be favored. (MTSU, Vanderbilt, Wyoming). If we could go 3-0 in the wins, 1-2 in the stretch games and 2-1 in the toss ups we would be pretty happy I think. On the other hand if we went 1-11 but beat Clemson I would take it.
 
UConnDan97 said:
I'm really curious how the QB play will look for us. If some of our QBs were able to work on things over this long break (playbook, fundamentals, etc.), then we might really be pleasantly surprised.

This will be the most difficult undefeated prediction I've ever made... mostly because I can't figure out how many games we'll actually play. 10-0? 13-0? This is tough. But nobody beat us in 2020, so I haven't been wrong about my prediction in years...
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QB play (consistent play) is definitely key brother... We won't win much without it...
 
ktuck911 said:
QB play (consistent play) is definitely key brother... We won't win much without it...
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Usually UCONN has only 1 that is a serviceable QB. I remember when Sheriffs went down snd there was was a big drop off. Hopefully UCONN will get good QB play from multiple players and not have to rely on Rose to be QB.
 
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Sks has the winning mentality and drive. Comes from a winning high school. His last drive in Hs was a 80 game winning drive in state championship. He showed the leadership of playing UCF injured with a broken clavical stayed in the game even though it was a blow out to try and make the score respectable I mean hey he covered the spread right. All jokes aside that’s the mentality you need under center. Not bow out and give up when the game gets tough, you need that if you get hit in the mouth you are going to keep rollin along.
 
shizzle787 said:
Holy Cross, Yale, UMass, and MTSU are must wins. If we have less than 4 wins, Edsall should go.
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Agreed all winnable games should be wins with hopefully a couple upsets or Atleast respectable loses. If not the walking papers should be drawn up. It’s been long enough and it’s all his recruits now
 
I’m looking for an upset or 2 along the way. I think football teams tend not to make gradual improvements They tend to jump. Edsalls first run was an example but there are a bunch of others. Edsall 1.0 went a few years with 2-3 wins then went 6-6, 9-3. Rutgers in Schianos first run bumped along for 3-4 years then won 7. If you do these rebuilding jobs you face a tough choice. Quick fix or rebuild.
 
It will be good to get to live sporting events this summer. I expect good food, drink, and in-person conversation, hopefully without masks, with some great friends.
 
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