God awful

[whaler11]

I know I hate the Big East and Ive been told I hate UConn so i guess take with a grain of salt....

That was awful. There is no other way to describe.

 

[CTMike]

A little harsh, but I hear ya. In no surprise to anyone, O-line gives me the most worries.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Whitmer looks like he could be good. That's about the only positive I got from the whole game though.

 

[Srqhusky]

You are basing that on ?

 

[fgbrault]

I know I hate the Big East and Ive been told I hate UConn so i guess take with a grain of salt....

That was awful. There is no other way to describe.

I guess you saw a different scrimmage from the one I saw. For the Spring game there were many positives. For example, the defensive pass coverage was generally excellent, the rush was terrific and the ruining game was well controlled. On offense Whitmer and Phillips were on the whole excellent, as were the tight ends. The offensive line was fairly weak, but does not have everybody healthy and there is still a lot of time. Our running game was so-so, but I am simply not concerned with it. I saw enough bright spots to think it will be even better than last year. I think things looks far more promising for this season than they did at the end of spring practice last year and at the end of last season.

 

[Stinger92860]

Whitmer looks like he could be good. That's about the only positive I got from the whole game though.

A positive from Osiecki - better hands than I expected

 

[UCername]

I know I hate the Big East and Ive been told I hate UConn so i guess take with a grain of salt....

That was awful. There is no other way to describe.

Outside of the O line and 50% of the QB's I'm not in agreement with that call. The D was dominant because they look good (as it should be this time of year) and a QB has clearly separated himself for the first time in what 5 years? Not to mention we know we have an all BE back, so what are your other complaints that make the whole package "god awful"?

 

[metsfan2323]

Two people separated themselves today, Chandler Whitmer and Whaler 11 who is already in midseason form.

 

[uconnbill]

I know I hate the Big East and Ive been told I hate UConn so i guess take with a grain of salt....

That was awful. There is no other way to describe.

Well at least we know you are a glass half empty kind of guy...

Some good with the defense especially Wirth and the rest of the defensive line.
Whitmer looked the part and outside one bad throw he looked pretty good in not so good playing condition.

Bad
Offensive line was terrible for the most part. Very disappointed in the effort especially in the first quarter. Nebrich got hammered on three consecutive plays. After that he was gun shy and you could see it in his play.


Work to be done but I feel better this spring game then last year overall.

 

[rich1122]

I know I hate the Big East and Ive been told I hate UConn so i guess take with a grain of salt....

That was awful. There is no other way to describe.

This was the best spring game that I have seen in some time. But we have to remember that it was a Spring Game and honestly to expect too much is unrealistic.

 

[Jimdish255]

And the wind was blowing so hard it nearly took the welcome booth to the endzone in the first quarter.

 

[whaler11]

Well at least we know you are a glass half empty kind of guy...

Some good with the defense especially Wirth and the rest of the defensive line.
Whitmer looked the part and outside one bad throw he looked pretty good in not so good playing condition.

Bad
Offensive line was terrible for the most part. Very disappointed in the effort especially in the first quarter. Nebrich got hammered on three consecutive plays. After that he was gun shy and you could see it in his play.


Work to be done but I feel better this spring game then last year overall.

Funny, I'm generally positive on the team - I predicted they would win 9 games last year. I'm not one of the maniacs on this board who has a standard of being in the hunt of national championships.

I'm fairly certain that they set a record for punts in a spring game today. There must have been 15.

The offense was pathetic today. Anyone who tells you different is lying to you and themselves.

 

[whaler11]

Sorry there were only 13 punts. Congrats to Blue for winning the rushing title with 4 yards.

According to the box score there were 46 rushes for negative 32 yards.

9 sacks. I'm sure that won't be an issue.

 

[ktuck911]

Two people separated themselves today, Chandler Whitmer and Whaler 11 who is already in midseason form.

funny

Enjoyed watching Whitmer today though... He just showed command.. None of the other kids did that... I'd be shocked if he's not leading the offense (barring injury) come game 1 vs. UMASS

 

[UCername]

Sorry there were only 13 punts. Congrats to Blue for winning the rushing title with 4 yards.

According to the box score there were 46 rushes for negative 32 yards.

9 sacks. I'm sure that won't be an issue.

Yes, would expect more punts when you are rotating 4 QB's, 2 of which have never played a down before for UConn, and it was obviously a pass first initiative for a reason.

 

[kcc1442]

Sorry there were only 13 punts. Congrats to Blue for winning the rushing title with 4 yards.

According to the box score there were 46 rushes for negative 32 yards.

9 sacks. I'm sure that won't be an issue.

Funny, I'm generally positive on the team - I predicted they would win 9 games last year. I'm not one of the maniacs on this board who has a standard of being in the hunt of national championships.

I'm fairly certain that they set a record for punts in a spring game today. There must have been 15.

The offense was pathetic today. Anyone who tells you different is lying to you and themselves.

I think what you are forgetting, is that the offense was working with maybe 50% of the playbook as well as a two hand touch rule on the quarterback. Awfully tough to fool the defense with these restrictions. Running lanes were limited and the oline needs to improve on that but I think you are over reacting to the offense. Whitmer threw some nice balls and Cochran looked good on a few as well.

 

[whaler11]

Ok. Ive never seen spring games and I don't understand the dynamics. The fact the offensive line cant block is in my head.

They were too focused on throwing the ball to bother to gain yards with their top backs. They just tried to run it a few dozen times with zero success for fun.

 

[huskypantz]

According to the box score there were 46 rushes for negative 32 yards.

9 sacks. I'm sure that won't be an issue.

Agree that the o-line was not good. On the sacks - for the most part, it was 2 hand touch with the QB's. That also kills the rushing totals. On the flip side, our DE's are beasts. They could end up being as good as the 2008 group (CBrown/JWilliams/Witten). And the DT's don't look too shabby either.

By the way, I knew it was a little weird that Forte had a positive post a few weeks ago, looks like we've found his replacement.

 

[peteadvrec]

Ok. Ive never seen spring games and I don't understand the dynamics. The fact the offensive line cant block is in my head.

They were too focused on throwing the ball to bother to gain yards with their top backs. They just tried to run it a few dozen times with zero success for fun.

It is important to remember that while it is a nice PR day for the fans/recruits/area coaches etc, for the team this is the last practice and meaningful coaching contact until fall camp

Between now and then it's only the strength and conditioning coaches who will be seeing the players so the plays called, schemes used etc are what the coaches needed to see to put together off season programs and take a look at the biggest needs vs incoming freshmen etc

I can just about guarantee the final score is the least important thing about the game for the coaches. The individual efforts and performances and how they fit into the players overall progress from the previous year or start of spring camp are key though

Even though the overall o-line play was not good especially with the few experienced healthy bodies split between the sides, there is probably a ton of useful info on each of the players that will make for the best possible line to start fall practice based on how well they made their reads, handled the individual protection assignments etc even if as a unit it wasn't pretty

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Ok. Ive never seen spring games and I don't understand the dynamics. The fact the offensive line cant block is in my head.

They were too focused on throwing the ball to bother to gain yards with their top backs. They just tried to run it a few dozen times with zero success for fun.

Ok. Ive never seen spring games and I don't understand the dynamics. The fact the offensive line cant block is in my head.

They were too focused on throwing the ball to bother to gain yards with their top backs. They just tried to run it a few dozen times with zero success for fun.

Over dramatic much? There's not one poster who will disagree with you about how the OL played today.

Guys were switching colors on the sidelines. Bennett and Masters were out. It's spring.

Remember when Zachary Frazer went all Joe Montana a few Aprils ago?

 

[whaler11]

If you'd like to ignore everything you saw today that is your business. I don't need to be educated on how spring games work, it's not my first time at the rodeo.

I'll leave it at this: That was awful football today. You can cart out the excuses - they don't open up the playbook? Well, how exactly can they block the other half off the playbook, they couldn't keep every play today from being a jailbreak. Bennett is hurt? Well it will be news when he isn't hurt.

I honestly can not believe that someone who is even remotely objective about this program could watch that game and think that wasn't an awful performance. I'll let you get back to attacking me instead of dealing with what we saw.

 

[whaler11]

Cochran looked good on a few as well.

Cochran was 4-15 with an interception and three sacks. The bar for looking good is awfully low when you can 'look good' while going 4-15.

 

[freescooter]

It wasn't good, but I think several things contributed. First, it seems pretty clear that the coaches wanted to use this to evaluate quarterbacks more than anything else. So all 4 got significant time. It is really hard to develop an offensive rythm when tha thappens, and we didn't. It was also evaluation time for the #2 running back slot. McCoombs had a couple of nice runs in the 1st quarter on the fg drive and elsewhere, but after that it mostly other guys. Not even sure he played in the 2nd half. He ended up with 10 carries. He would carry the ball 10 times on a single drive last year. Plus they simply didn't run the ball all that much in order to watch how the passers performed. I think you saw Williams look pretty good catching the ball, actually quite good. he has really stepped it up as a reciever this year I think. Phillips looked very good. He'll give us a big time reciever I think. And th etight ends made some plays. And don't discount the defense. Bliddi and Gratz are very good. The linebackers are going to be quite good and Shamar Stephens is a beast. The only disappointment fo rme was that Mike Smith didn't catch a ball, although I chalk some of that up to his playing on the blue squad, so rather than seeing throws from Whitmer, he was getting them, from Mac and Cochran.

 

[jdb50]

If you are going to punt alot it sure is nice to have a great punter, for 2 more years.
We are going to have a good defense and now we have depth at LB and D-line. Our DE play should help out the pass rush of the D-tackles who all looked good today.
To expect the rebuilt O-line to be finished today isn't realistic. There were quite a few snap mishandles (4 QB's?) and we played 3 guys at center so that affected play. We threw constantly and it was a mismatch at times with DE vs OT's.
Nick Williams was way more involved and in tune with
the offense. Pair him up with Mike Smith and Shakim Phillips and the glass is way more than half full.
DeLorenzo and Osiecki looked good. Very good hands on MO. Great move getting him on the field on O rather than buried on the depth chart on D.
Was impressed by Cochrans arm strength but redshirting him is a no brainer. He played pretty well for a kid who could still be in High School.

 

[UCONN2004]

Phillips, Whitmer, Williams, Wirth, Osiecki, Stephenson are all new players that showed nicely today. Team as a whole looked better compared to last years spring game. I feel 100% better about the QB & WR position going into this year than last year. Actually the only position that concerns me is the O-line.