Norwalk Hour reporting that Chandler Whitmer headed to UConn

[BlueMAB]

Terrible coach? Based on what? His 112-61 record in 1A? His two Fiesta Bowl appearances (one win), and Orange Bowl appearance? His 7 seasons in which he finished ranked? His top 10 finish in 1992? Two losing seasons out of 15? He won 9 games or more in 6 of those 15 seasons. Maybe it's his 76-38 Big East record that has put you off?

Even this season, in a down year, he kicked Schiano's tail.

Paul Pasqualoni is a damned good football coach.

Based on the endless shuffling of confused players in and out of the game, based on the horrific clock management in multiple games both at the half and the end of the game.

Based on the decision to have the QB with no mobility drop back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 against a talented D-line on the first drive of the game. Same thing against Vanderbilt where we lost on a pick six because he passed in a situation where we should have run the ball and relied on the defense. We never should have been in the position to lose to Western Michigan but he (or Brown) decided there was nothing wrong with giving up 10 yards a time on short passes.

He kicked Schiano's tail? SIX turnovers didn't have anything to do with that?

I'm encouraged by the recruiting. We had the talent to do better than 5-7 this year. I don't want Edsall back....ever. But it does get old watching people make excuses for the results this year after complaining about 5 bowl games and a BCS bid.

 

[BlueMAB]

Way too early to compare P to Zook as a recruiter. Way too early to insult P by comparing him to Zook as a coach. Give it time and we'll see.

He's not as good at recruiting or as bad as coaching...but there are certainly similarities

 

[Carl Spackler]

Based on the endless shuffling of confused players in and out of the game, based on the horrific clock management in multiple games both at the half and the end of the game.

Based on the decision to have the QB with no mobility drop back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 against a talented D-line on the first drive of the game. Same thing against Vanderbilt where we lost on a pick six because he passed in a situation where we should have run the ball and relied on the defense. We never should have been in the position to lose to Western Michigan but he (or Brown) decided there was nothing wrong with giving up 10 yards a time on short passes.

He kicked Schiano's tail? SIX turnovers didn't have anything to do with that?

I'm encouraged by the recruiting. We had the talent to do better than 5-7 this year. I don't want Edsall back....ever. But it does get old watching people make excuses for the results this year after complaining about 5 bowl games and a BCS bid.

Unbelievable. Maybe we should just line the entire squad and coaching staff for a firing squad. Hey, get those seniors back into the facility. Line em up and lock and load.

Get a grip. This coaching staff, in my opinion, was pretty masterful in handling a transition year in a division 1A program, coming off a major bowl game, and losing it's head coach, and bringing in an entire, ENTIRE, new structure, philosophy and approach to the game. They kept the players focused, working together. They built a a TEAM. If you can't see the coaching that needs to go into doing something like that with a roster of 100 or so players, then you're blind.

They had that team in position to compete for a division title in late November. They had that team in position to compete for a post season apperance on the last day of the season. THey put the seniors in position to kick the out of Rutgers on senior day, and ruin Rutgers BCS bowl chances, and the players responded in that one and gave this 2011 transition team and outcoing seniors something to hang their hats on forever.

They did with 4 QBs, then 3 QBs for the first quarter of the season - which in reality means you have NO Qb. They did it with freshmann all over the roster. Oh man, I"m wasiting my bandwidth.

We went 5-7 in 2011. THat wasn't good enough for you. I get it.

Pasqualoni is 145-84-1 as a head coach. He's had THREE losing seasons in 19 years of head coaching college football, his first year at WEstern CT, one year at Syracuse and his first year at UConn.

That alone should tell you what kind of 'talent' we had to work with.

 

[BlueMAB]

Unbelievable. Maybe we should just line the entire squad and coaching staff for a firing squad. Hey, get those seniors back into the facility. Line em up and lock and load.

Get a grip. This coaching staff, in my opinion, was pretty masterful in handling a transition year in a division 1A program, coming off a major bowl game, and losing it's head coach, and bringing in an entire, ENTIRE, new structure, philosophy and approach to the game. They kept the players focused, working together. They built a a TEAM. If you can't see the coaching that needs to go into doing something like that with a roster of 100 or so players, then you're blind.

They had that team in position to compete for a division title in late November. They had that team in position to compete for a post season apperance on the last day of the season. THey put the seniors in position to kick the out of Rutgers on senior day, and ruin Rutgers BCS bowl chances, and the players responded in that one and gave this 2011 transition team and outcoing seniors something to hang their hats on forever.

They did with 4 QBs, then 3 QBs for the first quarter of the season - which in reality means you have NO Qb. They did it with freshmann all over the roster. Oh man, I"m wasiting my bandwidth.

We went 5-7 in 2011. THat wasn't good enough for you. I get it.

Pasqualoni is 145-84-1 as a head coach. He's had THREE losing seasons in 19 years of head coaching college football, his first year at WEstern CT, one year at Syracuse and his first year at UConn.

That alone should tell you what kind of 'talent' we had to work with.

I notice you didn't address a single criticism of the coaching job in my post as being incorrect, you just went straight to hyperbole with your ridiculous firing squad comments. He made critical mistakes that cost us, or could have cost us games.

You can make excuses about the lack of talent all you want. Only one team had more all conference players and they are in a BCS bowl while we aren't in any bowl. The last time we missed a bowl game we had 2 all conference players. We've never had 9, despite going to 5 bowls and winning two conference championships.

Why couldn't he win 6 games with 9 guys who performed well enough to be considered among the best in the conference? We've won more with less, that's a fact.

I didn't say Pasqualoni was a terrible coach. I said his performance this year in game and on the recruiting front, reminded me of a guy who is a great recruiter and a terrible coach. You can be satisfied with 5-7 from a guy who is a great coach and has more all conference players than almost anyone else in the conference, but I'm not.

Week after week you "fully expected" to see things change. They really didn't change much. You want to mention Rutgers, fine. What happened against Louisville? Why wasn't the team prepared for that one?

 

[Carl Spackler]

I notice you didn't address a single criticism of the coaching job in my post as being incorrect, you just went straight to hyperbole with your ridiculous firing squad comments. He made critical mistakes that cost us, or could have cost us games.

You can make excuses about the lack of talent all you want. Only one team had more all conference players and they are in a BCS bowl while we aren't in any bowl. The last time we missed a bowl game we had 2 all conference players. We've never had 9, despite going to 5 bowls and winning two conference championships.

Why couldn't he win 6 games with 9 guys who performed well enough to be considered among the best in the conference? We've won more with less, that's a fact.

I didn't say Pasqualoni was a terrible coach. I said his performance this year in game and on the recruiting front, reminded me of a guy who is a great recruiter and a terrible coach. You can be satisfied with 5-7 from a guy who is a great coach and has more all conference players than almost anyone else in the conference, but I'm not.

Week after week you "fully expected" to see things change. They really didn't change much. You want to mention Rutgers, fine. What happened against Louisville? Why wasn't the team prepared for that one?

I think you don't have a clue as to what it takes to get a team ready to play a football season, let alone week to week in season, and not a very good understanding of who and what we were as a team in January going into the year, and what we became.

With what has gone on from Jan. 1 to Dec. 16 2011? I have very, very little to complain about. There's a TON of room for improvement, though, from caoches and players. NO doubt.

I'll put it this way, if this team made the post season, I would be saying this year was one of the finer years of coaching and playing that I've ever seen. THey were in position to compete for a division title in the last quarter of the season, and they were in position to make the post season.

THey didn't, they failed, so it was a good job in a transition year.

Much higher expecations next year.

 

[businesslawyer]

Look, I think P will turn out to be a better recruiter (in terms of rankings and winning battles against BCS schools) than our last coach is. But I'm not ready to call him a "great" recruiter, or compare him to Ron Zook. Per Rivals, we're still last in the Big East in recruiting at the moment.

 

[NutmegState]

Based on the endless shuffling of confused players in and out of the game, based on the horrific clock management in multiple games both at the half and the end of the game.

Based on the decision to have the QB with no mobility drop back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 against a talented D-line on the first drive of the game. Same thing against Vanderbilt where we lost on a pick six because he passed in a situation where we should have run the ball and relied on the defense. We never should have been in the position to lose to Western Michigan but he (or Brown) decided there was nothing wrong with giving up 10 yards a time on short passes.

He kicked Schiano's tail? SIX turnovers didn't have anything to do with that?

I'm encouraged by the recruiting. We had the talent to do better than 5-7 this year. I don't want Edsall back....ever. But it does get old watching people make excuses for the results this year after complaining about 5 bowl games and a BCS bid.

I think the man's record speaks for itself. Nothing you just said diminishes any of his accomplishments. You don't rack up the type of record he has, without knowing what you are doing.

 

[NutmegState]

Look, I think P will turn out to be a better recruiter (in terms of rankings and winning battles against BCS schools) than our last coach is. But I'm not ready to call him a "great" recruiter, or compare him to Ron Zook. Per Rivals, we're still last in the Big East in recruiting at the moment.

According to Scout, we have ten 3 stars and are not ranked last in the BE in recruiting. Not saying I care about either Rivals or Scout's rankings, just pointing that out...

 

[BlueMAB]

I think you don't have a clue as to what it takes to get a team ready to play a football season, let alone week to week in season, and not a very good understanding of who and what we were as a team in January going into the year, and what we became.

With what has gone on from Jan. 1 to Dec. 16 2011? I have very, very little to complain about. There's a TON of room for improvement, though, from caoches and players. NO doubt.

I'll put it this way, if this team made the post season, I would be saying this year was one of the finer years of coaching and playing that I've ever seen. THey were in position to compete for a division title in the last quarter of the season, and they were in position to make the post season.

THey didn't, they failed, so it was a good job in a transition year.

Much higher expecations next year.

I think you should stop pretending you know me, what I know, what I don't know, and try focusing on what was specifically wrong about the points I made.

Of course the team improved from January to December. If that's the only standard you expect to be met then you'll almost never be disappointed.

They failed because it wasn't a good enough job. You can be satisfied with more talent and fewer wins than most teams in our conference. I'm not.

 

[BlueMAB]

Look, I think P will turn out to be a better recruiter (in terms of rankings and winning battles against BCS schools) than our last coach is. But I'm not ready to call him a "great" recruiter, or compare him to Ron Zook. Per Rivals, we're still last in the Big East in recruiting at the moment.

If I say Ryan Griffin reminds me of Jason Whitten am I comparing the two or am I pointing out similarities?

I'm not saying P is as good a recruiter, or as bad a coach, just that I saw similarities between the two this year.

You can't have it both ways. Don't point to rivals recruiting rankings as support in one thread, and then explain how inaccurate they are in another thread.

 

[BlueMAB]

I think the man's record speaks for itself. Nothing you just said diminishes any of his accomplishments. You don't rack up the type of record he has, without knowing what you are doing.

I didn't say he was a terrible coach. I said he reminded me of one this year. And specifically, his in game management, not the week to week stuff that Spackler is babbling about.

I expect him to do better than Edsall. but that's not based on what I saw this year because we should have done better this year.

 

[Carl Spackler]

They failed because it wasn't a good enough job. I agree. 100% and 300% on Saturdays.

If you seriously think that the 2011 UConn Huskies football squad had a lot of talent to work with? Well, everybody's entitled to an opinion. Newsflash, there are a lot more than 9 players that have to get sh8t done on the field for 60 minutes to win games.

My opinion, is that EVERY player that was capable of doing good things on the 2011 roster, was at some point during the season, and in most cases, repeatedly, put in position to do good things to help this team win.

That was not the case in 2010., or before.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Edsall's game management? Seriously? Go back and watch Temple 2010, or any other two minute drill. I've criticized P's time managment through the season, maybe that's where you're getting this from. Maybe not, I don't care. P needs to do a better job of time management in the future, I guarantee you he knows it, and I'll also go out on a limb that many of timeouts at odd situations this year most likely prevented disasterous types of things to happen based on what the coaches were seeing on the field in identifying errors before plays actually ahppened.

ANd with that i'm done with this argument. Find somethign esle to complain about.

 

[businesslawyer]

If I say Ryan Griffin reminds me of Jason Whitten am I comparing the two or am I pointing out similarities?

You can't have it both ways. Don't point to rivals recruiting rankings as support in one thread, and then explain how inaccurate they are in another thread.

My view on the recruiting rankings has been made clearly over the years, but here it is again.

All else being equal, you would rather do well in the recruiting rankings than not do well. It means you're winning battles against BCS programs and landing your share of the guys most likely to have productive NFL careers. There is a correlation between recruiting rankings and success. That having been said, the correlation between recruiting rankings and success, either for the player or the team, is far from perfect and is far less than the services or the people on bulletin boards who pay for them would like you to believe. You can "lose" on rivals and scouts and still, in fact, have had a better class than those who "beat" you. But that is a very hard way to get good classes successfully and repeatedly, and not as good a long term plan.

So I use Rivals and Scouts for what they are -- compilations of how well coaches play the game of recruiting rankings. No more, no less.

 

[BlueMAB]

My opinion, is that EVERY player that was capable of doing good things on the 2011 roster, was at some point during the season, and in most cases, repeatedly, put in position to do good things to help this team win.

That was not the case in 2010., or before.

I tried this once and failed, I'll give it another shot. Like I said, try focusing on my points and maybe you could see it from my point of view.

When the coaches decided to drop McEntee back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 they were putting him in position to do good things? Because that decision undeniably cost us that game. You can't spot a good team 14 points on the road and expect to win. We were in a position to win because the players didn't quit. We lost because of a horrible decision by the coaches.

You can make the same argument with the Vanderbilt and WMU games where, IMO, coaching decisions and strategies cost us the game. Our players, and our coaching staff, were good enough for at least 7-5.

 

[BlueMAB]

Edsall's game management? Seriously? Go back and watch Temple 2010, or any other two minute drill. I've criticized P's time managment through the season, maybe that's where you're getting this from. Maybe not, I don't care. P needs to do a better job of time management in the future, I guarantee you he knows it, and I'll also go out on a limb that many of timeouts at odd situations this year most likely prevented disasterous types of things to happen based on what the coaches were seeing on the field in identifying errors before plays actually ahppened.

ANd with that i'm done with this argument. Find somethign esle to complain about.

I didn't say anything about Edsall's in game management. In fact I've been careful not to compare him to Edsall. It's not the timeouts used that concern me, it's the ones left in his pocket for no reason, and the fact he apparently missed the Herm Edwards play against the Giants.

When I said I expect him to be better than Edsall, I meant as a total package.

If you started actually responding to what I write, rather than what you see, maybe you'll stop being so needlessly sensitive.

 

[Carl Spackler]

When the coaches decided to drop McEntee back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 they were putting him in position to do good things? Because that decision undeniably cost us that game. You can't spot a good team 14 points on the road and expect to win. We were in a position to win because the players didn't quit. We lost because of a horrible decision by the coaches.

I'm so tired of Randy Edsall football. You can't be a top 25 team and compete for championships regularly if you can't throw and pass on offense. What you're saying, is that we didn't have players capable of converting a thrid and long situation on offense, and I'm saying that we had coaches that believed in their players to get the job done. McEntee mades some real bonehead decisions on what to do with the ball. Yup, he did. He had plenty of opportunity to get rid of the ball when the DE took it out of his hand, and he had more than one wide open route to go to, when he threw into triple coverage for that pick 6.

You seem to forget, or ignore the situation where they were successful, and thanks for pointing out that they didn't quit.

Let me ask you this, do you think it's normal to have a team play as hard and together as we did, for a brand new coach, and entirely new systems for an entire year?

Do you see players running for the hills to get out of dodge?

 

[BlueMAB]

When the coaches decided to drop McEntee back into the endzone to pass on 3rd and 14 they were putting him in position to do good things? Because that decision undeniably cost us that game. You can't spot a good team 14 points on the road and expect to win. We were in a position to win because the players didn't quit. We lost because of a horrible decision by the coaches.

I'm so tired of Randy Edsall football. You can't be a top 25 team and compete for championships regularly if you can't throw and pass on offense. What you're saying, is that we didn't have players capable of converting a thrid and long situation on offense, and I'm saying that we had coaches that believed in their players to get the job done. McEntee mades some real bonehead decisions on what to do with the ball. Yup, he did. He had plenty of opportunity to get rid of the ball when the DE took it out of his hand, and he had more than one wide open route to go to, when he threw into triple coverage for that pick 6.

You seem to forget, or ignore the situation where they were successful, and thanks for pointing out that they didn't quit.

Let me ask you this, do you think it's normal to have a team play as hard and together as we did, for a brand new coach, and entirely new systems for an entire year?

Do you see players running for the hills to get out of dodge?

I'm tired of Edsall football too. What does that have to do with the stupid decision to drop him into the endzone? Knowing his abilities, his attributes, and his limitations, it was a stupid decision that cost us a game. There were other, better, opportunities to be more agressive. That wasn't one.

I don't forget or ignore the situations where they were succesful. but at 5-7 there obvsiously weren't enough of those were there?

Let me ask you this. What in the world does the lack of transfers out have to do with the fact we went 5-7 with more talent than most of the conference? We've had QB issues for years, not a good excuse.

I never said P should be fired. I've said I expect him to be a better coach than the prior one. He had a sh1tty year, it happens. Sugarcoat it all you want, but stop blaming the record on the lack of talent when we had 9 all conference players, second only to WVU.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Frigging palatine always digging up something to stir up .

OK - 9 all conferenc eplayers. wonderful. Are you seriously saying that because we had 9 all-conference players, that our FULL roster was more talented than everybody but WVU? How many players see the field on game day?

Stop it. Find something else to bitch about.

 

[businesslawyer]

Our talent was no less overall than the Big East average. We went 3-4, which was very close to average. And the roster was very similar to last year's roster that went 5-2, with the single major exception that our TB was good but not great, while last year's was great. But for that, overall talent level was very similar.

We went 5-7 instead of 7-5 because we didn't capitalize on opportunities to blow a game wide open early when we were being handed the opportunity to do so against ISU, because we didn't sit on a lead that our defense and special teams had gotten us in the 4th Q at Vandy and because we showed an incredible inability to adjust something (scheme/personnel/tactics/whatever) to stop letting a good MAC passing attack look like the New England Patriots against WMU. Doesn't make P a terrible coach. Just means that he did not squeeze the wins out of this year's roster that were there for the taking. As I've said, hopefully that is because he was overly aggressive in moving things from UConn's old way to its new way, at the price of losing a few games, and we're better for it next year.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I agree with that assessment.

Somebody around here, with vested interest, asked me on this website way back in June or July I think, if I thought this year would be a throw away year. THe person that asked me, I'm sure had very sincere concerns.

It very well could have been a throw away year, and there are coaches out there that will consider year 1 with a new institution to be a throw away year.

My response at that time was that I don't believe that these coaches we've got now will ever approach a season without the goal of winning a league title and getting to the post season. They will figure out a way to install their program, and at the same time remain competitive for their goals, and the most improtant thing that they would emphasize was TEAM, and that the outgoing seniors from this program will not look back at this year with regret.

That's exactly what they did, and I hope that if he's reading, the guy that asked me, he agrees. I think he would.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Our talent was no less overall than the Big East average. We went 3-4, which was very close to average. And the roster was very similar to last year's roster that went 5-2, with the single major exception that our TB was good but not great, while last year's was great. But for that, overall talent level was very similar.

We went 5-7 instead of 7-5 because we didn't capitalize on opportunities to blow a game wide open early when we were being handed the opportunity to do so against ISU, because we didn't sit on a lead that our defense and special teams had gotten us in the 4th Q at Vandy and because we showed an incredible inability to adjust something (scheme/personnel/tactics/whatever) to stop letting a good MAC passing attack look like the New England Patriots against WMU. Doesn't make P a terrible coach. Just means that he did not squeeze the wins out of this year's roster that were there for the taking. As I've said, hopefully that is because he was overly aggressive in moving things from UConn's old way to its new way, at the price of losing a few games, and we're better for it next year.

The one thing I will add, is that our approach to the game, and use of the talent we've got, was very much different than what we did with our roster in 2010. IF you want to say that we're 5-7 instaed of 7-5 because we did that, I won't argue.

 

[businesslawyer]

The one thing I will add, is that our approach to the game, and use of the talent we've got, was very much different than what we did with our roster in 2010. IF you want to say that we're 5-7 instaed of 7-5 because we did that, I won't argue.

That is part of what I'm saying. Which is why I think this year would have been better if we hadn't had a coaching change. But I'm not willing to give up on P for that. As I said in another thread, I give him credit for scaling back his changes, so to speak, after the OOC schedule and realize he had to slow down a lot to win more games. (As opposed to -- I don't know -- the head coach at Maryland?)

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

This is a pretty solid argument going on here. I will add a couple of comments.

The job P did this year was not "masterful" as Carl stated and not as bad as Wing is stating. I think it's somewhere in the middle. I do however, agree with Wing's assessment of the staff's deficiencies in terms of clock management. I will add my biggest gripe with the staff is that they tried to do too much too quickly with personnel that didn't necessarily fit their schemes. All in all, it's the players who for the most part win and lose games. I think the staff probably cost us the Vandy game with the decision to throw on the infamous pick 6. But that's it.

Where I disagree with Wing is the notion that we did more with less in the past. I don't care if we had 15 all conference players this year, we played the entire year with a QB who wouldn't start on most MAC teams. I like Johnny Mac. He's a good kid and showed a lot of toughness this year, but he has no pocket presence and doesn't read defenses like a QB needs to. You can get away with that if you have an accurate cannon for an arm. And Johnny Mac, despite the youtube video, simply does not possess the physical tools to overcome his limitations.

I also think too many people are speaking of P with little to no regard of his past coaching accomplishments. This isn't his first rodeo. He knows a thing or 2 about BCS (level) bowls. He's been to more of them than our former coach. And has put out All Americans and All Pro's on the field.

I don't think he or the staff did a great job this year. If we show no improvement next year, I'll be a lot less forgiving. But for now, I'm not discouraged.

 

[Carl Spackler]

As said, not going to argue that. Just letting these thoughts kind of flow out now...a good question might be..... do you risk something bad happening now to ensure something good happening in the future? or do you make a safe decision now, and postpone taking risks to a later date, or simply avoid taking a certain risk forever?

I think the coaching staff has a very clear vision of what they want, and a plan on what they're going to do to get there, and my biggest fault is that they may have taken a few too many steps in trying to get there in transition, especially early on, and put us at risk of losing games that we might not have lost in the past by doing so. I'm only guessing, but I'm going to guess that the playbook that was thrown at these guys through spring and summer camps last year was more than anything they've ever seen. I'd bet there were many, many times when one of the new coaches would be standing up in a meeting room, and when they were done the players would look around and say what the hell is he talkig about. Sooner or later, either somebody stepped up and told the coaches to slow down, or the coaches simply realized they needed to slow it down. I have no knowledge of anything like that actually happenning, but I don't hink it's unreasonable.

BUT - if you're going to start to look at the world that way, you can't be myopic and fail to see the rest of the picture, the other side of the coin too.

We were also competitive in many ways, and did things on the field with great potential for the future, and did indeed win games by making those same kind of risk/reward decisions and have a lot of potential now for haivng thrown that giant playbook at everyubody.