halfway point

[Dann]

we are 3-3. but i wonder what it could have been. pre season i think most here had us as a 7-5, 8-4 team. some here thought 9-3 and a few 6-6. but the majority of the board saw improvemnt and 7-8 wins. i think i guessed 8-4 with the possibility of better/dream season. we sit 3-3 right now so we still have a chance to win a good amount but its looking tuff to do so all things considered. but looking at the first 6 games i can't help but think about this one what if

what if the play calling was more agressive?

we lost 10-7 to ncst and had several chance to do something. whitmer struggled but over time is slowly developing as coach D tries to set him up to fail. we lost to WM again, unreal. that game was a mess. we lost to a over rated rutgers team. we should have been up going into half time. 7-7 or 7-3 even you cana rgue if it wasn't for a few mistakes.

i think this team does have talent, enough were 6-0/5-1 should be where we are at right now and we are not. we could be a top 30 ranked team right now with a stretch of 4 very winable games and 2 shots at ranked teams to end the season and be looking for blood in a good bowl game. the pinstripe bowl should have been our backup plan bowl wise at this point, but now its a stretch.

our D has been good to great at times. a couple injuries have set us back a bit but we are still a top notch d. our ST's has been rocky. some great things, some mistakes. not pinning and punt or 2 and a fumble or 2 on returns have held us back from being great on specials. but overall you can't complain. chad has been good enough so far in taking over for DT.

on O i see a bunch of young guys trying to develope who are being held back by a OC with bad playcalling. i really think its not a talent issue thats holding us back. do we have SEC guys all over the field? no, but we don't have MAC guys either. we have some good players that i feel are just not being set up to win and be agressive.

the schedule this year was so freaking set up its unreal. ncst was a quality game at home for a statement. going to md was perfect. they were a team that RE was going to build great things out of but it will take time. perfect time for us to go down there and get a W while they steadly improve ove the year and make our W look better. hell ncst beat fsu who is only a year away from being great right? but anyway we blew it big time. the rutgers game was a great chance for us to expose a over hyped team and we couldn't, we were held back by P and D. our BE schedule is back heavy which would have been perfect for uconn trying to make a big season out of last years rebuilding. it all seemed like things were saking out well for us imho going into the season. we found some studs for the next couple years in adams and davis i think. we also found that in time with development we may have ourselves a good qb in chad/chis whitmer.

i'm extremly disapointed right now sitting at 3-3. i think based off what the talent here is and the schedule we have we should be 5-1 or 6-0, looking at a sellout crowd rocking the rent for home coming this weekend and hype around this state like never before. it stinks to think the way we are limping into this weekend vs where we should be. just stinks.

 

[sdhusky]

we are 3-3. but i wonder what it could have been. pre season i think most here had us as a 7-5, 8-4 team. some here thought 9-3 and a few 6-6. but the majority of the board saw improvemnt and 7-8 wins. i think i guessed 8-4 with the possibility of better/dream season. we sit 3-3 right now so we still have a chance to win a good amount but its looking tuff to do so all things considered. but looking at the first 6 games i can't help but think about this one what if

what if the play calling was more agressive?

we lost 10-7 to ncst and had several chance to do something. whitmer struggled but over time is slowly developing as coach D tries to set him up to fail. we lost to WM again, unreal. that game was a mess. we lost to a over rated rutgers team. we should have been up going into half time. 7-7 or 7-3 even you cana rgue if it wasn't for a few mistakes.

i think this team does have talent, enough were 6-0/5-1 should be where we are at right now and we are not. we could be a top 30 ranked team right now with a stretch of 4 very winable games and 2 shots at ranked teams to end the season and be looking for blood in a good bowl game. the pinstripe bowl should have been our backup plan bowl wise at this point, but now its a stretch.

our D has been good to great at times. a couple injuries have set us back a bit but we are still a top notch d. our ST's has been rocky. some great things, some mistakes. not pinning and punt or 2 and a fumble or 2 on returns have held us back from being great on specials. but overall you can't complain. chad has been good enough so far in taking over for DT.

on O i see a bunch of young guys trying to develope who are being held back by a OC with bad playcalling. i really think its not a talent issue thats holding us back. do we have SEC guys all over the field? no, but we don't have MAC guys either. we have some good players that i feel are just not being set up to win and be agressive.

the schedule this year was so freaking set up its unreal. ncst was a quality game at home for a statement. going to md was perfect. they were a team that RE was going to build great things out of but it will take time. perfect time for us to go down there and get a W while they steadly improve ove the year and make our W look better. hell ncst beat fsu who is only a year away from being great right? but anyway we blew it big time. the rutgers game was a great chance for us to expose a over hyped team and we couldn't, we were held back by P and D. our BE schedule is back heavy which would have been perfect for uconn trying to make a big season out of last years rebuilding. it all seemed like things were saking out well for us imho going into the season. we found some studs for the next couple years in adams and davis i think. we also found that in time with development we may have ourselves a good qb in chad/chis whitmer.

i'm extremly disapointed right now sitting at 3-3. i think based off what the talent here is and the schedule we have we should be 5-1 or 6-0, looking at a sellout crowd rocking the rent for home coming this weekend and hype around this state like never before. it stinks to think the way we are limping into this weekend vs where we should be. just stinks.

I think you love this team so much, you need a villain to explain why its not very good. On offense.

 

[uconnbaseball]

I still think we'll manage to get 5 or 6 wins, and possibly a minor bowl game. The league is too flawed, and our defense is too good, for us to have a horrendous record.

 

[Dann]

I think you love this team so much, you need a villain to explain why its not very good. On offense.

so u think i am over rating the O? nick williams isn't a play maker. davis is just a ok wr and phillips should have never come here? whitmer isn't developing? yes the OL is bad but we can overcome that it seems by not running stright up the middle every play. the 1 rb vs 3 thing etc...

i guess maybe i am just over rating what we have on O.

 

[Dann]

I still think we'll manage to get 5 or 6 wins, and possibly a minor bowl game. The league is too flawed, and our defense is too good, for us to have a horrendous record.

i think even as is we should get to 6 wins. but the more i look at how this league nhas 2 top teams then the rest and what our ooc was it pains me to think we should be 8-4 or better this year. i mean look at it this way, if we go 6-6 on the year with what P and D are doing, is it that wild to think 8-4+ should have been easily acomplised considering our schedule?

 

[CAHUSKY]

so u think i am over rating the O? nick williams isn't a play maker. davis is just a ok wr and phillips should have never come here? whitmer isn't developing? yes the OL is bad but we can overcome that it seems by not running stright up the middle every play. the 1 rb vs 3 thing etc...

i guess maybe i am just over rating what we have on O.

Nick Williams is a playmaker. We just need to figure out how to get him the ball in space. When we do. He is great.

 

[uconnbaseball]

i think even as is we should get to 6 wins. but the more i look at how this league nhas 2 top teams then the rest and what our ooc was it pains me to think we should be 8-4 or better this year. i mean look at it this way, if we go 6-6 on the year with what P and D are doing, is it that wild to think 8-4+ should have been easily acomplised considering our schedule?

With a better coaching staff, 8-4 is very doable. I don't think our team is very good, but our schedule is awful and we do have some solid talent.

 

[Dann]

Nick Williams is a playmaker. We just need to figure out how to get him the ball in space. When we do. He is great.

which is my point. i think the 8-4+ dream season was completely in arms reach this year if not for our play calling and game management by P and D. scary to think what we could have been.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Nick Williams is a playmaker. We just need to figure out how to get him the ball in space. When we do. He is great.

That turnover last week was brutal. You just can't put the ball on the ground that deep into your own territory right after you give up points.

 

[Dann]

With a better coaching staff, 8-4 is very doable. I don't think our team is very good, but our schedule is awful and we do have some solid talent.

i really think we could have been looking at 8-2 or 7-3 going into lville and cincy to finish the year. then we get a crack at 2 top 20 teams while we are barely ranked prob and who knows from there. but we could have really set ourselves up for something special imho.

 

[Dann]

That turnover last week was brutal. You just can't put the ball on the ground that deep into your own territory right after you give up points.

yup and thats why our ST is fair/good at best. that mistake and 2 missed punt pins have been bumps in the road for sure. but those should not have prevented us from winning games.

 

[pj]

HfD, great post, that's my view exactly too. GDL seems like he didn't have a plan preseason for how to build a quality offense over the course of the year, seems like he's just throwing stuff at the wall hoping something will stick. We're wasting a great defense getting 3 points a game on offense. Never did I think the offense this year would regress from a walk-on QB - freshman RB year. I thought both D and O would be better in year two as they got used to the schemes. D did progress, but O got worse.

Now it seems like the best we can hope for is 6-6 which is better than last year but not what the talent level of this team should have given us.

 

[sdhusky]

so u think i am over rating the O? nick williams isn't a play maker. davis is just a ok wr and phillips should have never come here? whitmer isn't developing? yes the OL is bad but we can overcome that it seems by not running stright up the middle every play. the 1 rb vs 3 thing etc...

i guess maybe i am just over rating what we have on O.

I think Whitmer has talent and is tough, but is in experienced and makes bad decisions and bad throws. Too many picks.

Nick hasn't really shown anything else return ability on a consistant basis. The other WR are inexperienced. Davis is doing great.

McCombs is tough and above average, but not All-American level. The O-line doesn't seem very talented.

I don't think it's all coaching or play calling. I don't think the O players are very good.