Don't count out Mike Nebrich

[freescooter]

Pal,

you have a fierce man crush on Nebrich. I don't know why, as CTMike says, you can't just accept that maybe none of the quarterbacks we had available last year were ready to run a major college program. We all know johnny Mac was a walkon 4th stringer the year before. Nebrich was playing against 16 and 17 year olds, so maybe, just maybe he wasn't ready to step in either. I'm going to guess that there weren't more than a handful of true freshmen starting for 1A teams in the country. I honestly wonder if we go 13-0 next year with someone other than Nebrich at quarterback if you'll be posting that we would have won every game by more had we only played him.

He might very well prove to be the go to guy this year. I don't know for sure. I don't have any favorites except whoever gets the job done.

 

[Palatine]

Pal,

you have a fierce man crush on Nebrich. I don't know why, as CTMike says, you can't just accept that maybe none of the quarterbacks we had available last year were ready to run a major college program. We all know johnny Mac was a walkon 4th stringer the year before. Nebrich was playing against 16 and 17 year olds, so maybe, just maybe he wasn't ready to step in either. I'm going to guess that there weren't more than a handful of true freshmen starting for 1A teams in the country. I honestly wonder if we go 13-0 next year with someone other than Nebrich at quarterback if you'll be posting that we would have won every game by more had we only played him.

He might very well prove to be the go to guy this year. I don't know for sure. I don't have any favorites except whoever gets the job done.

I have a huge man crush on fair competition. I also love it when a coach not only talks the talk (production) but walks the walk and follows through.

Look how long it took him to figure out Nick Williams should catch a ball or two. Something most of us knew two years ago.

 

[metsfan2323]

If having a scuttled QB position in 2011 helped us land Whitmer, who after leaving Illinois was looking to transfer to a D1 school where he could be the man for three years then so be it. The program may be better for it in the long run.

Time to turn the page. It looks like we are going to pick it up a notch in 2012.

 

[Palatine]

If having a scuttled QB position in 2011 helped us land Whitmer, who after leaving Illinois was looking to transfer to a D1 school where he could be the man for three years then so be it. The program may be better for it in the long run.

Time to turn the page. It looks like we are going to pick it up a notch in 2012.

Hope you're right.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I have a huge man crush on fair competition. I also love it when a coach not only talks the talk (production) but walks the walk and follows through.

Look how long it took him to figure out Nick Williams should catch a ball or two. Something most of us knew two years ago.

You took offense to my comments on how this is not basketball, in my writing on competition, and here you are, applying basketball principles and failing to recognize anythign that was of meaning in what I wrote about competition.

What do you know about the competition that went on last year? What do you really know? Did you comprehend anythign that I wrote? Or did you just latch on to the basketball comment.

The competition that occurs on a football team for playing time, does not occur in front of the public eye. Rosters don't just changed around on a football team week to week to change things up and change the way the team is playing, and when it comes to football, you don't yank around the QB position on a whim.

You get 12 games a year in football. That's it. When a team is experience and/or talent deficient at any position on a roster, it's pretty damn easy to see, and we had problems at QB last year, and if not for my man crush - McCombs, that little guy, we'd have had an offense that would have been historically inept last year.

THis is somehow Pasqualoni's fault, for not playing a true freshmen QB over a junior walk on. Right?

I don't believe for a second that you've got a man-crush on competition when it comes to football. I'm not sure you even begin to comprehend what competition on the practice field is about.

As for Nick Williams, again, I have no idea what you actually pay attention to when it comes to football. The guy was out there on a significant percentage of passing downs.

I suppose you are of the opinoin that you can just go out on the field and game plan the same way for every single opponent, and on passing downs just throw the ball to the same receiver over and over and have success on offense in d-1A football.

That's not how it works pal.

 

[junglehusky]

Pal has a man crush on his own ability to evaluate QB's which just happens to be better than PP / GD.

Half-kidding. In retrospect I can agree Nebrich could have got in on more series in the first third of the season. I think I agree with the decision to feature JMac and increasingly McCummings in the second third of the season, but I would also like to have seen a bit more of Nebrich at the end of the season. If we had been completely out of bowl contention a game or two earlier, maybe that would have given PP the latitude to get Nebrich some more experience, even give him a long leash and let him learn from his mistakes. But as long as making a bowl game is a possibility, a lot of HC's are just going to be conservative as possible with playing freshmen.

 

[mattp]

Really pretty predicable if were to ask me. seems like your wasting the kids talent.

i assume you're talking about McCummings here, and while the play calls are predictable when he's in there, you can't deny that they have been extremely effective at times, so i don't know that i'd say we're wasting his talent. if he'd hit a couple more wide open recievers that he had available his numbers would really look ridiculous for the amount of snaps he's had. i really don't know that it would work for an entire game though

 

[Carl Spackler]

i assume you're talking about McCummings here, and while the play calls are predictable when he's in there, you can't deny that they have been extremely effective at times, so i don't know that i'd say we're wasting his talent. if he'd hit a couple more wide open recievers that he had available his numbers would really look ridiculous for the amount of snaps he's had. i really don't know that it would work for an entire game though

Funny how those predictable play calls seemed to generate 2 or 3 completely wide open receivers each game.

 

[Palatine]

You took offense to my comments on how this is not basketball, in my writing on competition, and here you are, applying basketball principles and failing to recognize anythign that was of meaning in what I wrote about competition.

What do you know about the competition that went on last year? What do you really know? Did you comprehend anythign that I wrote? Or did you just latch on to the basketball comment.

The competition that occurs on a football team for playing time, does not occur in front of the public eye. Rosters don't just changed around on a football team week to week to change things up and change the way the team is playing, and when it comes to football, you don't yank around the QB position on a whim.

You get 12 games a year in football. That's it. When a team is experience and/or talent deficient at any position on a roster, it's pretty damn easy to see, and we had problems at QB last year, and if not for my man crush - McCombs, that little guy, we'd have had an offense that would have been historically inept last year.

THis is somehow Pasqualoni's fault, for not playing a true freshmen QB over a junior walk on. Right?

I don't believe for a second that you've got a man-crush on competition when it comes to football. I'm not sure you even begin to comprehend what competition on the practice field is about.

As for Nick Williams, again, I have no idea what you actually pay attention to when it comes to football. The guy was out there on a significant percentage of passing downs.



That's not how it works pal.

I took offense to your offensive comments. The idea that YOU are the only one on this board that realizes football is not basketball, and you need to tell us it isn't, is beyond insulting. And you spew this out like it's some kind of revelation. Oh, it's not basketball. Wow! Thanks for telling us..

And you top that off with this gem.

I suppose you are of the opinoin that you can just go out on the field and game plan the same way for every single opponent, and on passing downs just throw the ball to the same receiver over and over and have success on offense in d-1A football.

What, you game plan differently for different teams? What an amazing insight! I can only imaginee your next post. Maybe you can tell us that a football isn't round. I breathlessly await your next observation.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Actually, there are more than a couple of posters here that need to be reminded that building a football program is completely different from building a basketball program......not gonna name names, just saying.......

 

[fgbrault]

I don't think he shot himself in the foot on purpose. I do think he dug in his heels. It happens.

... He certainly did NOT give Nebrich the opportunities he gave Mac. And this was after preaching for months that the only thing that mattered was production. It's possible nothing would have changed but since the season was a disaster. Why give the kid a chance -- like he promised.

A new head coach, a new offensive coordinator and system, a new defensive coordinator and system, the loss of some terrific players, quarterbacks with limited experience and/or skills, etc. and I think that the season UConn had last year was about all we could reasonably expect. We missed being eligible for a bowl game by one win. Certainly not a season that was a disaster.

 

[Palatine]

Actually, there are more than a couple of posters here that need to be reminded that building a football program is completely different from building a basketball program......not gonna name names, just saying.......

Yes, building a football program is different from building a basketball program. Maybe not completely, however, your use of language isn't insulting.

This is insulting language, "But this is NOT basketball people. It's not." I believe these things can be discussed without that level of sophomoric rhetoric.

 

[freescooter]

A new head coach, a new offensive coordinator and system, a new defensive coordinator and system, the loss of some terrific players, quaterbacks with limited experience and/or skills, etc. and I think that the season UConn had last year was about all we could resonably expect. We missed being eligible for a bowl game by one win. Certainly not a season that was a disaster.

I'd add to that a couple of opponents that had better than expected seasons, Vandy in particular went from 2-10 to 6-6. That is pretty significant improvement. That was not the Vanderbilt team that came to the Rent in 2010 by a long shot. Not to say we shoudn't have or couldn't have beaten them or Iowa State or Western michigan, but none of those 3 were as bad as they had been in 2010.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I have nothing more to add here, but I see my message count is 666 and I just wanted that number off my profile......so......

 

[Carl Spackler]

I took offense to your offensive comments. The idea that YOU are the only one on this board that realizes football is not basketball, and you need to tell us it isn't, is beyond insulting. And you spew this out like it's some kind of revelation. Oh, it's not basketball. Wow! Thanks for telling us..

And you top that off with this gem.

I suppose you are of the opinoin that you can just go out on the field and game plan the same way for every single opponent, and on passing downs just throw the ball to the same receiver over and over and have success on offense in d-1A football.

What, you game plan differently for different teams? What an amazing insight! I can only imaginee your next post. Maybe you can tell us that a football isn't round. I breathlessly await your next observation.

I'm reminded of Dee Snider testifyingin front of Al Gore's senate committe in 1984 I think.....but never mind.....

I'm pretty sure that the concept I wrote about was recruiting, and when a new recruit comes in to a basektball program, especially a big time one, you can usually expect that recruit to compete and not just compete, but contribute heavily to winning games.

Reading and writing around here, and paying attention to uconn football over the years in teh press, it's been the common theme, to expect quote/unquote - big tiem recruits to get on the field and contribute to wins the moment they arrive.

That's not how football works. And you don't seem to get it, and your endless crap about how Nebrich supposedly didn't get the opportunity to earn the starting job makes me very annoyed.

 

[J187Money]

I will say this. If I knew we would not make a bowl, I'd rather have had MN get the snaps. But we weren't put of it until we lost the last game.


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[Palatine]

Nebrich didn't get an opportunity.

We were down by a thousand points against WVU, and P still didn't get him any snaps. He just kept sending Mac out there for three and after three and out.

 

[CAPS]

Maybe insert mcCummings as a back and not a qb and work play from their so it isn't so obvious. How many qbs do we need? and yes I know someone will redshirt and it's clear their may be a transfer or 2. Remember McCummings is very athletic I'm sure he could play a number of positions. Ryan griffin I believe was recruited as a qb and he was converted to a TE so I guess as I babble on I'm saying anything is possible.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Nebrich didn't get an opportunity.

We were down by a thousand points against WVU, and P still didn't get him any snaps. He just kept sending Mac out there for three and after three and out.

I think you should stop with this, and just pay attention to how things happen on the field for awhile. How did yanking around QB's work for Edsall at UConn? Got the team so effed up that we had our first shut out in years. How did it work for him in his first year at Maryland?

I suppose you were ok with the QB shuffle though, the way Edsall handled it for years from the moment Orlovsky left, til the day that Frazer came back on the field against WVU in '10. Probably were ok, b/c it reflected the basketball mentality, that works, when your point guard isn't working out and you toss up the lineup until it does start to work.

I wanted to deck him the way he handled QB's.

You don't like the consistency answer that Pasqualoni gave for going with McEntee last year, becuase you don't undertand it. To me, it makes sense. You don't pull a QB when things are going wrong, unless you completely are prepared for your entire team to change, and your team's complete confidence that their coache's are behind them and supporting them is absolutely essential for any player to go out on that field and lay down their body with no fear.

No amount of writing, on my part, clearly will be able to get you to begin to comprehend why being consistent with McEntee, and calling his number, and letting him throw the ball, was a big part of why we were able to compete for a title late into the season, adn play for a post season opportunity on the last day of the season.

Hopefully it helps other people understand though.

 

[J187Money]

Nebrich didn't get an opportunity.

We were down by a thousand points against WVU, and P still didn't get him any snaps. He just kept sending Mac out there for three and after three and out.

I don't think that would have been useful either. I know you think he picked the wrong guy, but I agree that once you pick a guy you ride him until you are out of it.

That being said I don't think JM should see the field this year at all.


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[rich1122]

What was the guy going to do? McCummings was not accurate enough and Box just left town when he knew that he was third. He had to have competition for the spot, so he could not RS MN. He gave MN an opportunity in practice to win the job. Bridgewater did it, but putting freshman in is just very difficult especially with the complexity of this offense.

So now we will have a real competition between more seasoned guys. MN should be right there I would imagine. Should be the best spring game that we have seen in some time.

 

[Jimdish255]

I don't think that would have been useful either. I know you think he picked the wrong guy, but I agree that once you pick a guy you ride him until you are out of it.

That being said I don't think JM should see the field this year at all.


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So if a guy has improved in the off season you still don't want to give him a shot? I'm glad Mike didn't have to suffer through the transisiton and take a battering his Freshmen year. I hope he gets a shot from here on in because I believe he can make things happen when he gets comfortable with the offense. Good luck to all the guys because we're better from top to bottom at the position than we have been in years.

 

[J187Money]

So if a guy has improved in the off season you still don't want to give him a shot? I'm glad Mike didn't have to suffer through the transisiton and take a battering his Freshmen year. I hope he gets a shot from here on in because I believe he can make things happen when he gets comfortable with the offense. Good luck to all the guys because we're better from top to bottom at the position than we have been in years.

If he is the best we have so be it. But he had a fair shot and I don't believe he will win the job. If he does I'm not optimistic.


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[J187Money]

Does Mac have one or two years left?


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[BNich]

Does Mac have one or two years left?


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one.