Interesting commentary from DeLeone on N. Williams and M Nebrich

[mattp]

His passing ability and running ability is light years ahead of McEntee,

what have you been watching? if you think he's better that's a fair opinion, but to say he's light years ahead makes me think you haven't watched a snap of UConn football this year. he's faster i'll give you that, but it's not like Nebrich brought much of a running aspect to our offense. he had a total of 7 yards on 6 carries. if the coaches and Nebrich both agree that he's not ready, why do you think you know better?

as for Nick, if he can't get open on routes, what can the coaches do to give him the ball? you can't just have him run screens and end arounds all day or the defense will catch on really quick. he just needs to improve his routes, which i'm sure he will.

 

[Rumrunner]

Since Coach P is paid $2 million a year to figure out how to get Nick Williams the ball, this is entirely on the coaching staff.

Why send him out wide or deep? Does college football not include slants? Reverses? End arounds? Try it.

If the guy can catch a 50 yard kickoff, he has the hands for at the minimum a screen pass.

 

[Palatine]

Williams needs play on offense. JUST FIGURING THAT OUT? Duh! Well, there goes the head coach is perfect because he sees them in practice theory. I have only been saying that for two years.

BTW, If Nebrich had gotten the snaps tat Mac had been given, we would have more wins. And I still believe if they put Nebrich in, he would have better production that Mac.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Wow! "Six of one, half dozen of the other". Depending on the last post I've read both sides of this "debate" make logical arguments. Personally, I'd have gone with the Mc's and red shirted Nebrich at the start of the season. Sure QB was inexperienced and up for grabs, but UConn staff was obviously operating on the premise of going with the upper classmen until they lost the job beyond a reasonable doubt . . . and to many fans shock, they haven't reached that point despite an ineffective offense. So why burn his red shirt year for a couple of series here and there (anybody feel confident in his "experience level" now, should he have to take over the reigns due to injuries?) if in the end the experience he would bring this season is nil.

What is salient in this whole debate is . . . . How in the world has the University of Connecticut managed to look so inept at recruiting for , coaching up, game planning and managing the quarterback position? Frankly the position has become embarrassing for a BCS program.

 

[Mr Blueskin]

Palentine, I agree with you 100 pct about Nebrich. I feel that if the coaches could start the season over, they would still start Mcentee and I believe they are completely wrong in that aspect. Even with losing all those games in the beginning of the year, Nebrich would be much further along improvement wise compared to where jmac is today... Jmac just isn't doing enough besides his only plus being accurate throws up the middle to the Moores and TEs. I believe Nebrich could do that and a lot more given the chance. I understand the whole freshman out of high school bit but I believe it's now time. Ac should be on a very short leash.

 

[sdhusky]

Williams needs play on offense. JUST FIGURING THAT OUT? Duh! Well, there goes the head coach is perfect because he sees them in practice theory. I have only been saying that for two years.

BTW, If Nebrich had gotten the snaps tat Mac had been given, we would have more wins. And I still believe if they put Nebrich in, he would have better production that Mac.

Last summer, at the open practice, I watched the WR's do some drills. It was clear with that particular drill, Nick wasn't getting it and was behind the rest of the WR's.

One drill, one practice is nothing to go on. But I guess it's more practice time than you used to draw your conclusions.

 

[Palatine]

Last summer, at the open practice, I watched the WR's do some drills. It was clear with that particular drill, Nick wasn't getting it and was behind the rest of the WR's.

One drill, one practice is nothing to go on. But I guess it's more practice time than you used to draw your conclusions.

Then run him on an end around. Throw him a bubble screen. Put him in the backfield and have him run an out to the corner (SF did this with Crabtree on the two-point conversion Last Sunday). None of those involves running complex routes.

If if he didn't get it. How did he win the Buffalo game when none of the other receivers did squat.? Explain that?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

This whole debate is not as black and white as some are trying to make it out to be. Some people state their opinions in a manner that presents itself as fact. It's a legitimate criticism that the coaches mishandled the Nebrich situation. You may not agree with that opinion, but it's an opinion that is no more or less valid than your own.

Regarding Williams, if he is having trouble with the fundamentals of getting off the line and running precise routes, there are a million ways around that as others have stated.

I'm still perplexed by DeLeone's answers.

 

[freescooter]

Then run him on an end around. Throw him a bubble screen. Put him in the backfield and have him run an out to the corner (SF did this with Crabtree on the two-point conversion Last Sunday). None of those involves running complex routes.

If if he didn't get it. How did he win the Buffalo game when none of the other receivers did squat.? Explain that?

Um, maybe it had to do with the fact that Buffalo is an awful football team?

 

[Palatine]

Um, maybe it had to do with the fact that Buffalo is an awful football team?

They were only awful against Williams? They were brilliant against our other receivers? Not a very defensible analysis.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm making an assumption here but I would have to think that a player who knows they are never getting into a game (i.e. knows they are redshirting) does not prepare or practice with the same level of dedication and intensity as one who thinks they could be in the game on any given play if the person in front of them gets hurt. That's why I think Nebrich's experience in practice and limited snaps in games will be very helpful for him. I also agree with others who say that a redshirt could still come down the road from injury or otherwise so not using it in his freshman year isn't the end of the world.

I haven't finished reading the discussion yet, but I will guarantee you taht you are 100% correct. This kid has the most important position on the entire roster aside from any of the 11 that are actually on the game field for any single snap. He's involved in the game plans, week to week. He's listening to the play calls coming through the chain of command in every game, and workign with coaches that know WTF they are doing, and following how the offense is working.

a non-medical redshirt for a QB as a freshmen is a highly desireable thing to be able to do. Wasn't in the cards for Nebrich this year. To think that this kids development and college football career has been hurt in any way is plain wrong. end of story.

 

[Husky68]

Sounds like coach speak re Williams and JMc. 2nd half of Syracuse game 2 of 3 passes JMc completed receiver was wide open, was the offensive set vs. defense called, not some super, duper route run. The third completion was a nice catch with pretty good coverage on a ball a little behind the receiver. So where were all the plays for route runners. Threw the ball 14 times with 2 interceptions! Sounds like fhcRE speak re how he finally got Easley to "run routes". Every team we play gets the ball to its playmakers and yet Uconn needs to ponder game film on specials and lament not getting ball to our Hester. Very weak. Not like Julio Jones is the alternative receiver.
Also, hard to get open when coverage gives no credit to long throws. Our opponents play us like Florida played Cin a few years ago in the BCS where didn't give up anything short and made Pike hit long passes to receivers - which he didn't, big pass rush and = 3 and out, and you know the rest.
Guess most here understand the JMc starter and keeping as starter, I don't. Another way of saying what I think coaches are saying is that - after 8 games JMc best alternative to start; after 1st half of 9th game and 2 inceptions and 1 fumble, still the choice to start the second half and would have stayed as QB in 2nd half even if performed same as 1st (meaning play all non SMc package plays and no Nebrich). Were one nice interception by Moore away from being down 28-21 and having to drive the field to tie.
Given the type plays called, I don't care if you call it NFL style package, how hard is it to hand off, not call audibles at the line, or throw short curl patterns to primary receiver. We only ran 61 plays against Syracuse and passed 14 times and 3 of those 14 ended in disaster. If someone is seeing JMc doing anything like running a NFL style offense I guess I'm missing it. He is calling plays as given, handing off, passing only to primary receivers, not moving in pocket to help blockers. Don't see anything remotely NFL style offense by JMc where QB mentally picks appart the opposing defensive line up at the line of scrimmage with audibles or reads progressions through to best option on passing plays.
Saw a church league game of basketball with a bunch of 10 year olds a few weeks ago and heard the coach telling one of the parents his team was running a triangle offense. Was about as close to running a triangle offense as Uconn is to running an NFL style offense.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Williams needs play on offense. JUST FIGURING THAT OUT? Duh! Well, there goes the head coach is perfect because he sees them in practice theory. I have only been saying that for two years.

BTW, If Nebrich had gotten the snaps tat Mac had been given, we would have more wins. And I still believe if they put Nebrich in, he would have better production that Mac.[/quote]

Boy I wish I had your crystal ball to predict things. Any ideas on what stocks I should buy?

 

[freescooter]

I don't know why the idea that a true freshman might take a while to master a D1A offense is all that shocking to everyone. Particularly an offense that is fairly complex like the one Deleone typically runs. I think that BL is right that they really were hoping that Nebrich would be the guy by the time the conference season came around, but I'm also more and more convinced that such a view was based more on hope than fact. Last year he was running an offense agianst 16 year olds. Very few guys make that transition without a year of watching. By the way, if anyone thinks that the 10 plays or so he actually ran over 3 games "prepared" him for anything, well I just don't know what to tell you.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I think that some of you might not really ahve a clue as to what goes into a playbook, an offensive system, and the simple, but not-so-simple process of calling plays during a game, never mind changing up personnel groupings at the tsame time, just doing it with the same 11 guys is complicated.

Not only is the whole process difficult to get down for your own single position, the WR position, I believe has changed quite a bit from last year to this year.

I'm going on nothing but my own observations of games over the years as a fan, so I can be completely off on this or wrong, but here goes....

In the passing game, there are things called route trees. Each play call, each pass route runner in any play call, has a route right? is it that simple? If you make it that way, but your offense is going to be very, very predictable and easy to stop if you don't have play makers. The jimmy johnson dallas cowboys offense under norv turner got reduced to a simple number of plays during the super bowl years because the talent level was so insane. The offense in San Diego now is much more diverse.

Maybe - I used to wonder a lot, in the past, if the offensive system we had was exactly that simple - the play call came, and there was only one route for each pass route runner, maybe two.

Route trees are differnt, a receiver usually has multiple routes for any SINGLE play call formation, that they run out of single position going downfield past scrimmage. I absolutely guarantee that Deleone has route trees that can have as many as 6 or 7 different routes built into a single play formation and call.

What all of that means, is that when a pass play comes out of the QB's mouth in the huddle, there's going to be a whole bunch of words and numbers. The receviers are going to need to recognize where they're supposed to line up on the field, and then - this is the key part, recognize what route they're supposed to run from that spot on the field.

Doing all of that takes a ton of practice time, practice time that's monitored, and very limited for college players - these aren't pros. Williams is also our number one kick and punt returner and needs to practice that.

Anyway, my normal long winded self, the bottom line is that installing designed plays for Williams might seem like an easy thing to do, but it's not, especially if he's spending a significant amount of practice time on what his primary role on the team is.

The kid is already getting weekly reps on the field with the offense. Can he get more reps? Probably, the key is making every time he touches the ball count.

He does best for this team on specials, and if I'm coaching, I'm not doing anything to take away that practice time.

 

[mattp]

Williams needs play on offense. JUST FIGURING THAT OUT? Duh! Well, there goes the head coach is perfect because he sees them in practice theory. I have only been saying that for two years.

BTW, If Nebrich had gotten the snaps tat Mac had been given, we would have more wins. And I still believe if they put Nebrich in, he would have better production that Mac.

the funny thing is that you seem to think that you typing it makes it true. how about this, if Nebrich had gotten the snaps Mac had, we would be winless. wow, it's fun to talk out of your butt and pretend it's gospel. also what makes you think they just figured it out? Deleone seems to say they've been trying to get him the ball all year but haven't been able to b/c he can't get seperation on his routes. but i guess you do know everything and it's just a shame Hathawy didnt' make you head coach before he was pushed out. we'd be in line for the NC game

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I think that some of you might not really ahve a clue as to what goes into a playbook, an offensive system, and the simple, but not-so-simple process of calling plays during a game, never mind changing up personnel groupings at the tsame time, just doing it with the same 11 guys is complicated.

Not only is the whole process difficult to get down for your own single position, the WR position, I believe has changed quite a bit from last year to this year.

I'm going on nothing but my own observations of games over the years as a fan, so I can be completely off on this or wrong, but here goes....

In the passing game, there are things called route trees. Each play call, each pass route runner in any play call, has a route right? is it that simple? If you make it that way, but your offense is going to be very, very predictable and easy to stop if you don't have play makers. The jimmy johnson dallas cowboys offense under norv turner got reduced to a simple number of plays during the super bowl years because the talent level was so insane. The offense in San Diego now is much more diverse.

Maybe - I used to wonder a lot, in the past, if the offensive system we had was exactly that simple - the play call came, and there was only one route for each pass route runner, maybe two.

Route trees are differnt, a receiver usually has multiple routes for any SINGLE play call formation, that they run out of single position going downfield past scrimmage. I absolutely guarantee that Deleone has route trees that can have as many as 6 or 7 different routes built into a single play formation and call.

What all of that means, is that when a pass play comes out of the QB's mouth in the huddle, there's going to be a whole bunch of words and numbers. The receviers are going to need to recognize where they're supposed to line up on the field, and then - this is the key part, recognize what route they're supposed to run from that spot on the field.

Doing all of that takes a ton of practice time, practice time that's monitored, and very limited for college players - these aren't pros. Williams is also our number one kick and punt returner and needs to practice that.

Anyway, my normal long winded self, the bottom line is that installing designed plays for Williams might seem like an easy thing to do, but it's not, especially if he's spending a significant amount of practice time on what his primary role on the team is.

The kid is already getting weekly reps on the field with the offense. Can he get more reps? Probably, the key is making every time he touches the ball count.

He does best for this team on specials, and if I'm coaching, I'm not doing anything to take away that practice time.

To lighten the mood a bit.....it appears from reading the length of this post that the ridiculous character limit issue (or, as I affectionately call it, the "Spackler Rule") has been resolved.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Are we to understand that only Ochocinco & the UConn WRs struggle to learn this stuff, while the rest of the football playing world is "pass happy".

Georgia effectively utilizes 3 freshman WRs, so it can't be as difficult as some fans want to make it out to be.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Are we to understand that only Ochocinco & the UConn WRs struggle to learn this stuff, while the rest of the football playing world is "pass happy".

Georgia effectively utilizes 3 freshman WRs, so it can't be as difficult as some fans want to make it out to be.

The UConn WR's aren't having any trouble getting open on the field, based on my interpretation of what I see, not sure what Georgia freshmen WR's have to do with anything being discussed ehre.

The discussion here is about whether or not Williams should have a bigger role in that respect. If getting him a bigger role in the passing game is going to come at the expense of getting him less time practicing fielding kicks and punts, then I'm 100% against it.

My long diatribe on the basics of route trees and play calls, was meant to describe that there's a lot of practice time that goes into making sure that a WR - might - might - get a ball in their hands on game day, because we all know that the QB position is the other half of that ball getting in those hands.

This guy is more valueable to us doing what he's doing, from what I see, the guy's energy on kicks is infectious, and there's no price on that.

 

[Carl Spackler]

also - it's not like Williams is not getting snaps on the field with the offense on a regular basis, he is, and has been.

 

[freescooter]

They were only awful against Williams? They were brilliant against our other receivers? Not a very defensible analysis.

NO, they were awful. Williams was open. He made some plays. and it is at least as good an analysis as "if Nebrich had as many snaps as Mac we'd have won more games..."

 

[Uconnfan13]

Perplexed? I'm perplexed that you guys buy into this "route running" bs coaching talk. Somebody made a valid poit about Easley and Edsall's opinion of his "route running..." look how that turned out.

Williams runs crisp solid routes and has prooved that. He gets a decent amount of reps, but is contantly running clearing routes. They've thrown him that quick slant twice and he turned each play into 50 yard + game changers. I watch him closely. Other than those 2 slants, they've thrown to him on a scramble against Western Mich. on 4th down which he caught a TD (play was obviously not designed for him, but he stayed open and Jonny made a good play, probably his best play of the year.) He toasted some kid agaist Pitt and was overthrown. He did a dropp a ball on third down at the very end of the game...these things happen when your team is getting killed. Point is, it's not his route running, or his hands. In temrs of understanding the playbook, you've got the wrong guy. Talk to him and tell me he doesn't understand the playbook, or routes. Coaches think he's undersized, or doesn't fit that part, or whatever. It couldn't be more obvious.

Everyone always has room to improve and Nick can certainly improve across the board. The problem here is not finding a way to get him the ball (Johhny does not help), it's the coaches taking a chance on a smaller guy. It'll happen eventually and when it does, you'll all be saying you always thought the kid could play and didn't get why he wasn't getting the rock. The offense would be much better off if he was featured...it's not like they're putting up 40 a game and cant try it. When teams have problems coaches should adjust, not stay stagnant.

This kid is an outlier. Saying he should be practicing specials more, as oppossed to getting involved with the offense is crazy. He's the only playmaker we've got. Find a way to get him the ball.

The Welker comments draw heat, but I can't think of a more fitting comparison. Undersized, underrecruited, underutilized until coaches took a chance. I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[Husky68]

I think that some of you might not really ahve a clue as to what goes into a playbook, an offensive system, and the simple, but not-so-simple process of calling plays during a game, never mind changing up personnel groupings at the tsame time, just doing it with the same 11 guys is complicated.

Not only is the whole process difficult to get down for your own single position, the WR position, I believe has changed quite a bit from last year to this year.

I'm going on nothing but my own observations of games over the years as a fan, so I can be completely off on this or wrong, but here goes....

In the passing game, there are things called route trees. Each play call, each pass route runner in any play call, has a route right? is it that simple? If you make it that way, but your offense is going to be very, very predictable and easy to stop if you don't have play makers. The jimmy johnson dallas cowboys offense under norv turner got reduced to a simple number of plays during the super bowl years because the talent level was so insane. The offense in San Diego now is much more diverse.

Maybe - I used to wonder a lot, in the past, if the offensive system we had was exactly that simple - the play call came, and there was only one route for each pass route runner, maybe two.

Route trees are differnt, a receiver usually has multiple routes for any SINGLE play call formation, that they run out of single position going downfield past scrimmage. I absolutely guarantee that Deleone has route trees that can have as many as 6 or 7 different routes built into a single play formation and call.

What all of that means, is that when a pass play comes out of the QB's mouth in the huddle, there's going to be a whole bunch of words and numbers. The receviers are going to need to recognize where they're supposed to line up on the field, and then - this is the key part, recognize what route they're supposed to run from that spot on the field.

Doing all of that takes a ton of practice time, practice time that's monitored, and very limited for college players - these aren't pros. Williams is also our number one kick and punt returner and needs to practice that.

Anyway, my normal long winded self, the bottom line is that installing designed plays for Williams might seem like an easy thing to do, but it's not, especially if he's spending a significant amount of practice time on what his primary role on the team is.

The kid is already getting weekly reps on the field with the offense. Can he get more reps? Probably, the key is making every time he touches the ball count.

He does best for this team on specials, and if I'm coaching, I'm not doing anything to take away that practice time.

It just can't be that complicated. The head coach has 40 years of coaching experience and his assistants have a lot also. I would hope coaches could figure out practice time allocation since August to get a playmaker available at WR. If he isn't as quick on the uptake as the two red shirt freshman re learning plays and routes, have a "Williams" package for him like a "SMc" package, where Williams only learns a few plays where he is the primary receiver (and practices the hell out of those routes and route trees). The kid has almost half the yardage gained of our leading receiver on about a quarter of the receptions. He is averaging 25 yards per reception and yet has only gotten 7 receptions.
Part of the problem is only have 133 completions through 9 games and only 75 are to WRs. Only so many passes to go around in Uconns NFL style offense. Only 5 wide receivers get 75 completions for 9 games. Rest to TE or backs and I'm not counting TE receipts even if split wide - which is probably not correct but don't have those stats to separate. Have 32, 28, 7, 4, 4 receipts by WR with Williams having the 3rd most. Either you need to increase passes to WR, increase completion % or you are just taking away opportunities from the Moores (two leading receivers). Moores are both averaging about 14 yards per catch so don't really want them to get less action (would actually like to see more).
By game 10, coaches should not be wistfully scratching their heads.

 

[Palatine]

Coaches make mistakes on QBs all the time. Pasqualoni made one when he GAVE the job to Mac and sat Nebrich after an unfair competition.

 

[metsfan2323]

I will say this for McEntee he was nearly perfect in the second half vs Syracuse, the only blemish being a 2 yard sack.

There were 24 offensive plays for UCONN in the second half vs Cuse, 11 for McEntee and 13 for McCummings. McEntee was 3 - 3 passing for 49 yards. Each completion was huge and helped lead to a score. We ran the ball 7 times for 56 yards (8 yard average) in the second half with McEntee as QB. We averaged 5.8 yards rushing (12 rushes for 70 yards) in the second half with McCummings at QB. McCummings one pass play was almost a disaster.