CCSU Post Game Thread

[Tdaley]

Ty Chan started. So much for the 2 Deep.

 

[ZOOCONN]

From my perspective at the game today our defense seem to play very vanilla. I didn't see the blitzes from linebackers or any of our 5 secondary players that we saw a lot of last year. Maybe they didn't want to show Syracuse too much or maybe too many new players to work the complicated blitzes in yet.

Honestly it’s probably a mixture of both

 

[Windham4th]

Game chat is weird. Everyone had to manually refresh their device to see posts as they were added to the chat.

The chat had better and more timely commentary than The Wax, even without hitting refresh... And a much better picture too

 

[Jimdish255]

From my perspective at the game today our defense seem to play very vanilla. I didn't see the blitzes from linebackers or any of our 5 secondary players that we saw a lot of last year. Maybe they didn't want to show Syracuse too much or maybe too many new players to work the complicated blitzes in yet.

This ^^^

We answered some questions today mostly on offense. Defense is still a work in progress and it's really hard to judge certain position groups against a team like CCSU. We don't reeeally know how good the OL is but it's pretty obvious there's some talent on that side of the ball. I think our d-backs will be fine but the weakness at d-line filters back to other positions and responsibilities.

Nothing unexpected. Knowing the D is a work in progress my main concern was some aspect of the offense getting shut down by a lower tier group. The coaches don't have to question their preparation or playbook based on today's production.

The only real negative that bugged me during the game was staring across the field at half or three quarter empty chairback sections. Your support of UConn Football is greatly appreciated of course. But if you can't show up is there some way to get live people into those seats? Can those tickets not be sold, transferred or donated? I don't know what the answer is but it's a bad look when every other section is 80-90 % full.

 

[KembaKek]

Offense picked up where it left off last season.

The defense looks really raw. They aren’t connected, they aren’t in position to make tackles, the DL doesn’t get any penetration.

I choose to trust Matt Brock. Hopefully he can make adjustments in 7 days....

 

[DawgEnjoyer]

Feeling good about the O-line after losing both tackles. They dominated like they should against an FCS opponent.

We have probably a dozen good skill players….crazy how far it’s come.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Feeling good about the O-line after losing both tackles. They dominated like they should against an FCS opponent.

We have probably a dozen good skill players….crazy how far it’s come.

Getting cast offs from power programs helps a lot. Bell (Michigan), Murphy (Arizona), Juice (NCST), and even Porter (Kentucky). These guys would never have ended up here in the past, we're benefiting a lot from this era.

 

[JMick]

I won't be surprised if the offense is better than last year but the defense is worse. Bell is gonna be a problem for everyone on our schedule. And I love that he's our best outside blocker too. Guy is a complete football player.

Maybe (hopefully) it's just a repeat of bad first game D like last year, but the DL and LB look like they regressed. DBs looked pretty good though.

My biggest surprise of the night was Evers. Looks like a totally different player. Decisive and whipping it around.

 

[RSTuthill]

Parking at the Rent sucks. It's a victim of the lack of mass transit in greater Hartford. And one of the reasons people leave early is because they want to beat the traffic.

If UConn wants butts in seats for four quarters it needs to find a way to get people to the stadium so that they worry less about how they're going to get back out.

Oh, we will be there for all four quarters plus OT if that happens. Just not when it is 52-13 and there is a couple hours of gorgeous daylight left to do something.

 

[RSTuthill]

Ty Chan started. So much for the 2 Deep.

And UConn ran to the left all day long.

 

[RSTuthill]

I won't be surprised if the offense is better than last year but the defense is worse. Bell is gonna be a problem for everyone on our schedule. And I love that he's our best outside blocker too. Guy is a complete football player.

Maybe (hopefully) it's just a repeat of bad first game D like last year, but the DL and LB look like they regressed. DBs looked pretty good though.

My biggest surprise of the night was Evers. Looks like a totally different player. Decisive and whipping it around.

I am apprehensive that some of UConn's games this year could be like the Rhode Island game a decade or more ago. Ball State for instance. And Syracuse today could have put up more than 59 against UConn.

 

[uconnbaseball]

I won't be surprised if the offense is better than last year but the defense is worse. Bell is gonna be a problem for everyone on our schedule. And I love that he's our best outside blocker too. Guy is a complete football player.

Maybe (hopefully) it's just a repeat of bad first game D like last year, but the DL and LB look like they regressed. DBs looked pretty good though.

My biggest surprise of the night was Evers. Looks like a totally different player. Decisive and whipping it around.

Parham looked great IMO. This was not a good performance from King, but we know what he is capable of.

The back 7 should be fine. The DL is reminiscent of our 2019 squad and could derail our entire season unless multiple players step up.

 

[Hoophound]

Just to point it out, CCSU does not “stink”. They are in the “others receiving votes” in the FCS Top 25 and are expected to be pretty good at that level. We beat them so easily because we are getting bigger and better. We should crush an FCS team.

The lack of a pass rush is really disappointing. Not only is it needed, but it’s one of my favorite parts of the game. An effective pass rush is exciting. I remember when Don Brown was here, I much preferred defense to offense because his pass rush was electric. I really hope that can be remedied.

 

[giddyup]

I choose to trust Matt Brock. Hopefully he can make adjustments in 7 days....

The D will get better as a unit. The DL is another story. If you can’t get a sack or any meaningful pressure against an FBS squad all day, it’s a nontrivial problem.

 

[Devland]

People are surprised by Evers but remember at the beginning of last season most never wanted to see Fagnano again because of what they saw the previous season.

 

[BlueWolf25]

I won't be surprised if the offense is better than last year but the defense is worse. Bell is gonna be a problem for everyone on our schedule. And I love that he's our best outside blocker too. Guy is a complete football player.

Maybe (hopefully) it's just a repeat of bad first game D like last year, but the DL and LB look like they regressed. DBs looked pretty good though.

My biggest surprise of the night was Evers. Looks like a totally different player. Decisive and whipping it around.

I really like that they put Evers in and let him throw the ball on his first 3-4 plays rather than having him hand it off/keep it himself. And agree that we'll see defensive regression. I think that with Joe getting the ball to Bell, Cam, and Brown, the offense will do more this year to hopefully take some pressure off the D

 

[UC1995]

I think we use a 4 man line next week. We didn’t need to show our defensive game plan we will use against Syracuse.

 

[RSTuthill]

I think we unveil a 4 man line next week. We didn’t need to expose our defensive plan against CCSU for Syracuse to plan.

I sure as heck hope so. And run to the right a couple of times.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Positives:

Stomped a team that UConn was supposed to stomp.

Negatives, and these are BIG NEGATIVES:

1) Parking was a mess. I was stuck in traffic for almost 15 minutes coming in at noon despite only 15-20 thousand people in the stadium. This was bush league.

2) They didn't fully stock the concessions. There were items on the menu that were not actually available. This is bush league stuff that makes it look like the program is not even trying.

I forgot to mention that the big screen has glitched. There are black rectangles all over the screen.

 

[blue93]

I think we use a 4 man line next week. We didn’t need to show our defensive game plan we will use against Syracuse.

This and we have to remember there were guys on the field that won’t get play at all next week. It’s tough to read too much into this one.

 

[RSTuthill]

Parking at the Rent sucks. It's a victim of the lack of mass transit in greater Hartford. And one of the reasons people leave early is because they want to beat the traffic.

If UConn wants butts in seats for four quarters it needs to find a way to get people to the stadium so that they worry less about how they're going to get back out.

Park at the Aircraft Club. Real facilities too. Easier ingress and egress.

 

[Slick]

Positives:

-OL play. After a shaky first drive, they dominated in the run and pass game against an overmatched opponent. We also seem deep, judging by how well the backups played.

-WR depth. We have several guys who can get open downfield and make plays. Bell is obviously our #1, and we added a bunch of secondary and tertiary players in the portal who should be able to take advantage of the attention he draws.

-Juice. He's a weapon. We have 3 very good tight ends, all with different playstyles.

-Evers. He looked sharp, even on his incompletions. Joe was fine and put up a nice statline, but he did miss some open guys & left some meat on the bone as a result

-Playcalling. We were aggressive on both sides of the ball without showing Syracuse too much.

-Coverage from the back 7. Chadwick got beat once but otherwise we had them locked up. Their QB made some legitimate throws and still couldn't crack a 50% completion rate, despite the lack of pressure. Mills and Parham were terrific portal adds.


Negatives:

-Defensive line. This was our biggest concern coming into the year, against against a CCSU OL with 3 freshman starters, they did nothing to alleviate those concerns. They put very little pressure on their QB and we were not stopping the run well until their (impressive) starting RB got injured. We missed a few tackles in the LB corp, but not an unusual number for the first game of the year. If we fall short of our goals this year, the DL will be the #1 culprit in all likelihood.

-WR perimeter blocking. Porter and Brown were egregiously bad at this, although the latter had a good game otherwise. With the number of short passes we like to run to our talented receivers and tight ends, we have got to block better against good competition to turn 3 yard gains into 8 yard gains.

-Special teams. Missed FG and a bad snap on a punt give this unit a poor grade. I don't think this is an area of concern going forward, however. I'd like to see Harper return kicks over Brown.

I saw part of Syracuse Tennessee game. Syracuse has a MASSIVE offensive line. It’s not going your way be easy next week.

 

[Devland]

What lot are the people complaining about parking parking in? I have only ever parked in the Blue lot and have always gotten out quickly. I beleive they years back they closed access from Main St for the other lots (I may be wrong on this) That would have a big effect on the other lots if it is the case

 

[KryHavok]

The other thing that pleasantly surprised me is that we saw three QBs play for us and not because one got hurt and will miss a chuck of the season. It was nice to see Evers and MacDonald out there because the coach just wanted them to get some live reps. Next week won't be easy, but if they can hang with the fruit and figure out how to get pressure on the QB while taking away our limiting the fruit's passing attack, we could be in for a decent showing.

 

[Scrutineer]

https://www.courant.com/2025/08/30/uconn-football-notes-depth-able-to-show-itself-in-season-opener-vs-central-connecticut/

Kind of scary to read JM's comments about the injury to Malachi McLean. "Not a head injury and not life threatening, but he's very concerned".

Let's give him our best wishes and hope JM is just being a very cautious coach.