Don't understand the contempt

[Marty Jackson]

The consensus by most coming into this season was 3 or 4 wins. Some were more bullish and said 5 or 6. I was hoping last year was irrelevant and we could get 7.

At this point, 4 wins is possible with 5 really unlikely.

So the team is what it is. A 3 or 4 win team, new coach and new system. Why do so many people act like this team was built for the CFP and anything less is a let down.

Do people not see improvement on the offensive side? The coaching is night and day. The defense has been a let down, but you can tell we just don't have enough speed or talent right now. And it's a new system...

I am frustrated because as a fan, I want to see Uconn football elevated back to 2010 levels and more. It wasn't going to happen this year, but for the first time in 6 years, Uconn has a legitimate staff in place and you can see positive steps.

I' curious why so many feel that the program is lost or that this season is like any other under PP or BD?

Yes, this season is lost, but can people not see some light after this 6 year stretch?

 

[Palatine]

It's the defense. At times, they are not even competitive. It's very frustrating to watch the helplessness. The light at the end of the tunnel is a nuclear explosion happening right before our eyes.

 

[ktuck911]

I for one don't feel the program is lost.. I think a lot fans like myself just vent out loud for the most part... There are some BASIC things (like tackling) that folks like myself might think/believe is something we should be able to do, especially when you have more than one defender around the football.

UConn Football fan for life here... 2018 can't get here fast enough so we can see a little more competency in big spots (open field tackling, better defensive efficiency on 3rd down, less turnovers when moving the football on the verge of a score)...

 

[Marty Jackson]

Agreed....

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

It's the defense. At times, they are not even competitive. It's very frustrating to watch the helplessness. The light at the end of the tunnel is a nuclear explosion happening right before our eyes.

Words I hate to say....I agree with Palatine.

I think the won loss record is pretty much what we thought...but I really have been surprised that an Edsall coached team looks this bad on defense. The defense is a bad FCS defense...let alone a bad FBS defense. Did Diaco actually recruit not only FCS players...but bad FCS players? I would say RE would say yes to that...especially when he says the answer to the defensive issues is recruiting.

But it's still hard to not get frustrated watching every other team march up and down the field.

But....to the OP's point...overall it really is what we thought it would be. And...the offense is much better than I thought it would be.

I would say...

Offense.....much better than expected
Defense....much worse than expected
Special teams...about what we expected.

Overall...about what we SHOULD have expected.

 

[coachcap]

Concepts such as wrapping up the ball carrier while tackling him are foreign to some of these defensive players. This is something that should have been taught in midget league & ingrained in the psyche by now. Instead, players are trying for the big hit to audition for the Sportscenter Top 10. Being out of position to defend a 2 yard sideline pass that results in a 95 yard touchdown play is mind numbing. Consistently allowing pass completions of 15 yards or more in the middle of the field is asinine. Giving receivers a 10 yard cushion is a recipe for failure. But I digress.

 

[SubbaBub]

The Acapulco cliff swan dive that our Defense did this season is the primary cause of lament.

You can also add in a tad of realization that our squad is behind in terms of recruiting because of Disco. This should have been his best team in terms of personnel and it wasn't. We look to regress in a few spots next season.

Other than that, it has been a more hopeful season than the last three.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

People expect to have expectations exceeded

 

[Waquoit]

You can also add in a tad of realization that our squad is behind in terms of recruiting because of Disco. This should have been his best team in terms of personnel and it wasn't. We look to regress in a few spots next season.

How long do we get to blame Diaco? At least he recruited Sherriffs. Where would we be without him? Winless, probably.

 

[uconnphil2016]

I really haven't been discouraged by this year's performance. I was really hoping for 4 wins, and that's a possibility still. Expecting anything more was just delusional. What's got me down is the realization that next year is probably not going to be any better and that we're 2 to 3 seasons away from being even respectable. That kind of sucks. Not Randy's fault obviously, but I've sat through so much bad football and the idea of sticking around to watch another bad team next year is not fun. I'm worried about developing athletes on the offensive side of the ball...Mensah looks good, but who else? We don't have a single player that teams will have to gameplan around in the way that Newsome has been this year catching it out of the backfield. We have no one who can change the course of a game. A couple of nice receivers in Hergy, McLean, Dixon and Skanes, but they're not stars

 

[uconnphil2016]

How long do we get to blame Diaco? At least he recruited Sherriffs. Where would we be without him? Winless, probably.

You do realize that the vast majority of production on our team is the result of either PP guys or RE guys, right? Also, Shirreffs would be gone if Diaco had stayed. So sure, Diaco recruited him, but he also nearly destroyed the kid and caused him to leave. Who from BD's recruiting looks any good??? The only productive BD guys have been Peart, Diggs, BS, Hopkins, and Skanes. That's three years of recruiting with virtually no productive starters, and literally no one coming through the pipeline from his later recruiting. We have no one to fill in at either DE spot, absolutely no linebackers from his recruiting besides a kid who's like 5 ft 9 in Gilmartin. I get that blaming Diaco gets old, but he also absolutely left us with nothing.

 

[businesslawyer]

It's the defense. At times, they are not even competitive. It's very frustrating to watch the helplessness. The light at the end of the tunnel is a nuclear explosion happening right before our eyes.

That, and the fact that each year we move further away from 2010, it gets harder to retain any patience or perspective.

 

[BlueMAB]

How long do we get to blame Diaco? At least he recruited Sherriffs. Where would we be without him? Winless, probably.

At least 2-3 years.

If your one retort is *Shirreffs then maybe we should remind you that Diaco benched him in favor of the most talented 2nd string WR/QB in FBS.

Shirreffs doesn't even come back this year if Diaco was still around. We'd likely be winless with Diaco.

The lack of speed on defense is overwhelming. The secondary is slow and can't tackle. I've never seen an Edsall coached team tackle this poorly, or play this slow on defense. So I'm going to give him some rope, and hope he's able to improve the roster.

Diaco's defense at Nebraska is giving up 400 ypg and 30 ppg.

But the adults are back in charge. We'll get better.

 

[huskymedic]

Who from BD's recruiting looks any good??? The only productive BD guys have been Peart, Diggs, BS, Hopkins, and Skanes. That's three years of recruiting with virtually no productive starters, and literally no one coming through the pipeline from his later recruiting.

I'd add Mayala to that BD list.

 

[UConnDan97]

You do realize that the vast majority of production on our team is the result of either PP guys or RE guys, right? Also, Shirreffs would be gone if Diaco had stayed. So sure, Diaco recruited him, but he also nearly destroyed the kid and caused him to leave. Who from BD's recruiting looks any good??? The only productive BD guys have been Peart, Diggs, BS, Hopkins, and Skanes. That's three years of recruiting with virtually no productive starters, and literally no one coming through the pipeline from his later recruiting. We have no one to fill in at either DE spot, absolutely no linebackers from his recruiting besides a kid who's like 5 ft 9 in Gilmartin. I get that blaming Diaco gets old, but he also absolutely left us with nothing.

I'm still all on board for blaming Diaco, because his recruiting was much worse than PPs and his assistants were absolutely worse (with the exception of GDL). This is a good exercise to perform, so I will perform it now; below is our depth chart this year and who's responsible for recruiting them. I'm using the ECU game as the marker so that I can included Arkeel, because he is our biggest offensive weapon. Pasqualoni = orange, Diaco = red, and Edsall = blue:

WR - Beals, Dixon
WR - Skanes, McLean
WR - Mayala, Donaldson
LT - Peart, Hashemi
LG - Rutherford, Shafenacker
OC - Vechery, Oak
RG - DeGeorge, Leone
RT - Van Demark, Hopkins
TE - Bloom, Myers
RB - Newsome, Mensah
QB - Shirreffs, Pindell <-- Edsall should get an assist on Shirreffs for talking him into coming back
DEFENSE
DE - Ormsby, Stapleton
NT - Fatukasi, Murphy
DE - Carrezola, Lawley
OLB - Diggs, Beavers
ILB - Joseph, Sterling
OLB - Britton, Hahn
CB - Coyle, Fortt
FS - Summers, Bell
SS - Brown, Watkins
CB - Terry, Garland
DB - Swann, Herring-Wilson
SPECIAL TEAMS
P - Graham, Magliozzi
PK - Tarbutt, Rishell
LS - Keating, Sidebotham
H - Bisack

So what do we see?

I think that there are some impact players from Diaco's recruiting there for the future (DeGeorge, Leone, Beals, Dixon, Skanes, McLean, Peart, Van Demark, Murphy, Terry, Nate Hopkins, Coyle, Fortt). That's about it, though. We already see 9 Edsall recruits in the 2 deep (probably more than that if I used a more recent depth chart), which is pretty telling. Furthermore, PP left us with big impact players like Newsome, Fatukasi, Joseph, Ormsby, Carrezola, and our tight ends.

I have no doubt that in 2019, we are going to be a good looking football team. I even think there is enough there to have a good looking offensive team next year, since that is where most of Diaco's impact guys play. The defense? Well...let's all pray that the youngsters in the secondary really grow from this year's experience, and let's hope that the jump from freshman to sophomore continues to be the biggest year of improvement for football players...

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Fatukasi, Ormsby and Carrezola are not impact players or anything close. HOWEVER, the 3-3-5 defensive scheme has a lot to do with that. They maybe could have more of an impact if the Huskies had an attacking defense that put more pressure on the QB.

 

[SubZero]

I'm still all on board for blaming Diaco, because his recruiting was much worse than PPs and his assistants were absolutely worse (with the exception of GDL). This is a good exercise to perform, so I will perform it now; below is our depth chart this year and who's responsible for recruiting them. I'm using the ECU game as the marker so that I can included Arkeel, because he is our biggest offensive weapon. Pasqualoni = orange, Diaco = red, and Edsall = blue:

WR - Beals, Dixon
WR - Skanes, McLean
WR - Mayala, Donaldson
LT - Peart, Hashemi
LG - Rutherford, Shafenacker
OC - Vechery, Oak
RG - DeGeorge, Leone
RT - Van Demark, Hopkins
TE - Bloom, Myers
RB - Newsome, Mensah
QB - Shirreffs, Pindell <-- Edsall should get an assist on Shirreffs for talking him into coming back
DEFENSE
DE - Ormsby, Stapleton
NT - Fatukasi, Murphy
DE - Carrezola, Lawley
OLB - Diggs, Beavers
ILB - Joseph, Sterling
OLB - Britton, Hahn
CB - Coyle, Fortt
FS - Summers, Bell
SS - Brown, Watkins
CB - Terry, Garland
DB - Swann, Herring-Wilson
SPECIAL TEAMS
P - Graham, Magliozzi
PK - Tarbutt, Rishell
LS - Keating, Sidebotham
H - Bisack

So what do we see?

I think that there are some impact players from Diaco's recruiting there for the future (DeGeorge, Leone, Beals, Dixon, Skanes, McLean, Peart, Van Demark, Murphy, Terry, Nate Hopkins). That's about it, though. We already see 9 Edsall recruits in the 2 deep (probably more than that if I used a more recent depth chart), which is pretty telling. Furthermore, PP left us with big impact players like Newsome, Fatukasi, Joseph, Ormsby, Carrezola, and our tight ends.

I have no doubt that in 2019, we are going to be a good looking football team. I even think there is enough there to have a good looking offensive team next year, since that is where most of Diaco's impact guys play. The defense? Well...let's all pray that the youngsters in the secondary really grow from this year's experience, and let's hope that the jump from freshman to sophomore continues to be the biggest year of improvement for football players...

The two worst players on this list are RE's 2 DBs who get burned week after week after week.

 

[Stainmaster]

The two worst players on this list are RE's 2 DBs who get burned week after week after week.

Wrong.

 

[Excalibur]

The two worst players on this list are RE's 2 DBs who get burned week after week after week.

Who are playing because the previous coach had no clue how to fill out a roster and recruit to positional need . . .

 

[BlueMAB]

The two worst players on this list are RE's 2 DBs who get burned week after week after week.

Wrong.
Coyle is a RS freshman, not Edsall's guy.
Fortt is a true freshman. Shouldn't be expected to come in and outperform juniors and seniors.
Summers, Diaco's guy, is arguably the worst of the bunch.

 

[BlueMAB]

Who are playing because the previous coach had no clue how to fill out a roster and recruit to positional need . . .

We don't need 11 TEs?

 

[Stainmaster]

Wrong.
Coyle is a RS freshman, not Edsall's guy.
Fortt is a true freshman. Shouldn't be expected to come in and outperform juniors and seniors.
Summers, Diaco's guy, is arguably the worst of the bunch.

Fortt was a Diaco recruit, and Summers was actually PP.

The only Edsall guy getting PT in the secondary is Brayden Brown.

Further confirmation SubZero is just a junk troll.

 

[UConnDan97]

Apologies on mis-coloring Coyle and Fortt. They are indeed Diaco guys, although both are also very young and I'm guessing they will improve a lot from their experience on the field this year.

And as many have already pointed out, SubZero is wrong...

 

[huskyrob1]

Wrong.

Agreed...Coyle seems to be the best tackler and pass defender from what I've seen so far, but he's a redshirt freshman and was recruited in state by Diaco along with Dixon. His only weakness was biting on the QB option early in the season, but his pick six was a game winner. Randy Edsall was working in the NFL when Coyle signed his letter.

 

[businesslawyer]

Fatukasi, Ormsby and Carrezola are not impact players or anything close. HOWEVER, the 3-3-5 defensive scheme has a lot to do with that. They maybe could have more of an impact if the Huskies had an attacking defense that put more pressure on the QB.

LOL. None of them have the speed to put pressure on the QB even if they are attacking. Remember UCF last year? They attacked and forced the QB out of the pocket, but then couldn't keep him with him when he jogged towards the sideline looking for receivers downfield.