I think he didn't know we were out of time outs

[upstater]

I wish college would just change their timing rules to the NFL. I hate that college teams get more plays than NFL teams. No more clock stopping after a first down and give them a 2 min warning.

Well, on the other hand, the NFL stops the clock on out of bounds plays long before the college game does it at 2 minutes or less.

 

[BugsyCT]

They run the ball at the goal line with 17 seconds left, so the play is done with around 12 seconds, and neither team even comes close to lining up again for another play. That drove me nuts almost as much as burning the TOs.

 

[ZOOCONN]

Didn't even need to spike it after Hergys catch. He went out of bounds, clock was stopped. The TO was to prevent a delay of game because we apparently still can't get a play called on time

hes talking about earlier in the drive, not at the one

 

[ZOOCONN]

I wish college would just change their timing rules to the NFL. I hate that college teams get more plays than NFL teams. No more clock stopping after a first down and give them a 2 min warning.

the clock doesn't stop on first downs anymore. that changed last year, it is stopped until the ball is set, that's all

 

[VAHuskyFan]

They run the ball at the goal line with 17 seconds left, so the play is done with around 12 seconds, and neither team even comes close to lining up again for another play. That drove me nuts almost as much as burning the TOs.

Navy was intentionally delaying the game there by lying on top of our players.

The UConn players who weren't under the pile should have been coached to run and take their positions immediately, rather than standing around waiting for the pile to clear. If 9 of our 11 guys are all lined up in their stance while Navy is still piled on top of Johnson for no reason, maybe we get the penalty call there and have a chance to run a final play. Maybe.

 

[UConnNick]

Didn't even need to spike it after Hergys catch. He went out of bounds, clock was stopped. The TO was to prevent a delay of game because we apparently still can't get a play called on time

And it's readily apparent from Diaco's post game remarks that we didn't have one coach on our sideline with any clear idea what the present game situation was at that point. Nobody apparently knew about timeouts, where the ball was going to be spotted, or even how much time was going to be left on the clock. That's why we were forced to call what proved to be a disastrous timeout. You NEVER call your last timeout in that situation. Spike the ball if need be, but you need one more timeout if you have any idea that you want to run the football. This is basic Football 101 stuff here, nothing out of the ordinary. Any competent coaching staff knows this.

The most disturbing thing about all of it is there's absolutely no attempt to take ownership of what went wrong after the fact. I hear no mea culpas, no pointing the finger at themselves as a coaching staff, nothing. It's like we're going to concoct some BS story that sounds plausible to us about why we screwed the whole thing up, and then go home.

If you're implementing a coaching style designed to do nothing but keep games close until the late 4Q, then you better damn well be completely prepared as a coaching staff to make quick decisions based on informed judgment, when all of your football games come down to what happens in the last two minutes of the games. This current staff appears incapable of learning how to do that, so we may have an entire season of last second boneheaded decision making to look forward to.

 

[jbdphi]

In that situation, you can sacrifice one thing to save two others.

- Time outs (of which we had one)
- Downs (of which we had three)
- Yardage (moving five yards back from the end zone)

HCBD chose the worst of the three things to give up which was our only time out. If he had taken the delay of game penalty but kept the time out, I would have been OK with it (albeit angry). If he had BS spike the ball - even though it came off a stopped clock play, I would have been happier than if he made the worst possible decision which was to blow his last time out.

I love how the team came back in the last 2.5 quarters but I don't see how we can trust a man who makes such bad end of game decisions. Couple that with the fact that he is usually playing for a close game like this as opposed to trying to crush opponents in the first three quarters? Disaster.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I think he thought we got the time out back since replay looked at the previous play.
We should have gotten it back under that circumstance, but I guess that isn't the rule. Either way, you have to check with the ref if you aren't sure.

I look at it this way: if you throw you can get three plays, if you run you get two plays at most, maybe only one.
Incredibly stupid to run there.

If he requested the TO while the other coach (or the officials) requested a review (where he wouldn't know play was being stopped) he can get the TO back. As the decision on the review came after he called TO, we didn't get it back. He may well have expected to but if that were the case he should have argued to try to get it back.

 

[ninety-nine]

This clock management was so poor that it re-introduces the impression that UConn is bush league when it comes to football (based on comments and stories I've seen over the last 12 hours) despite a great comeback from 0-21 that (again) demonstrated that UConn is ready to compete with good teams. And this isn't the first time end-of-half clock mismanagement has stood out. Or the second time. Or even the third time.

He is deficient in this area, and he needs to acknowledge it, or else be cut loose. His propensity for delusion will be the anchor that sinks our boat if we don't get someone else onto the sidelines whose only job is to stand next to Diaco, monitor the game situation, and advise him on clock management issues. Losing this type of game isn't tragic, but the way we lost is.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

One thing that will help is that Benedict is a no nonsense guy with an extensive sports background. He'll sit down with BD and recommend that delegation of some duties is necessary and will allow BD to perform his job at a much higher level.

 

[BNich]

One thing that will help is that Benedict is a no nonsense guy with an extensive sports background. He'll sit down with BD and recommend that delegation of some duties is necessary and will allow BD to perform his job at a much higher level.

I have been a huge Diaco advocate since he was hired, but I have lost just about all my trust in his on field leadership. Is he even capable of doing his job at a much higher level? 3 years now and it feels like we're reliving the same nightmares season after season. This is the same team that beat Houston a year ago?!

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I have been a huge Diaco advocate since he was hired, but I have lost just about all my trust in his on field leadership. Is he even capable of doing his job at a much higher level? 3 years now and it feels like we're reliving the same nightmares season after season. This is the same team that beat Houston a year ago?!

The way I see it the only way he can get to a higher level as a head coach would be by delegating duties (such as situational management & clock management) to an assistant or two.

 

[bigAbruns]

If this is like a few years ago....this is still diacos preseason....despite navy being a conference opponent

 

[UConnNick]

The way I see it the only way he can get to a higher level as a head coach would be by delegating duties (such as situational management & clock management) to an assistant or two.

Isn't that something that every head coach instictively knows they have to do without having to be prompted by somebody else to do it? I thought every team has at least one asst coach on its sideline who's totally responsible for keeping track of timeouts and other game management items. I don't have a warm feeling about a head coach who has to be told this stuff by others three years into his tenure. The mere fact that he isn't self aware is particularly troubling and inexplicable.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Isn't that something that every head coach instictively knows they have to do without having to be prompted by somebody else to do it? I thought every team has at least one asst coach on its sideline who's totally responsible for keeping track of timeouts and other game management items. I don't have a warm feeling about a head coach who has to be told this stuff by others three years into his tenure. The mere fact that he isn't self aware is particularly troubling and inexplicable.

If this has already been delegated to someone he needs to find someone else to give that job to.