Despite UConn football record 'I think we’re making progress' athletic director says…

[huskymedic]

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-> “You don’t want to get way out in front here because there’s obviously a lot of season that remains and if you look at our schedule, it certainly is front loaded from a competitiveness standpoint,” athletic director David Benedict said. “You don’t want to start to over-analyze where things are at. We’ve got a lot of football that’s still on the schedule. We’ve got games that we certainly believe we’re going to be very competitive in.” <-

-> Benedict said Mora’s approach will help build a foundation for a program that has not had a winning season since 2010.

“He’s trying to set and create a standard for these guys so they understand that regardless of what happens on Saturdays, there are things that you have to do Monday through Friday if you want to eventually be competitive and win football games,” Benedict said. “I think you have a team that’s very focused on that.

"Some coaches, some programs talk about one game at a time. Here’s they’re talking about one play at a time. And you just move on. So I think that mentality is very appropriate for us because that’s all we can really control.” <-

-> "Building something to a competitive level in college football, especially with the schedule that we’re playing, is not an overnight proposition or just a one-year proposition. We need time. But we’re on the right path.” <-

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Didn't he say the same thing during RE2? or something very similar?

 

[LBird33]

Didn't he say the same thing during RE2? or something very similar?

No

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Even though we got blown out against Fruits and Michigan, there are things we fans can look forward to. The team is better, but the talent and depth aren't there yet to compete with the likes of Michigan. It will take Mora another year or two to catch up. There isn't any magic to turn this around in a year, so fans just have to wait and pray Mora can deliver in recruiting.

 

[Marbles90]

Didn't he say the same thing during RE2? or something very similar?

Yes. He said the exact same thing. I was at a meet and greet with him before a mens basketball game at Gampel near the end of Edsall 2.0’s second year (some time in November) and he said he was not worried about Edsall or the team’s direction until at least year 5. He said “it takes time.” Oh, and by the way, he also said he had 100% confidence in Billy Crocker. I almost fell out of my chair.

No

What?

Even though we got blown out against Fruits and Michigan, there are things we fans can look forward to. The team is better, but the talent and depth aren't there yet to compete with the likes of Michigan. It will take Mora another year or two to catch up. There isn't any magic to turn this around in a year, so fans just have to wait and pray Mora can deliver in recruiting.

The team may be better but is still horrible. I get we have injuries. It’s part of football and every team deals with them. Every team. Love how people on this board think that because FIU, Ball State and UMass are not good, we can chalk those up as wins. I will be shocked if we are favored in any of those games.

 

[huskysupporter]

Did Benedict say that with a straight face? For an AD that came from a football school in a football conference be sure has been dissapointing.

Not sure what progress he is seeing.

 

[KembaKek]

The team may be better but is still horrible.

There is no denying the team is still bad. Anyone who thinks otherwise is being way too optimistic for a person that's followed this program for the past 11 years.

 

[Monte]

Did Benedict say that with a straight face? For an AD that came from a football school in a football conference be sure has been dissapointing.

Not sure what progress he is seeing.

He, and all coaches are getting raises1

 

[Bubba1957]

In a conference or independent, we may never be able to compete against legitimate top 10 teams. Not many really can. But I think we’ll get better soon. Maybe a few surprises to go along with the winnable games on the rest of the schedule.

 

[Luna]

Mora is going to have a hard time recruiting good players with how bad this team has been for the last 10 years

 

[Duncan Idaho]

No

"No. 1, first and foremost, we brought back Randy Edsall," Benedict said of the Huskies football coach. "You may not see it yet ... but things are changing, things are moving in the right direction. Football is like a battleship. It doesn't turn on a dime. It's going to be slow to make progress, but I'm sure that UConn football is on the right path and we are getting better every day. Coach Edsall is everything I thought he was. He is the CEO. He pays attention to every detail of the program and college football."<<

Its ok, every new coach deserves a fair shot. Just rang familiar.

 

[Bobol]

……. The team is better, but the talent and depth aren't there yet to compete with the likes of Michigan.…….

Forget Michigan. Mora’s team lost and looked disoriented against a mediocre Utah State team.

Utah State‘s only win this season was against our beloved UConn. Utah State got murdered last weekend by powerhouse Weber State be a score of 35 to 7. In case you don’t know Weber State is FCS not FBS.

I hope Mora steps up to expectations but thus far is results and the disorganized play of his team on the field is causing him to lose the good feeling benefit of the doubt previously provided to him by UConn fans.

 

[uconnric]

Forget Michigan. Mora’s team lost and looked disoriented against a mediocre Utah State team.

Utah State‘s only win this season was against our beloved UConn. Utah State got murdered last weekend by powerhouse Weber State be a score of 35 to 7. In case you don’t know Weber State is FCS not FBS.

I hope Mora steps up to expectations but thus far is results and the disorganized play of his team on the field is causing him to lose the good feeling benefit of the doubt previously provided to him by UConn fans.

With the injuries we've had on the offensive side, what the hell did you expect. We've had to play a freshman qb who really wasn't ready yet against Utah State without our 2 best wide receivers. That game might have been a win. Did you expect us to be undefeated? We weren't going to be competitive against Michigan, and probably not against NC State or even Fresno State.

This is Mora's first year. I have seen mistakes, but not necessarily "disorganized play". The defense has not played poorly at all, just on the field way more than they should be. Syracuse was better than anyone thought, and BC is worse than expected. Good grief wait until the season is over before you dump on Mora. You seem to think that we'd turn this around in year one with a very tough schedule.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Yes. He said the exact same thing. I was at a meet and greet with him before a mens basketball game at Gampel near the end of Edsall 2.0’s second year (some time in November) and he said he was not worried about Edsall or the team’s direction until at least year 5. He said “it takes time.” Oh, and by the way, he also said he had 100% confidence in Billy Crocker. I almost fell out of my chair.


What?


The team may be better but is still horrible. I get we have injuries. It’s part of football and every team deals with them. Every team. Love how people on this board think that because FIU, Ball State and UMass are not good, we can chalk those up as wins. I will be shocked if we are favored in any of those games.

UMass is awful, worse than UConn by quite a bit. Even Toledo put up 55 points on them. UConn should be favored but not by a lot. Their defense against the run is non existent ANY with a decent runner.

 

[ZooCougar]

Forget Michigan. Mora’s team lost and looked disoriented against a mediocre Utah State team.

Utah State‘s only win this season was against our beloved UConn. Utah State got murdered last weekend by powerhouse Weber State be a score of 35 to 7. In case you don’t know Weber State is FCS not FBS.

I hope Mora steps up to expectations but thus far is results and the disorganized play of his team on the field is causing him to lose the good feeling benefit of the doubt previously provided to him by UConn fans.

You mean the Utah State game where we lead 14-0 and lost a starting QB and WR? And then we plugged in a guy at QB who hasn’t even been on the team for 30 days.

I get it that it’s not much of a quality loss, but we looked as good as we have in years during that game. Utah State was pretty drained after Alabama, and Weber is no joke. Utah State wasn’t ready and they paid for it.

Your comments are born out of ignorance and negativity.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

You'd have to be either blind or disingenuous to say we haven't made progress as a team this year.

For example:

-Both D and O lines are significantly better.
-Running game (before being decimated by injuries) is vastly improved
-Secondary...though our weakest area by far...has shown some flashes of being able to cover high-quality D1 receivers...I assume this is due to learning/applying some better defensive schemes to compensate for lack of athleticism

 

[ZooCougar]

UMass is awful, worse than UConn by quite a bit. Even Toledo put up 55 points on them. UConn should be favored but not by a lot. Their defense against the run is non existent ANY with a decent runner.

With our injuries, there are no givens. It’s Turner and Rosa for most of the rest of the season too.

 

[BlueandOG]

Forget Michigan. Mora’s team lost and looked disoriented against a mediocre Utah State team.

Utah State‘s only win this season was against our beloved UConn. Utah State got murdered last weekend by powerhouse Weber State be a score of 35 to 7. In case you don’t know Weber State is FCS not FBS.

I hope Mora steps up to expectations but thus far is results and the disorganized play of his team on the field is causing him to lose the good feeling benefit of the doubt previously provided to him by UConn fans.

Mora is not on the field. He is working with G5 players, the most skilled of whom are out due to injury. The difference between Mora and ANY football coach we've had is that he is a proven winning head football coach at the highest levels. He needs to get P5 players on the team and coach them up on his system, which takes time.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

With our injuries, there are no givens. It’s Turner and Rosa for most of the rest of the season too.

I think Turner and Rosa will run roughshod over UMass, short passes to Victor giving him a running start, break one or two, maybe. A good confidence builder too, hopefully. NC State, on the other hand, will be something else entirely.

 

[Bobol]

...... You seem to think that we'd turn this around in year one with a very tough schedule.

Tough schedule?

No it isn't.

UConn's 2022 schedule ranks out in the bottom 30% of FBS schedules. 72nd out of 100 FBS schedules to be exact according to one publication.

Look I hope Mora proves me wrong and rebuilds UConn football but one or more of the Kool Aid drinkers seemingly believe that this season has witnessed a big step forward for UConn football which I have not seen.

Perhaps we can agree to withhold celebrations about Coach Mora's performance until we have something to celebrate.

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

volswire.usatoday.com

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Tough schedule?

No it isn't.

UConn's 2022 schedule ranks out in the bottom 30% of FBS schedules. 72nd out of 100 FBS schedules to be exact according to one publication.

Look I hope Mora proves me wrong and rebuilds UConn football but one or more of the Kool Aid drinkers seemingly believe that this season has witnessed a big step forward for UConn football which I have not seen.

Perhaps we can agree to withhold celebrations about Coach Mora's performance until we have something to celebrate.

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

volswire.usatoday.com

What about all the untimely injuries to their best players? Do you really believe in kicking a man when he’s down? Serious question.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Tough schedule?

No it isn't.

UConn's 2022 schedule ranks out in the bottom 30% of FBS schedules. 72nd out of 100 FBS schedules to be exact according to one publication.

Look I hope Mora proves me wrong and rebuilds UConn football but one or more of the Kool Aid drinkers seemingly believe that this season has witnessed a big step forward for UConn football which I have not seen.

Perhaps we can agree to withhold celebrations about Coach Mora's performance until we have something to celebrate.

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

volswire.usatoday.com

While you are looking at the whole schedule, right now it has been the gauntlet of a should be ranked Syracuse, #4 Michigan at the big house and #12 NC State at their place. Utah St [on the road] started out ranked until Alabama took the life out of them. That is a killer schedule for any team.

 

[DoctorWho85]

This team has absolutely made progress under Mora. The O-line play alone has been the best we've seen in years. The momentum has gotten derailed a bit by injuries, but look at recruiting. It already has been much better in the 1 year since RE was fired. This is a brutal stretch by any means on the schedule, and of course there will always be growing pains completely switching staffs. But you have to be blind not to see that this team is much better than last years team. I think by the end of the season we'll really see some competitive games and the team starts to really hit its stride.

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

Tough schedule?

No it isn't.

UConn's 2022 schedule ranks out in the bottom 30% of FBS schedules. 72nd out of 100 FBS schedules to be exact according to one publication.

Look I hope Mora proves me wrong and rebuilds UConn football but one or more of the Kool Aid drinkers seemingly believe that this season has witnessed a big step forward for UConn football which I have not seen.

Perhaps we can agree to withhold celebrations about Coach Mora's performance until we have something to celebrate.

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

2022 college football: FBS preseason strength of schedule top 100 rankings

volswire.usatoday.com

I'm quite sure he was referring to the first five games. Sure, the "easy games" later in the schedule take away from the overall SOS, but the first 5? 4 of the 5 fit the word "tough."

Try the Kool Aid. It's actually not bad.

 

[Kolumbo]

UMass is awful, worse than UConn by quite a bit. Even Toledo put up 55 points on them. UConn should be favored but not by a lot. Their defense against the run is non existent ANY with a decent runner.

what do you mean, "Even Toledo..." The Rockets scored 3 times in 3 quarters against the Buckeyes. That's not bad.