all around

[BlueDogs]

Completely disagree Blue. This team rolled over against a team that lost to YALE..... j Yale

Don't get me wrong. That was one ugly performance. I'll only say the upside of the hill looks the same as downside at the same point when looking back. I still saw something different as bad as they played. Next game will be a test of character and will define if they want to be winners or quitters. I bet winners.

 

[king conn]

Army did today. 35-21 says it all.

Incapable is a silly word. Do I think we are better than Army? We went 3-9 last year and lost most of the better players from that team, lost our starting QB on opening day, are 2-7 and before Army had lost to two horrific teams. So what rational basis exists for thinking we're a better team than anyone not named SMU.

You might want to throw in Central Fla.
And don't backtrack, incapable is what you implied. You were saying it is the talent, not the coaching .We all know the results, the result game would mean Central Fla couldn't beat Yale. Is every 5-7 team better than every 4-8 team because their record is better? Because our record this year was 2-6 we automatically are worse than Army? Even though they had the same record?
I'm also pretty sure the other teams we played lost players too. Many lost even better players than we did! They seem to be managing a lot better.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Whitmer's pick 6 is the most puzzling play of the day for me. If Whitmer has not been coached to a) not run in reverse and then throw the ball off his back foot, and b) throw that ball into the 5th row, then what is the coaching staff doing out there? That wasn't a bad decision by Whitmer so much as there was no decision to be made. That should have been a timing route that either was there or Whitmer tosses it out the back of the end zone. It looked the no one on the team had the slightest idea what they were supposed to do on that play.

 

[UConnNick]

Completely disagree Blue. This team rolled over against a team that lost to YALE..... j Yale

I don't know why folks are disparaging Yale. I'm no Yale fan, but they're a pretty good I-AA team, and they'd likely beat us, along with any number of other FBS bottom dwellers.

 

[UConnNick]

our players have more than enough talent to beat Army. i'm only guessing here but while watching the game i kept thinkimg that they probably spent more time this week teaching the players how to "play their positions at a level 400" than they did on how to defend Army's option.
For shilt sake we didn't put 8 in the box until they were inside out 10 yard line with 8 minutes to go in the third.

I didn't see the game, but if that's true, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, then it shows a level of cluelessness which is extremely damning going forward.

You're playing Army, Bob. Guess what? They run the triple option. All they're going to do is run the football all day long, with complex blocking schemes. It's what they do, from start to finish of every game they play.

Good grief man, get a clue, or go back to being a defensive assistant coach.

 

[zls44]

I don't know why folks are disparaging Yale. I'm no Yale fan, but they're a pretty good I-AA team, and they'd likely beat us, along with any number of other FBS bottom dwellers.

Because theyre frigging Yale. They are functioning on a fraction of the scholarships UConn is.

 

[huskypantz]

Four. Our fans. My section (109). Emptied out at halftime. Those that remained sat on their azZes the whole time.

In the 200's the stands were full until the pick 6 in the final seconds. Your section sounds like an anomaly. Cheering/making noise was probably 50% of what it would be at the Rent except for the UCONN cheer after touchdowns, which sounded awesome.

 

[UConn76]

Just watched the last INT again on tape...absolutely horrendous decision and throw...moving backwards and threw into a crowd...no reason for it..

 

[whaler11]

So we couldn't have lost to army last year? Or would that have been on HCBD as well. This is an awful team. We have a multi year record to prove it. Our new coach hasn't fixed it in his first year. That's what we know. But he didn't create it and none of us know that the team would have been much better with any other coach we realistically could have brought in instead.

Nope I don't know if anyone else would have done better.

What I do know is that in two weeks when Fordham goes to West Point and beats Army... today is going to look even more ridiculous.

 

[BNich]

Just watched the last INT again on tape...absolutely horrendous decision and throw...moving backwards and threw into a crowd...no reason for it..

I couldn't watch it again if you paid me. Wasn't any worse than the pick earlier in the game, throwing across his body, across the field. Only thing worse was timing and the immediate result of the game ending score. Broke my heart.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So we couldn't have lost to army last year? Or would that have been on HCBD as well. This is an awful team. We have a multi year record to prove it. Our new coach hasn't fixed it in his first year. That's what we know. But he didn't create it and none of us know that the team would have been much better with any other coach we realistically could have brought in instead.

Wiest isn't exactly Bill Walsh and he would have beaten Army by two touchdowns. We need to stop making excuses for Diaco.

 

[BNich]

Why is it all the coaches fault? He can only ask his players what needs to be done, it is up to them to get the job done.

 

[warbler1055]

I don't think anybody rolled over. I blame the coaches 99.9% here and give Army some credit for a great effort.

Diaco and Cummings are 2-7.They are what their record say they are!!!! What process and what plan justify 2-7?

 

[warbler1055]

Is it the coaches fault that when Foxx came in at QB their corners could get off blocks and our corners couldn't get off blocks all day? We looked totally unprepared to defend the option, but I don't know how much of that was coaching and how much of that was playing. And unless you were in the practices discussing schemes this week, neither did you.

So Diaco took a bad team and made it a bad team? His is 2-7, that's what he is. How is he better than PP and TW?

 

[businesslawyer]

You might want to throw in Central Fla.
And don't backtrack, incapable is what you implied. You were saying it is the talent, not the coaching .We all know the results, the result game would mean Central Fla couldn't beat Yale. Is every 5-7 team better than every 4-8 team because their record is better? Because our record this year was 2-6 we automatically are worse than Army? Even though they had the same record?

I'm also pretty sure the other teams we played lost players too. Many lost even better players than we did! They seem to be managing a lot better.

No. You are dead wrong. We beat UCF. By definition that means we are not incapable of beating them. But if you look at bodies of work, no rational person can conclude that they are not the better team. Simple enough?

 

[businesslawyer]

So Diaco took a bad team and made it a bad team? His is 2-7, that's what he is. How is he better than PP and TW?

So Diaco took a bad team and made it a bad team? His is 2-7, that's what he is. How is he better than PP and TW?

Because P made this a bad team and program. Diaco will have to improve it, but there are ways to improve it (by improving your players more over their five years here as Edsall did) that can't be done quickly. If he's not beter than P in his fourth year, we have a problem. All they've proved to date is that the current staff are not miracle workers. Which coach didn't we hire who has proved that they could turn crap into gold in one year?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

So UConn still doesn't get it. College football is played best when offenses used the forward pass.

True, the forward pass was why Army was able to carve up our defense and win the game.

 

[metsfan2323]

Army plays Fordham in two weeks. That should be fun.

 

[Pudge]

In the parlance of the Internet ... before we were FBS, this was a WTF win followed by a WTF loss. And it was entirely predictable.

Yale? Or Weist?

Remember when Edsall - with a far more in-place culture and system got his butt whipped by Navy? ARMY used this triple option and does it well. It takes lots of repetitions and maybe a few years of playing this type of Program (maybe Yale has seen this a few times) to have a defense - even with experienced D1 guys - to play it well. And then ... Edsall won the next year.

We aren't WORSE than Yale. We simply didn't effectively stop this Army offense on one afternoon in 2014. I don't think Weist would have done any better with Hank Hughes.

The true test of Diaco is coming & it is over time - deal with it. Bunch of whiners.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We play a ton of very young players on defense. I spent a lot of the game pointing out (to a buddy who was at the game with me) which defensive players put themselves out of position and used the replay to confirm this. Defending the option requires patience and discipline. Underclassmen normally lack both. It sucks that we lost. It sucks that we looked as bad as we did on defense (In my eyes the most egregious error was the pass completion on first and 20), it sucks that we never had the opportunity to get into any rhythm on offense and it sucks that we had to play from behind (more often than not by two scores) for all but our first offensive series of the game.

I don't know if as many people would be jumping off the ledge if we hadn't beaten UCF last week but this is the Boneyard so.......

 

[Palatine]

Diaco has much to prove. Obviously, anyone who wants him to prove it this years will be very disappointed. Besides UCF, he hasn't really given us a glimmer. Today was a disaster. We were athletic superior and got scorched. It's totally on the coaches because they couldn't win when they fielded superior personnel. Half the stands understood how to stop the option better than Diaco.

So yes. This is on the coaches.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Pal, you sound like a typical liberal. A student comes home with a bad report card so you blame the teacher.

 

[KOD594]

This game should put away notion that has been spinning around and plenty are drinking the kool aid that the reason for the record is we do not have the players and Diaco needs to get his guys in for the results to change, as with Stony Brook, not one kid on Army would have received a UCONN offer and our scholarship players would have been on top of their recruiting classes if they went there. Our problem was development/conditioning and poor game planning and lack of adjustments under Coach P and while the former is not true under Diaco we are still seeing the same poor planning and game adjustments under Diaco. We were out-schemed and coached and our players were not put in a position of strength whereas Army took advantage of their strengths and of our scheme which is to prevent big plays which is something Army is not looking to do. Playing a base defense and in a passive mode and putting linebackers at end on three man front made no sense. Move your safeties up, have your big linemen crash and try to bust up some plays and have the linebackers and DB makes stops. Sure, might give up some extra passing yards but better than what we saw with Army marching up and down the field.

We should be 5-4 not 2-7 now as we had better players than Army, Tulane and USF. Instead we are a Foxx Punt return against Stony Brook and a nasty cold, windy and rain storm against UCF team who were not used to those elements from being a winless team. I think Diaco and his staff are experienced, smart and motivated enough to turn this around but they really need to get lot better on their game planning. As when you coach to try not to lose, you often lose, our football coaches like our basketball coaches need to coach to win

 

[king conn]

No. You are dead wrong. We beat UCF. By definition that means we are not incapable of beating them. But if you look at bodies of work, no rational person can conclude that they are not the better team. Simple enough?

Um, nice try. I was the one who had to point out to you we beat UCF. But in your failed analysis, we would not have the talent to beat UCF because our record was so bad and we lost our good players.
You want simple? Admit you are wrong and stop twisting and changing your narrative.

 

[huskypantz]

PP had multiple NFL draft picks on the roster he inherited. Diaco has Davis and Jones, they're both out and Smallwood left early. Diaco lost his starting/future QB after 1 game. Lost two of his better players to 4-year transfers (Brown and Phillips). I just named what would have been 6 of our top 10 players coming into the season. I'm not even going to bring up McCombs. There is no doubt that Diaco has struggled from the coaching perspective, but the margin for error has been razor-thin. Whitmer is a great ambassador to the program and looks to be a fine leader but he is probably ranked greater than 100 among college QB's this season. And he's still better that Boyle at this stage. PP drove the program off a cliff and Diaco is collecting the remains at the bottom of the gorge.