Norwalk Hour reporting that Chandler Whitmer headed to UConn

[fgbrault]

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.

A fair and well balanced assesment. I do think though, that dong so much so quickly with their schemes may be beneficial next season, as more of it will be installed than would be had they gone slower. Of course, had they adapted their scheme better to the players we all might be looking forward to a bowl game now.

 

[NutmegState]

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.

Good post, but I'll add, John MacEntee threw the pick vs Vandy, not George DeLeone or Paul Pasqualoni. Now that they are fully aware of what MacEntee is capable of, I'm sure they would have run it there. That was week 2 of the season, and literally the first time they were seeing John MacEntee vs FBS competition.

It was a transition year. People have to realize that the staff was learning their players, as much as the players were learning the new staff.

 

[Carl Spackler]

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.

My 'masterful' comment was directed at the myriad of things away from the field, in relation to stepping into a very successful division 1-A football program as a brand new head coach, with entirely different schemes, and concepts and philosophy on how to approach the game, than what was done for a solid decade prior to his arrival, getting all the players to buy into his new approach, even though they had success a different way, and then managing to remain competitive throughout the entire year, given what was the starting point. Never mind the recruiting aspects of things that have changed.

Game time management? Definitely sub-par, but it's failing to see the big picture of what happened in 2011.

I'm going to give the guy a pass on that this year - the game time management/decision making. He had his plate overflowing with everything else, and something needed to get put back to the back burner. He's been out of the saddle as a head coach on the sidelines for a couple years too.

I expect improvement next year.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Good post, but I'll add, John MacEntee threw the pick vs Vandy, not George DeLeone or Paul Pasqualoni. Now that they are fully aware of what MacEntee is capable of, I'm sure they would have run it there. That was week 2 of the season, and literally the first time they were seeing John MacEntee vs FBS competition.

It was a transition year. People have to realize that the staff was learning their players, as much as the players were learning the new staff.

Yes - Yes. This is not professional football either. THe coaching staff doesn't have 24/7 practice time with players.

 

[businesslawyer]

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...

OMG. In Scouts rankings we are 7 out of 8. You really believe that was material? And you don't think we should find it strange that you failed to say that.

I tend to only look at Rivals for ratings just because I find it so much easier tot navigate. I don't have an opinion over whether one does a better job at ratings.

 

[NutmegState]

OMG. In Scouts rankings we are 7 out of 8. You really believe that was material? And you don't think we should find it strange that you failed to say that.

I tend to only look at Rivals for ratings just because I find it so much easier tot navigate. I don't have an opinion over whether one does a better job at ratings.

Not sure what the attitude is for? You can save the OMG stuff...

I was simply pointing out that according to Scout, we are not last in the BE recruiting rankings. Not sure why that offended you...I basically said I didn't care about either, just that according to Scout, there has been an uptick in recruiting.

 

[BlueMAB]

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.

Arguably, we got better QB play this year than in any year since Dan Orlovsky left (except 2007).

Outside of Orlovsky and 2007 Lorenzen, we've never had a QB that was average by big east standards.

We definitely did more with less in the past. I'll agree that the transition didn't help, but the ISU, Vanderbilt, WMU games were given away by poor coaching decisions, and they took us right out of the Cincy game in the first quarter.

As I've said multiple times. I'm not saying P should be fired, or that he won't be better than Edsall. I expect him to be. That doesn't mean he and his staff didn't give games away. They did.

 

[NutmegState]

Arguably, we got better QB play this year than in any year since Dan Orlovsky left (except 2007).

Outside of Orlovsky and 2007 Lorenzen, we've never had a QB that was average by big east standards.

We definitely did more with less in the past. I'll agree that the transition didn't help, but the ISU, Vanderbilt, WMU games were given away by poor coaching decisions, and they took us right out of the Cincy game in the first quarter.

As I've said multiple times. I'm not saying P should be fired, or that he won't be better than Edsall. I expect him to be. That doesn't mean he and his staff didn't give games away. They did.

I love when people completely disregard the fact that other guy is on scholarship too. I think we could have beaten Vandy and Iowa State, but the fact is they made more plays than we did in the fourth quarter.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Arguably, we got better QB play this year than in any year since Dan Orlovsky left (except 2007).

Outside of Orlovsky and 2007 Lorenzen, we've never had a QB that was average by big east standards.

We definitely did more with less in the past. I'll agree that the transition didn't help, but the ISU, Vanderbilt, WMU games were given away by poor coaching decisions, and they took us right out of the Cincy game in the first quarter.

As I've said multiple times. I'm not saying P should be fired, or that he won't be better than Edsall. I expect him to be. That doesn't mean he and his staff didn't give games away. They did.

We will agree to disagree that we got better QB play this year than we did the last 2 years. Say what you want about Zach Frazer, but for the second half of the 09 season he was great.

I agree we gave away the Vandy game with coaching, but no way did the coaches lose the Iowa St game. We lost because the players didn't make plays. Plenty of plays to be made that night that simply weren't. Heck, if McCummings hits a WIDE OPEN McCombs for a TD we win that game. Against WMU, the defensive scheme sucked, but the players were still in position to win the games if a tackle or play or two are made. If you want to blame the coaches for the way the kids came out in the first half against Cincy, have at it. But to blame the loss on the gameplan or playcalling is silly. It was an embarassing effort, but I was pleased they didn't quit and played a great 2nd half.

You're not saying P should be fired and I'm not saying he did a great job. We're not that far from agreement.

 

[BlueMAB]

I love when people completely disregard the fact that other guy is on scholarship too. I think we could have beaten Vandy and Iowa State, but the fact is they made more plays than we did in the fourth quarter.

I love when people make silly, specious, arguments like yours. Especially when those people are UConn fans who are apparently unaware we have taken walk-ons and sent them to the NFL. Or when they completely ignore the impact the coaching had on those games relative to the plays made on the field.

 

[BlueMAB]

We will agree to disagree that we got better QB play this year than we did the last 2 years. Say what you want about Zach Frazer, but for the second half of the 09 season he was great.

I agree we gave away the Vandy game with coaching, but no way did the coaches lose the Iowa St game. We lost because the players didn't make plays. Plenty of plays to be made that night that simply weren't. Heck, if McCummings hits a WIDE OPEN McCombs for a TD we win that game. Against WMU, the defensive scheme sucked, but the players were still in position to win the games if a tackle or play or two are made. If you want to blame the coaches for the way the kids came out in the first half against Cincy, have at it. But to blame the loss on the gameplan or playcalling is silly. It was an embarassing effort, but I was pleased they didn't quit and played a great 2nd half.

You're not saying P should be fired and I'm not saying he did a great job. We're not that far from agreement.

No, we aren't that far from agreement, but people like to take posts and apply their own meaning to them so they have something to argue about. My comment on who P reminded me of has been blown way out of proportion.

I'll give you Iowa St.

WMU was on the coaches. Poor scheme from the beginning, and no adjustments.

No excuse for the way they came out against Louisville. That's on the coaches.

They spotted Cincy 7 points with that ridiculous 3rd down play call. That proved to be the deciding touchdown.

I'll give you the second half of 2009 but my point stands. We've had worse QB play and come out with better results.

 

[NutmegState]

No, we aren't that far from agreement, but people like to take posts and apply their own meaning to them so they have something to argue about. My comment on who P reminded me of has been blown way out of proportion..

Dude you called Pasqualoni pathetic and said he reminds you of a terrible coach.
And we're blowing things out of proportion? Cool. Have a good weekend.

 

[mattp]

Arguably, we got better QB play this year than in any year since Dan Orlovsky left (except 2007).

Outside of Orlovsky and 2007 Lorenzen, we've never had a QB that was average by big east standards.

We definitely did more with less in the past. I'll agree that the transition didn't help, but the ISU, Vanderbilt, WMU games were given away by poor coaching decisions, and they took us right out of the Cincy game in the first quarter.

first you say we've had arguably the best QB play we've had since DanO, then you say we did more with less in the past. when have we had less at QB than this past year? we also didn't have the horses at RB we've had lately

also saying that coaching decisions took us out of the Cinci game in the first quarter denies the reality of two turnovers that directly resulted in 14 points. how is that on the coaches? did P tell JMAc to hand the ball off to the other team? you said earlier in the thread that the only reason we beat RU as badly as we did was b/c of 6 turnovers. it's convenient how you say all of the games we lost due to TOs like Cinci and WMU are on P, but then when we beat a team with a big TO advantage you use them to devalue P's win.

personally my only real gripe so far with P is his clock management issues. hopefully that's just rust due to not being a head coach in a while, but truthfully that's one of the areas where younger coaches just seem to do better.