Not Giving up on this team or Diaco Just yet!

[Confident Carl]

No, I am not delusional. Come on guys, do we really believe we had a chance to knock off #6 Houston on the road? Greg Ward is simply a freak, an incredible athlete who is going to continue to raise havoc throughout the season. No question he is a legitimate Heisman candidate. No one can stop this guy. Even when he is injured! By the way did you see how he dusted himself off after Junior's slam!

Except for the over thrown balls by Sherriffs that I was really PO'd about (I have a permanent hand print in my couch cushion), I saw some improvement across the board (pass defense aside - horrible and a major Poindexter problem that needs to be fixed ASAP) Verducci actually called some aggressive downfield plays. At times the line blocking was better, particularly after St. Thomas gave the O line an A chewing on the side lines. Newsome and Johnson had some decent runs considering how tough Houston has been against the run all year. I also saw Bloom and Meyers more involved with the Offense. Hergy continues to impress and will help take pressure off of St. Thomas as the season progresses.

I too have been totally frustrated by some of the decision making but either Diaco and Staff are totally insane or they actually believe in a process that will wind up with a winning season and a bowl with the realities they are dealing with. Sure, no doubt, I am PO'd that we lost to Navy and Cuse and I do agree we should be 4-1 at this point but before we all jump off a cliff let's see how the next three games against Cincinnati, USF and UCF pan out. If we go 2-1 during that span, we will be 4-4 going into the last 4 games against, ECU, Temple, BC and Tulane. 3-1 and UCONN is 7-5 and going to a bowl game.

I decided to write this because I am feeling very badly about the first five games but know that the coaches, players and fans need to pull together and salvage the season. Firing coaches and taking drastic action at this time and place in my opinion is not the answer.

 

[TRest]

He's not getting fired, everyone knows that. I will do my best to salvage the season.

 

[Forte]

There are so many red flags. To expect perfect execution week in and out from the entire team instead of leveraging some of your players raw talent is ... well we will continue to see more of what it is. Being in your face predictable and theres nothing you can do about it is a cool concept... but a romantic one. Great coaches, whether it be basketball, football or whatever offset their weaknesses with unpredictability. In basketball the full court press, in football blitz packages and trick plays. We are facing teams that know what we are going to do and expose it. Our secondary could be helped with blitz packages.... I'm not talking just about Houston I'm talking about going forward. Thankfully we are in the American where most teams not named Houston or Cinci are as bad as we are.... but when we play the big boys its the Don Brown's and the Narduzzi's that have success because they counter Unpredictable exciting offenses with Unpredictable exciting defenses.

We are not Notre Dame. I want to ask, with the players we have at UConn, mostly average players with some next level talent sprinkled in....do you expect Diaco's style requiring perfect execution on both offense and defense for the vast majority of the game to bring this program to new heights? A style that depends on methodically driving the ball every single time the length of the field while hitting 3rd own almost every part of that drive requiring 3rd down conversions to be a neccessity ... and a defense that no one player can miss and assignment on because the opposing QB has all day to throw? It looked shaky against Maine. Maybe we will win a majority of our AAC games against average to below average teams by 3 points. But do you honestly see growing success with this coaching style?

 

[Confident Carl]

There are so many red flags. To expect perfect execution week in and out from the entire team instead of leveraging some of your players raw talent is ... well we will continue to see more of what it is. Being in your face predictable and theres nothing you can do about it is a cool concept... but a romantic one. Great coaches, whether it be basketball, football or whatever offset their weaknesses with unpredictability. In basketball the full court press, in football blitz packages and trick plays. We are facing teams that know what we are going to do and expose it. Our secondary could be helped with blitz packages.... I'm not talking just about Houston I'm talking about going forward. Thankfully we are in the American where most teams not named Houston or Cinci are as bad as we are.... but when we play the big boys its the Don Brown's and the Narduzzi's that have success because they counter Unpredictable exciting offenses with Unpredictable exciting defenses.

We are not Notre Dame. I want to ask, with the players we have at UConn, mostly average players with some next level talent sprinkled in....do you expect Diaco's style requiring perfect execution on both offense and defense for the vast majority of the game to bring this program to new heights? A style that depends on methodically driving the ball every single time the length of the field while hitting 3rd own almost every part of that drive requiring 3rd down conversions to be a neccessity ... and a defense that no one player can miss and assignment on because the opposing QB has all day to throw? It looked shaky against Maine. Maybe we will win a majority of our AAC games against average to below average teams by 3 points. But do you honestly see growing success with this coaching style?

I agree with most you have said. Predictability and Diaco's perfectionist attitude at this level is noted. Having said that, I felt
the offensive game plan for last night was an improvement. No way they were going to keep pace with Houston - Impossible.
Hopefully going forward they will be less predictable and as things improve will be taking more chances. That's what I am hoping for.
No one has been more bored by the conservative play calling than me. Still say the Defensive secondary is our main problem at the moment.

 

[BlueandOG]

I agree. I thought the coaching was good last night. They had better athletes than us.

 

[Excalibur]

Our strategy appears to be to hope we execute perfectly and hope the other team makes mistakes . . .

 

[Sprague03]

I get what Diaco is trying to accomplish on offense- I feel like he's been trying to simulate Stanford's offense, but we don't have the same type of talent. The offense needs to change because our defense stinks, and it's not the same defense as last year's, where we were only allowing 19 points/game, and our offense was scoring 21 points points/game. A slow and methodical offense hasn't been working so far and we are losing games because our secondary stinks. We are 2-3, and can easily be 0-5. Jesse Palmer said it last night, it's not too late to change our identity, and our passing game has been working so lets open up our offense more often!

We are averaging 19 points a game which ranks us 116th in the country. Teams have been lighting up VA and SU, and we score what 20 points? So frustrating

 

[Husky25]

Execution has been an issue all season. From what I watched (35-7 when I fell asleep. Game was on tape delay so I could spend some time with my kids before they went to bed.), Verducci called the plays BYers have been clamoring about. He called the quick slant, the screen, and he called the downfield looks. Bryant Shirreffs is so turnover adverse, he out throws his receivers range, even when they have a step. He is only confident in his own abilities.

What started my slow drift into despondence was the punt on 4th & 4 from Houston's 38 yard line. It's 0-0 and if you convert, you keep driving and wear out the defense. If you score you put Houston on their heals a little. Yes, the defense played pretty well up to that point, but Houston is a powder keg. A punt isn't exactly putting a flame to the fuse, but it's at least spark. You give them the ball with no points to show for it and for a punter who has been have a great year distance wise, placing it 37.5 yards when 39 yards only nets 18 yards in field position is asking just too much.

UConn's problem is two fold yet they are intimately related, They want a ball control offense, and I have no problem with that, but a ball control offense is less about running the ball, and more about getting first downs. In every game so far, UConn has constantly been in 3rd and long situations. Shirreffs doesn't have the confidence to throw more than about 8 yards past the POS or to a non-primary receiver, so that leaves scrambling. Even the ushers know he's not going to consistently scramble for a 1st down and when UConn doesn't convert, it's a 3 and out. If UConn is lucky enough to convert (and that's exactly how it feel: Luck), the process starts over again: 1st & 10, 2nd & 11, 3rd & 8 and hope against hope. Meanwhile the opponent's offense gains multiple first downs on any given drive. Maybe UConn prevents a score (like it did in the first quarter last night), But here's the rub: While the opponent's defense was resting as their offense gained a few first downs, UConn's defense (also on the field for that amount of time) will be back out there in 3-6 (if they are lucky) plays. That ain't ball control and it ain't doing your defense any favors.

 

[pnow15]

Diaco can't coach. Period.

Who has gotten better? Shirreffs has gotten worse. Newsome has gotten worse. Our tight end have gotten worse.
Summers has gotten worse. The offense has gotten worse, the defense has gotten worse, the special teams have gotten worse.
Houston is going to the B12 and we are going nowhere unless BB team makes Final Four.

 

[UConnJim]

Diaco can't coach. Period.

Who has gotten better? Shirreffs has gotten worse. Newsome has gotten worse. Our tight end have gotten worse.
Summers has gotten worse. The offense has gotten worse, the defense has gotten worse, the special teams have gotten worse.
Houston is going to the B12 and we are going nowhere unless BB team makes Final Four.

I understand the frustration, but you are not correct.

First, this is Diaco's 3rd season at UConn. Nobody, and I mean nobody was expecting a quick turnaround after what PP did. Remember, UConn is a developmental football program as we get raw talent and have to redshirt and coach them up. That was the model with Edsall. Diaco's first real recruiting class are now redshirt freshmen as he didn't really have many recruits in 2014 as he was hired in December 2013. So, you really can't blame him for the talent at various positions, especially the OL.

UConn could go the JUCO/transfer route and go for a quick fix for a number of talent issues, but that has not been the UConn way and it does not build a program. Diaco seems to bring in one a season. Houston has 7 transfers/JUCOs on their offensive 2 deep. Or, a school like Louisville has 5 on the offensive 2 deep and 6 on the defensive 2 deep.

The one area in which I will fault Diaco is QB. At QB, Diaco inherited a roster of Chandler Whitmer, Jr, Casey Cochran RSo, Tim Boyle, So, and Kivon Taylor RFr. Seemed like a serviceable roster of QBs. But, Taylor was dismissed in June 2014 and Cochran was done with football in September 2014. So he lost his best QB and a possible QB of the future before his 3rd game at UConn. He brought in Shirreffs as a transfer in the summer of 2014 (eligible in 2015), Tyler Davis as a recruit and Brandon Bisack as a walk-on in 2015, and Garrett Anderson as a JC transfer in the summer of 2015. Boyle transferred after the 2015 season and Donovan Williams was brought in as a recruit in 2016. Davis was moved to another position at the start of the 2016 season and UConn has recruited Jordan McAfee for 2017. I think UConn needs to bring in a JUCO this year for depth.

Also, look at how Diaco's defenses have ranked:

2009: 67 (Cinci)
2010: 50 (ND)
2011: 30 (ND)
2012: 7 (ND)
2013: 31 (ND)
2014: 49 (UConn)
2015: 33 (UConn)
2016: 87 (UConn)

Clearly, UConn has started off with defensive problems this year, but Diaco has a history of good defenses and I don't think he has forgotten how to coach defense. I think the defense will get better.

As for offense, UConn's offense was ranked 123rd last year and it is ranked 103rd this year. Newsome is averaging 3.9 yds/carry and he averaged 4.3 yds/carry last year. Johnson is averaging 3.2 yds/carry vs 2.5 yds/carry last year. Sheriffs QB ratings is basically the same as last year. As for TEs, they had 39 receptions last year, lead by Bloom, and they have 20 in 5 games this year, lead by Davis. Small progress.

The biggest problem has been turnovers. UConn is not generating turnovers as we have 1 fumble recovery and 1 interception in 5 games! The turnover margin is -0.8/game and you are not going to win games with this margin.

 

[BHusky]

The problem with this program which has been an issue for over 10 years is the offensive strategy. Since Edsall we have been a program lead by a strong defense and a ball control offense. It worked with Edsall because he found some diamonds in the rough (i.e., Donald Brown) that made it work for us. But when you don't have those type of players it simply doesn't work in todays college game. With our talent and this offensive philosophy we could go 8-4 if the stars aligned, but we are also susceptible of going 4-8 if things don't go our way. We are not Wisconsin, Iowa, Stanford or Alabama who can just line up and physically dominate other teams DL's and we do not have a stud RB who can make something out of nothing when teams stack the box like Brown did on a regular basis. This type of offense puts a lot of pressure on the defense to be perfect when we play teams like UL or Houston and at this point our defense is not at that calibre to burden that responsibility.

Look at the teams that over the course of 10 years were at our level or similar and surpassed us in on field success. Teams like UL, Houston, Memphis, TCU, Boise, BYU, Cinci, ECU, etc. I know there are some categories that do not align exactly between the schools such as recruiting areas (TX) or history (BYU) which someone will love to point out, but they have all adapted to the times and have had high scoring offenses.

QB has obviously been a challenge for us since Orlovsky and it is crazy to think that we could not find one dynamic player to help infuse some life into our offenses. We don't need a 4-5 star kid to get to the next level, we just need a kid that has the ability to be a playmaker. Let's take a chance on a kid who is a 5'10, 185 pound athlete that the bigger boys want as a WR/CB and let him play QB. On the college level a run first QB works with some coaching up on the throwing part of it. UL and Houston are perfect examples of that.

I guess you could say that we do have a run first QB, but that is certainly not by choice. He is top 10 in carriers in all of FBS which is ridiculous.......