Honestly when apathy has set in for Spackler can it get any worse?
I'm looking forward to our annual deep fry turkey tailgait against Cincy. I may bring the Gentleman Jack Daniels to numb the pain of watching the game.
Didn't see this post til this morning JimmyS. It's not apathy, it's just detachment. The stadium was rocking, as much as the 25k or still there at that point (guestimate - announced was just under 28k I believe?) anyway - the stadium was ROCKING after that onside kick recovery. The fumble non-call? Complete horse-sh---t. Our team competes like animals, and I love it, and I don't expect it to stop, and that - THAT - is Diaco's greatest success this season. We no longer have anything to play for, but the name on the front of the jersey, the name on the back of the jersey of the few seniors left from the past several years of turmoil, and next season.
I have no doubt that our guys will come back and compete, from start to end, with all they got. The emotion at the end of that game, was palpable. The only thing that I can think of coming close, to the emotional outpouring that we had when Rutgers ran that TD the length of the field to end the game back in 2009.
There is no apathy anywhere - just.....detachment.
Why? Because we are what we are. Everythign, and I mean EVERYTHING, good and bad about UCONN football in Nov. 2014, was on full display - from coaching, to systems, to players - all of it. Given that necessary baseline for effective competition - that being that everyone, from top to bottom and inside out, is putting everything they have into performing their individual tasks within the team performance 24/7......which is undoubtedly the case again for the UCONN football program - the old saying - is absolutely true - you are what your record says you are. We are a 2-7 team, with 3 games left to play.
This past week, was definitely a step back, from winning the previous week - but it was also a learning experience, unique within the season. I'm sure you remember getting steamrolled by the Navy triple option in 2006. Disaster at Rentschler field. We won the following season. There simply is no adequate way to prepare for the offense, other than actually defending it in games. I am 100% certain we will better at defending it next season, and we'll probably use a different defensive game plan too, because we'll hopefully have DE's and OLB's that have learned, improved and won't get exploited so hard, and need to be cleaned up.
Our OLB's and DE's have been a weakness all season, and more than a few times, through the season, we've had safeties need to clean up the messes, if there is enough room on the field left - it was on display all day on Saturday. Adams and Melifonwu were our leading tacklers, and because of the failures of the OLB's and DE's in defending the option (and after re-reading this discussion - I suppose I actually need to be clear - that what I mean by that, is when the OLB's and/or DE's were left unblocked and forced to defend the actual ball carrier - which most of the time was the QB - they failed to do the simple task of making the hit, whether or not the ball carrier keeps or pitches - irrelevant. There has been some discussion here that perhaps it was a preparation / coaching failure, but I doubt it. It's simply an experience thing.
The coaching/ preparation issues are all on the offensive side of the ball, and we will continue to lose, until we establish some kind of identity on offense, and remain consistent with it. We have progressed this season, from rotating 2 QB's, to now rotating 3 QB's. It's f---king mind boggling.
As for D game planning, there are a lot of different things you can do, to defend the triple option as far as a defensive structure and defensive play calling, but the constants are always there - one man in the D is going to responsible for putting the potential ball carriers (or actual ball carriers) on their backs. Pressing up at least one of the safeties to force the issue, is ideal - but after the game wore on, I'd bet the farm that it was a conscious decision, to leave both Adams and Melifonwu deep most of the game, to clean up the option run messes, as well as the potential pass play big gainers - and like clockwork, it happened. If we didn't have them both back there, the failures up front against the run option, as well as the pass option by the edge defenders, easily go for TD's rather than long gainers. As it was, those safeties led the team in tackling, but because of the failures up front, Army simply kept moving the chains, because of the chunks of yardage they were getting, and eventually they reach the endzone. Only time you can stop it, is when somebody actually makes a play to stop the positive yardage, then the offense grinds to a halt - unless they option throw out of it.
Remember when Navy destroyed Randy Edsall's defense in 2006, and we came back the following year and stopped and won. The difference is experience, and actually playing the D. I am sure that we will play better on D next year against Army - and do well against Navy. I don't think there is a single player on defense on Saturday, that will not be returning.
Make no mistake though, beating these Army and Navy teams - is going to involve our offense improving dramatically, not the defensive issues we saw on Saturday.