In case some of you forgot, I'm new to this board but enjoy the enthusiasm. Much better than Rivals. I was wondering your thoughts on Coach P's philosophy. Especially his game decisions. I thought it was pretty mediocre last year. Didn't like how he kept Johnny Mac in there, and wished the freshman qb's played more. Since he has his guys that he wants coming to storrs, how much do you think a true freshman will play or transfer players? I know it's not even spring practice yet and quite ecstatic to see how things progress, but I really like how recruiting is on the upward trend finally.
To answer your question, I'm sure you are aware of many different opinions with respect to the statements you made. In-game management by HCPP has been criticized on a number of fronts including personnel (in particular QB but also RB, CB and other positions) and time management. Play calling mostly falls on the Coordinators but I'm sure there are some who complain about HCPP's handling of that as well.
My personal opinion is that we were screwed at QB last year regardless. There was no single right decision, only a lot of theorizing as to what alternative decisions would have yielded. I personally would have liked to see more of Jonathan Jean-Louis in at RB to spell McCombs and I would have also preferred that Wilburn was kept away from the field at all costs but that's all with the benefit of hindsight. I disagreed with a lot of timeout / lack of timeout calls by HCPP but thankfully I don't think any of those changed the result of a game. Offensive playcalling was a step forward in my opinion but defensive strategies gave opposing QB's far too many career days. I hope our execution (yes, I said execution) gets better in the second year of Brown's system as many expect.
With respect to true freshmen, I'd be really surprised if CC sees the field next year in a live game. If he does, then I would take that to mean that he clearly outplayed the other four QB's available in practice / scrimmages and I tend to doubt that this will happen. Other true freshmen are also going to need to crack the depth charts with very limited time to prove it so I tend to doubt that they will get much live game PT either. It's not like we have a bunch of 5 star guys coming in who are expected to make immediate impact. In terms of transfers, I think many will see time much more quickly, particularly Whitmer at QB and Phillips at WR but also potentially the LB from Maryland too. I'm not sure about other more recently announced transfers.
And as someone else already intimated on your recruiting statement, many do not agree with you there either. For me it's too early to tell but according to the "experts", this class ranked as one of the lowest BCS programs in terms of average stars, etc. We'll see in four years or so.
And welcome to the board.
