How UConn football’s throwback hire of Randy Edsall can work ... eventually (SBN Connelly)

[huskymedic]

How UConn’s throwback hire can work ... eventually

It's a long read but worthwhile to keep scrolling down. For those with ADD (not Athletic Director Dave ):

>>Summary: After playing listless football in his absence, UConn brought Edsall back to resurrect a program he once had playing at a top-50 level. Old dogs, new tricks, etc., but Edsall made some exciting hires and could have this team playing interesting ball ... by 2018.<<

 

[ConnHuskBask]

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: It's jarring, but not totally unexpected just how bad our projections look for the upcoming season. We are rated dead last in the AAC and by quite a big margin.

 

[uconnphil2016]

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: It's jarring, but not totally unexpected just how bad our projections look for the upcoming season. We are rated dead last in the AAC and by quite a big margin.

IIRC Connelly's advanced metrics have us ranked in the bottom 5 or 10 teams in all of CFB. Granted, sometimes these things aren't that accurate--Colorado wasn't expected to be as good as they were last year, but I have a feeling they're right on us.

 

[CL82]

Since losing Edsall to Maryland in 2010, UConn lost its way. The school tried the “veteran coach who knows the Northeast” route and brought in Syracuse legend Paul Pasqualoni to keep Edsall’s eight-wins-a-year ship moving. He went 10-18. So the school went with the “hire a major program’s star coordinator” approach, and Diaco went 11-26, with more than half of his wins coming in a single year.

I didn't like the Pasqualoni hire, but I understood it. I thought Diaco was a good hire, and we all know how that worked out. But neither was a crazy choice from the get go.

Article is a very good, fair read on our status, not optimistic, but fair.

 

[Exit 4]

I didn't like the Pasqualoni hire, but I understood it. I thought Diaco was a good hire, and we all know how that worked out. But neither was a crazy choice from the get go.

Article is a very good, fair read on our status, not optimistic, but fair.

Diaco opened my eyes to see that the difference between being a HC and a coordinator is gigantic. Most coordinators cannot be HCs and that is something I never truly appreciated until now. I think the biggest hidden challenge in being a HC that Diaco and many completely fumble is coach management. Sure, coordinators have some staff, but its nothing like managing the full staff of people to run the entire team. You have to know how to select coaches as well, if not better, than selecting recruits. There is obviously much more to it than this, but I think managing your coaches (salaries, career expectations, game planning, character ) is is completely overlooked.

 

[Adios]

Projected record is 1-11 or 2-12. I don't know, I think the men we have running things now can do better than that.

 

[blue93]

Projected record is 1-11 or 2-12. I don't know, I think the men we have running things now can do better than that.

I think a lot of how low we rated out is attributed to the second half of the season. It's easy to forget how well this team fought against Navy and Cuse. If the coaching staff didn't butcher both of those games, we're off to a 4-0 start (I know, not great competition, but still 4-0) and the outlook on the rest of the season is entirely different. But instead, it was evident that the team had given up on the coaching staff and who can really blame them knowing what we know now?

With that said, I'd cap our potential wins this year at about 5... Just too much to fix to expect anything more right now. But my point is there is some talent on this team, now it's up to HCRE and staff to mold it into something respectable again.

 

[uconnell]

Projected record is 1-11 or 2-12. I don't know, I think the men we have running things now can do better than that.

It seems as though no one has taken inthe fact that the team quit on Diaco. I think the guys will surprise us and win a few more games, they seem to be enjoy practice and their coaches I am looking forward to the season ahead and the joy they get playing.

 

[Hoophound]

We're going bowling.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

The article seemed to suggest that, if everything goes well for us (they listed some key points we need to get to), we would be somewhere around the 80th best team. Wouldn't that be about a .500 record?

 

[UConnNick]

4-8 would be reasonable to expect. Anything beyond that would be surprising. Going to a bowl would be an unbelievable turnaround for "Retread" Randy.

 

[Waquoit]

4-8 would be reasonable to expect. Anything beyond that would be surprising. Going to a bowl would be an unbelievable turnaround for "Retread" Randy.

I would be a nice job but "unbelievable" is overkill. This team had Navy beat last year. We should at least expect more wins than Diaco had.

 

[ZooCougar]

This staff is better qualified, more experienced and more competent. They will make better game plans, make better decisions on the sidelines and deliver better results. I have zero doubts about that.

It may not be 9-12 win like performance right off the bat, but with the talent on board it's easily in the 5-7 win realm.

 

[Stinger92860]

This staff is better qualified, more experienced and more competent. They will make better game plans, make better decisions on the sidelines and deliver better results. I have zero doubts about that.

It may not be 9-12 win like performance right off the bat, but with the talent on board it's easily in the 5-7 win realm.

It's really hard to judge the talent level based on last year. I'm am confident that this coaching staff will get more out of each player. We could have won 4-5 games last year, so I hope we can get 5-7 this year.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Projected record is 1-11 or 2-12. I don't know, I think the men we have running things now can do better than that.

The projections in the article put us at 3.1 wins. We're the underdog in almost all our games, but the math has us winning some of those (if we're 25% to win each of four games, the computer tallies that as 1-3).

Let's say adding a coaching staff with a clue gives us another win, maybe two, and that puts us at 4-8 or 5-7, which I think is probably pretty realistic. Hell, if we had replaced Diaco with the AI from a 20-year-old Madden video game, we would have won at Navy.

 

[Redding Husky]

4-8 and being competitive in every game would be a step forward. Bowling in 2018.

Actually, it would be a step forward as long as the HC doesn't lose his players mid-season.

 

[kemba]

I would be a nice job but "unbelievable" is overkill. This team had Navy beat last year. We should at least expect more wins than Diaco had.

Not the same team though. Lost key guys on both sides of the ball, and so far the evidence is that Diaco has not recruited well, so we can't count on having a lot in the pipeline to replace them.

 

[#1 PA Husky Fan]

Alright, I gotta put it out there. What is the value of returning punts in our y/y results. Half serious/half kidding. Better field position, aggressive message from coaching staff, and the Rent will go wild!

 

[TheDrifter75]

Alright, I gotta put it out there. What is the value of returning punts in our y/y results. Half serious/half kidding. Better field position, aggressive message from coaching staff, and the Rent will go wild!

I think averaging 5-10% better field position with a return game changes things drastically. Because in that average you're gonna have some 20-30 or 40-50 yard returns and gasp maybe even a score. What the boneyard knows but the previous coaching staff didn't is that will alter the outcome of games. Simple logic, but missed on some career coaches.

 

[huskyrob1]

How UConn’s throwback hire can work ... eventually

It's a long read but worthwhile to keep scrolling down. For those with ADD (not Athletic Director Dave ):

>>Summary: After playing listless football in his absence, UConn brought Edsall back to resurrect a program he once had playing at a top-50 level. Old dogs, new tricks, etc., but Edsall made some exciting hires and could have this team playing interesting ball ... by 2018.<<

I like who we have for pass defense in September. I can't believe this guy didn't mention Coyle or Fortt, Coyle especially. He's really an underrated player and athlete. If Crocker wants to fill the season stats with some pick sixes, Tyler Coyle will help in that respect.

 

[ktuck911]

The article title is bulletin board material alone... Good...

With Edsall he knows how to get the players to channel that type of crap into energy on the football field....

 

[Palatine]

Forget Edsell. Except that he hired Lashlee. And that might have Benedict.

I've seen everything I need to see from Lashlee. I'm in the tank. I had a wait and see with Pasqualoni (two games). I had a show me with Diaco and he lost me before the BYU game.

Lashlee is the best thing to come through Storrs since 1881. We have never had a guy this good. He will change everything and he will do it this year. NOT eventually as the article indicates, 2017.

And since every defensive coordinator we have had seems to put together a decent defense. I'm not worried on that score.

 

[metsfan2323]

I understand tempering expectations but saying we have little or no shot at a bowl in 2017 is overkill. Diaco was lost on the sideline and he took the team to a bowl with Verducci as OC and a sophomore QB in Shirreffs. Now Shirreffs is a senior and we have a real coaching staff and a state of the art plan on offense, if things break right we can certainly go to a bowl. I'd would actually put the over/under at 5.5 wins and take the over.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Forget Edsell. Except that he hired Lashlee. And that might have Benedict.

I've seen everything I need to see from Lashlee. I'm in the tank. I had a wait and see with Pasqualoni (two games). I had a show me with Diaco and he lost me before the BYU game.

Lashlee is the best thing to come through Storrs since 1881. We have never had a guy this good. He will change everything and he will do it this year. NOT eventually as the article indicates, 2017.

And since every defensive coordinator we have had seems to put together a decent defense. I'm not worried on that score.

Who are you and what have you done with Palatine.

 

[HuskyHawk]

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing.

Edit: It's jarring, but not totally unexpected just how bad our projections look for the upcoming season. We are rated dead last in the AAC and by quite a big margin.

None of these prognosticators is doing much beyond extrapolating the end of the year.

In 2012. Auburn was 3-9, and 0-8 in the SEC. The 2013 team, under a new HC, was 12-2 and 7-1 with a #2 ranking. Here are the predictions for 2013. SEC Football 2013 Predictions

Now I'm not predicting that. But this UConn team was better than Navy on the field and should have won that game. Navy was borderline top 25. We beat Virginia. We beat Cinci. We lost to Cuse on bad coaching. Our QB was evidently playing hurt for several games. The 2017 team is much deeper at QB, has much better coaching and lost a few players, but nobody we can't replace. RB is much deeper, and the OL, which has been young, may finally mature.

This is not the worst team in the AAC in 2017. Not close.