Identity. We Hit Hard.

[Carl Spackler]

It’s 9:31 pm as I sit down to type.

I just stopped the DVR after the missed FG by ECU with 10 sec to go in the first half. Thank you UCONN FOOTBALL 2014.

This is UCONN Football. Bob Diaco, I’m sure, remembers UCONN football from 2008. I think? I’ve had a few Yuenglings. Whenever, whatever – we stomped Virginia’s guts out when Bob first came to Rentschler.

I’m reminded once again of Dave Wannstedt. For me, Coach Dave will forever have established the identity of UCONN football. He said, long ago, that he always knows when they {Pitt} played UCONN, because on Monday morning, all his players were still walking around with headaches.

Teddy Bridgewater knew it too, we rekindled it for a brief moment after the major transition. Hardest hitting team he ever played. He hurt after he played UCONN.

This ECU team? Carpet?, whatever the hell the QB name is? He’ll remember playing UCONN too. As Tony Pike did, as Pat White did, as so many others before. We are f—king hitting like UCONN players tonight so far through 1 half. I love it. On offense too – they are hitting.

Got to clean up the dumb mistakes in the 2nd half. Win or lose, right now, I’m proud. UCONN football. We hit hard.
I’m writing this in a word doc, will add whatever come after game over – I’m on time delay, and watching this thing on my own. Symbolic I guess. Can’t wait till we all get back to the place, where those of us, like me, like you reading, aren’t watching alone.

10:14pm
21-21 P-ss break. D on the field. Deshon Foxx. Senior Day is your day to shine. Unbelievable what you’ve went through, I hope that TD felt as good as it looked.
Thank you UCONN 2014 roster. Not ready to thank Coach yet, because I haven’t forgotten that we
F-_KING lost to Tulane.
Still have to p—ss. Going to the head.

10:24 pm
Every single one of you m-fers that ever said a bad word about Chandler Whitmer better suck up and fess up. My man put his body on the line and made a block. I’m still ignoring that #14 was in the game. But Diaco is consistent, I’ll give him that – and as much as I hate it – consistent is priority #1.
More beer. Switch from Yuengling Black and Tan to Dogfish head punkin ale.

10:32 PM
Deshon – thanks for catching —king punt. I think I’ll take this moment to go sacrifice another chicken. Proverbially, there really isn’t chicken blood all over my basement, and my apron, and my cleaver….never mind. Really – that’s not blood, it’s just…..tomato juice…. Bloody mary’s in the morning. Look away. Back to the cave!
10:41 PM
Thank you Deshon for catching another punt. We better f---king win this game.

10:57PM
Just FFW’d through the endof the 4th. It was over when….well never mind. I’m proud of the effort. I’m proud of —king hitting that happened tonight.

DETAILS.
Blocking and Tackling. Lining up in a good football position. We’re getting there. I hope they take this performance tonight, and build it into something good.
A loss is a loss, and we lost. We competed. And they will remember UCONN football when Monday comes around, because they will still have headaches.
UCONN Football. We Hit Hard.
UCF next. Homecoming.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

And yet the defense couldn't stop ECU when they absolutely had to. And they hit at the wrong times, too often (5 pass interferences).

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Should we send the cops over to Spackler's house for a wellness check?

 

[uconnbill]

And yet the defense couldn't stop ECU when they absolutely had to. And they hit at the wrong times, too often (5 pass interferences).

They had been on the field for 100 plays or doesn't that compute with you.

You have an agenda plain and simple. You hate Diaco for whatever reason and so your analyst on UCONN is meaningless.

 

[Chin Diesel]

And yet the defense couldn't stop ECU when they absolutely had to. And they hit at the wrong times, too often (5 pass interferences).

They have seemed to take on Pat Riley's 1990's Knicks. Foul every play and force the refs to call every one.

Which, to be honest, I prefer over getting beat on every throw.

 

[junglehusky]

They have seemed to take on Pat Riley's 1990's Knicks. Foul every play and force the refs to call every one.

Which, to be honest, I prefer over getting beat on every throw.

Yeah, small nit to pick with Carl, we didn't hit the QB enough for my taste (glad to see we eventually mixed in some blitzes though) but we definitely harassed their receivers physically.

 

[bigAbruns]

I thought the defense did the best they could, the offensive play calls on the last few drives were terrible.

 

[Husky25]

At first I thought they were disrespecting UConn (up 'til now, I suppose rightfully so) by going for it on 3 consecutive 4th downs. But the Pirates' kicker is awful. I had no idea.

 

[J187Money]

Carl hit it hard too.

They fought to the bell. And played a lot better. I for one am not going to complain about last night.

 

[RedSoloCup]

It felt good for a change to watch the game and have hope. Next year will be better....

And I also felt hope because I don't see this team as 'pumped' for the game... They seemed to be applying in a workman-like fashion. A few foolish penalties aside, they were focussed and on task. I am sure the late hits will be addressed, those were sloppy... I think many of the DPI calls were part of the plan. This was not a flash in the pan effort, this is the foundation that has been laid and built block by block.

So my hope for this year is we won't see any tougher opponent... And our OL is starting to firm up. The backs made blocking assignments, and every one of them saw their QB lay it out to work as a team.

We have hope. We will win more... And my hope for these guys is more sooner than later so they can enjoy success for all they work they have been putting in.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

They had been on the field for 100 plays or doesn't that compute with you.

You have an agenda plain and simple. You hate Diaco for whatever reason and so your analyst on UCONN is meaningless.

Don't hate Diaco at all. Will reserve judgement when he starts bringing in recruits. No coach could be successful with the lack of talent we see game in and game out - especially on the offensive side of the ball. I hoping the HCBD is a recruiting savant that will upgrade the talent level of the team he coaches.

What I DO HATE is the fact that UConn hired Paul Pasqualoni. That was a quick, safe and grossly poor hire. He was horrible and left the program in terrible shape.

So chill. I didn't say the defense wasn't any good, I said they aren't strong enough to make stops when the game is on the line. BUT . . . it would be nice if the offense gave them a 2 or three TD lead to protect.

 

[UConn9604]

Carl hit it hard too.

They fought to the bell. And played a lot better. I for one am not going to complain about last night.

This team dropped 70 on UNC in the same building where they struggled to break 30 against us, and it took them 100 plays to do it.

As for the offense, even with the maddening mental breakdowns, I was really pleased. The 1-6 team didn't back down, at all, on either side of the ball, and that's the trait I most commonly associate with Connecticut football. It was great to watch.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

This team dropped 70 on UNC in the same building where they struggled to break 30 against us, and it took them 100 plays to do it.

Unlike UNC, our guys apparently went to real classes and also learned some new gridiron lessons during the bye+ week. May the progress continue throughout the season into spring practice, and bring much more success.

 

[Carl Spackler]

We weren't getting sacks, but their QB is feeling that game today. Their entire team is feeling that game today - I guarantee it. I have not seen us play a game that physical in a long, long time. That kind of game, used to be the norm for UCONN. This young team, needs to keep that going, and learn how to follow it through to the end of the game and win. Hard hitting. Both sides of the ball. All three phases. Byron got a nick, and kept going until he couldn't. Vann, same thing. All over the place the expression of mental toughness was there. The late hits, need to be cleaned up, but I will take a back up OL, for instance, running as fast and hard as he possible can on a kick coverage and hitting somebody a split second late as they're headed out of bounds.......over a chop block - any day, and twice on Saturdays. Mateas hitting the pile a second late, to get a little message across, etc. These are the kinds of attitudes I've been pleading for from our OL for a long time. You can clean that up, with practice and experience - easy. you don't just turn the mental attitude and approach switch on and off, that leads to it though - and we turned it on finally - got to keep it on.

We cannot get too high off this game, adn we can't play to the level of our opponents, and let that dictate. Our guys need to take that level they were at last night, and maintain it. Steady.

 

[DCUconnfan]

Best spackler post ever. Keep up the yuenglings (oh and the dogfish pumpkin is awesome this year)

 

[SonsOfNutmeg]

And yet the defense couldn't stop ECU when they absolutely had to. And they hit at the wrong times, too often (5 pass interferences).

Losing Byron Jones to that injury late hurt us too... Summers had 3 PI's himself.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Losing Byron Jones to that injury late hurt us too... Summers had 3 PI's himself.

I thought the kid that came in for Byron did well actually, for a 2nd year player that was recruited as a WR.

 

[Adios]

Our identity is recruiting classes similar or very close to the likes of Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, etc. Not bad.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Should we send the cops over to Spackler's house for a wellness check?

Did he say he was choking his chicken? UCONN FB as p-o-r-n. We have finally hit bottom.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Our identity is recruiting classes similar or very close to the likes of Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, etc. Not bad.

Would love to have recruiting classes similar to those programs.

 

[Bonehead]

Would love to have recruiting classes similar to those programs.

Be careful what you wish for - Minnesota has been looking good until the WTF loss to Illinois. Minnesota is a ground attack teams, so much so that Minnesota WON a game this year with 1 completed pass, 24-7. Thats right - you can win FBS FB games when only completing 1 pass.

Actually 2 completed passes, 1 to a Minnesota player and 1 to a San Jose St player.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Be careful what you wish for - Minnesota has been looking good until the WTF loss to Illinois. Minnesota is a ground attack teams, so much so that Minnesota WON a game this year with 1 completed pass, 24-7. Thats right - you can win FBS FB games when only completing 1 pass.

Actually 2 completed passes, 1 to a Minnesota player and 1 to a San Jose St player.

Then I will amend my statement. Lets recruit like TCU or even ECU.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We weren't getting sacks, but their QB is feeling that game today. Their entire team is feeling that game today - I guarantee it. I have not seen us play a game that physical in a long, long time. That kind of game, used to be the norm for UCONN. This young team, needs to keep that going, and learn how to follow it through to the end of the game and win. Hard hitting. Both sides of the ball. All three phases. Byron got a nick, and kept going until he couldn't. Vann, same thing. All over the place the expression of mental toughness was there. The late hits, need to be cleaned up, but I will take a back up OL, for instance, running as fast and hard as he possible can on a kick coverage and hitting somebody a split second late as they're headed out of bounds..over a chop block - any day, and twice on Saturdays. Mateas hitting the pile a second late, to get a little message across, etc. These are the kinds of attitudes I've been pleading for from our OL for a long time. You can clean that up, with practice and experience - easy. you don't just turn the mental attitude and approach switch on and off, that leads to it though - and we turned it on finally - got to keep it on.

We cannot get too high off this game, adn we can't play to the level of our opponents, and let that dictate. Our guys need to take that level they were at last night, and maintain it. Steady.

That QB was the best QB at avoiding a rush moving in and out of the pocket and throwing (not running) that I have seen in many years. His awareness of the rush was off the charts. I was reminded of Fran Tarkington. Very impressive player. I felt like we did get pressure on him and would have sacked most QBs several times.

 

[SubbaBub]

That QB was the best QB at avoiding a rush moving in and out of the pocket and throwing (not running) that I have seen in many years. His awareness of the rush was off the charts. I was reminded of Fran Tarkington. Very impressive player. I felt like we did get pressure on him and would have sacked most QBs several times.

I agree, a guy like that on some of our past teams would have been something special.