Relax it's game 2

[sdhusky]

Relax. We lost game 2. By 3 points. Out of conference.

We just witnessed the best back-to-back defensive performances I have ever seen. It's almost unbelievable that a QB could be sacked 6 times, be under duress all day and not throw an int. The windows he made some of those throws were incredible. Just bad luck we only got 1 turnover. I have a feeling that may be the low for the season.

Smallwood looks like he might be the best D player ever to wear a UCONN uniform and Williams might be having the best season in UCONN D history. We also have Gratz, Moore, Rey-Wilson etc.

Our QB is basically a redshirt frosh. He played like one. On a couple of his int, he had guys wide open for 5-10 gains. I think he'll figure it our. I just can't imagine this offense isn't going to get better. And with our D, it won't have to be very good for us to win. I bet if it can get 2 TD's on drives a game, defense and special teams will either score or shorten the field enough to get 10 more points a game. 24 points with this D is going to go a long way.

I'm going to wait a bit before hitting the panic button. It was a tough game to lose and to watch on offense, but I have to admit, I LOVE watching this defense play.

We can still go 12-1. We are still undefeated in conference. MD is just the game we need right now.

The SU board is downright giddy about how their team is losing games. 7 in a row now.

That would make me panic more than losing by 3 to NC State.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

I believe all the fans are hopeful. I really hope we turn this thing around quickly. Arizona hired Rich Rod and the team is winning now. I still have no idea why we never interviewed him or Mike Leach. We didn't even interview the guy who is coaching Delaware right now. Anything is better than this boring offense we are running now.

That being said, let's hope the team can turn it around and score a couple TDs next game.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I believe all the fans are hopeful. I really hope we turn this thing around quickly. Arizona hired Rich Rod and the team is winning now. I still have no idea why we never interviewed him or Mike Leach. We didn't even interview the guy who is coaching Delaware right now. Anything is better than this boring offense we are running now.

That being said, let's hope the team can turn it around and score a couple TDs next game.

Amen, brother. Rich Rod or Mike Leach would have had this place rockin by now. Even with the players present, they would have come at things differently. And the recruiting would have reached a new level. But . . . that's way to risque for Connecticut and so we plod along, offense-less, with no end (zone) in sight.

 

[sdhusky]

Amen, brother. Rich Rod or Mike Leach would have had this place rockin by now. Even with the players present, they would have come at things differently. And the recruiting would have reached a new level. But . . . that's way to risque for Connecticut and so we plod along, offense-less, with no end (zone) in sight.

I wouldn't want Leach. Or Petrino.

RR would have been fine with me, even though he hasn't achieved what PP has.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I wouldn't want Leach. Or Petrino.

RR would have been fine with me, even though he hasn't achieved what PP has.

Petrino. . .forgot about him. Just win baby. Anybody who can get the crowd into these games with some exciting offense will do. Defense? They've been great but come off the field only to face a quick 1,2,3 half of their inning.

 

[ruskin]

SD the issue is it was Game 14 of the coach P era, and we now have 4 horrendous out of conference losses, three at home. That is not a small sample size. The feeling is not panic so much as disgust in that P/DeLeone aren't guiding the offense correctly.

 

[UconnFamily]

I like the PP hire because he did bring in Don Brown; who knows how our defense would look if he wasn't here. I do think the DeLeone hire was bad though we could of went with a better OC than him!

 

[Waquoit]

Relax...

This is a clear case of identity theft. I hope the real sd has LifeLock.

 

[willie99]

I heard that "relax" argument all last year

but I'll give it another week

 

[whaler11]

Losing to NCSU is not a horrible loss. It was ugly to watch, but that is a pretty good football team with a chance to make noise in their league. A good portion of their fanbase wants to run Dana Bible off, some things are universal I guess.

 

[Uconnalliance]

Don Brown not that its any great secret has created the best Uconn D i have ever seen, Smallwood plays out of his ass every week,just think last week without Jennings and Stephen we still kick the out of one the largest o-lines in the country, let the O come together and we will all be happy.

 

[HeGotGame]

I wouldn't want Leach. Or Petrino.

RR would have been fine with me, even though he hasn't achieved what PP has.

What has PP achieved that RR hasn't? RR has won 2 BCS games this century.

It made no sense to me at the time and it still boggles my mind that we would hire a 62 year old coach who has not been in college since 2004. I don't necessarily think RR was the right choice, and I don't think if we offered him the job he would have taken it. He knew he could get a bigger job then this. But hiring some young coordinator or D1aa guy who had some life and could be here for a while woulda been great.

Edsall did a great job building this program from basically nothing to a contender year in and year out in a BCS league. With what I have seen from PP we are going in the wrong direction, fast.

 

[mets1090]

It made no sense to me at the time and it still boggles my mind that we would hire a 62 year old coach who has not been in college since 2004.

I get your point but I also see why they did it. I think the idea is to bring a guy with a lot of experience in for 5 years in an effort to get the program to the next level (consistent top 35ish type team instead of top 50). Then from there they will try to get someone bigger in for a long term gig. I tend to believe that they would have taken a bigger name college guy (Leach RR etc. Not specifically them but just a generalization) if they wanted the job and that it was the coaches that didn't reciprocate. If PP can get the program to that next step it will be easier to get that big time coach.

At least I hope that's the idea.

 

[junglehusky]

Has UConn ever hired a top-dollar, big name coach in any sport? No. We hired Calhoun and Auriemma when they were young whippersnappers (slightly less young in JC's case) , and managed to hold on to them while they grew to be big names. Football is the most expensive sport to hire a "hot name" as HC. Until the Rent is expanded to double the size it is now and we have a dedicated fanbase that donates like a Big 10 school, we're not going to be in the running for a "hot name" unless they're far more damaged goods than Leach or Petrino. Heck, I was somewhat impressed that we went for a former Div. IA HC with NFL experience instead of hiring the good-but-not-nationally-known coordinator with no HC experience in order to save money (hello, Kurt Flood).

 

[weyuo]

I'm keeping the faith even though that offense was real tough to watch Saturday. The coaches have enough experience, that's not the problem. the offensive line is not moving the defense backwards and if you watch closely a replay of Saturday's game there were some blown assignments and procedure calls at the absolute worst times. Momentum killers to the freakin max! That being said I do feel there were times where a little creativity would have paid off. One play in particular: late in the 2nd quarter Coach P decides to go for it on fourth down. the play blew up because a linebacker came in from the left without being touched, McCombs practically ran into the guy, didn't block him and was probably looking for a screen pass. On that play to shake things up and keep the D honest why not bring in a extra tight end and full back and just run a sweep to the left with Whitmer keeping it. Just blow out the whole left side and let Whitmer scamper for a couple yards. No one would expect it, it hasn't been tried yet this year and it would have kept the momentum going and we would have gotten at least a field goal most likely out of that drive. It's simple and unexpected.

 

[weyuo]

We CAN win this thing called Div-1 football. We did it in men's basketball when back in 1988 nobody thought we could... but damn it we did it. We did it in women's basketball when back in the early 90's we didn't stand a chance...but we did it. It can happen! It will happen! We have the people in place to MAKE THIS HAPPEN!! Just give them the same rope you gave JC and Geno. It's going to happen!

 

[BlueMAB]

It's not the 3 point loss. It's everything that led to the 3 point loss. We could win the big east with the worst offense in the big east. We can't do it with the worst offense in the Sun Belt.

 

[Waquoit]

We did it in men's basketball when back in 1988 nobody thought we could!

There's an NIT for football?

 

[Adios]

There's an NIT for football?

I think it's called the Beef 'O' Brady Bowl, something like that.

 

[Bootsthemonkey]

I'm not worried. My preseason prediction had us at 9-3 or 10-2 and NC State as one of those losses. Turning the ball over 4 times, allowing 15 more offensive plays and more time of possession and still losing by just 3? I'm as unhappy with the loss as any but I'll take it.
The 2010 BCS season was opened with a 30-10 drubbing at Michigan and then sparked by a win streak that began right after a 26-0 loss to Louisville where the team looked as flat as imaginable. And that game was in week 7. This is week 3 coming up. There's a lot of time and opportunity to make things happen. Will this season turn around? Who knows. We'll find out.
Personally, I know it's not very exciting to have this offense but if I had a choice between a bad offense and a good defense or a good offense and a bad defense I'll take the good defense. I think this D can make things happen and can keep us in a lot of games and more importantly can hold a lead if we get one. There's no worse feeling IMO than when you get a lead late and have no confidence in your defense to hold that lead (can you tell I'm a Patriots fan?).
There's a lot of season left. I felt before the season began that this would be the toughest opponent on the schedule and nothing that I have seen so far indicates to me anything different.

 

[RMS25CT]

[quote=" I still have no idea why we never interviewed him or Mike Leach. We didn't even interview the guy who is coaching Delaware right now.

You do know that for an interview to occur there needs to be interest on both sides......

 

[Husky25]

Good Morning. I've been a lurker on this board for some time, but just got an account this week because I never posted much. A little background... I’m originally from Massachusetts, I’ve been a UConn fan since the early 90's (basketball obviously), went to UConn (Class of '99), and I’ve been a football season ticket holder on successive 3 year plans since the Rent opened. I also went to quite a few games at Memorial Stadium - even after I graduated - and I could see the south end of Memorial from my Ellsworth 6 Dorm window. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a Michigan fan while UConn was in 1-AA (and still am so long as they are not playing UConn). That said, I am by no means an expert, I’m just a fan and supporter of my Alma Mater.

Because I am a fan of the general Big 10 style of play, I am a stanch believer in how goes the Line play on both sides of the ball, so goes your season. sdhusky, except for the "relax" portion, I agree with your post. However 2/3 of it is about the defense and the 1/3 does not address the reason most here cannot relax. The Offensive Line is a sieve, the running game is non-existent, and the play calling lacks any evidence of creativity or adjustment on fly. The Bottom line is that that our coach has instituted an elaborate 1980's pro-style offense in the age of the Spread.

 

[junglehusky]

Personally, I know it's not very exciting to have this offense but if I had a choice between a bad offense and a good defense or a good offense and a bad defense I'll take the good defense. I think this D can make things happen and can keep us in a lot of games and more importantly can hold a lead if we get one. There's no worse feeling IMO than when you get a lead late and have no confidence in your defense to hold that lead (can you tell I'm a Patriots fan?).
There's a lot of season left. I felt before the season began that this would be the toughest opponent on the schedule and nothing that I have seen so far indicates to me anything different.

I cautiously agree. I think our problems on offense are fixable, though I am worried DeLeone may not be the right guy to fix them. I do agree about defense being the foundation and because it's still early this year, we could go back to classic UConn football of relying on defense to get opponents off balance. If special teams are solid and the offense is competent (i.e., getting longer drives and two field goals would have been enough vs. NC State) we should expect to be bowling this year. That would entail improvement in OL play, improved decisions by CW, improved playcalling by GDL. But you never know what a few injuries or mental breakdowns could do to derail a season. I think the main reason for optimism is this year is like every other year - the BE has as much parity as any league in any sport. So there's nothing written in stone, at least not yet.

 

[huskymedic]

Good Morning. I've been a lurker on this board for some time, but just got an account this week because I never posted much. A little background... I’m originally from Massachusetts, I’ve been a UConn fan since the early 90's (basketball obviously), went to UConn (Class of '99), and I’ve been a football season ticket holder on successive 3 year plans since the Rent opened. I also went to quite a few games at Memorial Stadium - even after I graduated - and I could see the south end of Memorial from my Ellsworth 6 Dorm window. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a Michigan fan while UConn was in 1-AA (and still am so long as they are not playing UConn). That said, I am by no means an expert, I’m just a fan and supporter of my Alma Mater.

Because I am a fan of the general Big 10 style of play, I am a stanch believer in how goes the Line play on both sides of the ball, so goes your season. sdhusky, except for the "relax" portion, I agree with your post. However 2/3 of it is about the defense and the 1/3 does not address the reason most here cannot relax. The Offensive Line is a sieve, the running game is non-existent, and the play calling lacks any evidence of creativity or adjustment on fly. The Bottom line is that that our coach has instituted an elaborate 1980's pro-style offense in the age of the Spread.

Welcome... put your thick skin suit on and you'll be fine!

 

[Jimdish255]

Our offense puts a lot of responsibility on the QB and the linemen to make reads and decisions and basically be reactive to the defense. Unfortunately it doesn't do it while spreading out the D or speeding up the tempo. This might work if you had a QB like Manning who is tremendous at the line and a fast decision maker once the ball is snapped (as the Steelers found out this weekend). They also have full-time pros who'd better know the system but the key is the QB and time spent.

If we had an overpowering line experienced in the system and a QB with a couple of years in the system working with the recievers this could be effective (though still somewhat boring). Unfortunately we aren't in that situation so we're at a disadvantage waiting for incremental improvement week to week and watching our D try to win games while the O sorts out it's responsibilities. Most of us thought in the second year we'd be further along or had adjusted our thinking to suit our personnel.