Depth Chart is Up

[businesslawyer]

The only listed change is that BJ McBride is back on the two deep as a reserve DE, taking the place of Marcus Campbell. I still haven't seen anything officially, but it has been said here that Campbell, a 5th year Sr., has left the team.

Blidi is not on the two deep. Obviously, that is the most important personnel question we have at the moment. It still lists Jerome Williams and Mike Osiecki as "or" at backup MLB, but given that we saw Jerome Williams come in last week for Sio Moore, I would assume he is just hte 4th LB and they will shift positions as they need to.

With three games left, I think it is safe to say that, despite the new coaching staff and uncertainty at skill positions, the only true freshmen who had their eligibility used will end up being Nebrich, Deshon Foxx and Abrams. Not a coincidence that they were all skill position players.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

After the league conference call today, sounds like BWW will be a gametime decision.

Other than Reyes, I can't think of another player we could've ill afforded to lose for any extended amount of time.

 

[businesslawyer]

Actually, I think it would have been easier to have lost Reyes. He is the best football player on our team, but we had some depth at DT.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Fair point.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nobody but coach's, linemen and girlfriends ever pay attention to centers. We're going to have some big shoes to fill for next season.

 

[Sean]

Nobody but coach's, linemen and girlfriends ever pay attention to centers. We're going to have some big shoes to fill for next season.

And gamblers! Don't forget the gamblers!

 

[uconndogs]

Petrus, Ryan, Reyes and Martin are huge loses for nest season, both literally and figuratively.

 

[huskysupporter]

Petrus, Ryan, Reyes and Martin are huge loses for nest season, both literally and figuratively.

Reyes and MArtin are tremendous players, Reyes being the best defensive lineman in UCONN's Div. 1 history. But there departures are less concerning to me than Petrus and Ryan. Shamar Stephen and Ryan Wirth are very capable on the inside. I watch the line's closely, and in the last couple of games, Wirth and Stephen have replaced both Reyes and Martin at the same time for several plays and did really well.

As for the O Line - Uh Oh. Steve Greene has gotten better every game, love his Zach Hurd like play to the whistle mentality. And Masters had his best game yet v. Syracuse (his block that set up McCombs 60 yard run was a thing of beauty), but I wonder if the coaching staff will move him back to tackle. And right now, there is no one to replace Petrus. I can get behind a LT - Masters, LG - Steve Greene, RT- Kevin Friend, but I have no idea who fills the other two spots.

 

[uconndogs]

Agree HS. My hope is that the PSU transfer brings something and it is very troubling that the kid from Florida did not make the two deap at center. Foley's done a great job with this line, so my hope is that he has some young guys just about ready.

I have serious doubt that we see Bennett again, which is just a shame.

 

[businesslawyer]

1. Let's push people around on Saturday. We can talk about replacing departed seniors later.

2. If I have to bet on next year's line today, it's Greene and Friend at the tackles and Masters, the PSU transfer and either Cruz or Bullock in the middle.

 

[mattp]

i guess when you said we can talk about departed seniors later, you meant later that post. i think one thing we're all taking for granted is that Foley will be around next year. P did a great job of holding together our assistant coaches, but that was a last minute job largely to hold together everyone's job and the recruiting class. i wouldn't be surprised to see a little more coaching turnover after this season. i think as long as we have Foley here though, i won't worry about our Oline. i'll save my worrying for QB and WR like i always do

 

[UConnRock]

In terms of coaches, I think Moorhead is in the right spot as the QB coach under DeLeone. He was a classic Edsall hire as a guy that wasn't going to take the spotlight off of Edsall, but I don't know if Moorhead was ready to be a BCS offensive coordinator. Edsall knew that as there wasn't even a hint that Edsall would bring Moorhead along to Maryland. He is a young guy and has a great chance to learn under DeLeone and if things go well for UConn he could earn the OC job back when DeLeone retires.

The big ?? for me is Cersosimo at WR coach. Everybody loves the guy, and Coach P had to keep him around when hired as Cersosimo was the recruiting coordinator which was very important to keeping last year's class together and also continuing to develop this year's recruiting class. However, he has been the coach of the most underperfroming group at UConn for years. The WRs that have passed through UConn in the 6 years he has coached is a sad list of high hopes and dismal reality, with the exception of a walk-on that finally got a shot in the last half of his sr. year. I look at a guy like Alec Lemon at Syracuse who was very high on UConn but didn't earn an offer. He is a star a Syracuse, but does anybody realistically think that he would have performed at this level at UConn. It is time for a change at WR coach

Foley is fine as OL coach, as is Huges at DL. Wholley was made LB coach which is kind of a dead end as the LBs are Pasqualoni's specialty. Clayton White is a bit out of place at RB coach as all his previous experience both as an NFL player and college coach was on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[businesslawyer]

The staff was sort of scotch taped together at the last moment, both because of how late the UConn process started and, I would bet, a request from Hathaway that the holdovers be given the chance to earn a spot with P to reward their loyalty for keeping the ship afloat for two weeks in January. I am sure that P will want to, and be able to, make changes.

The only guy who I am desperate to see stay is Foley. Beyond that, it is up to P to have a staff that he is comfortable with. If that doesn't include a Hughes or a Moorhead, so be it.

And if the crap is about to hit the fan at Miami, the one peson who I really, really want back is Terry Richardson.

 

[Carl Spackler]

as far as the depth chart, staff - i hope the coaches and players we've got right now this week, are ready, willing, able and jacked up through the roof this week to get ready to crack pads with Louisville. I think that our depth chart is what it is, and the guys we've got have a lot left in the tank for the remainder of this season. We've shown flashes here and there, and we're a 4-5 team right now.

I really like what Coach P said the other day, week, whenever it was, after Syracuse or before, not sure, but I never heard it before and I liked it. He said that every year is different, and the end goals are always the same, but how you go about getting there varies. There are some seasons, when you get forget september. there are some seasons when you can even forget october. But you can never, NEVER forget November. Now is the time to put everything together. It's been a major learning, growing pain filled season, but now is our time to put all that behind and go out and play the game.

The goal of conference championship, is still on the board. It happens one step at a time, and Louisville, and payback for 26-0 is the next step.

There are plenty of guys on this two deep this week, that need to get that awful taste from last year out of the mouth, and clean the palate.

Decleating and planting those Cardinal players into the Rentschler turf is the way to do it. Blocking and tackling.