Honestly, what happened?

[boba]

To be honest, it’s all been a fever dream

Please don't say that to a COVID sufferer...
It took 4 years, including the frau getting it in the first wave, before I got it. it's as brutal as they say. Thank you, Pfizer for Paxlovid.

 

[Tenspro2002]

That is just not true. Whaley gave 100%. So did Cole. So did others. The problem was a talent gap, not an attitude gap. Replace Cole with Newton and Whaley with Clinton and those teams are completely different. You can have the most complex offense in the country. If you don’t have the guys who can run it, and you don’t use them correctly, it ain’t getting you anything.

I actually like the Villanova example. That I do think influenced Hurley’s thinking. They won with a big and 4 guys out. But I also think figuring out how to use guys in any system is important. Jackson is Exhibit A. Teams didn’t even bother covering him at the 3-point line. It took a while before Hurley figured out he could be effective inside rebounding and scoring rather than trying to play as a 3rd guard. He became sort of Samson Johnson type scorer rather than a Deep threat.

Cole didn't arrive until his 3rd year. Whaley gave 100%...because Hurley cranked the intensity up to 11 and demanded the team follow suit.

At the beginning, Hurley absolutely had to coach the holdovers out of KO's hangdog attitude. This was pretty much all he did his first year.

Yes, there was a talent gap. He kept the KO guys in a (successful) attempt to build culture. He brought in Cole and Martin, who were an upgrade, but not quite at the level we needed. But Hurley was also limited in what he could implement because he didn't even have a base of guys who played hard and with confidence.

 

[ec33]

Once John Mara started making decisions the downfall began

Once a Mara started making football decisions the return to the Wilderness Years (brought on by Mara's making football decisions) began.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

After the loss to New Mexico in the NCAAT Hurley decided we needed to focus and ramp up our offense. So he hired Luke Murray and recruited offensive talent.

Hmmm? A good blueprint for UConn football. The defensive approach ain't doing squat.