Foxx is a quarterback

[Husky25]

Yeah major league teams spend a lot of their limited practice time on position players entering blow outs.

Same exact thing.

Yeah if he can do that without spending time on it practice that's helpful. To make it part of the gameplan when you haven't even given Boyle a chance is puzzling WHEN EVERYTHING YOU CLAIM TO BE DOING IS FOR THE FUTURE.

That's not what I meant and you know it. You created a straw man just to be a contrarian.

You know what the major problems are and having a WR (who has played QB in the past) take a few snaps with the backups vs. the backups in a blow out is hardly among them, On the other hand, one of only 2 scholarship quarterbacks getting hurt during garbage time is. Explain to me what one may glean from during garbage time? There are far too many Chicken Littles here lately. Cut the crap and allow the team to develop.

 

[Dooley]

Um, no. We're 5 games removed from Paul Pasqualoni's staff. Growing pains are/were to be expected. When you add Cochran's injury to the already existing weaknesses that the Pasqualoni regime left behind, the progression curve is going to be delayed significantly. We have a SR QB who should be a 3rd string as our staring QB, we have an OL that can't block, and absolutely zero depth at QB thanks to transfers, decommitments, and injuries. Unless UCONN can petition the NCAA to allow Shirreffs to play this season, there is nothing we can do.

I don't understand burning Boyle's redshirt against Boise. If there is an angle for the Diaco angry pitchfork carrying mobsters to take, that's the one. Why burn the RS if you're not going to play him for the majority of snaps? Our OL was horrendous in week 3 and will continue to be horrendous all season. The staff should have just taken their losses with Whitmer and put in Foxx to mop-up blowouts. But maybe they aren't high on Boyle and think that Shirreffs or even Davis will be their guy in 2015?

 

[whaler11]

That's not what I meant and you know it. You created a straw man just to be a contrarian.

You know what the major problems are and having a WR (who has played QB in the past) take a few snaps with the backups vs. the backups in a blow out is hardly among them, On the other hand, one of only 2 scholarship quarterbacks getting hurt during garbage time is. Explain to me what one may glean from during garbage time? There are far too many Chicken Littles here lately. Cut the crap and allow the team to develop.

No that's exactly what I've been talking about. Like your buddy Cohen couldn't comprehend I'm talking about going forward not what happened at the end of the Temple game.

So unless they are going to let Foxx start chucking the ball in games without any practice you let me know how playing him at QB like they talked about advances this team beyond this season.

If pointing out there seems to be no cohesive strategy whatsoever in the way the team is being coached is Chicken Little - then so be it.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I don't understand burning Boyle's redshirt against Boise. If there is an angle for the Diaco angry pitchfork carrying mobsters to take, that's the one. Why burn the RS if you're not going to play him for the majority of snaps? Our OL was horrendous in week 3 and will continue to be horrendous all season. The staff should have just taken their losses with Whitmer and put in Foxx to mop-up blowouts. But maybe they aren't high on Boyle and think that Shirreffs or even Davis will be their guy in 2015?

I've been holding off on commenting on this. I want to give Diaco the benefit of the doubt here. We have a bye week and then play on the road against a miserable team in what will likely not be a hostile environment. If a plan hasn't been implemented to name Boyle the starting QB going forward I'm going to be livid.

 

[Dooley]

I've been holding off on commenting on this. I want to give Diaco the benefit of the doubt here. We have a bye week and then play on the road against a miserable team in what will likely not be a hostile environment. If a plan hasn't been implemented to name Boyle the starting QB going forward I'm going to be livid.

I don't think you will be the only one. I will be too. I commend Whitmer for putting in a team-first attitude in deciding to return this year but he is not a D-1 level QB. He is a questionable backup at best and always has been. To be honest, I had more faith in Johnny McEntee than I do in Whitmer. I would hope that the coaches will use these next two weeks to get Boyle as many snaps as possible with the 1s in practice, name him starter against Tulane, and use Foxx as some sort of Wildcat package QB. If Boyle gets hurt, use Foxx in the majority of read-option snaps and only let Whitmer on the field if he's the only QB on the roster who isn't injured. Then drink enough CL Smooths to officially black out for a few months and hope this was all one horrendous and tragic nightmare when we wake up next August.

 

[cohenzone]

Yeah major league teams spend a lot of their limited practice time on position players entering blow outs.

Same exact thing.

Yeah if he can do that without spending time on it practice that's helpful. To make it part of the gameplan when you haven't even given Boyle a chance is puzzling WHEN EVERYTHING YOU CLAIM TO BE DOING IS FOR THE FUTURE.

Two cold showers and 4 jugs of amber. For me.

Do you do personnel development? Do you know how long it takes even the greatest manager in history to take on his first job at the helm, have almost all of his support team have less or not much more experience than he does, to assess and really learn what all of his people can do, let alone have to readjust when key injuries occur, and have outsiders armchair QB every move he makes? You take a quote out of context and figure that it shows something crazy about the guy who was quoted. It shows me he is taking a look at his horses and deciding on lots of things. He has maybe a half dozen kids at skill positions who are ready to do or are doing very good things, and some of those are his younger players. He has a major problem with the O line, and he has fans who want some things to happen now that probably are not going to show up this year. He has other fans who want him to build for the future but still don't want the team to take lumps now.

As for Whitmer, he isn't the worst passer in the world, that would be me, and his "happy feet" aren't as big a problem as the lack of time he gets. His first INT against Temple was underthrown, but name me a HOF QB who hasn't thrown a bunch of poor passes that cost his team even with great pass protection. The INT that sealed our fate against Boise (unlikely victory to begin with) was a good throw and ripped away from maybe our biggest stud. None of us has the faintest idea if Foxx is the answer to anything at QB, but if bysome chance he has the goods, one should wonder more about how the last regime evaluated him and not how Diaco, dealing with the entire personnel, has to figure things out. Second guessing is what fans do. The coach can't worry about that or he should sell cars instead. Time will tell what Diaco can do, and there isn't much to take away from this year other than that it confirms what we knew off of last year. The program needs a whole lot of better talent.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I don't think you will be the only one. I will be too. I commend Whitmer for putting in a team-first attitude in deciding to return this year but he is not a D-1 level QB. He is a questionable backup at best and always has been. To be honest, I had more faith in Johnny McEntee than I do in Whitmer. I would hope that the coaches will use these next two weeks to get Boyle as many snaps as possible with the 1s in practice, name him starter against Tulane, and use Foxx as some sort of Wildcat package QB. If Boyle gets hurt, use Foxx in the majority of read-option snaps and only let Whitmer on the field if he's the only QB on the roster who isn't injured. Then drink enough CL Smooths to officially black out for a few months and hope this was all one horrendous and tragic nightmare when we wake up next August.

The only part I will disagree with is that I thought Whitmer was a serviceable QB in 2012. If you can look past the TO numbers, the degree to which he has regressed is astounding.

 

[Dooley]

The only part I will disagree with is that I thought Whitmer was a serviceable QB in 2012. If you can look past the TO numbers, the degree to which he has regressed is astounding.

Playing behind GDL's OLs really f---ed with his head, huh? Literally.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Two cold showers and 4 jugs of amber. For me.

Do you do personnel development? Do you know how long it takes even the greatest manager in history to take on his first job at the helm, have almost all of his support team have less or not much more experience than he does, to assess and really learn what all of his people can do, let alone have to readjust when key injuries occur, and have outsiders armchair QB every move he makes? You take a quote out of context and figure that it shows something crazy about the guy who was quoted. It shows me he is taking a look at his horses and deciding on lots of things. He has maybe a half dozen kids at skill positions who are ready to do or are doing very good things, and some of those are his younger players. He has a major problem with the O line, and he has fans who want some things to happen now that probably are not going to show up this year. He has other fans who want him to build for the future but still don't want the team to take lumps now.

As for Whitmer, he isn't the worst passer in the world, that would be me, and his "happy feet" aren't as big a problem as the lack of time he gets. His first INT against Temple was underthrown, but name me a HOF QB who hasn't thrown a bunch of poor passes that cost his team even with great pass protection. The INT that sealed our fate against Boise (unlikely victory to begin with) was a good throw and ripped away from maybe our biggest stud. None of us has the faintest idea if Foxx is the answer to anything at QB, but if bysome chance he has the goods, one should wonder more about how the last regime evaluated him and not how Diaco, dealing with the entire personnel. Second guessing is what fans do. The coach can't worry about that or he should sell cars instead. Time will tell what Diaco can do, and there isn't much to take away from this year other than that it confirms what we knew off of last year. The program needs a whole lot of better talent.

Be fair. The INT against Temple was not an aberration. It's become the norm for Whitmer.

And the INT that sealed our fate against Boise was the one prior to the one that got ripped away from Davis. It was a terrible decision and throw.

 

[whaler11]

Two cold showers and 4 jugs of amber. For me.

Do you do personnel development? Do you know how long it takes even the greatest manager in history to take on his first job at the helm, have almost all of his support team have less or not much more experience than he does, to assess and really learn what all of his people can do, let alone have to readjust when key injuries occur, and have outsiders armchair QB every move he makes? You take a quote out of context and figure that it shows something crazy about the guy who was quoted. It shows me he is taking a look at his horses and deciding on lots of things. He has maybe a half dozen kids at skill positions who are ready to do or are doing very good things, and some of those are his younger players. He has a major problem with the O line, and he has fans who want some things to happen now that probably are not going to show up this year. He has other fans who want him to build for the future but still don't want the team to take lumps now.

As for Whitmer, he isn't the worst passer in the world, that would be me, and his "happy feet" aren't as big a problem as the lack of time he gets. His first INT against Temple was underthrown, but name me a HOF QB who hasn't thrown a bunch of poor passes that cost his team even with great pass protection. The INT that sealed our fate against Boise (unlikely victory to begin with) was a good throw and ripped away from maybe our biggest stud. None of us has the faintest idea if Foxx is the answer to anything at QB, but if bysome chance he has the goods, one should wonder more about how the last regime evaluated him and not how Diaco, dealing with the entire personnel, has to figure things out. Second guessing is what fans do. The coach can't worry about that or he should sell cars instead. Time will tell what Diaco can do, and there isn't much to take away from this year other than that it confirms what we knew off of last year. The program needs a whole lot of better talent.

Even after hundreds of words you still never answer the important question.

How does playing Foxx at quarterback make the team better past 2014?

 

[Husky25]

No that's exactly what I've been talking about. Like your buddy Cohen couldn't comprehend I'm talking about going forward not what happened at the end of the Temple game.

So unless they are going to let Foxx start chucking the ball in games without any practice you let me know how playing him at QB like they talked about advances this team beyond this season.

If pointing out there seems to be no cohesive strategy whatsoever in the way the team is being coached is Chicken Little - then so be it.

Read the article again. He has been doing some in practice and like Dooley said, maybe they aren't high on Boyle. I don't know how he could be any worse than Whitmer, but the coaches see something. I'm not at the practices and I'm certainly no expert. I do know this though, nothing good could have come from putting Boyle in that situation, whereas about 10 negative things could have happened. Garbage time tends to be sloppy and slower than typical full speed. Could Foxx have gotten hurt just as easily as Boyle, or the 3rd string Walk on, or anyone else? Sure, but UConn could also weather the storm better at WR, than at QB.

 

[whaler11]

Read the article again. He has been doing some in practice and like Dooley said, maybe they aren't high on Boyle. I don't know how he could be any worse than Whitmer, but the coaches see something. I'm not at the practices and I'm certainly no expert. I do know this though, nothing good could have come from putting Boyle in that situation, whereas about 10 negative things could have happened. Garbage time tends to be sloppy and slower than typical full speed. Could Foxx have gotten hurt just as easily as Boyle, or the 3rd string Walk on, or anyone else? Sure, but UConn could also weather the storm better at WR, than at QB.

You are talking about something completely different.

Running out the clock in garbage time is one thing. That is not what they are talking about going forward.

 

[cohenzone]

Even after hundreds of words you still never answer the important question.

How does playing Foxx at quarterback make the team better past 2014?

Look, the coach is in the situation where people want to see some more interesting football now. He's also in the situation where he's has the #1 QB gone, another potential dual threat guy leave the program pre-season, and a fly in the ointment of his likely desire to RS Boyle. The RS is gone, which suggests that playing him more makes some sense. However, there are some things that don't make sense. I didn't like the QB platoon at all, especially since Cochrane and Whitmer pretty much are the same type of QB with some fairly negligible differences. Ditto for Boyle. A choice to use Boyle and still do a rotation makes sense to me only if the alternate is not Whitmer, but someone who really changes the nature of the threat. Right now, we don't know if anyone meets that definition, but Diaco says its Foxx. If Diaco decides to sit Whitmer, it probably means it will be Boyle to play. If the kid stays healthy but struggles, what is your next move coach? I'm not against playing Boyle, but I'm also not against the coach experimenting with the skills that are there now.

 

[whaler11]

Look, the coach is in the situation where people want to see some more interesting football now. He's also in the situation where he's has the #1 QB gone, another potential dual threat guy leave the program pre-season, and a fly in the ointment of his likely desire to RS Boyle. The RS is gone, which suggests that playing him more makes some sense. However, there are some things that don't make sense. I didn't like the QB platoon at all, especially since Cochrane and Whitmer pretty much are the same type of QB with some fairly negligible differences. Ditto for Boyle. A choice to use Boyle and still do a rotation makes sense to me only if the alternate is not Whitmer, but someone who really changes the nature of the threat. Right now, we don't know if anyone meets that definition, but Diaco says its Foxx. If Diaco decides to sit Whitmer, it probably means it will be Boyle to play. If the kid stays healthy but struggles, what is your next move coach? I'm not against playing Boyle, but I'm also not against the coach experimenting with the skills that are there now.

So after constantly talking about the future and doing things like playing 55 guys from scrimmage under the guise of playing for the future..

Now it's what can we do that doesn't help the future but beats Tulane or Army or SMU.

Which is fine but why wait 5 games to take that approach?

So I'm not seeing much disagreement anymore on my point. What does this do for the future and does it line up with past decisions.

The answers seem to be nothing and no.

 

[cohenzone]

Be fair. The INT against Temple was not an aberration. It's become the norm for Whitmer.

And the INT that sealed our fate against Boise was the one prior to the one that got ripped away from Davis. It was a terrible decision and throw.

Whitmer was the #2, not the #1, and I intensely disliked the first few game QB rotation that sat CC when it made no sense. Yeah, Whitmer throws INTs, but that particular INT was not on Whitmer. The back up QB for the Washington crepped out against the Giants. At this point I would play Boyle and let him play until he either totally flops or shows he's ready. How much much is proved behind this pass protection, who knows. But this thread was about Foxx. If the kid can produce now and get the rest of the O acclimated to what he can bring, that is an eye to the future. But I wouldn't see him as any more than a change of pace, and one that I would hope would be used with more imagination than the way McCummings was used. For all we know, PP should have made Foxx the QB all along.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Two cold showers and 4 jugs of amber. For me.

Do you do personnel development? Do you know how long it takes even the greatest manager in history to take on his first job at the helm, have almost all of his support team have less or not much more experience than he does, to assess and really learn what all of his people can do, let alone have to readjust when key injuries occur, and have outsiders armchair QB every move he makes? You take a quote out of context and figure that it shows something crazy about the guy who was quoted. It shows me he is taking a look at his horses and deciding on lots of things. He has maybe a half dozen kids at skill positions who are ready to do or are doing very good things, and some of those are his younger players. He has a major problem with the O line, and he has fans who want some things to happen now that probably are not going to show up this year. He has other fans who want him to build for the future but still don't want the team to take lumps now.

As for Whitmer, he isn't the worst passer in the world, that would be me, and his "happy feet" aren't as big a problem as the lack of time he gets. His first INT against Temple was underthrown, but name me a HOF QB who hasn't thrown a bunch of poor passes that cost his team even with great pass protection. The INT that sealed our fate against Boise (unlikely victory to begin with) was a good throw and ripped away from maybe our biggest stud. None of us has the faintest idea if Foxx is the answer to anything at QB, but if bysome chance he has the goods, one should wonder more about how the last regime evaluated him and not how Diaco, dealing with the entire personnel, has to figure things out. Second guessing is what fans do. The coach can't worry about that or he should sell cars instead. Time will tell what Diaco can do, and there isn't much to take away from this year other than that it confirms what we knew off of last year. The program needs a whole lot of better talent.

Personnel development and management. That's where we are at, in a nutshell. Absolutely.

it's a corny, and theatrical reference, but also based in reality - in that Diaco strikes me remarkably as a highly intelligent and motivated ensign or 2nd lieutenant coming out of an academy or something. He wants to lead,and thinks he knows how, but the chief petty officer on deck, or the master gunnery seargent knows a hell of a lot more about command, especially under pressure.

He's got people to lean on Diaco, in a guy like Patterson for example, and other coaches he's been around for the past 20 years, but I think he's really got self evaluate, and make sure his management plan makes sense to develop the personnel is sound.

He said himself, before the season began, that nobody has ever seen the systems we are using this season. Maybe there is a reason for that.

 

[sdhusky]

Even after hundreds of words you still never answer the important question.

How does playing Foxx at quarterback make the team better past 2014?

How does playing Davis make the team better past 2014? Or playing any other senior?

 

[Husky25]

You are talking about something completely different.

Running out the clock in garbage time is one thing. That is not what they are talking about going forward.

So you don't want to see any more wins this year? You don't want to be entertained? You want a continuation of the last 3 years? The coaching staff may have their sights firmly focused on the future, but they have to play games in the now too. They are not going to forfeit the rest of the season because they think they might be better in 2015.

As far as I can tell, the players have not checked out on Diaco and if UConn continues to lose, then Diaco cannot afford to be boring. That is how the former "coaching" staff operated.

Boyle can't run the plays Foxx was running anyway so what's the difference? How does Boyle develop anything by coming in and hand the ball off four times? At the very least, this plants a seed in the mind of opposing coaches that Diaco is creative and may a have a few tricks up his sleeve. It also lets the players have a little fun. It's not like Wain lined up at left tackle...

 

[whaler11]

So you don't want to see any more wins this year? You don't want to be entertained? You want a continuation of the last 3 years? The coaching staff may have their sights firmly focused on the future, but they have to play games in the now too. They are not going to forfeit the rest of the season because they think they might be better in 2015.

As far as I can tell, the players have not checked out on Diaco and if UConn continues to lose, then Diaco cannot afford to be boring. That is how the former "coaching" staff operated.

Boyle can't run the plays Foxx was running anyway so what's the difference? How does Boyle develop anything by coming in and hand the ball off four times? At the very least, this plants a seed in the mind of opposing coaches that Diaco is creative and may a have a few tricks up his sleeve. It also lets the players have a little fun. It's not like Wain lined up at left tackle...

Of course I do.

I wasn't the one playing 55 guys from scrimmage.

I wasn't the one who was simplying things two weeks ago and now re-complicating them.

I wasn't the one who burned Boyle's redshirt and then never used him.

However if you don't get that playing Foxx in that capacity forces them to invest practice time in that scheme and therefore takes away from other things they can do in practice... and this is a team that can't do basic things - practice time is a pretty valuable resource for them.

 

[whaler11]

How does playing Davis make the team better past 2014? Or playing any other senior?

Well he sits Davis all the time so isn't that more evidence that makes one scratch their head on this?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

How does playing Davis make the team better past 2014? Or playing any other senior?

What an utterly idiotic thing to say.

 

[Dooley]

So after constantly talking about the future and doing things like playing 55 guys from scrimmage under the guise of playing for the future..

Now it's what can we do that doesn't help the future but beats Tulane or Army or SMU.

Which is fine but why wait 5 games to take that approach?

So I'm not seeing much disagreement anymore on my point. What does this do for the future and does it line up with past decisions.

The answers seem to be nothing and no.

You don't think winning a few games and gaining a little confidence won't help in 2015? Granted, our 3-game win streak at the end of last season did not carry over into 2014. But to be fair, we only had Cochran against BYU. We likely wouldn't have beaten BYU with Tom Brady under center.

I'm all for playing Boyle, even if it might get him hurt. I'm just not as opposed to seeing Foxx run a Wildcat read-option either if it means that we move the ball and give opposing D Coordinators something to try to game plan against.

We know two very concrete things about our offense:

1. Whitmer is not a D-1 level QB;
2. Our OL is horrendous

If Boyle can not quickly read defense coverages and is going to hold onto the ball too long and get pummeled OR turn the ball over consistently, then the only other alternative is to move the pocket around and go unconventional. To this date, we are unaware of any other player who has practiced as a Wildcat read-option QB other than Foxx. You're certainly not going to run Wildcat read-option with Newsome or Johnson. They are too valuable to mess with. Can Lemelle run it? Bradley? We don't know. Right now, as of today, all we have to go on is that Foxx has practiced it and looked fairly comfortable in garbage time doing it.

I'm not so sure 2014 is a good year to develop QBs, given our incredibly shallow depth at the position and incredibly porous OL. This might be a better year to develop our RBs.

 

[Dooley]

What an utterly idiotic thing to say.

The argument that playing Foxx at QB does not help beyond 2014 because he's a SR. If playing SRs is bad for 2014, then so is Davis, under that guise.

That said, the coaches really do seem content on taking Davis off the field on crucial downs so maybe they've already adopted that philosophy. Doesn't make me want to pound my head against the concrete any less.

 

[whaler11]

You don't think winning a few games and gaining a little confidence won't help in 2015? Granted, our 3-game win streak at the end of last season did not carry over into 2014. But to be fair, we only had Cochran against BYU. We likely wouldn't have beaten BYU with Tom Brady under center.

I'm all for playing Boyle, even if it might get him hurt. I'm just not as opposed to seeing Foxx run a Wildcat read-option either if it means that we move the ball and give opposing D Coordinators something to try to game plan against.

We know two very concrete things about our offense:

1. Whitmer is not a D-1 level QB;
2. Our OL is horrendous

If Boyle can not quickly read defense coverages and is going to hold onto the ball too long and get pummeled OR turn the ball over consistently, then the only other alternative is to move the pocket around and go unconventional. To this date, we are unaware of any other player who has practiced as a Wildcat read-option QB other than Foxx. You're certainly not going to run Wildcat read-option with Newsome or Johnson. They are too valuable to mess with. Can Lemelle run it? Bradley? We don't know. Right now, as of today, all we have to go on is that Foxx has practiced it and looked fairly comfortable in garbage time doing it.

I'm not so sure 2014 is a good year to develop QBs, given our incredibly shallow depth at the position and incredibly porous OL. This might be a better year to develop our RBs.

Clearly I'm not getting my point across:

You can defend decisions a, b, c, d and so on.

I can't see anyway to connect a, b, c d into a cogent long term plan.

That's the issue for me.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The argument that playing Foxx at QB does not help beyond 2014 because he's a SR. If playing SRs is bad for 2014, then so is Davis, under that guise.

That said, the coaches really do seem content on taking Davis off the field on crucial downs so maybe they've already adopted that philosophy. Doesn't make me want to pound my head against the concrete any less.

Dooley, I really don't mean to blow up on you do just know that but...

THE ARGUMENT ISN'T THAT FOXX IS A SENIOR IT'S THAT HE'S A SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER PLAYING QUARTERBACK!