Questions surround UConn's offensive line. | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Questions surround UConn's offensive line.

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Don't underestimate the positive effect Balis will also have on th O line. The guys are loving him too. These guys will be bigger, stronger and faster. Balis is going to provide Foley with better conditioned personnel to mold.
 
bigeastconf said:
would tat be because the wr's didn't get open enough or the qb held on to the ball too long.

pass protection seemed to become a problem during coach p' era. i dont recall it being that much of an issue under fhcre
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They haven't had a very effective passing game since the days of Dan Orlovsky. Sure frazer got the ball out and they made it to the Fiesta bowl. But I am talking about having a passing game that moved the football and averaged some good numbers year after year.
 
bigeastconf said:
would tat be because the wr's didn't get open enough or the qb held on to the ball too long.

pass protection seemed to become a problem during coach p' era. i dont recall it being that much of an issue under fhcre
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Consider the last 3 games of last year as in the prior 28 under Coach p.
Combination of multiple factors in Prior 28 games under PP
-Walk on QB (Mac).
-Second QB who didn't slide well in pocket
-Third QB Frosh(deer in the headlights) with no experience at this level.
-Bad decision making in throw v. non-throw v. throw away
-Drop backs too deep,
-Injuries
-Poor play calling
-Wildcat nonsense killing QB momentum
-Confusion caused by GDL
Combine the above with lack of Executive management in HCPP allowing GDL to do his thing, it is easy to play the blame game on the o-line.

IMO, all the above went away with
1)Coach Foley putting his system back in and 2) Casey (the son of a coach) at the helm executing and making good decisions with TJ's up tempo.
- Sacks went way down, CC sets a school record in process as does Geremy.
 
BNich said:
They haven't had a very effective passing game since the days of Dan Orlovsky. Sure frazer got the ball out and they made it to the Fiesta bowl. But I am talking about having a passing game that moved the football and averaged some good numbers year after year.
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Agree with you BNich....IMO, from what I could remember-FHCRE played conservative relying on ball control with a marginally (post Danny O) supportive air game but no game changing ineffective vertical game.
 
Did anyone else notice the last little tidbit? Taylor was suspended indefinitely. For as much energy and positivity that Coach Diaco has displayed, I'm digging the Dalton from Roadhouse attitude ("It's my way or take the train.").

I get the distinct feeling that the inmates were running the asylum for the last couple years. Coach Diaco comes in a basically tells them, "You've tried it your way and are 13-23. Let's do it my way."
 
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Carl Spackler said:
The line will be better this year than in the past two, for one simple reason. Foley is going to have them hitting the sleds, early, often, and always. They are big enough, and they will look for contact and hit hard. That's what Foley does.
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I agree, hit thes sleds,early, often and always. Check out Alabama work out:
 
If you go back and watch the final drive of the ND game a few years ago, their D could barely pick themselves up off the ground. The safet, Harrison something or other (now in the NFL) looked like his back was ready to give out. Would love to have similar dominance in a few years
 
Skiblets said:
If you go back and watch the final drive of the ND game a few years ago, their D could barely pick themselves up off the ground. The safet, Harrison something or other (now in the NFL) looked like his back was ready to give out. Would love to have similar dominance in a few years
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One upside about playing a young offensive line is that they get older.

I would love to see our oline maul defenses again in 2 or 3 years and Newsome run for 2k
 
Not for nothing, but if this years line can't put up at least 20 reps at 225 then they won't be better.

Pro day verified what I'd felt for a long time about our line play in the P era. We didn't have the bulk or strength up front.

May also explain the change in S&C coaching.
 
SubbaBub said:
Not for nothing, but if this years line can't put up at least 20 reps at 225 then they won't be better.

Pro day verified what I'd felt for a long time about our line play in the P era. We didn't have the bulk or strength up front.

May also explain the change in S&C coaching.
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I though only Hemmingway was undersized. Other than him, Former "Coach" Pasqualoni didn't do too bad in recruiting guys with "prototypical" size, as was his goal. You are absolutely dead on about strength (possibly add on desire as well).
 
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Husky25 said:
Did anyone else notice the last little tidbit? Taylor was suspended indefinitely. For as much energy and positivity that Coach Diaco has displayed, I'm digging the Dalton from Roadhouse attitude ("It's my way or take the train.").

I get the distinct feeling that the inmates were running the asylum for the last couple years. Coach Diaco comes in a basically tells them, "You've tried it your way and are 13-23. Let's do it my way."
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And this is why you want a QB in every class. Hopefully this is a short term issue, but what if it isn't? Down to 3 qbs plus Eck. Whitmer gone next year, then you have 2 juniors and a true freshman (I assume). Not good spacing. You can always hi JC or transfer, but that is risky.

Again, hopefully thus is minor.
 
Husky25 said:
as the head line states. Size Matters, Sometimes.
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The article was written in 2012 but with last years starting lineup vs. Towson we averaged 6'5".6 and 312 across. Which would have placed around 13th in the County. So just being big is not enough. You need to be strong and fast.

LT - Jimmy Bennett 6'9" 309
LG- Steve Greene. 6'5" 308
C - Alex Mateas 6'4" 315
RG -Gus Cruz. 6'4" 309
RT- Kevin Friend. 6'6" 317

Weren't either last year!
 
Skiblets said:
If you go back and watch the final drive of the ND game a few years ago, their D could barely pick themselves up off the ground. The safet, Harrison something or other (now in the NFL) looked like his back was ready to give out. Would love to have similar dominance in a few years
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Diaco and co. have organized things such that in the not too distant future, there will be alumni returning to campus to sit in with current players in coaches in position group meetings and at practices and stuff. Putting together some game film cutups of the offensive line in 2008 and 2009, for the current OL's to watch in position group meetings, while sitting with their alumni bro's that actually did it - I think would be pretty good to start to establish some identity again, and that game, I would definitely put in there.

(i.e. "Here guys, this how Donald Brown got himself in position for a $10 mill NFL contract......the guys that did it are sitting right next to you.....")
 
Confident Carl said:
The article was written in 2012 but with last years starting lineup vs. Towson we averaged 6'5".6 and 312 across. Which would have placed around 13th in the County. So just being big is not enough. You need to be strong and fast.

LT - Jimmy Bennett 6'9" 309
LG- Steve Greene. 6'5" 308
C - Alex Mateas 6'4" 315
RG -Gus Cruz. 6'4" 309
RT- Kevin Friend. 6'6" 317

Weren't either last year!
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I watched every game and in the stadiums for 7 of them. They certainly didn't pass the eye test when push came to shove (literally). What was not clear was the mix between physical tools and desire. I know Former "Coach" Pasqualoni aimed to get physical prototypes, but the Blue chip programs were not going after these kids for a reason (making them 2* players) and it wasn't because they weren't big enough. That is sort of an indication that the coaches in the former regime were missing something or were not properly motivating them.
 
Husky25 said:
I watched every game and in the stadiums for 7 of them. They certainly didn't pass the eye test when push came to shove (literally). What was not clear was the mix between physical tools and desire. I know Former "Coach" Pasqualoni aimed to get physical prototypes, but the Blue chip programs were not going after these kids for a reason (making them 2* players) and it wasn't because they weren't big enough. That is sort of an indication that the coaches in the former regime were missing something or were not properly motivating them.
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I am with you. We got this kid from St. Joe's Heshemi, who they will most likely red shirt. He starts for their Bball team and I hear he has quick feet and an attitude. Add some body strength and might have somebody. We also recruited some big tight ends this year and Tommy Meyers last year. Maybe 1 or 2 of these guys will be converted to O line. We need athletes!
 
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jbdphi said:
As much as I liked Cody Endres, that guy seemed to take as many sacks per game as David Carr in his rookie season with the Texans. It was like he was physically unable to throw the ball away. Same seasons, same line, Frazer didn't seem to take as many. QB has a huge influence on sacks taken.
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Especially when the QB is directly responsible for calling and adjusting his own protection. Sometimes when the QB gets sacked it is his own damn fault for not recognizing it and calling it out.
 
Skiblets said:
If you go back and watch the final drive of the ND game a few years ago, their D could barely pick themselves up off the ground. The safet, Harrison something or other (now in the NFL) looked like his back was ready to give out. Would love to have similar dominance in a few years
Expand ...

This game specifically sold me on the punishing run game as a viable identity for this program. We may never recruit a top flight performer at QB, certainly not consistently. Nebraska won a lot of games with dominant running and defense. I recall the Giants did too. A flashy offense is great, but beating the tar out of the opponent for four quarters is just a sexy.
 
sportsart said:
I'd put money on the run game getting a major portion of spring and summer practice. I'm guessing it's easier to teach the "punch 'em in 'n mouth" type blocking than pass protection.

The better the run game the better chance the QB can use the play action to get an extra tick of protection. Whoever the QB is I hope they plan on using the CC style of counting to, not 3 but 2.5 and release. :cool:
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Hard to play smashmouth when 2 of your OLine can't outlift Dbacks.
 
Before Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came to Storrs, Edsall had established a precedent of big, strong, physical Olines. They got nasty too. Petrus may not have been the biggest guy in the world, but you sure as hell knew he was going to battle. Look at old footage. Those guys were constantly into the second level of a defense looking for contact. They wore people down.

Three seasons later we have sixth and fifth year seniors who can't push 225 LBs up 20 times. After 5-6 years their strength is no where near what it needs to be to excel at this level of football. Would never have happened under Edsall, because he would have sat them down and went with the guys who were willing to put in the work.

I am actually a bit more optimistic about our prospects for the OL this coming season for two reasons. First, I think P and GDL were just plain incompetent and it went beyond pure hair brain schemes and also to conditioning, strength and fundamentals. Second, once Foley took the OL back over the improvement was immediate and dramatic. Diaco has been very clear that we are going back to basing an offense on a physical running game and in Foley it certainly appears he has the right guy to oversee that. The OL will be young and inexperienced next season, so realistically we need to look for improvement as the season progresses rather than immediate success.

Three wasted seasons with those guys.........still frosts my butt.......
 
To expand on a few posts in this thread; what happened to our offensive line encompasses everything that went wrong beginning the day that Hathaway announced P as the new head coach.

The importance of line play in football is equivalent to to pitching in baseball, guard play in basketball and goaltending in hockey. If you are inept there, it becomes nearly impossible to look competent anywhere.

GDL (and P) no longer cared about physicality in our linemen and effectively neutered our award winning (then) strength and conditioning coach. Players were left to be self motivated to weight train and with limited free time to begin with (and offensive linemen using the bulk of their time attempting to figure out what their OL coach wanted them to do while not attempting to actually teach them) this fell by the wayside. If the height/weight numbers have been accurate during the P years, no offensive lineman added more then perhaps six to eight pounds from arrival during the two plus years they were listed on a roster.

All I can say is that the nightmare has finally ended and there is hope. It may take the entirety of the 2014 season to restore stability to the offensive line (and going back to mid November, I have been cautious in my expectations for the upcoming season due entirely to the unknown quality of offensive line play) but once we get through the season things will begin to improve significantly.

What GDL did to our offensive line, in terms of physicality, philosophy and overall play was criminal. That is over and we now can build something. It won't happen overnight but it will happen.
 
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As for the OL - as long as they're actually hitting sleds and lifting weights this spring with any sort of intensity, we should probably be better no matter who starts.
 
Skiblets said:
If you go back and watch the final drive of the ND game a few years ago, their D could barely pick themselves up off the ground. The safet, Harrison something or other (now in the NFL) looked like his back was ready to give out. Would love to have similar dominance in a few years
Expand ...

We had that dominance against South Carolina in Birmingham. It was an awesome game to watch.

Our pass protection with Foley may not have been great, but the OLine wasn't the reason our passing game sucked. I'll take dominant punch you in the face run blocking with just adequate pass blocking and Foley has generally delivered that. We can win a lot of games with that.
 
If we can beat SEC teams like South Carolina more times than not, absolutely!
 
mattp said:
We had that dominance against South Carolina in Birmingham. It was an awesome game to watch.

Our pass protection with Foley may not have been great, but the OLine wasn't the reason our passing game sucked. I'll take dominant punch you in the face run blocking with just adequate pass blocking and Foley has generally delivered that. We can win a lot of games with that.
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The big guys up front are taking large doses of vitamins D&F, the rickets and scurvy seems to be cured.:rolleyes:
 
From a Chris E (CT Post) article today:

>> Not reading anything into anything – yet – but the offensive line seems to be starting to take shape with redshirt sophomore Richard Levy at LT, redshirt freshman Kyle Schafenacker at LG, redshirt senior Alex Mateas at C, redshirt freshman Jacob Basilica at RG and redshirt junior Dalton Gifford at RT.
The second unit was made up of redshirt freshman Thomas Hopkins at LT, redshirt freshman Brendan Vechery at LG, redshirt sophomore Kyle Bockeloh at C, (Basilica also saw time with the second team at RG) and redshirt sophomore Andreas Knappe at RT.

Redshirt junior Gus Cruz, who missed the last seven games last season suffering from what was termed, “shortness of breath” (cardiac issues) was working on the sidelines, tossing a heavy ball against a wall to build strength and stamina.

“Gus is coming along well. I think he’s tracking the right way,” Diaco said. “From everything I’ve heard, whatever the process was for answering his issues, he’s being allowed to do a little bit more. But still there are things … like, he’s not allowed to get a cut (meaning he’s currently on some kind of blood thinning medication) … some of equipment is sharp and even though he could probably engage more than he actually is but he’s doing a great job.”<<
 
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