How is it possible for a defense to be this bad?

[Palatine]

Are these the worst college football players in history? They are by the numbers. I mean, really, you almost have to try to be this bad.

 

[minidarren]

Hands are not prototypical.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I was actually seriously wondering, to the point I started googling, as to how bad this team is this year that Edsall's "program" has assembled in year 2.

There are still a couple games left, but as of now - through 9 games, I'm confident in saying it's not just the worst team in division 1A this year - it's the worst team in UConn history all time.

That's not a knock on the players on the roster - most of the starting roster on defense was three weeks on the front side of their senior high school thanksgiving day football game a year ago, and didn't set foot on a field for a uconn practice until late July.

Says a lot about the administration of the university above the athletic director level though, to allow this to happen.

 

[kemba]

Are these the worst college football players in history? They are by the numbers. I mean, really, you almost have to try to be this bad.

When you account for age, maybe.

It's mostly low rated recruits playing without the years of development those types of recruits need to have a shot. It isn't that complicated.

 

[Walker11]

I was actually seriously wondering, to the point I started googling, as to how bad this team is this year that Edsall's "program" has assembled in year 2.

There are still a couple games left, but as of now - through 9 games, I'm confident in saying it's not just the worst team in division 1A this year - it's the worst team in UConn history all time.

That's not a knock on the players on the roster - most of the starting roster on defense was three weeks on the front side of their senior high school thanksgiving day football game a year ago, and didn't set foot on a field for a uconn practice until late July.

Says a lot about the administration of the university above the athletic director level though, to allow this to happen.

If you want to look at total yards per game, this is actually the worst defense in CFB history by a huge margin.

 

[HuskyHawk]

It’s bad at an unprecedented level. Randy needs to own it. This is his creation. Whatever many failings Diaconate,has he never put never allowed a defense like this.

 

[uconnfan68]

I’d be happy with some improvement through the season, but we’re getting gashed by bad teams now. Zero changes.

 

[noeynox]

I actually could not watch the 2nd half at all. That's never happened to me before. We just stopped competing.

 

[uconnbill]

I'd be happy if they would wrap when tackling instead of throwing their shoulder at the ball carrier.

 

[zls44]

Its ok, I can't wait to see who gets hired to replace Crocker- it will definitely be someone in FCS who has never run a defense in FBS but I'm sure defending in the Colonial translates well to defending these Southern AAC teams.

 

[Rich]

Its ok, I can't wait to see who gets hired to replace Crocker- it will definitely be someone in FCS who has never run a defense in FBS but I'm sure defending in the Colonial translates well to defending these Southern AAC teams.

Here’s our guy......

Andrew Warwick - Staff Directory - Jacksonville State University

 

[Chief00]

It’s bad at an unprecedented level. Randy needs to own it. This is his creation. Whatever many failings Diaconate,has he never put never allowed a defense like this.

True, it’s an epic failure. If the problem is players, it’s on Randy to successfully recruit more talented players. We are not talking SEC starter types, but guys who can beat UMass and Tulsa. What resources does he lack to do that? The inescapable conclusion is it’s really more of a coaching staff competency issue in both recruiting, game prep and in game adjustments.

 

[Hoophound]

I don’t think it is unfair to say, Diaco kept the games closer. The issue is we know Randy has some unique abilities to find talent and coach people up. I’m hesitant to quit on him too fast and risk hiring someone that can’t find talent to come here. It’s possible that the talent inherited was so bad that he stands no chance with these guys, but I just have trouble believing it. I feel like there are an awful lot of schools that must have similar talent in the MAC and so on, that are much better than us.

When you look at it, we have a pretty good dual threat QB who is world class on his feet, the OL has provided good protection and opened holes, Mensah is a good back, Tarbutt has a nice leg etc. It seems we should be able to have a shootout with Tulsa even if our D can’t stop them but our play calling is too conservative and often predictable.

That means the hard to solve problem is the D. I question playing all these kids in favor of older, stronger guys. It is blatantly obvious that we wear down quickly and start getting steamrolled. Our D only has 1 good quarter in it before the opponent starts absolutely rolling. That’s a lack of strength and conditioning, which takes a couple of years just to bring to a competitive level. I blame that on Randy.

 

[Hornet22]

I was actually seriously wondering, to the point I started googling, as to how bad this team is this year that Edsall's "program" has assembled in year 2.

There are still a couple games left, but as of now - through 9 games, I'm confident in saying it's not just the worst team in division 1A this year - it's the worst team in UConn history all time.

That's not a knock on the players on the roster - most of the starting roster on defense was three weeks on the front side of their senior high school thanksgiving day football game a year ago, and didn't set foot on a field for a uconn practice until late July.

Says a lot about the administration of the university above the athletic director level though, to allow this to happen.

Carl. It’s true. This is definitely bad to watch and there’s definitely a case to be made as to how/why this has happened. But dear Lord, these kids really are learning on the fly and people/fans really need to take this all with a grain of salt. Put a huge asterisk next to this season.
If I’m the coaching staff I’m truly focusing on LB play for next season. A few of these LB’s are not quite good enough for this. But I do believe that will be a stronger position for us next year. The DLine and Secondary will be a lot better next year due to experience and off season growth. I see signs there.
If you look at most successful defenses the LB’s are really agggressive and are hungry for tackles.

 

[Stinger92860]

Not only is this team bad, but we are back to Edsall’s run focus. It’s losing with a boring offense. I think this 2nd hire may have been a mistake. Damn, even Fiasco went to a bowl, now we are getting blown out by Tulsa. I may never go to another football game again. To stay on this path is stupid.

 

[Carl Spackler]

True, it’s an epic failure. If the problem is players, it’s on Randy to successfully recruit more talented players. We are not talking SEC starter types, but guys who can beat UMass and Tulsa. What resources does he lack to do that? The inescapable conclusion is it’s really more of a coaching staff competency issue in both recruiting, game prep and in game adjustments.

No - the conclusion is that Randy built himself a 5 year cushion to build $1million a year salary into a retirement at age 65.

 

[kemba]

No - the conclusion is that Randy built himself a 5 year cushion to build $1million a year salary into a retirement at age 65.

Or he's doing the exact same thing his first time around because that's what he does....or was that just a retirement plan too?

 

[Hornet22]

I don’t think it is unfair to say, Diaco kept the games closer. The issue is we know Randy has some unique abilities to find talent and coach people up. I’m hesitant to quit on him too fast and risk hiring someone that can’t find talent to come here. It’s possible that the talent inherited was so bad that he stands no chance with these guys, but I just have trouble believing it. I feel like there are an awful lot of schools that must have similar talent in the MAC and so on, that are much better than us.

When you look at it, we have a pretty good dual threat QB who is world class on his feet, the OL has provided good protection and opened holes, Mensah is a good back, Tarbutt has a nice leg etc. It seems we should be able to have a shootout with Tulsa even if our D can’t stop them but our play calling is too conservative and often predictable.

That means the hard to solve problem is the D. I question playing all these kids in favor of older, stronger guys. It is blatantly obvious that we wear down quickly and start getting steamrolled. Our D only has 1 good quarter in it before the opponent starts absolutely rolling. That’s a lack of strength and conditioning, which takes a couple of years just to bring to a competitive level. I blame that on Randy.

I simply believe Randy decided to allow his recruits to develop in the public eye.
It’s as simple as that. Did he know it would be this bad? Not sure. We, and the nation have simply been invited to witness first hand what freshmen go through as they develop in college football. Like it or not, we just have to deal with it.
What I do know for sure is that I can’t do any better than these kids right now so there isn’t much criticizing that I can do. And furthermore, if I was a freshmen facing what they are facing on a weekly basis I would probably look the same out there.
So.....
I’m simply waiting for them to get better because I know that at some point you have to support a class of kids because that will be your future. You can’t give up on this class and hope for new talent because the experiment of playing all freshmen (talented or not) in football will pretty much never work to the tune of anything remotely successful looking.
We just need to chillax on overanalyzing these kids and wait a few years. It’s really not that difficult to understand.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I'm more concerned that the offense hasn't been able to average closer to 30 points against awful competition.

It's 2018. Good defenses allow 40 points in games. Key is you need to defense to create turnovers to get advantage of total number of possessions, not winning time of possession.

Until RE realizes it's video game football rules out there for offense and opens it up UConn is relegated to 3 wins or less per season.

And it becomes a self-fulfilling style where playmakers don't want to go to a school that doesn't feature playmakers, which leads to an offense devoid of playmakers, which leads to an offensive philosophy that doesn't emphasize playmakers. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

 

[huskyinfl]

If your going to run and play safe why not the triple option?

 

[huskysupporter]

That was an embarrassment. And we can get on coaching all we want, as we should. But players need to show some accountability here. You don’t have to be an upperclassman to square up and tackle, you don’t have to be an upperclassmen to swarm to the ball carrier, and you certainly don’t have to be an upper classman to show some emotion.

I was embarrassed the way the defense played last night and it’s not because of the score. We had players standing still while a play was going on. Just assuming (and I have no idea why) their teammate would finish the tackle. That isn’t freshman mistakes, that’s not inexperience, that’s stuff you learn in pee wee football.

The coaching mistake here was letting those players stay in the game. I would have found the 1 or 2 UConn fans in the stands and had them go in.

It’s about having some pride.

Everyone needs to look in the mirror. From the coaching staff to the players. That was shameful.

 

[Hornet22]

I'm more concerned that the offense hasn't been able to average closer to 30 points against awful competition.

It's 2018. Good defenses allow 40 points in games. Key is you need to defense to create turnovers to get advantage of total number of possessions, not winning time of possession.

Until RE realizes it's video game football rules out there for offense and opens it up UConn is relegated to 3 wins or less per season.

And it becomes a self-fulfilling style where playmakers don't want to go to a school that doesn't feature playmakers, which leads to an offense devoid of playmakers, which leads to an offensive philosophy that doesn't emphasize playmakers. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I can rock with this post
Agreed. Good defenses regularly give up yards and points. We don’t score consistently. And in the world of complimentary football, when one side of the ball is doing well it inspires the other.

 

[Hornet22]

That was an embarrassment. And we can get on coaching all we want, as we should. But players need to show some accountability here. You don’t have to be an upperclassman to square up and tackle, you don’t have to be an upperclassmen to swarm to the ball carrier, and you certainly don’t have to be an upper classman to show some emotion.

I was embarrassed the way the defense played last night and it’s not because of the score. We had players standing still while a play was going on. Just assuming (and I have no idea why) their teammate would finish the tackle. That isn’t freshman mistakes, that’s not inexperience, that’s stuff you learn in pee wee football.

The coaching mistake here was letting those players stay in the game. I would have found the 1 or 2 UConn fans in the stands and had them go in.

It’s about having some pride.

Everyone needs to look in the mirror. From the coaching staff to the players. That was shameful.

Agreed. But here’s what you’re missing. When you prepare all week and get beat the way you do on Saturdays it begins to wear on you mentally, physically and emotionally. Playing for pride is one of those things that sounds good but when you’re getting beat so badly it becomes a challenge. It’s like in boxing. When you’re getting your head bashed in and can no longer fight back, your corner throws in the towel. Not as much as you didn’t want to finish but physically you just couldn’t.
You build tolerance over time dealing with adversity. Be honest with ourselves...have these kids ever been involved in anything like this? In HS when they lost games there wasn’t any media asking a bunch of questions or twitter going nuts over another blowout loss. They didn’t face players who were that much better than them. Some of these kids have never been on a plane before let alone going through the logistical aspects of playing college football.
It’s very easy to demand things from them because we’re fans.
Ask yourself. As an 18 year old surrounded by a bunch of other toddlers and facing the guys we have faced, could you have done better?

 

[BugsyCT]

I've never seen a team so consistently give up huge runs right up the middle with no means or clue how to stop it. It's been a killer all season. It's almost unfathomable how bad we are.

I'd have hoped after 3/4 of the season that they would have at least shown some progress. Nope. We regressed again last night. We were good for one quarter and just suddenly became tackling dummies. Sucked on both sides of the ball. Disgraceful to get beaten down that badly by a lousy team, and Tulsa is a very lousy team. And that botched TD pass at the end of the 1st half was the icing on the cake. No excuse for that - those two are seniors. What an absolute joke this team is. Can't even find glimmers of anything positive anymore.

 

[BugsyCT]

When you prepare all week and get beat the way you do on Saturdays it begins to wear on you mentally, physically and emotionally. Playing for pride is one of those things that sounds good but when you’re getting beat so badly it becomes a challenge. It’s like in boxing. When you’re getting your head bashed in and can no longer fight back, your corner throws in the towel. Not as much as you didn’t want to finish but physically you just couldn’t.
You build tolerance over time dealing with adversity. Be honest with ourselves...have these kids ever been involved in anything like this? In HS when they lost games there wasn’t any media asking a bunch of questions or twitter going nuts over another blowout loss. They didn’t face players who were that much better than them. Some of these kids have never been on a plane before let alone going through the logistical aspects of playing college football.

This. Gotta wonder how much of a mental toll this has taken on these young players, and if they can recover. Hard to turn around a culture of losing when your team has been continuously beaten into submission every week. Hope they're tough kids - they'll need to be.