Positives:
- OL progressed fairly well as the season progressed. If we can hit the ground running with that unit, the playbook will open up a bit and not resemble that God awful strategy that we saw against USF this past season of running up the middle 3 times and punting.
- We found 2 very good young RBs this past season. Ron Johnson seems to have 1A status going into 2015 because he is stronger and doesn't fumble. Newsome can be a very good 1B and I expect the fumbling issues to resolve itself once he puts on more Soph muscle this offseason. I think both will contribute if we move more to a read-option offense.
- Noel Thomas emerged as a go-to WR for when we put the ball in the air. He will keep opposing defenses honest.
- We played a TON of FR this past season. Game experience is important for our program heading into 2015 and beyond. I think that we will see quite a few members of incoming recruit class see the field next year. DL has some big boys up front and we found some talent.
"Areas of Improvement":
- We have been searching for a QB since Orlovsky graduated and 2015 will be no different. We obviously have no idea what kind of offense Shirreffs can/will run. We do know that Boyle appears to be not ready for D-1 level action. Kid has a good arm but needs work on accuracy and decision making. Lots of it. I don't think we'll see Davis see the field next year but you never know. If he shows off some skill in practices, it's not unheard of for a FR to see the field here at UCONN. Personally, I hope that we are in the market for a 5th year transfer. Golson recently announced he will
graduate in May and I hope/pray that Diaco has some sort of built-up relationship with him to be able to lure him to Storrs. He would be our starting QB the second he would arrive on campus, if he decides to go the 5th Year route.
- LB. I thought Junior Joseph showed promise as a RS FR. When that kid hits you, you're going down. Needs some work on his angles but that is to be expected from a young LB. I think he possesses the athleticism to contribute. Vann will be returning as captain and SR and we will need him to make the defensive calls. I would love to see if Vontae Diggs can supplant Graham Stewart for a full-time role in the spring and summer. He's longer and better fits what Diaco & staff are recruiting with size/length and was a big commit when he switched from Ball State to UCONN last winter. Overall, this unit struggled in 2014 with gap control and taking the right tackling angles. Hopefully we will see improvement in 2015.
- Secondary. When we lost Byron Jones, our depth (or lack of) at CB really stood out. I thought Jhavon Williams improved slowly thoughout the season but has a long way to go (like trying to find the ball in coverage). McAllister should prepare to be the starting CB on the other side of the field unless Diaco plans on using a true FR. Obi struggled mightily in the beginning of the season and seemed to have gotten somewhat better as the season progressed, until his injury. I thought Andrew Adams was our best player in the secondary this past year. Overall, we saw tons of games where our secondary was torched and/or penalized on long pass plays. Our guys seemed incapable of turning their heads in coverage to try to locate the ball. I don't know if they're being coached that way or not. I know shielding isn't a penalty in college but we went beyond shielding too many times for too many very easy PI penalties against us.
- Special Teams. Puyol doesn't have the strong leg that was advertised coming out of high school. He didn't cost us any games but he certainly doesn't inspire the type of confidence needed either. Our punting was atrocious. I don't know what the stats are but the average length of punt and net yardage gained has to be close to the bottom in the country. Simply put, we never turned any fields the way we needed to with such a stagnant offense. We all know our kickoff coverage was outstanding (although I still can't believe we were offsides against Temple that cost this unit a freebie TD!), but our kick/punt return teams struggled mightily. Our punt returners would let way too many balls hit the turf and that would cost us 10-15+ additional yards of field position on the majority of punt returns. Our kick return teams could barely get to the 20 yard line before being stuffed by a swarm of gunners and runners. If our offense is going to struggle again in 2015, it is imperative that we find someone who will 1)
at least catch the majority of punts before they hit the ground and 2) possess the vision/speed to advance kick returns beyond the 25-30 yard line. We'll need very good starting field position.
I think my floor expectation for 2015 is 5 wins. We used the entire 2014 as "practice" getting guys ready and giving the majority of our roster in-game experience. That's all good as long as there is an improvement in the W/L record this season. Anything less than 5 wins should/would result in more changes in the staff.
