Norwalk Hour reporting that Chandler Whitmer headed to UConn

[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.

 

[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.