Featured Back this year??

[Bonehead]

The boneyard is definitely a family - arguing and bashing brothers is common place around here. GO TEAM!

 

[whaler11]

"Generally people associated with high schools way overrate their players' futures. Berlin is the kind of program where they whisper that he's afraid to get hit. I'm sure they said that plenty when he was their best player as they rolled through their schedule when he was there."
whaler11, Mar 14, 2012

If you actually go back and read the whole thread not a single poster had that opinion btw. CAPS said he heard it from people in Berlin. But who cares what was actually written right?

 

[kris1]

Speed kills. I believe Arkeel Newsome is a very special player. I expect that he will help UCONN this year. Besides, I am not sure but I believe he is 21 years old so he is not your typical 18 yr old freshman!

True....Arkeel is not your typical 18 yr old freshman, but he's not 21 either.

 

[freescooter]

I have really high hopes for Marriner. I've heard nothing but good thing about him. I suspect that Newsome will be a quality back in time too, but Playing running back against BYU is not going to be the same as playing running back against Naugatuck. And in many ways I think the jump for a Connecticut kid is higher than the jump for a kid from Florida or Virginia or somewhere mostly because of the way we do public education here. For the most part the small schools in Connecticut are just not that good. Have no depth to speak of. My nephew in Dade County Florida had more kids on his freshman and JV teams than a mid-sized school in Connecticut has in its whole program. And they each had coaching staffs. The varsity had a full staff but both the JV and frosh had multiple member staffs who were responsible for just those programs. I met the guy who was the JV Coach, effectively the head coach of the JV team and he and his staff worked exclusively with the JV program. They ran the head coach's system and his plays and so forth, but they ran it semi-independently. Same with the frosh.

 

[kris1]

I have really high hopes for Marriner. I've heard nothing but good thing about him. I suspect that Newsome will be a quality back in time too, but Playing running back against BYU is not going to be the same as playing running back against Naugatuck. And in many ways I think the jump for a Connecticut kid is higher than the jump for a kid from Florida or Virginia or somewhere mostly because of the way we do public education here. For the most part the small schools in Connecticut are just not that good. Have no depth to speak of. My nephew in Dade County Florida had more kids on his freshman and JV teams than a mid-sized school in Connecticut has in its whole program. And they each had coaching staffs. The varsity had a full staff but both the JV and frosh had multiple member staffs who were responsible for just those programs. I met the guy who was the JV Coach, effectively the head coach of the JV team and he and his staff worked exclusively with the JV program. They ran the head coach's system and his plays and so forth, but they ran it semi-independently. Same with the frosh.

The big time southern programs, in most cases, have 6-figure operating budgets, for football alone, and the coaching positions are full-time. They are not school faculty members looking to make some extra coin. I remember attending a Nike Coach of the Year Clinic and listening to Rush Propst, former HC at Hoover HS in Alabama. He became nationally known on MTV's "Two-a-Days". He made upwards of 100K (for football alone) and the football team's operating budget was close to a million dollars. The majority of the monies were raised through boosters. Subsequently, Propst's Hoover career ended in scandal and he was removed. He has since moved on to Colquitt County HS (GA) where his base salary is $95,000. I understand the point you were trying to make, but your comparing apples and oranges. In contrast, Tom Brockett, I believe, makes less then $4,000 per year as Ansonia's head football coach.

History has also shown that CT kids from small schools have gone on to make an impact at the next level. Dwight Freeney did pretty well for himself coming out of Bloomfield. I think Newsome will go through some growing pains adjusting to college life and the playbook, not the physical aspects of the game. He started the camp and combine circuit as a 7th grader, so he won't be surprised by the talent or the speed of the game. He also will be as physically prepared to play as anyone on the roster.

 

[freescooter]

The big time southern programs, in most cases, have 6-figure operating budgets, for football alone, and the coaching positions are full-time. They are not school faculty members looking to make some extra coin. I remember attending a Nike Coach of the Year Clinic and listening to Rush Propst, former HC at Hoover HS in Alabama. He became nationally known on MTV's "Two-a-Days". He made upwards of 100K (for football alone) and the football team's operating budget was close to a million dollars. The majority of the monies were raised through boosters. Subsequently, Propst's Hoover career ended in scandal and he was removed. He has since moved on to Colquitt County HS (GA) where his base salary is $95,000. I understand the point you were trying to make, but your comparing apples and oranges. In contrast, Tom Brockett, I believe, makes less then $4,000 per year as Ansonia's head football coach.

History has also shown that CT kids from small schools have gone on to make an impact at the next level. Dwight Freeney did pretty well for himself coming out of Bloomfield. I think Newsome will go through some growing pains adjusting to college life and the playbook, not the physical aspects of the game. He started the camp and combine circuit as a 7th grader, so he won't be surprised by the talent or the speed of the game. He also will be as physically prepared to play as anyone on the roster.

Not saying they can't play at all. I said that I think it will take him a little more time to adjust to the College game than it might take a kid from a bigtime Flordia program. There was one I read about in Miami that had 3 d linemen and a linebacker all get D1A scholarships. That is about 1/3 the number who get them in Connecticut each year. Imagine running against that D!

 

[Husky68]

Except that McCombs didn't carry every down. He had 159 carries, roughly 40% of the total. DeLorenzo had 99, about 25%. the balance were spread among a bunch of guys. Throw out the quarterback sacks/scrambles and it comes to about 50% and 30%. Which is not that different from what you'd expect from your #1 and #2 backs. You can argue about who was the more effective back, but the distribution last year was pretty normal. You want to say 2012, well maybe,but even then, McCombs carried it about 60% of the time. And Max was a freshman, so again it isn't too unusual that he'd get worked in a bit more slowly, which if you look at his carries is exactly what happened. You can criticize Pasqualoni for lots of things, DeLeon for even more. And you can certainly criticize them for an ineffective running game, but my sense is that was as much scheme as who carried the football. But I'm not sure you can criticize them for this.

LM had 243 carries in 2012 and MD had 36. Of MD 36 there were 23 in Temple game due to LM lack of availability. So LM for 11 games gets 243 carries and MD gets 13 as the next most carries by running back. Your 60% quote for LM in 2012 is about as meaningful as your quotes on Ollie.
In 2013 LM's carries per game went down and MD carries went up after PP/GDL were canned. For the 4 games with PP carries were 57 to 18; for the remaining 8 games were 102 to 81.

 

[CTBasketball]

Used to play little league all-stars against DeLorenzo. Right then and there I knew he was destined to be UConn's starting running back.

 

[Confident Carl]

I have really high hopes for Marriner. I've heard nothing but good thing about him. I suspect that Newsome will be a quality back in time too, but Playing running back against BYU is not going to be the same as playing running back against Naugatuck. And in many ways I think the jump for a Connecticut kid is higher than the jump for a kid from Florida or Virginia or somewhere mostly because of the way we do public education here. For the most part the small schools in Connecticut are just not that good. Have no depth to speak of. My nephew in Dade County Florida had more kids on his freshman and JV teams than a mid-sized school in Connecticut has in its whole program. And they each had coaching staffs. The varsity had a full staff but both the JV and frosh had multiple member staffs who were responsible for just those programs. I met the guy who was the JV Coach, effectively the head coach of the JV team and he and his staff worked exclusively with the JV program. They ran the head coach's system and his plays and so forth, but they ran it semi-independently. Same with the frosh.

Nice job of discrediting Arkeel Newsome's accomplishments. Give the kid a chance already! He hasn't played a single down yet! His stats are freakish and tell me he could play at a high level in any state in the country. He is an elite player! http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/arkeel-newsome/pnWYUfTsEeKZ5AAmVebBJg/gendersport/football-stats.htm

 

[Jimdish255]

Nice job of discrediting Arkeel Newsome's accomplishments. Give the kid a chance already! He hasn't played a single down yet! His stats are freakish and tell me he could play at a high level in any state in the country. He is an elite player! http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/arkeel-newsome/pnWYUfTsEeKZ5AAmVebBJg/gendersport/football-stats.htm

And he spent significant time on the bench so they wouldn't run up the score.

 

[ktuck911]

I hope Newsome redshirts and gets up to 190lb range before he starts killing it on tgd field. Even if he is good enough to play now. I think Mariner will hold us down, along with Delorenzo, plenty for this upcoming season.

 

[weyuo]

It's just nice to know there is finally some quality depth at RB. Been a while. One of the three(Newsome, Johnson, McAllister) will play this year. Most likely Newsome.I'm more concerned with the fullback slot.

 

[freescooter]

LM had 243 carries in 2012 and MD had 36. Of MD 36 there were 23 in Temple game due to LM lack of availability. So LM for 11 games gets 243 carries and MD gets 13 as the next most carries by running back. Your 60% quote for LM in 2012 is about as meaningful as your quotes on Ollie.
In 2013 LM's carries per game went down and MD carries went up after PP/GDL were canned. For the 4 games with PP carries were 57 to 18; for the remaining 8 games were 102 to 81.

So Hyppolite & McCummings didn't carry the football in 2012? Or do those not count? Hyppolite actually started the year as the backup. DeLorenzo was worked in slowly as you would see with a freshman running back who wasn't the feature back. And just because he wasn't listed as a running back, McCummings was in there to run the football. He threw 2 passes. Not exactly YA Tittle. Further more, don't forget McCombs was coming off a 1200 yard rushing year where he earned frosh All-American honors. He had 275 carries that year, but that was mostly because Shoemate who was supposed to be the #1 coming into camp was hurt and missed the season but for 8 carries in the ISU game. McCummings was the #2 rusher with 75 carries or so, but that was his role. He threw 10 passes, I think.

 

[uconndogs]

McCombs was misused and then GDL duck*ed the OL in so many different ways it was obscene. That's how you fail to go to a bowl game in two seasons when you have one of the very best defenses in the country.

We have to get back to running the football. I don't see that getting remedied in one season with new RBs and some real inexperience on the OL. Even more concerning to me was the stunted development of the OL both physically and in terms of technique. Hopefully the young guys are progressing quickly and have forgotten whatever that nut job was trying to teach them.

 

[kris1]

Arkeel Newsome is physically ready to compete!!

 

[kcc1442]

Arkeel Newsome is physically ready to compete!!

I'm going to like this before I watch or view this!

 

[jdb50]

The freshman may be on the kick off return team but the big thing will be if they are able to make good decisions on whether to catch the ball and how well they do that. Relying on freshman to do that can be risky and I don't expect that for game #1. I see Newsome being used from scrimmage and McCallister being the guy who may get reps at KO return. Brian Lamelle may be a KO return candidate but he sure looked like he knew how to make plays at the wide out spot in his freshman year. Surprised he wasn't on the 2 deep.

 

[Husky25]

The freshman may be on the kick off return team but the big thing will be if they are able to make good decisions on whether to catch the ball and how well they do that. Relying on freshman to do that can be risky and I don't expect that for game #1. I see Newsome being used from scrimmage and McCallister being the guy who may get reps at KO return. Brian Lamelle may be a KO return candidate but he sure looked like he knew how to make plays at the wide out spot in his freshman year. Surprised he wasn't on the 2 deep.

I expect the Two-Deep on August 28 to not exactly resemble the one published this week. With just under 4 weeks to go, I'm betting the two deep is being used as motivation. Last year doesn't matter. No one is promised anything.

 

[huskysupporter]

I don't think Max can be the featured runner. He should be the short yardage back, ala Lou Allen.

I think Marriner is going to be the 18-20 touch guy. I have no problem if a true fresh has to play meaningful snaps either. Running Back is one of the few positions where a freshman can make an impact right away.

 

[Srqhusky]

I'm going to like this before I watch or view this!

I read that article and wonder if he is goi g to college or the nfl combine. Great way to put work in and set an example. Kid should be special

 

[Palatine]

Terry Calley came inn and took the #1 job as a true freshman. It happens all the time. May the best man win.

 

[Jimdish255]

I hope Newsome redshirts and gets up to 190lb range before he starts killing it on tgd field. Even if he is good enough to play now. I think Mariner will hold us down, along with Delorenzo, plenty for this upcoming season.

I don't think he needs to put on a lot of weight. He's just not a tall guy. Unless his overall size gets bigger he seems to be pretty solid (and strong) for his frame. Depends on what you're asking him to do I guess. I agree that Mariner should be more ready as far as tempo and physical play at this level, but Arkeel has some special skills. I'd like to see Arkeel get a look at KO return in practice and see how comfortable he is.

 

[Dooley]

I absolutely think Newsome has a real shot at getting carries this season. My guess is that we might see him hit the field in October if there is an injury and after he's had more time to practice blitz pick-up.

 

[kcc1442]

I don't think he needs to put on a lot of weight. He's just not a tall guy. Unless his overall size gets bigger he seems to be pretty solid (and strong) for his frame. Depends on what you're asking him to do I guess. I agree that Mariner should be more ready as far as tempo and physical play at this level, but Arkeel has some special skills. I'd like to see Arkeel get a look at KO return in practice and see how comfortable he is.

I think Arkeel can be good either way....With the weight he can be a bowling ball like MoJo Drew......Without the weight Sproles-esque! I tend to lean toward the sproles model.....

 

[huskysupporter]

Has it ever worked out when a running back puts on a significant amount of weight? Arkeel gaining weight might affect his explosiveness. He is fine where he is.