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I'm a bit confused

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A knock on Diaco is that he can be stubborn or unwilling to adjust his plans. i don't think the staff is overwhelmed. I think they drafted up a plan and are sticking with it, win or lose.

I've gone from thinking this is the case to hoping this is the case . . .
 

whaler11

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not too sure on that.
I played a lot of tennis in my younger days. when I was playing someone that was getting really frustrated (in some cases it was me), you'd throw away your second serve and just go for an ace every time. if you watch tennis on TV, it happens sometimes when a player is getting smoked and just wants to get off the court. It's low percentages which won't work long term. sure, you get an ace or two. but you also double fault more often...
translating that to football, going for every 4th down won't work. maybe you convert one or two. But you also give the ball up on the 20 or 15 yard line as well. I don't read that as trying to win. it's desperation. Given BD's messaging, I don't think you'll see that.

maybe you go for it if the offense is on the ohter team's side of the field. that might be viewed as more aggressive than desperate.

Who said go for every fourth down? When you are down two scores with 5 minutes left and near midfield punting is pointless. Unless you think there is value in losing by 9 instead of 16...
 
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A knock on Diaco is that he can be stubborn or unwilling to adjust his plans. i don't think the staff is overwhelmed. I think they drafted up a plan and are sticking with it, win or lose. I think CC going down only cemented Whitmer as the starter...

Diaco is playing with house money this year, and I think he's playing for the future (2-3 seasons from now)...

There are clearly some calls that Diaco has made which are questionable. but he's been consistent in his approach and he isn't wavering or getting desperate in his game day planning. Last year, it was a constant question about who's the QB. PP was looking for wins. BD is the opposite. he's even said as much.

Would a seasoned coach be more flexible or take a different tact. Probably. would it yield different results? maybe. I just don't know if you can determine whether BD is successful or not based on 6 games.

Don't disagree with anything said here...but the problem is that the perception of the program by the talking heads in the media and by UConn fans is that the program has gone down the tubes. Several of the performances haven't been even close to D1 standards. How does HCBD preach to a new recruit that there is a light at the end of the tunnel? 1-11 only speaks of the possibility of some playing time...Nothing else.. and in the interim, we'll have less than 25,000 on hand for the UCF and balance of the year games..
 
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Don't disagree with anything said here...but the problem is that the perception of the program by the talking heads in the media and by UConn fans is that the program has gone down the tubes. Several of the performances haven't been even close to D1 standards. How does HCBD preach to a new recruit that there is a light at the end of the tunnel? 1-11 only speaks of the possibility of some playing time...Nothing else.. and in the interim, we'll have less than 25,000 on hand for the UCF and balance of the year games..

If only it were just the perception that the program has gone down the tubes.
 
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Who said go for every fourth down? When you are down two scores with 5 minutes left and near midfield punting is pointless. Unless you think there is value in losing by 9 instead of 16...
i guess when you said, "stop punting on 4th down..." I assumed you meant to go for every 4th down.
I agree late in the game, go for it. The only chance that came up was when Uconn had 3rd down and 15 or something from their own 35. Not sure I'd go for it there. what's going to change.
 
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i guess when you said, "stop punting on 4th down..." I assumed you meant to go for every 4th down.
I agree late in the game, go for it. The only chance that came up was when Uconn had 3rd down and 15 or something from their own 35. Not sure I'd go for it there. what's going to change.

4th & 13 with 9 change left in the game down 12-3 on the Tulane 39 yard line. That is the specific scenario we are talking about.
 

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It's a strange situation when you are a voice of reason. I mean this in a good way, not a dig.

I'm actually the voice of reason much of the time. People just don't want to admit it because they don't like what I'm saying.
 

SubbaBub

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Jimmy Serrano said:
4th & 13 with 9 change left in the game down 12-3 on the Tulane 39 yard line. That is the specific scenario we are talking about.

It's not the slam dunk call you think it is. 9 minutes is plenty of time to get a 2-3 more possessions. If you pin them in side the 5, maybe you get a safety and likely get good field position after a 3 and out.

Miss a 4th and 13 (you betting we have made it?) and you flip the field making two long drives necessary to win.

An aggressive coach might go for it there, but BD has been pretty consistent in not being aggressive with this offense, based on their results.

If I had any confidence in the line allowing the time for CW to take a 7 step drop, I'd say go for it. But, what have we done to inspire that as the percentage play?
 

whaler11

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It's not the slam dunk call you think it is. 9 minutes is plenty of time to get a 2-3 more possessions. If you pin them in side the 5, maybe you get a safety and likely get good field position after a 3 and out.

Miss a 4th and 13 (you betting we have made it?) and you flip the field making two long drives necessary to win.

An aggressive coach might go for it there, but BD has been pretty consistent in not being aggressive with this offense, based on their results.

If I had any confidence in the line allowing the time for CW to take a 7 step drop, I'd say go for it. But, what have we done to inspire that as the percentage play?

It's an absolute no brainer to go for it. From the 39 it's almost always an absolute no brainer at any point in the game.

If you are going to punt there you may as well just wave a white flag and head back to the locker room.
 

Dooley

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It's not the slam dunk call you think it is. 9 minutes is plenty of time to get a 2-3 more possessions. If you pin them in side the 5, maybe you get a safety and likely get good field position after a 3 and out.

Miss a 4th and 13 (you betting we have made it?) and you flip the field making two long drives necessary to win.

An aggressive coach might go for it there, but BD has been pretty consistent in not being aggressive with this offense, based on their results.

If I had any confidence in the line allowing the time for CW to take a 7 step drop, I'd say go for it. But, what have we done to inspire that as the percentage play?

I understand your rationale but humbly disagree. 9 minutes is plenty of time for most offenses. That said, we are no "normal" offense. We will likely need 2+ games to score 10 points. 9 minutes for our offense is the equivalent of 9 seconds for other teams. We just don't have the OL to protect long enough to generate big plays. Our big play hope relies solely on a screen pass that breaks (ex - Newsome vs Temple) or a run that breaks loose. Our OL simply can't provide the time required for our WRs to get more than 10 yards down the field to get quick hitting big plays to score quickly. In this particular instance, given the score, clock and opponent, ball possession was the most important factor. We simply can't give the ball away when we have it because it takes so goddam long for our offense to move it down the field.

That said, we likely weren't going to convert 4th and 13 anyway. For the same reasons I already said in the first paragraph, our OL would not be able to give our skill positions the necessary time to get down field. The play call likely would have been a quick pass play and then hope like heck that we can break a few tackles. Or, better yet, hope for a defensive pass interference call or a penalty that would result in a 1st down. But even then, throwing up a jump ball to Davis and hope for a flag is still a better decision than freely punting the football away.
 

ShakyTheMohel

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Diaco is in a bad place right now. His schtick won't resonate with the fans until they start seeing results. Saying they are petting the rock, or whatever he has been saying, doesn't work when there is no actual improvement on the field. Diaco hasn't done this before...and he, like Newsome, is fumbling his way through this. The punt that has been mentioned in this thread is an example of him not being able to adjust to what was going on in the field. It was obvious they had to go for it based on the flow of the game. Instead he followed his pre-game script. Like high school players adjusting to the speed of the college game, head coaches need to make the adjustment from coordinator to head coach. He isn't there yet.

I don't think he is experienced enough in fan/media relations to say anything right now to help how we think about him and the team. I do think that this is the time for Warde to step up and be honest with the fans and lay out a strategy that provides hope.

I have faith (maybe it's hope) that Diaco will get there...but in the meantime I think the AD has to take some heat off the team/coach and give the fans a reason to be optimistic there is a vision.
 

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If you can't move the ball you can't punt from the 39. It doesn't matter that you probably won't convert. It's still better than losing time, stopping them and moving the ball back to the 39.
 

Dooley

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What makes the decision to punt even worse is burning 2 timeouts on CONSECUTIVE plays there in the 4th. I said in the in-game thread and I'll say it again: that sequence made Pasqualoni look like a Clock Management Jedi.
 
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It's not the slam dunk call you think it is. 9 minutes is plenty of time to get a 2-3 more possessions. If you pin them in side the 5, maybe you get a safety and likely get good field position after a 3 and out.

Miss a 4th and 13 (you betting we have made it?) and you flip the field making two long drives necessary to win.

An aggressive coach might go for it there, but BD has been pretty consistent in not being aggressive with this offense, based on their results.

If I had any confidence in the line allowing the time for CW to take a 7 step drop, I'd say go for it. But, what have we done to inspire that as the percentage play?

Given the flow of the game, it was an absolute slam dunk. 100% no brainer. I'm not saying the odds were great that we'd make it, but at that point in the game, the way both teams were playing on both sides of the ball, it made absolutely no sense to punt.
 

ctchamps

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I'm actually the voice of reason much of the time. People just don't want to admit it because they don't like what I'm saying.
You present ideas that merit consideration, but you rarely present them reasonably. Confidence, self assuredness, are wonderful traits. But confident and self assured people present things without the need to draw attention to themselves or to be validated. Understand the distinction.

If you have an idea, put it out there. If you believe it's important to debate something than debate it. But the value of debating something is to evaluate if the idea we present has merit and has been completely vetted. If we don't employ this, if we start out with conceit as opposed to confidence, than a conversation ends up being less about the topic discussed and more about ourselves. We turn and twist points to fill our needs as opposed to coming up with the best possible solution or solutions.
 

ctchamps

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Just for the record I was joking.
Didn't see this. I'll keep my post, because I think it's applicable to most of the controversial arguments. I apologize if I offended you!
 

whaler11

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You present ideas that merit consideration, but you rarely present them reasonably. Confidence, self assuredness, are wonderful traits. But confident and self assured people present things without the need to draw attention to themselves or to be validated. Understand the distinction.

If you have an idea, put it out there. If you believe it's important to debate something than debate it. But the value of debating something is to evaluate if the idea we present has merit and has been completely vetted. If we don't employ this, if we start out with conceit as opposed to confidence, than a conversation ends up being less about the topic discussed and more about ourselves. We turn and twist points to fill our needs as opposed to coming up with the best possible solution or solutions.

What do I owe you for the session doc?
 

ctchamps

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What do I owe you for the session doc?
It was strong and I regret taking you to task specifically when most of us are guilty of doing things I accused you of doing.
 

SonsOfNutmeg

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If anything im concerned about the Offensive Line... they're terrible. That's what led to the Saftey, that's why our QB(s) didn't have any time all night. Secondly, the offensive play calling is questionable. I know Mike Cummings is playing with the cards he was dealt and knows the limitations of what he has. But scoring 3 points and expecting to win a game in FBS college football is redculous. We have the worst offense in the entire nation.

Our Defense played pretty well, minus a few key completed passes deep into our secondary. Byron Jones isn't playing up to his potential and hasn't all season long. He's so talented and hasn't been able to capture it.

At the end of the day, its time to cut our losses with Chandler Whitmer and just start Tim Boyle, get him some reps with the first team offsense the rest of the year, and pray our O-line improves somehow so he doesn't get injured.

Bob Diaco is not the issue here. He's a smart, young, energetic coach with big plans and big expectations out of these young men, this program, our state, and yes- even us fans.

As horrible as it is to sit through these games and see the bottom of the barrel, we need to all keep supporting this team, because next year, and the year after it will be better, and we will have a program to be proud about again. Its a process. I believe in Diaco and where he's taking this thing.
 

SonsOfNutmeg

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I agree with @Marty Jackson this coaching staff has a plan, and sticks to it win or lose. That happened on Saturday night.
 
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