Coach P: Confident In MacEntee, Defense Needs To Improve

[Pudge]

Doug Flutie ...

LOOK ... I think this is analogous to walking down the aisle. You still have 50some % divorce rate EVEN though most all people know they are blissfully happy & prepared. They aren't. And a BCS position (as opposed to getting some run at a MAC or Sunbelt) is, IMHO, just not one that is easily evaluated. There are a lot of kids who aren't Matthew Stafford talent-wise; so, in most cases it is a reach ... and hope they come through. (and frankly, probably 3/4 never do ... and don't play a lot ... and transfer to IU(PA)). Cody Endres is the sad story; that kid had some good skills.

And saying all this FS ... but not TDH .. we still have not seen enough from Nebrich or McCummings. They could Flutie. There could be something there that you don't see until the lights come one. Flutie, as I recall, was not burning up the Scout team nor easily classified as the next great one. Just another BC QB ... albeit 5'6". Then Shazzam. I think (and hope) that we could get very lucky with either Nebrich or McCummings. Teaching QB? I dunno ... Joe Moorhead DID have solid QBs at Akron. Maybe it is just lucky.

 

[businesslawyer]

Doug Flutie ...

LOOK ... I think this is analogous to walking down the aisle. You still have 50some % divorce rate EVEN though most all people know they are blissfully happy & prepared. They aren't. And a BCS position (as opposed to getting some run at a MAC or Sunbelt) is, IMHO, just not one that is easily evaluated. There are a lot of kids who aren't Matthew Stafford talent-wise; so, in most cases it is a reach ... and hope they come through. (and frankly, probably 3/4 never do ... and don't play a lot ... and transfer to IU(PA)). Cody Endres is the sad story; that kid had some good skills.



[This is not Pudge's language -- from here on it's mind. Goddness knows what I've done to screw it up.] As I've said repeatedly, a head coach "owns" responsibility for every success and every failure within a football program. So Edsall is ultimately responsible for the QB play being below par more often than not.

That having been said, the last four years (where, mind you, we've been successful) has included a lot of bad luck. I can't explain how Tyler lost his accuracy since coming here. (And, by the way, the answer to the question "worst game ever played by a UConn QB" was neither Bones nor Saturday -- it was Tyler's game against Pitt towards the end of the '08 season) Zach was wanted by everyone. Cody smoked his way out of the lineup. It was Edsall's responsibility to have enough options here at any time so that we always had an average or above QB on the field. But there has been an awful lot of bad luck involved also.

 

[mattp]

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

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

what did he do here? i don't know anything about twitter, but i can't click on that link

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

what did he do here? i don't know anything about twitter, but i can't click on that link

Accept responsibility/protect the players.

 

[Jimdish255]

I gave Zack more chances over 3 seasons than most of the posters are giving any of our QB's after 1 FCS game.. That's weird. Didn't anyone realize this could happen early on? Unfortunately it was everything going wrong at once but it can happen and it's just way too early to be throwing anybody under the bus. I'm good for 4 games before I get to that point but our preparation needs to be way better this week. That's on the coaches.

 

[NEforceUConn]

QB situation - Wait, is Drummond on campus?

 

[huskypantz]

I don't think we did a poor job of evaluating talent at QB under Edsall as much as we did a poor job of recruiting QB's - ie convincing top kids to come to CT. Bones was a WR and a complete reach, we had nothing else. What FBS schools did we actually beat out for a QB recruit? Endres, beating out Akron? And he was probably the best pure passer we've had since DanO. Did we find any diamonds in the rough? Well, we offered Colt Brennan - but he chose to WALK ON elsewhere. I don't think we evaluated poorly as much as we just missed out on our top targets.

 

[zls44]

It was about a larger issue.

When you can't accept responsibility, or acknowledge when you make mistakes- which you are GOING to make, it's not a problem unless it's all you do (GERG) - it affects everything.

It's what makes you think the QB issues are just "execution". You think everything is fine, that you've recruited perfectly good QB's. While you run DJ, Bones, Frazer, etc. out there. When the whole world knows they're not good enough most of the time, but you can't even see what's so obvious.

 

[zls44]

I don't think we did a poor job of evaluating talent at QB under Edsall as much as we did a poor job of recruiting QB's - ie convincing top kids to come to CT. Bones was a WR and a complete reach, we had nothing else. What FBS schools did we actually beat out for a QB recruit? Endres, beating out Akron? And he was probably the best pure passer we've had since DanO. Did we find any diamonds in the rough? Well, we offered Colt Brennan - but he chose to WALK ON elsewhere. I don't think we evaluated poorly as much as we just missed out on our top targets.

They did not try because they thought what they had was good enough, or capable of making GIGANTIC LEAPS to get good enough. They did. Not. Try.

8 years without a top-half of the Big East QB. Endres for 15 minutes. Otherwise? Eight.

Come on.

 

[huskypantz]

I really don't know what the anger is about. All coaches are outcoached sometimes. I'm sure Edsall was. But we really don't know enough to rationally conclude someone is outcoached just because a team loses a game we think they should win. Most upsets have far more to do with players. Saturday night was a relatively rare occurrence where many of us believe that a coach made an off the wall decision towards the end of a game that was going to be won that changed the result. It is not a usual occurrence. You can point to things that you didn't like in the losses you mentioned, but there simply was not a "one shining moment" to condlude that it really was a single coaching mistake that cost us the game. I will also note that, in your anger, you are talking about multiple losses to Temple even though they only beat us once since we joined the Big East.

The irony of the Vandy game is that it was the polar opposite of the Rutgers game last year. 3/4 of the posters on this board were ripping Randy a new one for playing too conservatively and allowing Rutgers back into the game. Schiano outcoached Edsall....... Not we get the opposite situation - our coach makes an aggressive play call with the lead, and everyone jumps down his throat.

 

[businesslawyer]

The irony of the Vandy game is that it was the polar opposite of the Rutgers game last year. 3/4 of the posters on this board were ripping Randy a new one for playing too conservatively and allowing Rutgers back into the game. Schiano outcoached Edsall....... Not we get the opposite situation - our coach makes an aggressive play call with the lead, and everyone jumps down his throat.

Is it ironic? Yes. But I didn't thinkt he play calling was a clear mistake last year, and even if you did the situations were only superficially similar in that Rutgers spent the entire second half in our end threatening to score but having Schiano blow it. Vandy was not going to put a 70 plus yard TD drive together against our defense. Period. They were not.

 

[huskypantz]

They did not try because they thought what they had was good enough, or capable of making GIGANTIC LEAPS to get good enough. They did. Not. Try.

8 years without a top-half of the Big East QB. Endres for 15 minutes. Otherwise? Eight.

Come on.

If they thought that what they had was good enough, why did they bring in 2 QB's in 2005? Why did they bring in JUCO TL in 2007? Why did they recruit Frazer as a transfer? I don't think they ever stopped trying to get better at QB. I think they failed miserably, but they definitely tried.

 

[Chief00]

I can guarantee that McEntee is not the answer. Go young and invest in the future. I am also in the camp that I hope Coach P doesn't actually believe what he says.

 

[zls44]

If they thought that what they had was good enough, why did they bring in 2 QB's in 2005? Why did they bring in JUCO TL in 2007? Why did they recruit Frazer as a transfer? I don't think they ever stopped trying to get better at QB. I think they failed miserably, but they definitely tried.

JUCO, Transfer, no QB recruited in 2007 (I think)...that's not really trying. That's looking at a position and thinking a quick-fix will solve minor issues. Not making a real commitment to improving the position.

 

[huskypantz]

Vandy was not going to put a 70 plus yard TD drive together against our defense. Period. They were not.

Vandy's second TD drive was a 9-play 80 yard drive.

 

[businesslawyer]

Vandy's second TD drive was a 9-play 80 yard drive.

At a much different time in the game when things were going much differently

 

[huskypantz]

JUCO, Transfer, no QB recruited in 2007 (I think)...that's not really trying. That's looking at a position and thinking a quick-fix will solve minor issues. Not making a real commitment to improving the position.

2005 - Brown and Cundiff.
2006 - None.
2007 - Lorenzen and Endres.
2008 - Casey Turner and Frazer.
2009 - Mike Box.
2010 - McCummings.
2011 - Nebrich.

So every year we brought in a "quick fix", we also brought in a high school recruit. We signed 9 QB's in 7 seasons. Not sure what you would consider a commitment to improvement is, but aside from an envelope filled with $200k, that looks to me like we were aggressively trying to improve the position, both short- and long-term.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I still vividly remember the offensive display we put on against UVA at the Rent in '08. I'd pay heavily to see something like that again.

 

[Husky68]

I listened to Coach P and thought his presentation was more reasoned than the quick quotes some have made (not beining inaccurate but the context and emphasis). I'm a little bit more confident that he'll get the best QB out there as the game progresses Friday. I like to go with the big upside guy, ND put in Clausen and he got killed as a Freshman but got better as soph and again as junior. If JMac is the guy still, let's see what he can do, but already have a full game in hand as to what's up with him so need to be ready to sub out if need be and/or split time to see what Nebrich has (and give some experience). Need to make Iowa State cover past 10 yards down the field or slants/sideline curls/other short passes will just not be there.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Is it ironic? Yes. But I didn't thinkt he play calling was a clear mistake last year, and even if you did the situations were only superficially similar in that Rutgers spent the entire second half in our end threatening to score but having Schiano blow it. Vandy was not going to put a 70 plus yard TD drive together against our defense. Period. They were not.

I posted about this earlier (can't remember if it was this one or another). I think both calls, while polar opposite, were the wrong calls at the time. You simply cannot make a blanket judgement on both plays without taking into account the game situations. We had a competent and experienced QB last year against RU and they were moving the ball against us at that time in the game. That game did not dictate a conservative call there. Against Vandy Saturday night, you had McEntee, who already threw 2 picks by then and probably shouldn't have even been in the game at that point, tossing the ball around on 3rd and 9. Vandy was not threatening at all at that point. That situation SCREAMED for a conservative play call. Both calls were botched and both contributed to us losing the games.

 

[junglehusky]

Many of us are wondering why Nebrich only got in on one series at Vandy... Here's a quote from a Jeff Jacobs piece pushing for Nebrich to start:

"Last week, I had a couple of bad practices," Nebrich said. "I've got to perform every day."

This is the kind of thing you don't necessarily hear about in the press, at least around this program. Here's hoping all QBs have productive practices this week.

 

[zls44]

Many of us are wondering why Nebrich only got in on one series at Vandy... Here's a quote from a Jeff Jacobs piece pushing for Nebrich to start:

This is the kind of thing you don't necessarily hear about in the press, at least around this program. Here's hoping all QBs have productive practices this week.

It's a Calhoun move!

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I still vividly remember the offensive display we put on against UVA at the Rent in '08. I'd pay heavily to see something like that again.

A great night indeed. But it was the Donald Brown show. One dimensional. You can be one dimensional in the running game IF you have better personnel at each position, which UConn certain had vs Virginia. But that's not usually been the case for UConn. Quickest way to level out disparities in college football is to force an opponent's defense to have to cover the entire field. Need to spread things out and throw the ball.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

A great night indeed. But it was the Donald Brown show. One dimensional. You can be one dimensional in the running game IF you have better personnel at each position, which UConn certain had vs Virginia. But that's not usually been the case for UConn. Quickest way to level out disparities in college football is to force an opponent's defense to have to cover the entire field. Need to spread things out and throw the ball.

That was a pretty talented UVA team. Not as talented as they were the year earlier but they put more of their defensive players into the NFL than we did offensive players from that game.

That was an instance where what you see can be impressive enough (Tyler's passing I that game) where even a small quantity has the appearance of abundance. I was stunned when I saw the box score the day later to see how few passes Tyler threw as he picked UVA apart when he did pass. High efficiency in the passing game is what is important, not quantity of throws (although I know you'll never believe this). If we can put together a passing game like that we'll beat anyone on our schedule.

 

[rich1122]

What I find amazing is this. These QB"s play against a pretty good, aggressive defense every day in practice. Granted it's practice, but you figure they can hold their own.

I still think that play calling, sideline stuff was a bigger factor than we think. Holding out DJ. I don't know - we gotta win that game. He can rest against Western Michigan and Buffalo. Maybe they are experimenting a little. Throw it out there see what happens.

The whole thing looked askew. It's like they are learning on the job. We have better talent.

I remember a quote by DeLeone saying how hard the first year was going to be. How they were thrown in there to change everything all at once and next year would be better. RE leaves in January and they gotta pick up the pieces. Now I know what he was talking about.

I say Friday is better.