Felt like Christmas again | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Felt like Christmas again

Waquoit said:
I'm going to use context clues. Candle has a rep for recruiting talent. That he's bringing in the players he's choosing to bring in speaks more to their ability than some rando internet nobodies, imo.
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I'm not doubting talent evaluation. I'm just surprised at what I'm seeing. A guy who was at Toledo, did pretty well at Toledo sure, but it's not even close to the top MAC school traditionally, is now at independent UConn and seems to be doing really well in the portal. Kids are coming from Wisconsin, ND State and USC (4* CB from 2025 class and another safety) a former 4* Rutgers RB, TE from NC, WR from OK State, a DB from Duke, a DL from Texas. I mean, this is wild. Mora was a former NFL HC and UCLA HC and he never managed that.

Maybe these are all kids who didn't get a shot or didn't make it at those schools, but convincing them UConn is the place still can't be easy.
 
Curious, does anyone know if we are targeting any other QBs in the portal right now? I realized that none of our current roster has significant experience and that somewhat concerns me
 
HuskyHawk said:
I'm not doubting talent evaluation. I'm just surprised at what I'm seeing. A guy who was at Toledo, did pretty well at Toledo sure, but it's not even close to the top MAC school traditionally, is now at independent UConn and seems to be doing really well in the portal. Kids are coming from Wisconsin, ND State and USC (4* CB from 2025 class and another safety) a former 4* Rutgers RB, TE from NC, WR from OK State, a DB from Duke, a DL from Texas. I mean, this is wild. Mora was a former NFL HC and UCLA HC and he never managed that.

Maybe these are all kids who didn't get a shot or didn't make it at those schools, but convincing them UConn is the place still can't be easy.
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I agree with everything but Coach Candle had Toledo at or near the top of the MAC standings while he was there, so I wouldn't say Toledo is not a top MAC school. He may be advising players that UConn is much much closer to a P4 program than G5, which it really is going by AD metrics. Then he has prime examples of why they should come to UConn to get noticed in this portal era more so than at another P4 or G6 program: Skyler Bell from P2 Wisconsin, Bryun Parham from San Jose State and Washington, and Joe Fagnano from FBS Maine all
 
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AllHusky said:
So, according to our outbound
/inbound list, there are 5 guys still uncommitted from our portal that I'd like to hang onto

Diomande-Produced for us last year, 2 years left
Mills-Some production, mystery dnp much after
Mollette-Experienced solid player
Hoffman-Didn't he get decent amount of snaps?
Toy-How good is he?? I'd be guessing
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Down to 3 of those with Mollette to Arizona and Toy to CSU.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
One thing I realized when I turned 65 on my most recent birthday: there are a lot of old people out there who are younger than i am.
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You're 65? Holy ****.
 
I haven't sunk the time to evaluate the recruits coming in, and frankly at the insane pace they're coming in, in would be a full-time job. I hope they end up being as good as they seem.

Not too long after Mora left, I posted that free agency and NIL had left me not caring about college football. I said I hope that turned around once summer practices rolled around. Well, I have to say Coach Candle has my head spinning with the speed and quality with which he replaced his staff and has aggressively attacked the portal. I have no idea how good we will be, but he's given us a lot of reasons to hope.

Now, if you'll forgive me, I have to go ice my thumb. I've got a little bit of tendinitis from liking so many commitments and offers on Twitter.
 
What is the protocol for evaluating all the newcomers(besides the obvious W-L)? I am not in tune with all of the data available, but i know it exists.
 
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CL82 said:
I haven't sunk the time to evaluate the recruits coming in, and frankly at the insane pace they're coming in, in would be a full-time job. I hope they end up being as good as they seem.

Not too long after Mora left, I posted that free agency and NIL had left me not caring about college football. I said I hope that turned around once summer practices rolled around. Well, I have to say Coach Candle has my head spinning with the speed and quality with which he replaced his staff and has aggressively attacked the portal. I have no idea how good we will be, but he's given us a lot of reasons to hope.

Now, if you'll forgive me, I have to go ice my thumb. I've got a little bit of tendinitis from liking so many commitments and offers on Twitter.
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All the players look like 5 * when they are wearing the Husky helmet with the visor. But yeah, I'm sure HCJC and his staff are working over-time evaluating and recruiting the players coming in. Just have to have faith. I keep checking their 247 pages to see what other programs made offers.
 
If the big boys want to go to 24 team playoffs, UConn as independent could be in a sweet spot for talent escaping P4 benches, last year guys wanting to show out (ivy or fcs) and solid high school kids who think they can show out by getting playing time in year 2 or 3. As a 1968 UConn guy who rooted for Toby, Wonderful Wes, Penders, Bill Corely, etc. not any more unlikely than getting 18 NCAA championships in basketball since then.
 
Getting back to Christmas....Does anybody else feel like a sled full of every present you asked for has been delivered, but you are just going to have to look at them for 8 months before you can play with them?
 
UCFan1513 said:
Relatively novice football fan here (mostly MBB) so this is a genuine question. What makes Candle’s transfers and recruits markedly better than Mora’s? It seems a lot of the transfers have limited on-field experience from what I’ve seen - are they more highly rated coming out of high school than a Mora recruit?

Looking at 247 Sports a similar proportion of last year’s recruits to this year’s are 3-stars vs unranked, and this year has a slightly higher average rating, but not a huge jump. Not tapped in to the world of football recruiting - what am I missing?
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I am joining this thread late, but the short answer is that no one knows how the replacements will fair until at least two or three games into the season. Will the QB from TN be better than JF? I doubt it in his first full season even if he wins the competition. But he may not need 6 seasons to get to where Joe was in his final season. Then again he may be not quite as good as hoped. We simply haven't seen him play.
 
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RSTuthill said:
You apparently missed this year's rose colored glasses ceremony. It is an annual affair in which we all partake. We normally remain in this state, fed constant optimistic press releases and Courant stories until the first game of the season against a P4 opponent comes around. Then our heads explode.
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You mean like the 2 P4 teams we beat this past season including the ACC Champ? I’d say if any heads exploded they didn’t belong to UConn fans.
 
AllHusky said:
Getting back to Christmas....Does anybody else feel like a sled full of every present you asked for has been delivered, but you are just going to have to look at them for 8 months before you can play with them?
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It's like getting a giant Lego set and having no time to build it
 
Just when you think you’re done unwrapping the gifts and that Christmas is over ….
 
The end of last season to now has been a roller coaster. First, Mora left, then players opted out of the bowl and hit the transfer portal and the team got smoked by Army in the Fenway Bowl. Then the loss of assistant coaches. The one positive during that time was the hiring of Candle.

Then the script shifted. Candle started hiring assistants and inbound recruiting picked up considerably. It's hard to evaluate all of the new assistants and new players, but I think Candle and crew have done a terrific job in a short period of time.

Candle won't replace Joe, Skyler, and Cam, but he has had solid offenses during his time at Toledo so I am hopeful the offense will be solid. I'm more optimistic on defense as UConn's defense was not good last year and it started with the DL which I think has been upgraded.

I'm excited for the season!
 
UConnJim said:
The end of last season to now has been a roller coaster. First, Mora left, then players opted out of the bowl and hit the transfer portal and the team got smoked by Army in the Fenway Bowl. Then the loss of assistant coaches. The one positive during that time was the hiring of Candle.

Then the script shifted. Candle started hiring assistants and inbound recruiting picked up considerably. It's hard to evaluate all of the new assistants and new players, but I think Candle and crew have done a terrific job in a short period of time.

Candle won't replace Joe, Skyler, and Cam, but he has had solid offenses during his time at Toledo so I am hopeful the offense will be solid. I'm more optimistic on defense as UConn's defense was not good last year and it started with the DL which I think has been upgraded.

I'm excited for the season!
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I am excited for the season too ... until proven otherwise. You should also mention that HCJC won't be replacing Joe Fagnano either, at least in the first year. But given a couple years of experience with the guys in the room today, he could come close.
 
I'd say he has alot more talent to work with than Mora had(at QB). Fagnano was a 7th year player, good QB with LOTS of experience.
 
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