Kids played hard, but I think HCPP used up one of his get out of jail free cards

[NEforceUConn]

UConn players played hard and gave it their best shot. We have a good D and I thought McCoombs and the Wide Outs played well. The O line has played like this before, its not a surprise, and with time things will improve. Remember last year's Temple game?

However HCPP clearly was not prepared for a college BCS opponent. I wish we could get some firsthand (or second hand) info on the sidelines - were coaches on top of things or more like deer in headlights? I will give our DC a pass, but the running touchdown when 3/4rds of the UConn D was out of position and looking at the sidelines when Vandy was snapping the ball will not make our highlight reel.

Clearly our punt return effort, letting the ball constantly bounce for 15+ more yards, was not covered in practice adequately.

The clock management when we were near the Red Zone with momentum and we took a delay of game penalty and THEN had to burn a Time Out was tragic.

Not putting another back in from time to time to give a different look to the D was unbelievable. Thank god LM was not hurt - he is not a 25 down back.

I won't comment on the QB situation. Were the others healthy?

The 3rd and 9 pass CALL was totally wrong. This is not second guessing, because anyone watching the game knew that up to 25 percent of JM passes (especially with the D ballhawking) were interceptable. It was time for a run. Don't beat yourself. THIS IS WHY HE LOSES HIS JAIL CARD.

At least the coaching staff did not throw anyone under the bus. The team has bright spots and the season just started, but I think it's going to be a long year.

 

[ZooCougar]

I agree. He should only get like three, tops. Edsall had an unlimited supply.

 

[Pudge]

UConn players played hard and gave it their best shot. We have a good D and I thought McCoombs and the Wide Outs played well. The O line has played like this before, its not a surprise, and with time things will improve. Remember last year's Temple game?

However HCPP clearly was not prepared for a college BCS opponent. I wish we could get some firsthand (or second hand) info on the sidelines - were coaches on top of things or more like deer in headlights? I will give our DC a pass, but the running touchdown when 3/4rds of the UConn D was out of position and looking at the sidelines when Vandy was snapping the ball will not make our highlight reel.

Clearly our punt return effort, letting the ball constantly bounce for 15+ more yards, was not covered in practice adequately.

The clock management when we were near the Red Zone with momentum and we took a delay of game penalty and THEN had to burn a Time Out was tragic.

Not putting another back in from time to time to give a different look to the D was unbelievable. Thank god LM was not hurt - he is not a 25 down back.

I won't comment on the QB situation. Were the others healthy?

The 3rd and 9 pass CALL was totally wrong. This is not second guessing, because anyone watching the game knew that up to 25 percent of JM passes (especially with the D ballhawking) were interceptable. It was time for a run. Don't beat yourself. THIS IS WHY HE LOSES HIS JAIL CARD.

At least the coaching staff did not throw anyone under the bus. The team has bright spots and the season just started, but I think it's going to be a long year.

I'm right about here. With some reservations ...

The DECISION MAKING part of the coaching staff is NEW. Moorhead seem to not have much control ... yet. So, all the criticism is deserved; but, all the other factors are also at play. The staff needs to sort these things out. They are veteran & will immediately understand that they are to blame for some of the incredible organizational fubar stuff.

But ... there is not a lot of capacity here in the fanbase for letting the season go too much farther with stupid crap. That defense was fun to watch. That offense was just inept.

 

[metsfan2323]

Great Post. Our D was two stops away from winning the game. P lost this game. IT WAS BEYOND IDIOTIC PASSING THE BALL IN THAT SITUATION. Run it and take another 30 seconds off the clock.

 

[noeynox]

That was a good post. If Cody Endres was the QB and they opted to throw on that third down and got beat, well you just got beat. Having JMcantee throw that when he was struggling like he was, was the coaches beating themselves. If we are in for a long season, and they don't want throw Nebrich to the wolves, you have to give him more than one series a game since you've burned his redshirt.

The sad thing is that this defense could potentially be our best ever, however the offensive cupboard is pretty bare at the moment. That said, there is a lot on that film for McAntee to learn from. Especially good will be for him to see, when he started to feel pressure that wasn't there. He had the one nice throw to Griffin, otherwise his throws were awful. The coaches touted his "accuracy" as strength all camp, then he goes 10-27, against a defense that wasn't even that good. That is not promising, but you hope he improves with reps and film work. If he has one more putrid performance, there is no way you can stick with him. That doesn't do the program any good long term.

 

[uconndogs]

Just so I'm straight on all this, FHCRE was way too conservative and Coach P is too aggressive....right?

If we had either FHCRE as our head coach or Zach Fraizer as our QB we would have won that game handily last night.

And that is not to say the Coach P may not be a better coach for this program at this stage in its development over the long-term. All I'm saying is that a lot of posters wanted more aggressive play calling and a new QB. Well you got'em.

 

[uconnfan68]

That was a good post. If Cody Endres was the QB and they opted to throw on that third down and got beat, well you just got beat. Having JMcantee throw that when he was struggling like he was, was the coaches beating themselves. If we are in for a long season, and they don't want throw Nebrich to the wolves, you have to give him more than one series a game since you've burned his redshirt.

The sad thing is that this defense could potentially be our best ever, however the offensive cupboard is pretty bare at the moment. That said, there is a lot on that film for McAntee to learn from. Especially good will be for him to see, when he started to feel pressure that wasn't there. He had the one nice throw to Griffin, otherwise his throws were awful. The coaches touted his "accuracy" as strength all camp, then he goes 10-27, against a defense that wasn't even that good. That is not promising, but you hope he improves with reps and film work. If he has one more putrid performance, there is no way you can stick with him. That doesn't do the program any good long term.

McEntee! At least learn the name of the kid you threw under the bus.

The offense didn't take advantage of a fairly weak opponent. Why we didn't have more swing passes, screens, etc, is beyond me. And on 3-4th and 10, why not go 10 yards in the pattern? On the other hand, the receivers didn't help at all. More than a few drops, and why do you stop a route before reaching the ball? Afraid to get hit? Where is Sherman when you need him?

Great game, except for a handful of plays, by the defense. Good game by specials, but the punt returning was D-.

 

[rich1122]

This team beat Miss State last year so they are no longer a doormat. We don't score inside the 5 - WOW

 

[noeynox]

McEntee! At least learn the name of the kid you threw under the bus.

The offense didn't take advantage of a fairly weak opponent. Why we didn't have more swing passes, screens, etc, is beyond me. And on 3-4th and 10, why not go 10 yards in the pattern? On the other hand, the receivers didn't help at all. More than a few drops, and why do you stop a route before reaching the ball? Afraid to get hit? Where is Sherman when you need him?

Great game, except for a handful of plays, by the defense. Good game by specials, but the punt returning was D-.

I didn't throw him under the bus. I like the kid and was rooting for him to win the job. He didn't play well, and that defense wasn't exactly the 2000 Ravens. He led both Tebucky Jones Jr. and Geremy Davis, to big hits on short routes. Those were among his better throws. I don't know what you were looking at, but no one is throwing him under the bus by saying he didn't play well.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Just so I'm straight on all this, FHCRE was way too conservative and Coach P is too aggressive....right?

If we had either FHCRE as our head coach or Zach Fraizer as our QB we would have won that game handily last night.

And that is not to say the Coach P may not be a better coach for this program at this stage in its development over the long-term. All I'm saying is that a lot of posters wanted more aggressive play calling and a new QB. Well you got'em.

I would not describe the play calling as aggressive. Aggressive would have been have been running more wildcat, or a KM reverse, or a few longballs stretching the field. Aggressive would have been playing more QBs not less.

I have no comment RE versus PP.

I agree with the announcer of the SEC game broadcast that i watched, who asked after JM was sacked and fumbled, "why is JM still in the game when he clearly is ineffective." Its not a matter of aggressive versus conservative, I think it was unfortunately stage fright for a experienced coaching staff. But maybe as roles are defined, who calls or suggests what, things will improve.

 

[uconnbaseball]

This team beat Miss State last year so they are no longer a doormat. We don't score inside the 5 - WOW

They beat Ole Miss, not Miss State.

And our wide receivers were horrible yesterday. They can't get open, catch the ball, block, OR break tackles. They are also undersized. Vandy has a good secondary, but there was no excuse for dropping pass after pass.

 

[Revrat]

I think some of you missed the point in the game where we played 3 QB's within minutes. It was obvious at that point that the offense was confused. After the game coach P stated he stayed with Mac to get some consistancy. He was aware of the confusion, the announcers mentioned it and it was plain to see to anyone watching with their eyes open. Mac had a bad game but the carousel of QB's has to stop. I have no idea why people are actually calling for McCummings to play more. It's chaos when he is in. Every play is a near fumble and at best he picks up 2 yards. it's not worth the confusion and inconsistancy. Wanting Nebrich I understand, though in his limited time he has not beaten out Mac nor has he shown anything special while in the games either. We are weak at QB. We will be all year. So Nebrich's redshirt is burned but I don't think he is the QB of our future either so to me that is irrelevent. Clearly there is confusion in the huddle and on the sidelines. That's the first problem that needs to be solved. Trying to go with three QB's when none of them seem up to the task at the moment is asking for trouble. I don't buy the change of pace crap. it's hard to catch balls from two QB's and everyone in the house knows McCummings is running it when he is in.

 

[minidarren]

I think some of you missed the point in the game where we played 3 QB's within minutes. It was obvious at that point that the offense was confused. After the game coach P stated he stayed with Mac to get some consistancy. He was aware of the confusion, the announcers mentioned it and it was plain to see to anyone watching with their eyes open. Mac had a bad game but the carousel of QB's has to stop. I have no idea why people are actually calling for McCummings to play more. It's chaos when he is in. Every play is a near fumble and at best he picks up 2 yards. it's not worth the confusion and inconsistancy. Wanting Nebrich I understand, though in his limited time he has not beaten out Mac nor has he shown anything special while in the games either. We are weak at QB. We will be all year. So Nebrich's redshirt is burned but I don't think he is the QB of our future either so to me that is irrelevent. Clearly there is confusion in the huddle and on the sidelines. That's the first problem that needs to be solved. Trying to go with three QB's when none of them seem up to the task at the moment is asking for trouble. I don't buy the change of pace crap. it's hard to catch balls from two QB's and everyone in the house knows McCummings is running it when he is in.

Except for the double fake pass to Griffin against Fordham.

 

[BlueDogs]

It's tough for anyone to argue that PP and staff demonstrated a level of incompetence that is hard to accept. What bothers me is rarely do you see so obvious a coaching failure at so many critical levels. PP used up all is free passes in my book. Just atrocious. If I was Herbst, I would be letting PP know he has one foot on a banana peel. Too much has been invested in this program to have a washed up journeyman coach pulling the program into mediocrity.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Except for the double fake pass to Griffin against Fordham.

Just a gut feeling but I believe the play where McCummings was sacked immediately after faking a handoff was going to be another one of those plays.

 

[Gate97]

I think some of you missed the point in the game where we played 3 QB's within minutes. It was obvious at that point that the offense was confused. After the game coach P stated he stayed with Mac to get some consistancy. He was aware of the confusion, the announcers mentioned it and it was plain to see to anyone watching with their eyes open. Mac had a bad game but the carousel of QB's has to stop. I have no idea why people are actually calling for McCummings to play more. It's chaos when he is in. Every play is a near fumble and at best he picks up 2 yards. it's not worth the confusion and inconsistancy. Wanting Nebrich I understand, though in his limited time he has not beaten out Mac nor has he shown anything special while in the games either. We are weak at QB. We will be all year. So Nebrich's redshirt is burned but I don't think he is the QB of our future either so to me that is irrelevent. Clearly there is confusion in the huddle and on the sidelines. That's the first problem that needs to be solved. Trying to go with three QB's when none of them seem up to the task at the moment is asking for trouble. I don't buy the change of pace crap. it's hard to catch balls from two QB's and everyone in the house knows McCummings is running it when he is in.

+1.

Casey Cochran can't get here fast enough. Hope he proves to be the real deal at this level because our QB of the future is likely not on the roster this season. Never thought I'd say that but after 2 games, I'm coming to terms with the mediocrity of week 1 and the debacle of last night.

 

[minidarren]

Casey may be the next Joe Montana but if they don't start finding people who can catch the ball he may as well just start postinf YouTube videos.

 

[jbdphi]

It's a team game and getting another true freshman QB to hope about next year isn't the right strategy to me. Need the OL / TE / RB to pick up the blitz better. Need the QB / WR also to recognize the blitz and do their check-downs. Need the WR / RB to actually run their route and catch the ball when they can get their hands on it. We need our RB to be able to play more than two hand touch (literally, when McCombs was touched by more than one hand he pretty much went down - he had great summary stats but almost all of his yardage was on plays where the hole was big and nobody touched him). Lots of things on the offense need to improve in addition to the QB play (which was horrendous).

 

[metsfan2323]

+1.

Casey Cochran can't get here fast enough. Hope he proves to be the real deal at this level because our QB of the future is likely not on the roster this season. Never thought I'd say that but after 2 games, I'm coming to terms with the mediocrity of week 1 and the debacle of last night.

Seriously? Casey Cochrane can't get here fast enough? Nebrich has played about 4 series and you have already decided he can't be the QB of the future? I got news for you, Cochrane's arm is no better than Nebrich's, and Cochrane can't run. I still have very high hopes for our true Freshman QB who broke a bunch of Virginia state throwing records.

 

[Gate97]

Seriously? Casey Cochrane can't get here fast enough? Nebrich has played about 4 series and you have already decided he can't be the QB of the future? I got news for you, Cochrane's arm is no better than Nebrich's, and Cochrane can't run. I still have very high hopes for our true Freshman QB who broke a bunch of Virginia state throwing records.

Definitely a bit of hyperbole after a terrible loss. That said, if Nebrich proves to be a good QB at this level, I'll be happy and on the bandwagon. But so far, here's what we know:

- He went 3-8 with 1 pick against an FCS team with ~30 scholarship players. Realize it was his first college game ever, but I'm not wowed by that performance.

- He missed a wide open receiver by 10 yards on Saturday night. If that ball had even a little air under it, it was a TD.

- He apparently hasn't shown the coaches enough in practice and scrimmages since January to beat out McEntee. After Saturday night, Coach P's 'continuity' comments aside, that's a bit sobering.

I went to the 2 open practices and I saw a good athlete is clearly a true frosh - can make plays with his arm and feet but doesn't have a great handle on the offense yet and was taking time to get through his reads. Time that an FBS defense won't afford him to do. As I've said in other threads here, I really think he could have benefitted from redshirting this year.

Maybe he turns out to be the QB of the future, but I'm not seeing it yet and I'm not sure the coaches or the fanbase is willing to go 4-8 this year so he can develop.

 

[Brian2001]

Well, you are going to go 4-8/5-7 with McEntee. I do not care what goes on this week, McEntee is not going to get the job done against Iowa State, so I would rather plan for the future. Over the course of the season, I would bet Nebrich would be more successful. Give the kid the start. At least he may run oppose to taking the sack or throwing into double coverage.

 

[Husky68]

Pick for touchdown was with about 7:30 on the game clock. Clock stopped and was restarted with play clock reset to 40 seconds (thought they normall reset to 25 but was watching and that was what they did). JMac runs play within 4 seconds of clock starting (both the play and game clock started running together, not sure of the rules on clocks running but I specifically was watchin on this play) and we know what happened next. Don't understand at that point where we were 7 points ahead and needed to win on defense why were not running clock down to 1 second. If had run and then punt could of had Vandy on their 30 yard line with a little over 6 minutes to play. One stop on defense and hard to lose. Also on earlier plays in that series ran plays with 15 seconds left on clock.

The players on offense looked like were often unsure of who was coming in or out. The defense seemed to look to the sidelines for a defensive play call on each play, seemed ok when Vandy did not hurry up or not lot of Uconn subs; was way too slow when any kind of sub or Vandy aggressiveness getting snap off. Reminded me of early games by Stewart of WV (not in a good way) re confusion.

The Vandy defense did not honor any kind of long threat. Short passes had many defenders in area and when caught by Uconn players they didn't have to be chased by the Vandy guys to be tackled as there were so many Vandy defenders in the area that Uconn receivers literally ran into the defenders. Seemed like there were more than 11 Vandy defenders out there, they were playing very close to line of scrimmage even on obvious passing plays. The 1st interception by Vandy there was not way #1 on Vandy (one of safeties) should have been able to make play on that pass if he was honoring any type of deep threat.

Coaches did not adjust punt return set up once appeared was not being effective. Nick was consistently too deep or too short on punt return placement and let the ball bounce and roll too much, especially after the fumble. Really, really is not being effective. On one series defense held at inside their 20 and we should have had ball no worse than our own 35 to 40 yard line yet it bounced to inside our 20. Uconn is not good enough to go 80 yards consistently.

That long run where there were all these flags and Vandy scored, would have been funny if watching another team do it. Play was almost running and one player comes running in, bangs into the player he is subbing for, flags fly, run the ball rigth past these two guys and down the sidelines and touchdown as most of Uconn players just standing there.

Team looked unprepared for the speed of the game (not talking players speed, just getting on/off field, into defensive sets, calling plays). I like the multi sets on defense and using lot of guys on offense, but need to get better at mechanics of running this type of game plan. Couple of times thought would be good to run quick succession of offensive plays as seemed to have Vandy on their heels but at those times it seemed to take the full clock to just get a play called in and set up.