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You also avoided answering the question... Who on the current team should have been back there?
I don't think Palatine will mind if I disclose his choice. It's Steve Hashemi.
You also avoided answering the question... Who on the current team should have been back there?
Solid conclusion.
We already have been down this road. In 2005-2006 UConn's specials sucked.
We went round and round on the topic and the posters who hang out with the parents told us it was Edsall -he couldn't coach specials - he didn't even try to coach the kickers so on and so forth.
Turned out it was the players as UConn rode Specials to the Fiesta.
Vitale is just this season's version of Sanchez. When the roster is fixed - punt returns will be fixed.
I'm pretty sure it was because Edsall told Nick Williams to run it back for touchdowns and Diaco forgot to tell Vitale the same thing.
It's a function of coaching and emphasizing low risk, no mistake football. It's part of the bend don't break, don't throw to middle of the field, short swing passes and screens approach. It's a great approach to reach .500 since turnover ratios have high correlations with win/losses. Of course, low risk means low returns (no pun intended).
I'm pretty sure it was because Edsall told Nick Williams to run it back for touchdowns and Diaco forgot to tell Vitale the same thing.
Ha! You could have 100k jarhead_1775's back there and I assure you it'd be worse.noeynox said:@Palatine , does have a point. On a team with 105 players, there isn't a single one he can trust returning punts? I get the OP is the one the board loves to hate but his overall point is a good one. Your playing bend but don't break defense and conservative offense. A punt return once a while would be nice to possibly give our bend but dont' break offense a better chance at points. Diaco does seem to be terrified of turnovers to the point of paralysis sometimes. I'm hopeful that he is improving the team in increments and soon this will be fixed as well.
Nope. He would pick Boyle. Or mr SpockI don't think Palatine will mind if I disclose his choice. It's Steve Hashemi.
I think on some level we have to accept that Diaco was very literal when he said, this was a total tear down and rebuild. I can only resign myself that he hasn't come around to implementing all phases of the rubuild yet.I love to see so many people defending Diaco punt return scheme. It's heart warming and very illuminating.
Next year when we have four return yards, I'm sure we'll see the threads trumpeting our improvement.
noeynox said:I think on some level we have to accept that Diaco was very literal when he said, this was a total tear down and rebuild. I can only resign myself that he hasn't come around to implementing all phases of the rubuild yet.
I never expected his talk to be THAT literal.
Do we have anybody on our roster or coming in that can return punts? As constructed, none of our current players could do it.. Instead of having punt returners we had designated fair catchers.. Does that make sense? When the goal of a football team to be complete is to be able to perform on offense, defense and on special teams? I know we're still only going into year 3, but do we have anybody (somebody) we can look towards who could potentially provide that ability to at least having opposing teams fear us with the ability to take it to the house? Just sayin... A designated faircatcher? huh???
That's the point. We don't have that guy on the roster right now. Maybe next year we find someone. Who knows? The roster needs to get fixed. Depth is a big problem. Does anyone think that the staff didn't give every able body a shot in practice? We also need people to block. Again, depth is an issue. It's not a quick fix.
Psst, sorry to ruin the rant but Corley was a QB in College.That's why, IMO, you can't just switch a guy who's been a RB coach his entire coaching career, and played it in college, to special teams all of a sudden... So, yes, part of it is coaching (my opinion)...
I just don't care for us being that team coaches use to put coaches in places they've never coached at a higher level of football.. Focus might be there but you're learning to coach the position instead of already knowing how to come across to the players... yeah, you learn something new at what you do everyday.... but this is different...
My two cents...
Psst, sorry to ruin the rant but Corley was a QB in College.
Yeah mean like DJ Durkin just did w/ Pete Lembo?
btw... Poindexter, Brown, Wolthausen and Cummings were all ST Coordinators or Asst in the past (on many staffs it's just a tag-on title).
To be clear - Not arguing that we don't need improvements in both the PR/KR aspects.
Here's hoping Skanes or Dixon can contribute next year if they can (and red-shirting is not needed).
Punt catching IMNSHO, is the single most difficult individual responsibility on a football team. Place kicking is the highest mental stress, but the skill is highly repetitive. Every other position involves all kinds of dynamics, but there is nothing like standing in the middle of the field and doing what it takes with your body and hand eye coordination to make a catch of a punt, while 21 people are running full speed at you, and half of them are of the intent to plant you into the ground as hard as they can, but you can't look at where they are, until you catch the ball.
You need players out there, in that position, that are absolutely genetically blessed with the ability to do it, and the fearlessness to do it, otherwise it's going to be a lot of fair catches.
Our win against Tulane - the ability to make fair catches, in bad weather- is a HUGE contributing factor to our win in that game.
Every college team has punt returners and many have multiple punt returners. They are not that hard to find, many skill guys did it in high school. Our problem isn't that we can't find a guy. Our problem is returning punts is not a priority for Diaco. He doesn't want fumbles. That is his obvious priority. He does this at the expense of having a productive return game. It's a choice made by the HC.
Coach yes, I was only pointing out that as a player in college he was a QB, not a RB.Thanks for clearing that up on Corley.. but he was a QB and RB coach.. not special teams..
C'mon man -- When you have our level of talent, of course it is....No, but I don't agree that it's because of the reasons you listed.
You also avoided answering the question... Who on the current team should have been back there? Lemelle was the lesser of the evils but not stellar before he was injured. This is not a plug and play position as you make it out to be.
That has to be the hope, that we've seen the 200-level exam and the return game is a 300-level course.@Palatine I'm hopeful that he is improving the team in increments and soon this will be fixed as well.
Every college team has punt returners and many have multiple punt returners. They are not that hard to find, many skill guys did it in high school. Our problem isn't that we can't find a guy. Our problem is returning punts is not a priority for Diaco. He doesn't want fumbles. That is his obvious priority. He does this at the expense of having a productive return game. It's a choice made by the HC.
I know it because I watch football. It's not secret sauce, it's obvious his unit doesn't peal back to set up a return. The returner fair catches when he has lots of room to run. When in doubt, the returner sprints away fro the ball like its radioactive.You know this how?
Just curious because when Vitale was on the radio show a few weeks ago, he was pretty clear that he had the choice on the field to either make a catch or not, and if making the catch, whether or not to fair catch it. He was actually pretty clear on what kinds of things he was looking for and how he went about making that decision too.