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

[Hornet22]

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.

The cure for all of this is after the game against Temple. A break from football. Recharge their batteries. A nice winter break where they’re off for about five weeks. The storm called the Boneyard subsides and the quiet of another offseason begins. During this time is when I think the growth will truly begin. They’ll get bigger stronger and faster. I’m sure when the coaches went into their living rooms with the offer of getting a chance to play early they were all for it. But they had no clue what that entailed. And now they do. They know what it feels like to be undersized and overmatched. And I believe most of them will prepare a little harder to guard against that next year. Will it lead to us totally turning the tide? I don’t think so. I believe it takes two years of weight and agility training. But the effort will be better and the added size and strength will lead to more confidence.
Experience is the greatest teacher.
Our boys have been in class all year.

 

[Dooley]

We're getting worse as the season progresses. Not better. That's what I'm most discouraged about. I can stomach losing to a point as long as there is noticeable improvement in the way we lose. There is nothing improved about any aspect of our program from week 1 to last night's latest embarrassment.

 

[Chief00]

The cure for all of this is after the game against Temple. A break from football. Recharge their batteries. A nice winter break where they’re off for about five weeks. The storm called the Boneyard subsides and the quiet of another offseason begins. During this time is when I think the growth will truly begin. They’ll get bigger stronger and faster. I’m sure when the coaches went into their living rooms with the offer of getting a chance to play early they were all for it. But they had no clue what that entailed. And now they do. They know what it feels like to be undersized and overmatched. And I believe most of them will prepare a little harder to guard against that next year. Will it lead to us totally turning the tide? I don’t think so. I believe it takes two years of weight and agility training. But the effort will be better and the added size and strength will lead to more confidence.
Experience is the greatest teacher.
Our boys have been in class all year.

You’re dreaming.

 

[RioDog]

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

Agreed. Really bad technique. And is it just me or is this a trend throughout college football? Seems as though in general good tackling form is optional in a lot of games that I watch.

 

[huskysupporter]

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?

With all due respect I’m not missing anything. It’s not about being overmatched physically. It’s not about making assignment mistakes that happen with inexperience. It’s about effort. And that has nothing to do with record. it has to do with having pride in yourself and your team and the jersey you wear. I saw play after play of players jogging or standing still during plays. That is not excusable. O’Neil Robinson did it right next to the sidelines one play. Edsall should have yanked him right there and put in someone else. Because it couldn’t have been worse. And it wasn’t just Robinson.

 

[uconndogs]

I actually think we're worse against the run than we are the pass right now. And that has a lot to do with being physically ready, and our DL and LBs are not even close.

The rest of this season will be even more brutal............if that's even possible.

 

[Irishfan]

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.

In the last 15 years, only one FBS team has given up more than 570 yards per game in a season (Texas Tech 571 in 2016).

 

[zls44]

In the last 15 years, only one FBS team has given up more than 570 yards per game in a season (Texas Tech 571 in 2016).

They had Patrick Mahomes.

 

[Irishfan]

They had Patrick Mahomes.

Patrick “huge hands” Mahomes.

 

[Carl Spackler]

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?

Nope. He started out in 1-AA at UConn. Upgrade was not anywhere near certain.

Better hope he hasnt missed on his evaluations of all these rookies to be 1-A players

 

[gopher2]

......... 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.

This is what I was thinking last night while watching them fall apart in the 2nd. Even upperclassmen can be gassed by the end of 3rd/early 4th. These young guys can only hang with it for about a quarter.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Nope. He started out in 1-AA at UConn. Upgrade was not anywhere near certain.

Better hope he hasnt missed on his evaluations of all these rookies to be 1-A players

He was hired dec 21 1998. Uconn reapplied to BE jan 1999.

 

[Carl Spackler]

He was hired dec 21 1998. Uconn reapplied to BE jan 1999.

So? My statement was accuratre. Upgrade was not anywhere near certain.

Are you going to make excuses for what he's done again?

I'm sick of this DI. I've been watching. Hahn is a decent player. No mistake he is wearing #6. But he's not anywhere near physically to be playing the LB position he's playing. We've got DL's that have the frames, but are no where near what we need. The OLB's and DB's? Slow. How do we get faster?


On offense, the OL isn't all that nauseating, but what happens when Crozier leaves? Without him at C this year, the statistical abomination on O and D would be unbelievable.

Without Crozier at C, we would have the the worst offense in the history of D-1A football to go with the worst D.

This is not acceptable to me. You got a proposal on how to make it unacceptable in public to the school, let me know, and I'll make it happen.

 

[RSTuthill]

Amazed that anyone cares enough to write all the stuff I see here.

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

The cure for all of this is after the game against Temple. A break from football. Recharge their batteries. A nice winter break where they’re off for about five weeks. The storm called the Boneyard subsides and the quiet of another offseason begins. During this time is when I think the growth will truly begin. They’ll get bigger stronger and faster. I’m sure when the coaches went into their living rooms with the offer of getting a chance to play early they were all for it. But they had no clue what that entailed. And now they do. They know what it feels like to be undersized and overmatched. And I believe most of them will prepare a little harder to guard against that next year. Will it lead to us totally turning the tide? I don’t think so. I believe it takes two years of weight and agility training. But the effort will be better and the added size and strength will lead to more confidence.
Experience is the greatest teacher.
Our boys have been in class all year.

Your patience and flag-waving is admirable, but this could have been said last year...and the year before....and before....yadda yadda yadda. Freshmen aside, how about the other kids...the older ones...did last year's winter solace and battery recharge bring them back bigger, stronger and faster? Certainly doesn't appear that way. Is it a S&C issue, or are our guys just not getting coached up right? Or are they just all not the RKG's we hoped for? No matter what, I doubt this caterpillar-to-butterfly chrysalis, drinking cocoa around a quiet winter fire stuff is really enough to wait on. The problem right now seems much more systemic than just young weak kids whose starry-eyed dreams of winning as freshmen were dashed by the reality that is this season. I hope you're right, and the magic of the holiday season brings a newfound passion for football and understanding the importance of fundamentals and execution, but I think not. Maybe I'll sit quietly in the study and recharge my batteries while the "storm called the Boneyard" goes silent and my heart will grow three sizes in one day.

 

[Hornet22]

Your patience and flag-waving is admirable, but this could have been said last year...and the year before....and before....yadda yadda yadda. Freshmen aside, how about the other kids...the older ones...did last year's winter solace and battery recharge bring them back bigger, stronger and faster? Certainly doesn't appear that way. Is it a S&C issue, or are our guys just not getting coached up right? Or are they just all not the RKG's we hoped for? No matter what, I doubt this caterpillar-to-butterfly chrysalis, drinking cocoa around a quiet winter fire stuff is really enough to wait on. The problem right now seems much more systemic than just young weak kids whose starry-eyed dreams of winning as freshmen were dashed by the reality that is this season. I hope you're right, and the magic of the holiday season brings a newfound passion for football and understanding the importance of fundamentals and execution, but I think not. Maybe I'll sit quietly in the study and recharge my batteries while the "storm called the Boneyard" goes silent and my heart will grow three sizes in one day.

You’re definitely entitled to take that position. For me, it’s not that serious to be depressed and angry over a game. I have larger issues like maintaining my employment and raising my children with my wife. Now that’s real pressure. So it’s much easier for me to root for a positive outcome for the sake of these kids. And if they lay an egg next year? Oh well. I will still have my life issues to tend to which take precedent. Sports can be real finicky I’ve learned. Just when you think all hope is lost, a breakthrough occurs. And just when you think everything is figured out, it all falls apart.
I’m hoping they compete against SMU and then ECU and then Temple. And when that’s all over I’m hoping for a solid offseason and then we’ll do it all over again next season.
It’s only a game my man. Nothing more nothing less. I simply root for the kids to figure it all out so I can witness a game at a packed Rent! That would be awesome!

 

[kemba]

Better hope he hasnt missed on his evaluations of all these rookies to be 1-A players

I am hoping. I can't say I'm 100% confident it will eventually work out.

Just saying he's always recruited raw, under the radar players that need time to develop. That is why he's doing what he's doing, that's why we are where we are. This idea that he just came back for one more big payday and this strategy is to give him job security for the full contract that people have been mentioning is ridiculous.

 

[Husker Husky]

RE had a choice. Go the JUCO route and win 4 games, Mortgage the future for 4 wins. Or try to get the best available talent that will come to an AAC school and see how they develop over their 4 years.

Frost has pretty much done the same at Nebraska. He did get a few JUCOs, but he is also going with a very young team. They seem to have turned the corner, and look to be a tough out the rest of the way. He did have much better talent from the previous staff, but ironically, the highest rated guys have left the program for various reason, mostly due to his lack of deference to their star ratings.

It will take a long time for RE to develop the talent. It would have been nice to be able to red shirt the majority of them, but between Diaco and Pasqualoni (yes, his last recruiting class would be 5th year seniors) he really didn't have much powder in the gun.

Recruiting news around Nebraska has a good crop coming n next year and the year after. They all know that with Frost, and what he has now, they stand a good chance to get on the field. That's clearly the pitch for RE. Who knows, maybe we'll see an uptick in talent for that very same reason over the next few years.

 

[uconnbill]

If they don't want a stadium with a few hundred people in a couple of weeks, then they better play better than that garbage we witnessed last night.

 

[SubbaBub]

Remember how RE 1.0 teams would bend not break forcing opponents into long drives increasing the chances of mistakes that would result in punts, fg's, and turnovers?

Yeah. that ain't happening now. We give up TD's every possession and usually within three or four plays. Like giving up fastbreak dunks in basketball.

Why, because so many players are getting beat one on one that it's becomes impossible to play 11 on 11 defense. A DE gets edge pressure, too bad the DT is getting gashed up the middle. LB gets a clear shot at the runner, too bad he attacks the inside shoulder and gets torched to the outsidd where there is no one to stop the ball for 40 yards.

 

[huskysupporter]

I will also add that this is the worst linebacker unit I have ever witnessed on a division one team. I thought the defensive backs were the main problem, and while are secondary is Swiss cheese for the most part, the linebackers are non existent. Slow to react, easily blocked, terrible tacklers.

 

[huskysupporter]

Really can’t wait for Dillon Harris to get here. And the hope is game slows down for Kevon Jones in year two and he loses a few pounds to increase quickness.

 

[Husky68]

In modern college football you make up for inferior talent with wide open offense, which requires a QB who can pass. Pick Pindell and you give that up for senior leadership and running/escape ability. That would lead to a read option offense, which UConn does not run; so therefore you get a very condensed field to operate on offensively with little deception. Worst of all worlds. With the crazy talent Alabama and Clemson have they went with younger guys at QB who could pass. Put the UCF kid on UConn and we are bowl bound and the defense looks much better as the other team gets less possessions and have lot of pressure to score (maybe they even make some mistakes).
HCRE2.0 scheme's and strategy are a program killer on both offense and defense. Remember how his defenses handled Navy and WVU with White, couldn't 'cause he never figured out you attack these type of offenses; UConn just sat back and got overwhelmed at point of attack like we are this year.
You guys complain about effort by players but forget how Summers and some of the seniors last year didn't buy into stupid and you thought they weren't "team guys". duckk that, give me a coach that says it's not important to win now and I'll show you a team that could give a duckk come game day.