FIU Post Game Thread

[giddyup]

Yep, somehow 2 FCS teams from the Northeast played better vs. Uconn's last 2 opponents than Mora's crew did....... Maine lost 14-12 @ FIU and URI put up 35 pts @ Georgia St and lost by 7....go figure ?...SMH!

The fun thing about College FB is a lot of the game is about confidence and momentum. It’s also the bad thing. A spark was lit last year. There was belief. That’s what carried them through NC State. Once they got waxed by GSTU, the confidence crumbled, the focus and intensity dissipated, players don’t trust the staff, and sheet rolls downhill fast. If we can see the OC sucks, what do think the kids feel. No, this situation is ephed until they kick the OC to the curb.

 

[Bongo Fury]

I believe Mora is a very good coach and not likely UConn can get one better that would actually want to stay here. I’m not sure if he is a good recruiter though. At UCLA he did better with talent he inherited. Players with other offers and transfers from power conferences are somewhat meaningless. Good players are good players.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

At least being in a conference mentally gives players and coaches something to strive for, a conference championship, and it helps to develop rivalries.

The only prize UConn has to look forward to is a Wednesday afternoon bowl game.

Yeah just like UCF did last year winning nine games and finishing second in the AAC.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Crazy how you think we have an FCS talent team… the problem is our OC is not creative and cannot install a west coast offensive system and stretch the field out. If Noel Mazzone can come for two weeks and help revamp our offense then what’s stopping Charlton doing the same? The deal is Charlton isn’t as good as mazzone

Mazzone played Tyler P

 

[Go Dogs!!]

This is the end of UConn football. I’m calling it now. We couldn’t afford another <3 win season and here it is on a platter. there’s literally no hope because we physically don’t have the talent to compete at this level. Mora is a failure.

And the worst part is we don’t get a second chance. You can’t hype up the program like this and then go 3-9. It’s over guys. Nice knowing y’all.

Go Away, we don't need you and your negative thoughts! The program is not going away but it would nice to see you go crawl in your hole. Nice not knowing you!

 

[businesslawyer]

Once again, UConn won time of possession, 1st downs, 3rd down conversion rate. But that doesn't matter much when the opponent busts multiple big plays in 1st half and takes a solid lead.

Funny thing is, I think (and it may be bad memory) that guys like Pindell and Shirreffs would do fairly well with this team as both were capable of creating something out of nothing. We just don't have that guy.

Make something out of nothing? We don’t even have a QB who can make something out of something.

 

[businesslawyer]

.


Yup. Because guess what? We don’t have a conference. There’s nothing at all holding the admin back from dropping an independent football team now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the AAC at least gave us a home and safety net with a few million a year and guaranteed scheduling. This was all a ploy to elevate our basketball program at the cost of football and guess what? It worked.

There was no ploy. We went back to the Big East for basketball and took the risk that it would make competing in football impossible. There was no ploy other than by posters here who tried to blow smoke.

Having said that, however, you can only argue we should have stayed with the AAC when we left. Had we stayed, we absolutely would have had to bail when UCF, Houston and Cincy left anyway. So whether or not it was a good decision at the time, it was in hindsight the right decision because we would have been forced to leave anyway.

The football team sucks. We’re in Mora’s second year. Time will tell whether last year was a total fluke or this year is a fluke. But you’re not big on giving things time, are you?

 

[Go Dogs!!]

Make something out of nothing? We don’t even have a QB who can make something out of something.

We don't have a lot of things, would be nice to have a receiver that gets open, then a QB that finds him. Our OC hasn't made that call yet or the players aren't capable. Stretch the field once in awhile. Give them something else to think about. Open the middle of field for the TE's. Maybe being out coached but that also maybe the result of players not capable. On the D, it amazes me how the other teams find that space and then the QB finds them. Not sure if its a breakdown, but I did see the coaches and players reaction yesterday after the second and third TD, pissed and angry/ frustrated is what I saw. Leads me to believe missed assignments.The first drive by them was way too easy, not the start we needed. Hope those can be fixed.

 

[huskymedic]

We don't have a lot of things, would be nice to have a receiver that gets open, then a QB that finds him. Our OC hasn't made that call yet or the players aren't capable. Stretch the field once in awhile. Give them something else to think about. Open the middle of field for the TE's. Maybe being out coached but that also maybe the result of players not capable. .

There are 4 rows… open tweet:

 

[storrsroars]

Make something out of nothing? We don’t even have a QB who can make something out of something.

That got a laugh.

However, if you want to go a step further, watch the Pitt/WVU highlights and watch Pitt's QB repeatedly make nothing out of something.

 

[Classof87]

I was really disappointed in how flat the Defense was in the 1st half. They were great in the 2nd half, but you just cannot come out flat like that against FIU and let them push you all over the field. I think we are really lacking at the LB position, making us vulnerable to running QBs. Mitchell seems to be all by himself out there.

The problems on Offense, IMO, come from the play calling. All Spring we heard about these new WRs who had speed to burn, why don't we let them stretch the field? I didn't count, but did we throw downfield (10 yds+ off the line) more than twice??? You can't let the D put 9 and 10 men in the box (and we wonder why the run game gets stymied???). Charlton came with a rep of being creative; I just don't see it. At all.

I think we give Roberson one more start, and if he can't get the O going, then we have to look at Zion again (yes, I said it, lol). Say what you will about his stats last year, but we won games despite his being thrown into the mix unexpectedly.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If you really prefer destroying every other sport at UConn just to save football, then let's just go to the Colonial. At least then fans will have actual rivals and be able to go to away games. Stop with this AAC bullspit. Sorry you can't stand having several P4 opponents on the football schedule each year or enjoying all those basketball tournament win shares.

@ZooCougar would rather play Akron in football than win a basketball national championship.

And he is wrong that joining some bad G5 league would move the needle at all. UConn football has everything it needs to be a reasonably successful program. One of the top 50-75. We just aren’t doing it.

 

[Devland]

I don't think people on here realize the lack of talent on offense. We don't have any real play makers. Joly sticks out because he has been adequate. On most teams he is the 3rd or fourth option. There is not one player on offense where the opponents game plan to stop ( like a Donald Brown, Jordan Todman, Marcus Easley... ).

 

[ZooCougar]

@ZooCougar would rather play Akron in football than win a basketball national championship.

And he is wrong that joining some bad G5 league would move the needle at all. UConn football has everything it needs to be a reasonably successful program. One of the top 50-75. We just aren’t doing it.

I’m saying join a conference for football only. You can still play your precious Catholic league basketball.

You already have zero credibility here. Misrepresenting people’s positions won’t ever help your cause.

Don’t you want to give the program something to compete for?

 

[UCONNRPh]

This is factually incorrect...

On offense alone we had 9 former P5 players, many of whom were worthy of scholarships from high end programs, when the season began.

Senn (Colorado), Shor (Alabama), Jurgens (Boise), Stewart (Michigan) Hansen (Michigan), Roberson (Penn State), G Porter (ASU), Hoenig (TCU), Mitchell (Louisville)

Plus guys like Haynes, Joly & Ross (former Freshman All-American) who were clearly talented diamonds in the rough.

That doesn't even count legit 3X Star Guys like Rosa & Zach Drawdy who had offers from much better programs than us.

Zion was ranked higher than their freshman QB who killed us today...it's NOT talent.

It's coaching, schemes/ play calls and overall culture.

Why are we not hearing majority of these guys names at all? changes are needed.

 

[UCONNRPh]

The young QB? Are you talking about the our QB who is in his 5th year of college?

I pray we do not lose the QB commit from Texas since we have no offense excitement

 

[uchusky32]

Don't see how we turn this around. Offensive line not dominating. Everyone knows we want to run the ball. WRs cant get separation. And when they are open our QBs don't find them.

DBs got beat over and over again in the first half. And we waited until half time to make an adjustment.

 

[Banta55]

We are by far the worst team in the FBS. Literally the laughingstock of the country yet again.

This season is an absolute dumpster fire and whether you want to blame the coach the administration or the players it’s clear we can’t compete. Where do we go from here? I don’t know if anyone has the answer but FCS probably isn’t too far off.

Stop with the fcs bullshit never happening, just ignorant

 

[kibblesnbits]

Why are we not hearing majority of these guys names at all? changes are needed.

With the exception of Shor (who never got to Alabama) and Mitchell, those players left because they couldn't get on the field at a P5. Perhaps we are learning why.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I’m saying join a conference for football only. You can still play your precious Catholic league basketball.

You already have zero credibility here. Misrepresenting people’s positions won’t ever help your cause.

Don’t you want to give the program something to compete for?

I have zero credibility because I am right almost all the time. Got it.

College athletics is going to change so much over the next 5 years, that outside of getting invited to a P5 league tomorrow, we might as well just focus on making the best out of UConn football while continuing to dominate in men's and women's hoops and see what happens.

The cable era of college sports is over, and a lot of going to change. ESPN, and to a lesser extent Fox, created these conferences, and they are dinosaurs watching the streaming asteroid approaching. They were probably right to box Apple out of the Pac 12, because when Apple and Amazon decide it is time for them to play in college sports, everyone else is dead. Disney is desperately trying to sell ESPN. Disney CEO Iger is one step away from setting up a table outside the local grocery store to try to sell it like a high school girls softball team fundraiser. He wants OUT.

NIL and the Transfer Portal make it possible for any program to dramatically upgrade quickly with the right staff and a little support. The era of SEC programs stockpiling talent are over. Just look at how the SEC is struggling in the non-conference. This is what happens when other programs can pay their players too. There is no excuse for a football program in a wealthy state at a flagship university to be as bad as UConn is. NONE. There is no macro trend that made UConn football this bad in 2023. The program did this to itself.

 

[ZooCougar]

Stop with the fcs Stop never happening, just ignorant

They need to ban that guy.

 

[ZooCougar]

I have zero credibility because I am right almost all the time. Got it.

College athletics is going to change so much over the next 5 years, that outside of getting invited to a P5 league tomorrow, we might as well just focus on making the best out of UConn football while continuing to dominate in men's and women's hoops and see what happens.

The cable era of college sports is over, and a lot of going to change. ESPN, and to a lesser extent Fox, created these conferences, and they are dinosaurs watching the streaming asteroid approaching. They were probably right to box Apple out of the Pac 12, because when Apple and Amazon decide it is time for them to play in college sports, everyone else is dead. Disney is desperately trying to sell ESPN. Disney CEO Iger is one step away from setting up a table outside the local grocery store to try to sell it like a high school girls softball team fundraiser. He wants OUT.

NIL and the Transfer Portal make it possible for any program to dramatically upgrade quickly with the right staff and a little support. The era of SEC programs stockpiling talent are over. Just look at how the SEC is struggling in the non-conference. This is what happens when other programs can pay their players too. There is no excuse for a football program in a wealthy state at a flagship university to be as bad as UConn is. NONE. There is no macro trend that made UConn football this bad in 2023. The program did this to itself.

Folks, the rantings of a crazy person. Not even relevant to the topic.

 

[SubbaBub]

Why are we a badly coached team?
Why is our talent level poor?

I'm not convinced it's either. We've seen most of these player play well. These coaches do know what they're doing. This isn't a PP phoning it in or Diaco muttering to the potted plants. There is something about this program that is missing. Is it just a will to do what it takes to win? Attention to detail, the extra work (not just showing up, but real work). I remember stories about Orlovsky, Fincher, Osunde, etc. leading conditioning and film sessions on their own year round. Is this team at that level? Are they working at playing fast? I have no idea, not there and probably couldn't tell anyway, but there is something that is lacking that places like Liberty, JMU, GaSt, and FIU have over us. That is what pisses me off more than anything as a fan.

As for yesterday, if we played in the first half the way we played in the second half, this game would have met every pregame expectation of an easy win vs a truly horrible team. Unfortunately, that won't be good enough to win any of the next 7 games. That scares me as a fan. We are in for a really tough couple of months.

 

[husky429]

At this point, we might as well fire anyone associated with the offense and special teams to save a little money. It couldn't be worse if you had some drunk season ticket holder covered in barbecue sauce and questionable B.O. make the play calls.

At least it would get us some airtime of sports center.

 

[Chin Diesel]

QBs hold on to the ball too long. Either they just aren't ready to anticipate the receiver coming open or the receiver isn't coming open. I think it's mostly the former. When they take 3-5 steps and throw it we do OK. When they are acanning the field waiting for a busted coverage they get pressured.

I think it's that simple.

It always looks we’re running in sand.

This team is sooooooooo slow at skill positions and at LB.

Roberson can't run post-ACL.

DB's have to play soft because what happens when they try to jam at the line. They miss their hit and then WR's simply run by them.

Our WR's can't get separation.

Houston is the only player with plus speed.