I didn't expect yesterday to be a win, but I also didn't expect to have almost no positives to speak about.
Conclusion up front:
Next Saturday might as well be the Super Bowl. Merrimack will be a tricky game, they traveled all the way to Air Force and only lost 21-6 albeit scoring on the last play of the game. If UConn lays an egg at home this Saturday then it's over. Just start the head coaching search Saturday night and make Brock the interim.
Mora needs to be throwing chairs at this point. Some people spent a ton of money on some players that are clearly not worth a bag of chips. If he throws a few bad apples off the team it wouldn't break my heart. As Hurley says: "Culture is caring". If that's the case we didn't see culture yesterday. This UConn, we aren't good at football, but we shouldn't accept performances like this from any team.
Head Coach:
I think the team looked more ready against NC State and Utah State than they did against Maryland. The difference is two new coordinators, a new defensive system (The offense looks the same but with even less effective play calling), almost 50 new guys on the roster and a coach in his third season.
This being his third season is what is most damning. Mora should be breaking people at this point. They were not ready and showed little to no energy.
Offense: I expected so much better from Sammis. And yet the bar was pretty low. He seems like an intelligent person and highly regarded. There were at least 3 instances of 3rd and 2 where we should have just run the ball and gotten a new set of downs. The line and the Running backs are the strength and experience of the offense. Instead in the first instance we went for a field goal which we had less a chance of making than a first down on 4th and 2.
You've got a rookie QB who has the weight of UConn nation on his shoulders (does he even care?) against a B1G opponent. Why increase the difficulty and put 1st downs on him? Line up under center and power the way to that 1st down. On the field goal we were easily in 4 down territory.
The knock on effect would have been a new set of downs, and if we don't score then at least the defense comes on a little fresher and we have theoretically gained some field position, maybe then the final score is a little closer.
But the biggest disappointment is the strange abandonment of the run. Where was the gashing run offense that we saw in 2022? That was supposedly Sammis. Maybe Zion Turner just was better at executing the RPO and reads than Fagnano and Evers, Who knows.
Either way, we handicapped ourselves yesterday by getting away from what should be our core competency.
Where did Cam Edwards go? Does anyone know?
Defense:
The Maryland first possession was a resounding success, for Maryland. Granted we created a fumble and I am glad we are going for that but they looked like a unit that had been practicing for two weeks maybe. Lost.
The front four was missing some Yates but looked the best of the unit but still didn't generate much of any pressure on Maryland's QBs.
The defensive backs were horrendous. This Jordan Wright character is already the most hated villain on the team in the circle of people speak with the most about. On my high school team we would have called him toast. The late hit and targeting was just poor judgement.
Before that he celebrated in the end zone for a coverage where the ball was thrown out of bounds. Are we paying this guy? I hope not.
The whole unit showed no discipline. But they looked better than the offense without looking good in any aspect.
Special Teams:
Ruelas looked great for JMU. Why did we let him go. We should have kidnapped him.
Generating some touch backs was nice. Punting was awful. Attempting to return punts is a nice idea. The new Gardner Webb kid has some wheels. Sheffield, what the hell man?
I'll be here all fall. That's all I got.
