Fall Camp 2018 Coverage - #RiseAsOne

[whaler11]

What would you even do if you fired Edsall? If you pay a million you can’t even get a P5 coordinator and no up and coming MAC coach is going to throw their career away for that money.

 

[Exit 4]

What would you even do if you fired Edsall? If you pay a million you can’t even get a P5 coordinator and no up and coming MAC coach is going to throw their career away for that money.

You'd be looking at someone with a modestly successful track record in FCS football. And 19 out 20 next choices will be coaches that will want to be here no more than 4 years.

You are staring into the abyss when you try to think about the next coach.

 

[LBird33]

Maybe there will be a Contrarian Bounce! For the last few years preseason expectations were high. This year expectations seem lower Sooo maybe we will have a good year ! Here’s hoping

 

[gioff23]

why in the world are we even having this conversation? Some nut hitting the bottle early on a thursday theorizes that the best way to cure a program that has undergone significant and almost unprecedented upheaval should do a 180 pronto or introduce more upheaval. If HCRE can not turn around this program in time, I may better understand the cries of wingnuts on the BB board arguing for us to shutter the FB program and go back to the BE.

 

[LBird33]

What’s wrong with early afternoon drinking ?

 

[JMick]

why in the world are we even having this conversation? Some nut hitting the bottle early on a thursday theorizes that the best way to cure a program that has undergone significant and almost unprecedented upheaval should do a 180 pronto or introduce more upheaval. If HCRE can not turn around this program in time, I may better understand the cries of wingnuts on the BB board arguing for us to shutter the FB program and go back to the BE.

That's how I'm starting to feel too. I think we're on the right track though

 

[LBird33]

Edsall is not going anywhere. He is an established coach who will get 4 to 5 years to build the program. We can’t afford another change. The reason the last change happened so early is it became very clear how bad Diaco was and I also think at the end of his 3rd year Diaco gave up and sabotaged his own job . He wanted out.

 

[uconnphil2016]

OK. After the 2-10 season in 2018 what's ok next? How about another 2-10, still his job is ok? What about all the HCRE "competition" talk? Each player is competing every day for his job/playing time. Why wouldn't HCRE be competing to keep his job. 3-9, 2-10; got to expect big improvement following year, no?
No way is it ok to go 2-10 against this schedule. Bob Diaco went 2-10 and he treated OOC games his 1st year as practices. After 2 years his teams were 8- 17 with a bowl appearance. So, its ok for HCRE2.0 to be 5-19 after 2 seasons?
Bob Diaco, who couldn't coach at all had a team lead by Shirreffs, Newsome and Summers and went 6-7 while HCRE2.0 had the senior version of these guys and went 3-9.
No way, shape or form is a 2-10 season ok in 2018. Coach to win this year.
Not saying he has to take 0-12 team to 6-6 and then 13-0 but taking a 3-9 team to 3-9 and 2-10 isn't good enough.
I expect a minimum of 4 wins with an reasonable upside of a bowl. 2 wins puts HCRE2.0 and his staff on notice.

1) Look at Bob Diaco's recruiting. Tell me how many guys he brought in who are on the two deep. Diaco had the benefit of Pasqualoni recruiting a team where at least some guys deserved to be on the field. Diaco left us with virtually nothing. Look at who he recruited on our defensive line, and at RB and QB...there's literally no one.

2) Our 6-6 regular season was not the result of any sort of talent we had, but instead our schedule. Our four FBS wins (outside of Houston who only lost one game) were like 10-39 combined. ECU, Army, and UCF were three of the worst teams in CFB that year. We also beat Nova, pulled off a miracle against Houston, and beat Tulane who was also God awful. With the exception of ECU, all of these teams are way better than they were. Edsall's schedule last year was 1000x harder than BD's. Diaco's OOC included two easy wins in Army and Nova, whereas Randy's OOC only had HC in the beginning and no one else who was near us in skill. We played a much harder schedule than BD did. And even still, we were probably the worst team in FBS who went bowling in 2015--we were still a very bad football team.

Randy can win 2 games this year and fans shouldn't care. We have seven true freshman in our two deep and at least two who should be starting week one on defense. That's crazy. We hardly even have any upperclassmen on D--Kevin Murphy is the only one I think (if he starts over Caleb Thomas).

 

[huskysupporter]

Edsall is not taking any short-cuts. 2-10, 7-6, 9-4 next 3 years

And I would be thrilled with that.

 

[Husky68]

Massey has us ranked at 114, so why would we be expected to win more than 2-3 games based on that logic?

Edsall isn't going anywhere after this season unless he is accused of murder. He's got a heck of a rebuild on his hands and half his defense isn't shaving yet. I think we'll really start to see his efforts bare fruit in year 3-4, but I think the first half of this season could be pretty brutal. I certainly hope I am wrong.

If you use the math average on the 12 games in Massey it comes out to 4 wins (I rounded up). Why expect 2? If there is such a thing as a new coach's 2nd year is a big improvement over his 1st year UConn should be primed for that. All the talk about buy in, better shape, react vs. think - and that gets to 2 wins? I'm buying what HCRE2.0 is selling so I want the victories that all this should produce (not like I demand a bowl, just win 4 games).
Pindell won the starting QB job last year and returns as a starter; OL is experienced and couple of guys at least are pretty hyped; lot of returning WR's; more speed on defense (and full 18 months on it for returning players). So many things should be better (just get to average turnovers caused on defense could get a couple more wins).
Bob Diaco won 6 games in his second season at UConn and his team only won 2 games his 1st season!
I didn't say HCRE2.0 is going anywhere if he wins only 2 games (that is your comment) , just that his job should be on the line the next year if he wins only 2. If 2 wins is ok, how about if the team wins 1 game. How about 0 wins? At some point the results are bad and HCRE2.0 should be held accountable. I'm saying under 4 wins is bad, you are saying based on expectations you are ok with 2 wins (not saying you would like that, just that you see it as part of the process with that not at all impacting what HCRE2.0 should be expected to accomplish in year 3).
I have confidence that HCRE2.0 is the real deal, he has his DC and OC in line with a good, winning game plan and is more likely to get to a bowl than win only 2 games. If the team wins 2 games or less its on the coaching.

 

[huskymedic]

New Britain Herald - Wide receiver Mayala believes UConn football ready to return to postseason

 

[JustSaying]

why in the world are we even having this conversation? Some nut hitting the bottle early on a thursday theorizes that the best way to cure a program that has undergone significant and almost unprecedented upheaval should do a 180 pronto or introduce more upheaval. If HCRE can not turn around this program in time, I may better understand the cries of wingnuts on the BB board arguing for us to shutter the FB program and go back to the BE.

My thoughts exactly. Proof positive of how a decent thread can go to straight to hell. For cripes sake, give HCRE, his entire staff and the kids on this "new" team a chance to show what they've got before dishing out any doom and gloom.

 

[Jimdish255]

....here we go

 

[Ldandy]

While I don't think winning 6 games is impossible, it is probably unlikely. Winning 4 games and being competitive in others would demonstrate progress. The talent on the team was at a pretty low point when HCRE returned. That is before you take into consideration how dysfunctional the culture in place was from the previous staff. Its going to take awhile to build the program back up.

I don't think it is fair to compare UConn to a program like UCF under Scott Frost. There was talent on the team he inherited, and because of location he was able to quickly supplement it. UConn is 100% a development program. That is never going to change. The only difference is that in this day and age of recruiting websites and a seemingly endless amount of prospect camps, there are far fewer under the radar types that can be grabbed before signing day. If you can play, the odds are everyone knows it. HCRE and staff will really need to do their homework to find kids, and make sure that they are being developed in the program. This is a time intensive process. I hope he's afforded it.

 

[freescooter]

What would you even do if you fired Edsall? If you pay a million you can’t even get a P5 coordinator and no up and coming MAC coach is going to throw their career away for that money.

Really you guys are ridiculous. I don’t think Edsall will fail but you just need the right guy. Memphis for heavens sake was the Rutgers of the south. Awful forever. Fuentes shows up and they are ranked and when he leaves they make a good hire and they stay ranked and will likely be ranked this year too. Gave UCF a better game than the SEC champ. Or Temple which would have been the worst team in the northeast over the past 30-40 years except Rutgers exists. Ruhle get promoted from offensive line coach and suddenly Temple is a winner. The list is pretty long of awful teams that land the right guy and compete. Rutgers under Schiano, Duke. And there are guys who want to be head coaches or want to move up the ladder. Andvwith MAC coating salaries mostly in the 500000 range, yeah, they will “throw their careers away” to earn double.

 

[whaler11]

Really you guys are ridiculous. I don’t think Edsall will fail but you just need the right guy. Memphis for heavens sake was the Rutgers of the south. Awful forever. Fuentes shows up and they are ranked and when he leaves they make a good hire and they stay ranked and will likely be ranked this year too. Gave UCF a better game than the SEC champ. Or Temple which would have been the worst team in the northeast over the past 30-40 years except Rutgers exists. Ruhle get promoted from offensive line coach and suddenly Temple is a winner. The list is pretty long of awful teams that land the right guy and compete. Rutgers under Schiano, Duke. And there are guys who want to be head coaches or want to move up the ladder. Andvwith MAC coating salaries mostly in the 500000 range, yeah, they will “throw their careers away” to earn double.

You do know that Fuente coaches Virginia Tech and Ruhle coaches Baylor right?

If it’s so easy to find someone how did we end up back with Edsall?

The reason why there there is a laundry list of terrible programs is because they rarely land the right guy and when they do they exit quickly.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

>>“I’ve been — I don’t want to say surprised — but I’ve been happy with what I’ve seen out of the young guys that are in some of the roles that they’re in,” Edsall said Wednesday after the team’s seventh preseason practice.<<

>>So what’s the biggest challenge for coaches in developing freshmen at hyper-speed?

“Everything,” Edsall said. “Some of them are a little bit stronger than others, some of them are a little bit more football-savvy than others. They all have their different strengths and weaknesses.”

Edsall noted that freshmen have already been faced with something they’ve never seen before: the intensity of a college training camp. “It’s a lot different than high school,” the coach said. “They’ve got to fight through some of this soreness and stiffness and back-to-back practices and the intensity that we practice with, which they’re not used to.”<<

 

[uconndogs]

Honestly, with that much youth on defense we need to brace ourselves for a rough start to the season. I just don't see how a defensive secondary that young can hold up against UCF, @Boise, @Syracuse and @Memphis. That means 2-4 if we can beat Cincy, 1-5 if we don't. The second half starts @USF and then assuming folks are gaining confidence and experience the schedule gets a bit more manageable. But a 1-7 start is clearly on the table.

Many of us suspected that Diaco had not a remote clue what he was doing on the recruiting front. This is more than just a new coach getting his guys in the system. There are whole recruiting classes that are missing from the depth chart. "Prototypes" my fat, hairy derriere! He didn't recruit a sole that could run past me.

 

[freescooter]

You do know that Fuente coaches Virginia Tech and Ruhle coaches Baylor right?

If it’s so easy to find someone how did we end up back with Edsall?

The reason why there there is a laundry list of terrible programs is because they rarely land the right guy and when they do they exit quickly.

Well that changes the argument, doesn’t it? The point is that teams who had generations of futility, literally over 25 years of losing, can become solid to better than that wth the right guy and the right guy isn’t necessarily a big name guy. Some are, some not so much. And the idea that nobody will coach here is just preposterous. No different than the idea that UConn would never fire Ollie because no coach would come here.

But to get back on track. Any reports on yesterday’s scrimmage? I know it was closed to the media but did Edsall say anything?

 

[huskymedic]

... But to get back on track. Any reports on yesterday’s scrimmage? I know it was closed to the media but did Edsall say anything?

I haven’t seen anything “new”...

 

[ktuck911]

It is possible that, despite all the individual question marks, we are better on D. It's also possible (I view it as likely) that we are going to miss Shirreffs a lot more than some here think.

I respectfully disagree.. Last season, Pindell got thrown into the fire too quickly.. His mental aptitude just wasn't there early on... With a year up in Storrs under his belt to get better acclamated, I believe he'll be better this year... I feel like we'll be better as a whole... I just don't see us being any worse...We're in a conference where we can turn things around a little quicker.. and we have a head coach who instills discipline and focus quite nicely.. Glass half full mindset here.

 

[uconnphil2016]

 

[RSTuthill]

Anything is possible which is why the realistic range of possible wins is from 1 to 6.

 

[SubbaBub]

It is possible that, despite all the individual question marks, we are better on D. It's also possible (I view it as likely) that we are going to miss Shirreffs a lot more than some here think.

This is where I am at. Hard to think we'd be worse on D. We are back to an unproven QB.

My fear is that a bunch of games that will look like last year at BC.