Game Week - UConn v. Virginia

[UConnDan97]

Jim Fuller@NHRJimFuller just now
#UConn's Bob Diaco on last series of plays: "If you are looking for somebody to blame, I am standing here ready to take it."

Okay. You're forgiven. Now go punch Virginia in #$king mouth...

 

[HomeKing93]

I'm almost more concerned that the team was hyped to stick it in, and then Navy completely knocked them on their ass.

True. I'm sure Navy knew what was up when Davis, Mayala and Lemelle were taken out for Myers, Bloom and Lee after the Mayala catch. When you bring in three big TEs and go under center (after a great drive down the field all in the shotgun), that usually telegraphs a run. And after the final timeout, the formation was almost the same. I hope Diaco learns that you don't always have to go into a goal line offense when you are on the goal line, especially when time is a factor.

OK, now I can move on to Virginia.

 

[huskymedic]

Jim Fuller: Ramblings from The Runway: Diaco gives his take on chaotic end to UConn/Navy game

 

[huskymedic]

From within the Rambling from the Runway column:

>>MILESTONE WATCH
There will be more on this later this week but I missed a couple of milestones as Noel Thomas had his 100th career catch (the 18th player in program history to hit triple digits).

Also, senior safety Obi Melifonwu is up to 247 career tackles putting him three away from being 27th player in program history with 250 tackles. I have to look it up but there is a chance that Melifonwu and Jhavon Williams can be the first set of defensive backs in the same class at UConn to combine for more than 400 tackles as Williams is up to 118.

I also did some checking and Matt Walsh's 11 solo tackles made his the sixth UConn player since 2008 with at least 10 solo tackles in the game and the others (Sio Moore, Andrew Adams, Lawrence Wilson, Scott Lutrus, Greg Lloyd) either played in the NFL or made it onto an NFL practice squad.

Here's the list.
Sio Moore 13 vs. West Virginia 10-29-10
Andrew Adams 12 at Memphis 11-29-14
Lawrence Wilson 12 vs. Syracuse 11-28-09
Scott Lutrus 12 at South Florida 11-23-08
Greg Lloyd 12 at Pittsburgh 10-10-09
Matt Walsh 11 at Navy 9-10-16Sio Moore 10 at South Florida 12-4-10
Lawrence Wilson 10 vs. Louisville 10-23-10
Lawrence Wilson 10 vs. Louisville 10-17-09
Scott Lutrus 10 vs. Oklahoma 1-1-11<<

 

[Stinger92860]

"I might say this: we’ve always been a running team and I’m sure we will continue to be so. (We’ve been criticized for it, I might add.) But I’ve always felt that three things can happen to you whenever you throw the football, and two of them are bad. You can catch the ball, you can throw it incomplete, or have it intercepted."

 

[Kgun7]

I'm glad Diaco admitted UCONN would have gotten the play off and I'm glad he is taking responsibility ... but until the coaching staff figures out WHY the timeout was called they will not learn from this.

 

[Kgun7]

Yeah, come out and start against UVA like the second half at Navy. Bring the energy buckets on both D and O. And for the O, that means no RRPP....no "power" backfield sets.

Maybe I'm taking your post a little too literally ... but if you re-watch the first UCONN drive you'll see that 5 of the first 9 play calls were passes. 2 of the 3 pass attempts were poorly executed and Thomas dropped a quick flare. Verducci and UCONN came out with a game plan to force the Navy D to spread more horizontally to open up running lanes. It didn't work as well as they wanted ... but the effort was there. I believe this area will improve over the season.

 

[huskymedic]

Keefe @ The Day: UConn learns valuable lessons from painful loss at Navy

 

[huskymedic]

Jim Fuller: Ramblings from The Runway: Diaco gives his take on chaotic end to UConn/Navy game

Slightly different print version: UConn football coach Bob Diaco accepts responsibility for Navy loss

 

[Srqhusky]

Just from the summary, I will make one point. It's great that the team wanted to smashmouth it in on 2d down, and it's great that HCBD hears them. But the grown up in the room needed to say "I'm all for that. But it would be malpractice to only give us one chance to score here when we can get three. So if we're still on the 1/2 yard line for 4th down, we will let you try to win it in the pits. But first we're trying two quick flag patterns, at least one to Noel, where the only two results are TD or quick incompletion."

Everything the players said was fine. His including them in the decision is fine. But there is a middle ground between ignoring your troops and letting them make illogical decisions. The middle ground was there. he completely blew it.

Seriously. We have tight ends the size of Hulk Hogan and your throwing to a wr in the endzone. Cancel your account

 

[huskymedic]

Mike Anthony: UConn Still Waiting For Major Contributions From Arkeel Newsome

 

[BlueDogs]

Seriously. We have tight ends the size of Hulk Hogan and your throwing to a wr in the endzone. Cancel your account

I think the salient point is you throw. Clearly the TEs would be involved, even if secondary targets.

 

[Jimdish255]

I'm interested to see how much energy they come out with Saturday.

If what we've been told is true about brotherhoods and spirit - there shouldn't be any reason to come out flat.

Mentioned earlier there was an opportunity to really get the players behind him by taking direct responsibility for mistakes made and being accountable for fixing the ongoing issues. I think he blew it at the press conference, but if he did that in a more direct way with the players it could certainly happen in a big way. If not, beware the energy vampire staring in the mirror.

 

[UConnNick]

Just from the summary, I will make one point. It's great that the team wanted to smashmouth it in on 2d down, and it's great that HCBD hears them. But the grown up in the room needed to say "I'm all for that. But it would be malpractice to only give us one chance to score here when we can get three. So if we're still on the 1/2 yard line for 4th down, we will let you try to win it in the pits. But first we're trying two quick flag patterns, at least one to Noel, where the only two results are TD or quick incompletion."

Everything the players said was fine. His including them in the decision is fine. But there is a middle ground between ignoring your troops and letting them make illogical decisions. The middle ground was there. he completely blew it.

Agreed, but even today he was still unwilling to acknowledge that we had three downs left, not two as he still seems to think. The bad thing about that is he's unwilling to acknowledge an important factor that impacted the decision making at the most crucial point of the game, even when he's been told that was in fact what the situation was. That's not good because it suggests that not only did he not know the correct down, but also that nobody else on the staff knew.

 

[huskymedic]

SportzEdge: UConn looks to put “the timeout” behind it, take care of business against Virginia

>>The Huskies and Cavaliers have met twice before, with Virginia winning 17-16 in Charlottesville in 2007, and UConn taking the rematch the next year in East Hartford, 45-10...

...This year’s UConn team has four players from Virginia–redshirt junior linebacker E.J. Levenberry, redshirt junior offensive lineman Brendan Vechery, freshman QB Donovan Williams, and redshirt sophomore LB Richmond Williams. Diaco served as the linebackers and special teams coach at UVA from 2006-08...

...PREDICTION: UConn 28, Virginia 24.<<

Guess they forgot that Coaches Poindexter, Brown and Lineburg all have UVA connection as well.

 

[whaler11]

SportzEdge:

Guess they forgot that Coaches Poindexter, Brown and Lineburg all have UVA connection as well.

And wouldn't you just expect more from an outlet who spells sports with a 'z'.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

TCB vs UVA and Cuse. Head into Houston 3-1. Come out 3-2 then the season REALLY begins. We should be able to get minimum 4 wins out of

Cincy
USF
UCF
ECU
Temple
BC
Tulane.

 

[freescooter]

This is a really important game I think for a few reasons. First it can put Navy in the rear view mirror with a win. 2nd it is a win over a p5 team, albeit not a very good one. But it also is pretty important if we are going to become bowl eligible. A loss and it will be at best a crap shoot going forward. I see 4 winnable games left, 3 likely losses and 3 toss ups. Basically no chance error if we go into the Houston, Cincy USF stretch at 1-4 and no margin for error if we are 2-2. Bottom line is a loss here and we may well be playing out the string before October ends.

 

[huskymedic]

Jim Fuller@NHRJimFuller 36 mins ago
As of this morning about 26,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday's #UConn/Virginia football game

 

[blue93]

Jim Fuller@NHRJimFuller 36 mins ago
As of this morning about 26,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday's #UConn/Virginia football game

That's awful.

 

[Milo65]

That's awful.

Terrible

 

[freescooter]

You can't play boring bad football. Almost lose to Maine lose to Navy in keystone kops style and expect to bring sro crowds. I know 26000 is bad but until the product is improved that is what we'll get. I know Benedict gets it. And it's why I think Diaco is indeed in a much warmer seat than most people do. This team doesn't get at least 6 wins and a bowl game and there is a new man on the sidelines for Holy Cross.

 

[CTMike]

Jim Fuller@NHRJimFuller 36 mins ago
As of this morning about 26,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday's #UConn/Virginia football game

This was my point about the Maine game's impact on CR. In isolation, of course, it meant nothing. Susan isn't going to be asked to break down game film from it (thank god). But if we have certain metrics/goalposts to reach regarding attendance or fan interest... then Maine really took the wind out of the sails, and Navy didn't help. This is the result. The optimism from before the season is gone. Only a product that people don't want to miss out on will fix it.

 

[huskymedic]

Jim Fuller@NHRJimFuller 15 hours ago
Interesting note from Navy game from #UConnOC Frank Verducci. WR Aaron McLean played two plays, 1 was huge block, other a key catch

 

[huskymedic]

ThisIsUConnCountry ‏@MattSchonvisky 3h 3 hours ago
Offensive coordinator Frank Verducci talked about @kidballer15 who is getting looks with the 2nd team offense in practice yesterday

ThisIsUConnCountry ‏@MattSchonvisky 3h 3 hours ago
"Any benefit we can give him as being exposed w/varsity to bring him along that's what we are trying to do. obviously if there is an.."

ThisIsUConnCountry ‏@MattSchonvisky 3h 3 hours ago
"Apocalypse plan cause you have plans for everything, we want to get him exposed as much as possible. Look if he never plays a down this yr"

ThisIsUConnCountry ‏@MattSchonvisky 3h 3 hours ago
"He's gonna start spring ball at such a higher level than if we just put him on scout team all year. Obviously a great physical talent"