It's not the players - it's the coaches...

[huskymedic]

After I started a FHCRE thread, felt a guilty need to start a UConn Football thread (w/ a nod to BizLaw).

Found this tidbit from Chip Malafronte (NH Register) after yesterday's presser interesting:

"We've finally gotten to see exactly what Pasqualoni and George DeLeone had in mind with this two quarterback system. It forced opposing defenses to prepare for two completely different offenses, depending on who's under center. And it changes mid-series. They have to prepare for the McCummings run package, and they have to prepare for the McEntee pro sets. It was run efficiently against Rutgers. DeLeone said it's not necessarily that the players are understanding the system better, but the coaches realize what their players do best. "Every week McCummings is getting a bigger part of the game plan, and it's helped us run the ball tremendously and taken a lot of pressure off Johnny," DeLeone said. "I don't think the players have ever been a problem. It's us finally finding, it took us this long, finding what we do best and finding what we can win with at this level. We're starting to get into a groove of what we think we can do. If you listen to post-game reaction from these coaches, and listen to what they're saying during the week, defenses are struggling with it. They have a lot to prepare for, and it's gven us a little bit of an edge. They have a wide scope of plays they have to defend."

http://runwayramblings.blogspot.com/

 

[Carl Spackler]

Very interesting.

I wrote a long thing about identifying talent, developing talent, and maximizining talent and efficiency a few days ago after the fiasco I wrote about what I saw happening on the field after the past two weeks.

A lot of people misunderstood what I was saying, in the past few weeks, I think a few got it. When it came to talent, why we were winning, why we lost.

I wrote that thing referencing Dale Carnegie management techniques, all kinds of stuff. But college kids are in college to learn that stuff, not read it on message boards so I didn't post any of it.

But here we have it from the old guys.

"We're starting to get into a groove of what we think we can do."

The principles don't change, regardless of whether or not it's a small business in rural Montana or a fortune 500 on Wall street, or a manufacturing company in Delhi or division 1 football program in Storrs, CT. You want results, there are ways to certainly measure results, and you need to get results by identifying necessary talents, developing necessary talent, and challenging them to do NEW THINGS.

You don't get better in any business, if you don't challenge your people to do new things and better themselves.

We've got high level management, and if you want to fault them for taking a long time to sort out what we've got in this football program, then fine, they've been on the job for 10 months or so, most of them, and they've failed to put us better than 5-6, so far, but we're playign a meaningful game on the last day of the season, and that's pretty good to me.

Maybe they could have done it quicker, better. Sure they could have.

But from day 1, til today, I guarantee they are trying new things constantly and challenging their players to get better and finding ways to put people in the best position to succeed.

We've seen it time and again, and I'm not saying the coaches are infallible either, they make mistakes too, plenty of them, and Pasqualoni's time management during games is something he'll need to address, but people - players and ocaches find themselves in situations again and again, where it's up to them to make something good happen, and you either do or you don't.

 

[metsfan2323]

So DeLeone is basically stepping up and taking a big part of the blame for the early season struggles. "I don't think the players have ever been a problem". Quite a contrast from the typical Edsall stance on these matters.

 

[sdhusky]

Doesn't it seem like once (or more) a game, we have a guy completely open in the passing game. Sometimes Mac or McCummings makes the throw, sometimes they don't, but there is a guy that defense completely forgot about.

That almost never happened in years past.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

There are other things to criticize the staff for this year, but my biggest criticism is that they did not adjust their gameplans and schemes to the talent they had. They tried to put their systems in place way too quickly. It seems as though DeLeone is acknowledging this.

 

[Carl Spackler]

There are other things to criticize the staff for this year, but my biggest criticism is that they did not adjust their gameplans and schemes to the talent they had. They tried to put their systems in place way too quickly. It seems as though DeLeone is acknowledging this.

Well, there's two sides to every coin, and the way I look at it, these guys were putting in [business plans] game plans, that made sense based on reaching desired results [ sales goal / profit margin] of wins, based on working against the competition on the playing field [market]. They challenged the [employees] our players to go out and follow the plan, do new things, [do their job] make plays, and then looked at the results, and it took a while to figure out who was best at what ti make a big company work.

We didn't know who the top mid level managemetn guy was going to be until late September.

We're still waiting for that peak performance for four full quarters from all parts of this thing in all three phases of this business, but they're pumped and primed for it.

 

[Carl Spackler]

My criticism of the coaching staff is simple. I think these guys came in, two of them from teh NFL, and one is just a nut job, and I mean that in a very nice way, but probably threw too much sh8t on the wall for these palyers to sort through and handle in the beginning.

I don't think they needed to push as hard and dump as much info everybody's plates as they must have done early on, and probably would have gotten fewer game time mistakes early on, made less risky play calls during games with a better understanding of their players early on, if they had kept it simpler early on, and we might have a better record because of it.

But no matter what, we're playing for something meaningful on the last day of the season beyond pride.

 

[businesslawyer]

My criticism of the coaching staff is simple. I think these guys came in, two of them from teh NFL, and one is just a nut job, and I mean that in a very nice way, but probably threw too much sh8t on the wall for these palyers to sort through and handle in the beginning.

I don't think they needed to push as hard and dump as much info everybody's plates as they must have done early on, and probably would have gotten fewer game time mistakes early on, made less risky play calls during games with a better understanding of their players early on, if they had kept it simpler early on, and we might have a better record because of it.

But no matter what, we're playing for something meaningful on the last day of the season beyond pride.

While I agree with that, to their credit our coaches did a better job of all of that than, say, totally out of the blue, the staff at Maryland.

 

[Kgun7]

It appeared to me that when McEntee was in the game the Rutgers defense held a fist in the air ... and when it was McCummings they held up 1 finger. Clearly they game planned for both.

The question is - will this hybrid resume next year? As McEntee gets better at reading and calling protection ... and as McCummings improves as a pocket passer, will that combination be more productive then a solo Nebrich?

 

[TouchdownHusky]

One QB or a situational two QB rotation, just put the ball in the endzone with some frequency. Lat week was nice, but can't always depend on the other team to turn the ball over deep in their territory not once but twice (ala West Virginia last year). Great to make them pay, but can't rely on that happening. Need to be able to march the ball 80+ yards and put it into the end zone. Don't care whether it's one big play or a time consuming, ground it and pound it. Just need to be able to score TDs.

 

[Kgun7]

While I agree with that, to their credit our coaches did a better job of all of that than, say, totally out of the blue, the staff at Maryland.

Hypocrite ... ... at least you didn't mention the head coach's name

 

[Carl Spackler]

Scoring TD's on offense is the easiest way to score TD's. Other than that, it's a three phase game. Offense, defense and kicking. We've been figuring out what we do best in all three all season long. It came together last week, for three quarters. This week I want four. We've had little glimpses of each phase, and all the parts of each phase of the game all season long.

They all have to play together. When they do, it's easier to score TD's on offense. It's also easier to key on the run or pass on defense. It's a HELL of a lot easier to control field position, and therefore increase your chances of scoring TD's on offense, and keying on the run or pass on defense, when you dominate in the kicking game.

 

[sdhusky]

While I agree with that, to their credit our coaches did a better job of all of that than, say, totally out of the blue, the staff at Maryland.

I look at who is the poster before reading the post, but in this case, I did a double take. I actually read it was from you, read the post and then went back to confirm that it was you.

 

[mattp]

There are other things to criticize the staff for this year, but my biggest criticism is that they did not adjust their gameplans and schemes to the talent they had. They tried to put their systems in place way too quickly. It seems as though DeLeone is acknowledging this.

maybe they put it in too quickly, maybe the best way to learn is by diving right into the deep end. there's no definite answer, but either way i like that he's willing to take full blame, even though he doesn't deserve to (was it really his fault when we'd miss wide open guys?)

i think last week we finally saw what the coaches finished product is supposed to look like. to be honest if we didn't have the worst case of the dropsies i've ever seen against Louisville i think we'd have seen it then too.