Coach P: Confident In MacEntee, Defense Needs To Improve

[zls44]

Says last INT was a "correctable play", but not by calling ANYTHING ELSE, because of the actual play.

Am I in an alternate universe?!?!?!

http://twitter.com/#!/peatonrobb
http://twitter.com/#!/desmondconner

 

[bmayuc]

this is not how I was hoping this presser would progress...

 

[zls44]

He already did something Randy Edsall would never, ever do on his own.

http://twitter.com/desmondconner/status/113279850432823296

 

[cryjeremiah]

sigh.......

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I really hope that P is just saying things he has to say as opposed to actually believing it.

 

[Jarhead_1775]

From all that I read in English: "The coaching staff and I made some mistakes." "Our QB situation is as bad as we thought it would be." "We are going to do the best we can with what we got." "Don't ask for anyone else, because they aren't going to do any better that Mac did anyway."

 

[noeynox]

This. What is P going to say. "CONFIDENCE, did you see him throw? If you did you wouldn't be asking if I had any confidence in him."

Seriously, it is the only thing P could say.

 

[HuskyNan]

Interesting new sign in the defensive meeting room...

 

[Pudge]

ummm ... we are two games into the NEW era & we can say one thing definitively (like the strange continuing news on DJ Shoemate), we aren't going to get truly straight answers on some things. Better than Edsall? Sure. He is far more open about a bunch of things. I like that he gives the Assistants a personality & a platform. And, the writers seem free to discuss things. But, I truly don't think the Johnny Mac evaluation internally is any different than our consensus as knowledgable fans. He wasn't very good.

 

[Husky68]

Interesting new sign in the defensive meeting room...

How about "Solve your problems by getting the play call in before the opponents hike the ball"

 

[freescooter]

From all that I read in English: "The coaching staff and I made some mistakes." "Our QB situation is as bad as we thought it would be." "We are going to do the best we can with what we got." "Don't ask for anyone else, because they aren't going to do any better that Mac did anyway."

I had heard this over the summer...that the quarterback situation bordered on disaster at this point...a walkon, a freshman and a soph both of whome were backups and a true freshman who just isn't ready for primetime...not ready for the speed of the game nor for the playbook. I hoped it was an exaggeration, but as camp progressed I had a gut feeling that it might be pretty accurate. I've seen unexpected performances from guys on occassion...the kid who plyaed for Wake a few years ago comes to mind, but on the whole I just don't know how this team does much with the current cast of quarterbacks. If someone doesn't emerge real soon, like Friday night, and show he is ready to play at this level, we could be looking at a real disaster of a season. I'd have to national JUCO reports available as well. That might be the way we need to go for at least a year or two while somebody is developing.

 

[Krugs17]

riley skinner from wake. he was a beast his freshman year

 

[businesslawyer]

That may be right, FS. But what's interesting about it is that there is no sign whatsoever that when the staff changed and P and Deleone tried to figure out what they had -- or when Morehead talked to them after Edsall left -- they were concerned enough to start inquiring about a JUCO QB then. If Morehead didn't think he had the answer on the roster, why didn't they?

And don't tell me Russell Wilson. 90% of the teams in FBS would have gone after Russell Wilson. I mean why weren't they concerned enough to be taking the best JUCO they could? We had room on the roster anyway.

 

[noeynox]

I think collectively as a fan base we were hoping against hope that Nebrich came in ready or that one of the holdovers would be adequate.

We have no way of knowing if they looked at jucos, but remember they came in two weeks into January. What are the chances there were any QBS worth offering at that point?

 

[businesslawyer]

There are plenty of young men about to accept schollies to UMass or James Madison or Georgia Southern or Montana, or for that matter East Carolina or Wyoming or Toledo, who you can get to commit to a BCS school if you decide you need them badly enough. I don't know the JUCO count so I won't go there. And it's certainly true that we don't necessarily know what they were thinking. And, certainly, P had little to go on.

I do believe, however, that Morehead was very high on Nebrich and thought at least one of McCummings, Box or McEntee was competent to transition us there. If not, you would have heard rumblings because we would have been calling every non-BCS QB recruit in the country. Or at least some of them.

It does make you wonder how good Morehead is at evaluating QB prospects.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

There are plenty of young men about to accept schollies to UMass or James Madison or Georgia Southern or Montana, or for that matter East Carolina or Wyoming or Toledo, who you can get to commit to a BCS school if you decide you need them badly enough. I don't know the JUCO count so I won't go there. And it's certainly true that we don't necessarily know what they were thinking. And, certainly, P had little to go on.

I do believe, however, that Morehead was very high on Nebrich and thought at least one of McCummings, Box or McEntee was competent to transition us there. If not, you would have heard rumblings because we would have been calling every non-BCS QB recruit in the country. Or at least some of them.

It does make you wonder how good Morehead is at evaluating QB prospects.

Actually this problem goes deeper. You have to wonder if anyone at UConn pre 2011 was any good at evaluating QB prospects. And. . . time will tell with P. May need to burn about a dozen of next year's scholarships on this one position along until it somehow, someway gets fixed.

 

[freescooter]

That may be right, FS. But what's interesting about it is that there is no sign whatsoever that when the staff changed and P and Deleone tried to figure out what they had -- or when Morehead talked to them after Edsall left -- they were concerned enough to start inquiring about a JUCO QB then. If Morehead didn't think he had the answer on the roster, why didn't they?

And don't tell me Russell Wilson. 90% of the teams in FBS would have gone after Russell Wilson. I mean why weren't they concerned enough to be taking the best JUCO they could? We had room on the roster anyway.

I can't say I know the answer t that, bl. I can only speculate that it was one or more of the following: A. Morehead thought Box or McCummings would be at least a short-term answer while Nebrich developed, and it wasn't until April that they really figured out what they had; B. by the time they arrived and settled in they were so focussed on landing Nebrcih that they didn't find anyone else out there they figured was as good; C. they simply blew it. I can see for example, landing a JUCO in January being a problem for Nebrich who sounds as if he was promised first shot in 2012. If that now gets pushed back to 2013, who knows especially when combined with a change in the coaching staff. I don't know enough about the world of JUCO recruiting to know who is available when, I've always assumed you want guys to show up for 2nd semester. Though it probably isn't an absolute rule.

One more thing...I just want to be clear. I am not discounting the possiblity that in a year or two Nebrcih won't be readdy to run the team. He might very well be. But the number of quarterbacks who come in directly out of high school and are ready to step in and play at a high level is very small. I'm sure there are some, but if given there druthers, every coach would redshirt his freshman quarterback.

 

[noeynox]

Im starting to have doubts on Moorehead because of how poor the footwork of McEntee and Box looked. I say this acknowledging that I was initially very high on Moorehead replacing Ambrose. Even Frazer, alot of these poor throws are a result of these kids not getting their feet right before they throw. That is on Qb coach on some level.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Hey, at least it's good news for Casey Cochran, right?

 

[businesslawyer]

Actually this problem goes deeper. You have to wonder if anyone at UConn pre 2011 was any good at evaluating QB prospects. And. . . time will tell with P. May need to burn about a dozen of next year's scholarships on this one position along until it somehow, someway gets fixed.

1. TDH -- I feel your pain at the moment. I really do. But you can't bring in 12 QB prospects. The ones you want are only going to accept a UConn offer if they are the only 1, or at most 1 of 2, in a class. I am, however, entirely for trying to bring in two a year until this is fixed. And, in addition to looking at JUCOs, I'm not beyond having feelers out for the highly rated kids, like Zach, who are crowded off the depth chart at bigger name schools. (And I say this totally agreeing with FS that it is way, way too early to conclude that Nebrich won't be the answer.)

2. I am not, by my comment on Morehead, absolving Edsall or anyone else of blame in the situation. My point was merely that there is no evidence (and if UConn was offering 10 QBs last minute we would have heard something) that when Morehead kept his job his first act was to run into P's office and say "Houston -- we have a problem."

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I could be wrong, but I believe Nebrich was Moorhead's first QB recruit here (other than Endres, who he recruited while at Akron). I'm having a hard time putting any of this on the current staff. P came in a couple of weeks before signing day. His first priority was to keep the current class together and fill a few more spots. To expect him to come in and fix this by finding a JUCO QB in a matter of weeks is a little unfair. We have no idea what was out there in terms of QB's.

What we can conclude, and one area where everyone can agree, is that we've done a very poor job of evaluating QB talent since we signed Orlovsky back in 2001. As the head coach, a lot of that is on Edsall. But, he ain't the only one guilty here.

 

[businesslawyer]

I could be wrong, but I believe Nebrich was Moorhead's first QB recruit here (other than Endres, who he recruited while at Akron). I'm having a hard time putting any of this on the current staff. P came in a couple of weeks before signing day. His first priority was to keep the current class together and fill a few more spots. To expect him to come in and fix this by finding a JUCO QB in a matter of weeks is a little unfair. We have no idea what was out there in terms of QB's.

What we can conclude, and one area where everyone can agree, is that we've done a very poor job of evaluating QB talent since we signed Orlovsky back in 2001. As the head coach, a lot of that is on Edsall. But, he ain't the only one guilty here.

I would say most of it is on Edsall, with two caveats.

1. There is a lot of bad luck in there. Endres had all the tools to be a good QB, and was for a while. Lorentzon had all the tools, produced results and somehow lost his throwing accuracy while he was here. Maybe that was a poor evaluation. Maybe it was an injury (which is still my gut feeling). If you realize that, the misses were not that bad. Bones was not a big time QB, but we were at a different stage then. DJ had potential, and maybe the turnovers would have been eliminated , and would have been o.k., if we didn't take Tyler and move him. And, every school on the East Coast thought that Zach had the ability to develop into a good QB. So, responsible for not getting it done -- absolutely. But were the individual decisions all that awful, or was there a lot of bad luck involved?

2. Having said that, I was posting about Morehead simply because Edsall isn't our worry any more. Doesn't matter how bad or unlucky he was -- he's gone. Morehead, however, is still here which is what caused me to ask the question.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Bones was "recruited" back in the days when Randy apparently thought that Dan O was gonna have a career of 12 or more years. Heck, there was even a year back then that UConn didn't bother to sign a QB (what was the point, I guess?).

DJ was not the prototype that Randy started out with (beside Dan O, Edsall had some success for a half year with Tracey, who was a bit of a gunslinger). DJ was a running QB in high school and somehow he was gonna become Dan O II?

TL never had a good throwing motion. I loved the way he ran. And he was a fine athlete, hanging around the NFL as a tight end (sort of like being a WR where Iowa State had slotted him). He did not - prior to injury or after injury - have good mechanics. He threw like someone playing darts in a pub. He short-armed everything.

Zach???? Who knows? Who ever knew with him? But he did have a great run - maybe UConn's best ever run offensively from the second quarter of the Pitt game in '09 through the PJ Bowl game.

Cody? Mishandled almost from the beginning. The job should have been his from the Cincy game in '08 on. That was a big upset win for UConn at the time. He also had West Virginia on the ropes for a while, until a WR dropped the ball mid stride at the 5 yard line. Maybe the UConn program just eat away at him and led him to some bad decisions.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I was wrong about Nebrich being Moorhead's only QB recruit here. He also recruited McCummings. One is a true frosh and the other a RS frosh. They're only 2 games into their college careers. I'm not ready to make any judgement on Moorhead's ability to evaluate talent yet.

I will say this......bad luck played a part in QB recruiting, but you have to think that in 10 years you would hit on one or two, even considering the bad luck. When Edsall left and spoke of his dream job, maybe he meant he found his dream QB. The kind he didn't have to recruit. O'Brien is really good.

 

[ZooCougar]

He already did something Randy Edsall would never, ever do on his own.

http://twitter.com/desmondconner/status/113279850432823296

Yeah because Randy never lost games because he was outcoached. It's because the other team played better, or played the game of the century against him. Except Rutgers and Temple played the game of the century two or three times last century.