Des Conner on WTIC Sportstalk...

[Matt (Chicago)]

How could losing Trevardo, Gratz, BWW and Moore not be as bad as people think.

All four are in the conversation for the best all time players at their positions in program history.

Who is replacing them next year playing at their level? Wilson and Williams. Come on - If everyone wasn't hurt Williams' sack total would be disgusting.
They could go a decade without having a corner like Wilson easily.

agreed - Todd McShay and the boys have him ranked as the #5 CB right now... that's big time.

 

[Pudge]

Well we don't know how they would have played without Brown but I don't disagree he's a good coach. I wasn't lumping these guys into the Junior era at safety.

"I don't disagree"???

woah ... I guess I understood.

 

[businesslawyer]

"I don't disagree"???

woah ... I guess I understood.

That's Whaler channeling his "inner lawyer." I use hedging phrases like that all the time.

The defense underperformed its talent last year, and is playing very, very well this year albeit with a lot of talent. Overall, Brown is doing fine. I'm not sure the two years combined are deserving of him being canonized, but he's doing fine.

 

[whaler11]

That's Whaler channeling his "inner lawyer." I use hedging phrases like that all the time.

The defense underperformed its talent last year, and is playing very, very well this year albeit with a lot of talent. Overall, Brown is doing fine. I'm not sure the two years combined are deserving of him being canonized, but he's doing fine.

Defense is playing really well. The biggest contributors were already here and mostly developed so while I think he's done a good job I can't go crazy with praise until some underclassmen step up. There have been a couple and there isn't a ton of opportunity yet, but the jury is still out on that.

 

[sportsart]

Because he's approved by the CT HS coaches?

Don't forget that 4 out of 5 geriatric doctors recommended him.

 

[Pudge]

That's Whaler channeling his "inner lawyer." I use hedging phrases like that all the time.

The defense underperformed its talent last year, and is playing very, very well this year albeit with a lot of talent. Overall, Brown is doing fine. I'm not sure the two years combined are deserving of him being canonized, but he's doing fine.

I'm as much of a Brown fan as I could be. Position coach wise- Coordinator: he is someone you could build upon. But, I thought that way about Foley. And I really like Hughes' development of DLine guys. At a certain point with this defense ... and morale on an overall team ... you just have to admit that this is seriously tough to play 60 minutes where your offence is not going to get you near the points you need to win.

I thought Gratz & Wilson would give us plenty of options this year. Losing Teddy & Jesse hurt bigtime. But ... more than anything, you are just watching crap on the other side of the ball.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Don't forget that 4 out of 5 geriatric doctors recommended him.

They recommend him for the treatment of constipation...

because every time i watch his team play, i get explosive diarrhea

 

[Carl Spackler]

I don't remember where I wrote it, but somewhere recently the defense was being discussed, and yes - there are some issues with D that can cleaned up, and things they can do significnatly better. We play a completely different game on D, than we did two years ago, and at the same time, we've brought out points allowed average down to approx the same it was when we had our best defenses in the BIg East years, and we're doing it with a team that is turning the ball over a hell of a lot more on offense.

If our offense could manage about 17 points a game, on a dozen possesions on average, without killing us with turnovers, we are probably undefeated right now. But that doesn't mean , because we're really 3-6.

 

[UCername]

It is way too easy to list 100 reasons to cut loose HCPP. What is the reason(s) to keep him?

He is still the most successful D1 college football coach in New England in the last 18 months.

 

[RMS25CT]

Giving Coach Brown an awful lot of credit, no? Don't you see that most opponents have figured out his program. LB's play way to close to the line to support and stop the run. Middle of the field is always wide open for receivers. No DB's except for starting CB's can cover opponents receivers. Slot receivers, covered by our LB's or safeties kill us every game. No pressure on the QB the last 5 games.
Sorry to say, he has been exposed.

There isn't much pressure because UConn is onto its 4th and 5th DE's due to injury. Jesse Joseph is sorely missed, but wouldn't be as missed if Jennings hadn't gone down before him. Now even one of their replacements is down as well. Trevardo Williams is getting doubled every pass play. So you are right, we aren't getting much pressure of late, but you can't put that all on the coach. If you keep put winning a ballgame entirely on the defense eventually they are going to fail at some point. We saw that in Rutgers and especially in the Temple game. You want to criticize the defense, call them out for giving up a big play on third down a couple of times a game.....but my take is that they are pressing so hard to make something happen so the offense gets the ball in good position that it comes back to bite them. That or they are so damn tired because the offense can't keep them off the field for more than a couple of minutes.

 

[MattMang23]

He is still the most successful D1 college football coach in New England in the last 18 months.

No, New Hampshire's coach is.

Sadly for BCU, saying "FBS" or "1A" would be accurate.

 

[UconnFamily]

He doesn't defend PP? Are you for real?

I feel you whaler11, im on the courant site daily and I can't stand when Dez says "the coaches wants to win and they're doing what they're suppose to do, but the players have to execute." That's defending the coaches in my eyes!

 

[BlueMAB]

Dez is a nice guy, hard working, honest, and honorable.

IMO, the problem is it's very easy to disagree with his opinions because what he sees and reports don't mesh with the product we see on the field.

 

[businesslawyer]

I feel you whaler11, im on the courant site daily and I can't stand when Dez says "the coaches wants to win and they're doing what they're suppose to do, but the players have to execute." That's defending the coaches in my eyes!

He's stating a truism with that quote. If Urban Meyer is coaching, the players still have to execute.

 

[ZooCougar]

He's stating a truism with that quote. If Urban Meyer is coaching, the players still have to execute.

If the players are put in ridiculous positions by bad tactics, strategy and awful playcalling, then the expectations of execution become ridiculous.

 

[BlueMAB]

He's stating a truism with that quote. If Urban Meyer is coaching, the players still have to execute.

He's stating more than that. If that's a direct quote, he is saying the coaches are doing their jobs but the players aren't. The "coaches are", the "but the players have to" clearly shows he thinks the problem is the players, not the coaching. Which is ironic since he's written about the talent and weapons the team has in the spring.

At what point does the coach accept that defenses are keying on the wildcat and except for 1 every 10-12 plays it results in negative or very little yards? A good coach recognizes what the players can and can't execute. Every time he puts Whitmer under center he looks like he's going to get murdered on play action. Nobody is falling for it, keep him in the shotgun. Especially when we're losing late and need a TD drive to tie it up, putting him under center is going to get him killed.

 

[businesslawyer]

I'm defending neither the coaches nor Connor. But anyone -- coach, writer, fan -- saying that the players have to execute to make things work is in fact a truism. As Wing points out, execution alone is not enough. But I didn't hear Dez or I say it was.

 

[ZooCougar]

I'm defending neither the coaches nor Connor. But anyone -- coach, writer, fan -- saying that the players have to execute to make things work is in fact a truism. As Wing points out, execution alone is not enough. But I didn't hear Dez or I say it was.

Actually, it sounds to me like he is saying that the coaches making the right decisions are some kind foregone conclusion and the rest is up to the players.

 

[businesslawyer]

So when Byron Jones dropped the pick Saturday night that would have given us the lead and might very well have cost us the game, that was something other than a failure of execution? Coaches fault for having killed his confidence prior to his not making the play? What.

Sometimes, this board is like Fox News or MSNBC. Once "the crowd" makes up its mind about somebody, then everything they do is wrong and nothing is right. I am not a big fan of Dez's, and this staff has overall failed to date, but not everything that talks about something other than these factors is wrong just because of those factors.

Players have to execute. And coaches have to coach and scheme. They are not anywhere near mutually exclusive.

 

[ZooCougar]

Against a defense that bad, it should never come down to one catch. USF has a bad defense, and yet DeLeone made them look like Alabama.

I don't disagree with what you at saying in principle. I'm not saying that execution is less important, but in this case the bad coaching is overriding everything.

So when Byron Jones dropped the pick Saturday night that would have given us the lead and might very well have cost us the game, that was something other than a failure of execution? Coaches fault for having killed his confidence prior to his not making the play? What.

Sometimes, this board is like Fox News or MSNBC. Once "the crowd" makes up its mind about somebody, then everything they do is wrong and nothing is right. I am not a big fan of Dez's, and this staff has overall failed to date, but not everything that talks about something other than these factors is wrong just because of those factors.

Players have to execute. And coaches have to coach and scheme. They are not anywhere near mutually exclusive.

 

[businesslawyer]

Against a defense that bad, it should never come down to one catch. USF has a bad defense, and yet DeLeone made them look like Alabama.

I don't disagree with what you at saying in principle. I'm not saying that execution is less important, but in this case the bad coaching is overriding everything.

I agree, and have not said anything in this thread about disagreeing. But people should be allowed to make true statements without being criticized, even if the true statement is not what the mob is crying out for.

 

[BlueMAB]

Once "the crowd" makes up its mind about somebody, then everything they do is wrong and nothing is right.

Like global cooling, until it was warming, except now it's climate change.

I don't recall anyone making the argument that the two are mutually exclusive. You're not defending the coaches, you're not defending Dez, you're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

[Carl Spackler]

So when Byron Jones dropped the pick Saturday night that would have given us the lead and might very well have cost us the game, that was something other than a failure of execution? Coaches fault for having killed his confidence prior to his not making the play? What.

Sometimes, this board is like Fox News or MSNBC. Once "the crowd" makes up its mind about somebody, then everything they do is wrong and nothing is right. I am not a big fan of Dez's, and this staff has overall failed to date, but not everything that talks about something other than these factors is wrong just because of those factors.

Players have to execute. And coaches have to coach and scheme. They are not anywhere near mutually exclusive.

All very true.

I'll just add that it's completely unrealistic to expect a football player to do the correct things, and make the play, 100% of the time.

When mistakes happen, and they ALWAYS happen, to everybody on the field, they are either magnified, or hidden in the larger picture of the game.

It takes an incredible amount of focus on the specific moment - and nothing else - discipline and concentration, and natural ability both as individuals and greater, by the team unit on the field, to be able to win close games regularly. It's not something we've been able to build and learn to do yet with this new regime of coaches and players.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Like global cooling, until it was warming, except now it's climate change.

I don't recall anyone making the argument that the two are mutually exclusive. You're not defending the coaches, you're not defending Dez, you're just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Psst....wing-u......he's a lawyer.

 

[BlueMAB]

I agree, and have not said anything in this thread about disagreeing. But people should be allowed to make true statements without being criticized, even if the true statement is not what the mob is crying out for.

Except not everything in that statement is true. The coaches aren't doing their jobs.