Fagnano it is

[metsfan2323]

Some of you guys are acting like we played Alabama. The offense was disappointing and the gap in talent was at QB. Could some of it be familiarity, timing etc. Sure but their guy transferred in too. Ours was just not as effective.

The thing you fail to understand is that Jim Mora is smarter than you. Our best QB is on the field, support him or get lost. For the love of God we are one game into his UConn career and we played the pre-season 4th ranked team in the ACC, not Holy Cross.

 

[superjohn]

The thing you fail to understand is that Jim Mora is smarter than you. Our best QB is on the field, support him or get lost. For the love of God we are one game into his UConn career and we played the pre-season 4th ranked team in the ACC, not Holy Cross.

We have no idea if our best QB is on the field. Better coaches than Jim Mora had the wrong guy starting.

 

[metsfan2323]

We have no idea if our best QB is on the field. Better coaches than Jim Mora had the wrong guy starting.

You have no idea, Jim Mora does.

 

[Jimdish255]

Yup, the idiots are out in force just because we lost a competitive game to NC State. Unreal. This forum (like all of sports talk on TV and radio) is nothing more than a bitch and moan center.

It literally took a national championship for Hurley to win over a decent size portion of the UConn fanbase (for the most part the same people complaining about the NC State game) with their "arrogant and spoiled" T-shirts., they should add the word "unworthy."

And some of us have gotten to used to mediocrity.

 

[Padutch5]

Just because UConn kept the score close to NCS doesn't mean that there is reason to be satisfied.
With the exception of the QB, I didn't see NCS to be a dominant team and felt the UConn gave them way too many opportunities.
The play offensive calling by Charlton was questionable at best and why are we ignoring the tight ends? QB play, for someone who has played as much football as Fagnano has - he was bad - indecisive and ignoring open targets.
Tackling has been an issue since Bobby Red Pants days and it reared its ugly head again yesterday.
I have total faith in HCJM but am puzzled as to why there were very little adjustments made one either side of the ball in the 2nd half.
Hopefully there are lessons to be learned from last night and it won't take 4 or 5 games to correct all of them.
Last night was a winnable game and UConn let the opportunity slip away.

Good analysis I’ll add one more. Our defensive backs going back to Red Pants often run with their back to the ball making either for an easy catch or making it easy for the zebras to call interference. Last night that caused a missed easy interception in the end zone and caused an interference call that resulted in a NCS touchdown.

 

[Jimdish255]

The thing you fail to understand is that Jim Mora is smarter than you. Our best QB is on the field, support him or get lost. For the love of God we are one game into his UConn career and we played the pre-season 4th ranked team in the ACC, not Holy Cross.

This has nothing to do with Jim Mora but I understand it's the card people play when they can't directly address someone that disagrees with them. It's happened with every coach no matter how incompetent. If you have an issue with something I actually said then man up and we can address it.

I have no problem with Coach and OC's decision to start Fagnano. What I believe is that Fagnano's talents were on display and evident. Does that mean we judge his entire upside by one game? Of course not. But he needs to be a lot better if a healthy Roberson is sitting by steaming while we lose again.

 

[UCPharma11]

where was clercius?

He was given a bag of money to go to Cincy. Next man up!

 

[huskymedic]

He was given a bag of money to go to Cincy. Next man up!

That was Aaron Turner. Clercius is next man up.

 

[Patman]

We have no idea if our best QB is on the field. Better coaches than Jim Mora had the wrong guy starting.

There are very few coaches at his level.

----

When will people realize there is no gamebreaking qb on this roster?

 

[superjohn]

There are very few coaches at his level.

----

When will people realize there is no gamebreaking qb on this roster?

Bill Belichick and Dick Vermeil are beyond his level and they had Tom Brady and Kurt Warner sitting on the bench.

Does anyone think we have gamebreaking QB's on the roster? I think most people think we're pretty awful at the position.

 

[Husky68]

What I don't understand is that if the top QB position was won between two or even three even guys why not find a method to get more than one real reps. We (and that includes Mora) have no idea how much better or worse TR would look in real game situations vs. practice as he has (not including PS) less than a dozen offensive live plays at this level. As UConn's defense showed its hard to stop a good running QB.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

And some of us have gotten to used to mediocrity.

Uh given the last ten years I'd kill for mediocrity

 

[RSTuthill]

I think you have over blown expectations; we moved the ball and we covered the spread against a team with more talent. Two years ago we couldn't even beat Holy Cross.

We are coming to the end of the era when that will be even partially acceptable, however.

I was quite excited after the first series. But then that QB and those WR's never reentered the game and the play calling lost its way.

I think the deal is that TR is not available. There was a reference made in a deliberately offhand manner that he had a minor arm injury a week before the QB downselect was made. Then on the day there was a bunch of confusion. Guessing there was an MRI the that day or the day before. Did we see TR actually throwing in warmups or on the sideline Thursday night?

 

[Dezoworld]

D
Same typical uconn team no passing game. Can't score when it counts. Horrible tackling I'll give them a C for the first game of the season

 

[RC111]

The comparison can’t be “ well he is better than the #3 guy on our quarterback depth chart”. We need him to be an average D1 quarterback. 200 yards/game passing. I think last year the anverage was 218/game last year. We were 107. If he can’t out perform Zion Turner, he should be out there, honestly. Add some rushing yard though those can be tough to count for the position because the NCAA count sacks as negative rushes. And didn’t we have enough of game manager quarterbacks during the Edsall 2 years? We need a guy who can make plays. Not somebody who throws dumb passes but someone who can make them.

Oh, I totally agree. We need better. But I made my statement because a lot of people are clamoring for ZT, the#3. So for some that comparison IS necessary. I think Fagnano at least has a bit more poise, if for no other reason than that he has played more. All I am saying is that if the coaches think he is the BEST option right now, I trust them.

And I've had 3 ACL surgeries. My money is on Roberson not being 100%. They're smart and not going to dampen confidence by saying, "We're doing the best we can with this guy..." That's no good for the psychology of the team or the guy that's got to play.

Lastly, we brought in DBs from Washington and WVU. We brought in WRs from Austin Peay and Delaware. Not a knock on those guys, and I'm sure they'll help us, but it's unrealistic to have the same expectations of the offense and defense right now. Defensive players want to play for a former NFL coach and D coordinator. Let's be real: Charlton doesn't have the same appeal for offensive transfers. I think we're seeing that play out. Missed routes, less separation, etc. A lot of this is on the WRs.

But as I said in my first post -- give it time, cause they'll make good in the end.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Our offense will appear substantially better in all but perhaps two games this year; Tennessee and possibly Duke.

NC St was able to handle our offensive line with a three man rush. I'm not sure anyone we will face other than Tennessee will be able to do the same. That in itself will help our passing game in most games going forward. As the season progresses, most of our players should improve as well.

I don't know the health situation of our QB'S (and I did post not long ago that I believe we will play more than one starting QB this season) but jumping to the conclusions that a few on here have reached is a bit ridiculous.

 

[Gburyhusky]

We are coming to the end of the era when that will be even partially acceptable, however.

I was quite excited after the first series. But then that QB and those WR's never reentered the game and the play calling lost its way.

I think the deal is that TR is not available. There was a reference made in a deliberately offhand manner that he had a minor arm injury a week before the QB downselect was made. Then on the day there was a bunch of confusion. Guessing there was an MRI the that day or the day before. Did we see TR actually throwing in warmups or on the sideline Thursday night?

Yes he threw on the sidelines

 

[Hoophound]

Our offense will appear substantially better in all but perhaps two games this year; Tennessee and possibly Duke.

NC St was able to handle our offensive line with a three man rush. I'm not sure anyone we will face other than Tennessee will be able to do the same. That in itself will help our passing game in most games going forward. As the season progresses, most of our players should improve as well.

I don't know the health situation of our QB'S (and I did post not long ago that I believe we will play more than one starting QB this season) but jumping to the conclusions that a few on here have reached is a bit ridiculous.

Based on the effusive praise of Roberson that we heard from Charlton two weeks ago, I’m pretty sure he’s hurt and was the intended starter.

I really prefer a mobile QB, even over a premier passer. We are competing against a lot of P5 of teams that will often be bigger and/or faster, a mobile QB really helps to negate some of that.

 

[SuperHuski]

This may be an unpopular opinion based on the tone of some of the comments here, but Fagnano wasn't that bad. He looked worst than his actual performance because of his receivers and the relatively simplistic passing schemes.

NC State was planning man pretty much all night and our receivers could not win their 1on1 coverage. OK so if the receivers can't win their matchups, then you need to adjust your offensive schemes. There are a lot of ways to do that (stack formations, cross routes, pick blocks, pre-snap motions, option routes, slants, etc.) The goal of all of that is to create confusion, make the defense guess more. We did do some pre-snaps but I don't recall hearing any audibles or play adjustments at the line. We had some slants to the TE towards the end of the game when NC State switched to prevent defense. No idea why we didn't do to it sooner.

Not to fuel the Roberson fire, but a dual-threat QB would have also been a good counter to NC State's defense. We're so lucky that our o-line is so good. It could've been so much worst.

Gadget plays tendency aside, I don't think Charlton is an idiot. It looks like the playbook isn't fully open yet. I'm guessing we have too many new receivers and not enough time to go through the intermediate and advance stuff of the playbook. Passing is all about timing and repetition. For this reason, I think it'll get better as the season goes on.

 

[PNolanFan]

This may be an unpopular opinion based on the tone of some of the comments here, but Fagnano wasn't that bad. He looked worst than his actual performance because of his receivers and the relatively simplistic passing schemes.

NC State was planning man pretty much all night and our receivers could not win their 1on1 coverage. OK so if the receivers can't win their matchups, then you need to adjust your offensive schemes. There are a lot of ways to do that (stack formations, cross routes, pick blocks, pre-snap motions, option routes, slants, etc.) The goal of all of that is to create confusion, make the defense guess more. We did do some pre-snaps but I don't recall hearing any audibles or play adjustments at the line. We had some slants to the TE towards the end of the game when NC State switched to prevent defense. No idea why we didn't do to it sooner.

Not to fuel the Roberson fire, but a dual-threat QB would have also been a good counter to NC State's defense. We're so lucky that our o-line is so good. It could've been so much worst.

Gadget plays tendency aside, I don't think Charlton is an idiot. It looks like the playbook isn't fully open yet. I'm guessing we have too many new receivers and not enough time to go through the intermediate and advance stuff of the playbook. Passing is all about timing and repetition. For this reason, I think it'll get better as the season goes on.

I think that the nc state game was very different then most of the games on our schedule. I am thinking that we played a super conservative scheme since our coaching staff recognized that we are in a huge talent disadvantage against NC state. They have like 15 4 star recruits and we have maybe 1 or 2. The coaching staff may have wanted to try to play a close game and hope for a big break which never came. I am ok with that strategy but if they had one turnover or a few calls went the other way we could have won. I am ok with the game plan as long as they adjust now that we are playing on an even talent footing most of the rest of the year

 

[Hamms30]

NC State runs a 3 3 5 defense. The point of the defense is to stop spread passing offenses. People here are roasting a quarterback for not throwing all over a defense whose primary purpose is to not be thrown all over. That defense is what everybody was hoping Billy Crocker's defense would have been a few years ago for us. In a perfect world, we'd have put our fists in the dirt and just busted up the middle to force more people in the box and then play the game of rushing off the edge or throwing down field. NC State has a very athletic defense.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This may be an unpopular opinion based on the tone of some of the comments here, but Fagnano wasn't that bad. He looked worst than his actual performance because of his receivers and the relatively simplistic passing schemes.

NC State was planning man pretty much all night and our receivers could not win their 1on1 coverage. OK so if the receivers can't win their matchups, then you need to adjust your offensive schemes. There are a lot of ways to do that (stack formations, cross routes, pick blocks, pre-snap motions, option routes, slants, etc.) The goal of all of that is to create confusion, make the defense guess more. We did do some pre-snaps but I don't recall hearing any audibles or play adjustments at the line. We had some slants to the TE towards the end of the game when NC State switched to prevent defense. No idea why we didn't do to it sooner.

Not to fuel the Roberson fire, but a dual-threat QB would have also been a good counter to NC State's defense. We're so lucky that our o-line is so good. It could've been so much worst.

Gadget plays tendency aside, I don't think Charlton is an idiot. It looks like the playbook isn't fully open yet. I'm guessing we have too many new receivers and not enough time to go through the intermediate and advance stuff of the playbook. Passing is all about timing and repetition. For this reason, I think it'll get better as the season goes on.

And this is why you need a QB who can run in college.

If D is playing MTM, QB needs to be able to take off and be at least as fast as LB's to punish teams for playing man to man.

 

[superjohn]

NC State runs a 3 3 5 defense. The point of the defense is to stop spread passing offenses. People here are roasting a quarterback for not throwing all over a defense whose primary purpose is to not be thrown all over. That defense is what everybody was hoping Billy Crocker's defense would have been a few years ago for us. In a perfect world, we'd have put our fists in the dirt and just busted up the middle to force more people in the box and then play the game of rushing off the edge or throwing down field. NC State has a very athletic defense.

So you're saying Charlton is the problem. I tend to agree with you.

 

[Hamms30]

So you're saying Charlton is the problem. I tend to agree with you.

I mean, the edges are supposed to be the weak spot of that defense, but for whatever reason it seemed we were struggling to make progress. So, yea at some point you'd hope Charlton would have different ideas to attack different spots, but it's possible too that we were just physically outmatched and the odds were against us. I didn't like the gimmick play calls or when they were used though.

 

[SuperHuski]

NC State runs a 3 3 5 defense. The point of the defense is to stop spread passing offenses. People here are roasting a quarterback for not throwing all over a defense whose primary purpose is to not be thrown all over. That defense is what everybody was hoping Billy Crocker's defense would have been a few years ago for us. In a perfect world, we'd have put our fists in the dirt and just busted up the middle to force more people in the box and then play the game of rushing off the edge or throwing down field. NC State has a very athletic defense.

Right, so stuff like RPOs, play action, outside runs, screens, options, etc. would have been great to see. Stuff Roberson is known for. Making the starting QB decision all the more curious.

I kept seeing the same formations over and over as the game progressed. Like I said earlier, either our personnel is limited or our playbook.

Still, the coaching staff has my benefit of the doubt. There was more positives than negatives for me from the game.