Jim Mora’s new staff coming together…

[ZooCougar]

I bet this was the plan all along.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I don’t think we should sell Spanos short. He’s been successful before. The dumpster fire he worked through this year was unfathomable. He kept the kids happy and playing hard. He’s got a way with people, players don’t quit on him. Hopefully, with Mora’s help, some better players and a competent offense, he can make the D look quite a bit better.

Just keeping the good ship Edsall program functioning after a mid season take over is an accomplishment.

 

[mikedog10]

I bet this was the plan all along.

What makes you say that? If the plan was to retain Spanos I think they would've announced it earlier.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Eh, when Mora was first hired people assumed Spanos and Mazzone would be here and many were thrilled. The issue is the offense needs to score 35 to 45 in today’s game.

 

[Hoophound]

While Spanos may not have been the top choice, I don’t view that as a failure. The rest of the staff filled in almost immediately. It is certainly possible that the initial DC choice or two got better offers and reneged, but there has been a lot of turnover this year and jobs are available all over college football. Spanos is a Mora guy and the coincidence of Mora coming after the UConn job with Spanos being interim HC is hard to ignore. Maybe Spanos was promised a different, lesser job on the staff but ended up DC when other option(s) fell through. It is just hard to believe Spanos hooked his buddy up and planned to completely walk away.

 

[Hskies4Ever]

spanos took over with quite literally the worst college defense of all time and took them to somewhere thats not an embarrassment. Obviously there is room for improvement on the defense but you got to remember where he started. He and Mora can get this thing back on track defensively.

Completely agree. And with a better offense maybe these guys won’t have to be on the field All. Game. Long.

IMO the defensive statistics might not be as good a measurement as the eye test here.

 

[UCFBFAN91]

I wonder if a Uconn graduate will be added to fill out the remaining staff...hmmm

 

[cohenzone]

Across all the coaching staff, this "hire" is the one with a good bit of upside but honestly it has the most downside by far... Terrible defense was played under his watch. You can talk all you want about this and that as being the reasons why and or that he is a nice and likeable guy but the fact is that if half way through next season we're still allowing 35-40 points a game it's going to get ugly within the fanbase (i.e. eye rolls, frustration, I told you so's, etc leading to sheer madness).

If a defense is without confidence, bravado, and aggression then it's destined to be a failure. So, if the players start to doubt internally, then the whole defense unravels like we've seen.

Risky hire for sure. My vote: pick someone else. But, I'll give Mora this one because at this point we've put our faith in him to make these decisions (and obviously AD David Benedict was hugely involved in this decision as well). I hope I'm wrong.

Well us scoring 21-30 or more a game is one way to stop the other team from hitting 40 and 500+ yards. We will find out if the total lack of aggression, especially on pass rush, was someone else’s scheme.

 

[ZooCougar]

What makes you say that? If the plan was to retain Spanos I think they would've announced it earlier.

Hunch.

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

This is great because we've had such a great defense for the last few years.

I don't get it.

You don't have to get it. Only Mora, the rest of the staff, and the players have to get it. We just have to see if Jim and Lou can do what they've done before.

 

[SubbaBub]

Reasons I'm fine with this:
1. Players seemed to genuinely respond to him
2. His past experience as Mora's DC. Would not have played as well if he were staying under a different coach.
3. Empirically, he is the best guy we could have hire 'cause we couldn't sign anyone else through what was clearly an extensive search.
4. The D actually improved, not a lot, still horribly horrible, but by the eye test they improved. With a better pass rush and some continuity maybe, we can actually stop some people.

 

[SubbaBub]

The defense looked a lot more competent this year especially in the first half of games.

Closer to a quarter and a half, but I agree.

 

[WestHartHusk]

Stability from a failed regime with no demonstrated success recruiting and no career prospects. Great. This hire gets a resounding F, and the school knows it or they wouldn't have come out weeks ago saying nobody was being retained.

Frankly, I'd just assume the school save the money and have Mora run the D (which is what is going to happen anyway).

 

[DoctorWho85]

The players love Spanos. I saw a few tweets all excitement about having him back. Defense will be completely different next year because it won't be nerfed by Edsall's micromanaging and Guifre's less than awful play calling.

 

[Waquoit]

Mora has reached out to so many varied segments of the community in such a short time. Maybe this is a reach out to the current players.

 

[HardFacts]

The players love Spanos. I saw a few tweets all excitement about having him back. Defense will be completely different next year because it won't be nerfed by Edsall's micromanaging and Guifre's less than awful play calling.

He was handcuffed with Edsall and had no input as to his staff! He did a good job holding things together under the circumstances

 

[UC1995]

So the players loved him and he brings continuity. The defense was bad but you can't change an entire defensive philosophy midseason. Let's see what he can do with a new scheme, some time, and some more skilled players. We also have an upgrade in our coaching on that level so I think we are fine with this move.

 

[Bonamassa]

Spanos is not a schmuck. He has a very solid NFL and College football resume. Too many posters act like he's trash.

 

[Pudge]

I guarantee you that when Jim Mora & David Benedict sat around for 3 days in Idaho ... two of the topics of conversation were: (1) Defensive Coordinator - and specifically Lou Spanos; and (2) Quarterbacks to come to Storrs and how to get them - and specifically Hugh Millen and his 2 kids that Mora knows well. So both those topics are complex and fraught with lots of nuance and layers. Both things that came into this afternoon were ... Jim Mora tried to shake a little and look at the Transfer Portal and MAYBE talked to a handful of prospective DCs. And he also was around for 3 games, so he knows the Spanos effect on the kids that are still on the roster and hurting from a tough 2021.

It came together today within hours. We don't know if there were bumps in the morning. But I think Mora had 2 conversations with the QB and DC; and Dave Benedict was well apprised of what was in his head.

 

[Coach J]

Gotta believe things will work out for the better... IF you don't, keep complaining... Keep the half empty mindset.. Where's that gotten us... Folks come to the board to see us complaining all the time about how we're not this or that... Let's get behind it.... Watch and see what happens...

I really liked Edsall, but he lost this team... Heck, he lost me... and I was on board til the end... It wasn't working with his conservative blue collar old school approach...

I'm drinking JM's Kool Aid right now.. Let's Roll!!!! No looking back...

I can feel that sentiment.

 

[Coach J]

IMP the most glaring failure on defense this year was the complete inability for our secondary to make tackles once someone got past the 2nd line of defense. The best way to cure that is through better position coaching - which this board almost unanimously seems to feel we have. Re-watch the first quarter of the Clemson game and then ask yourself if we had even a semi-competent offense that game how good that defense would have looked against one of the best teams in the country? Now through in a better O and better position coaching next year, JM's influence and I think Spanos can really improve our D from a year ago.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Well the D went from 330+ yds rush/game and 8 yds/carry to under 200 yds rush/game and 4.5 yds/carry. Played all those underdeveloped freshmen and got steam rolled. The lack of putting pressure on the Qb continued to be a problem though. If they can make a similar improvement as the rushing stats it would also help the secondary.

 

[CTMike]

We’ve had good enough defensive coaches we haven’t had good enough defensive players.

 

[Tdaley]

Is it our DC or lack of talent? Two years ago Spanos tried corner blitzes but we kept getting burned because our safeties couldn't cover wide receivers. The lack of any pass rush, speed at the linebacker position and size in the secondary are major issues with our defense. People here want our DC to be more creative, but with our lack of talent and experience there isn't much more that Spanos could do. Our defense improved this year and should get better the next few year with better talent coming in and the improvement of our younger players.

 

[UCONNRPh]

Any Osborn updates????