Reminder: Coach P didn't recruit any of these players

[TouchdownHusky]

i think we should pass the ball until we get it right. figure out who the QB should be, then tailor the playbook to his strengths (whoever it may be). but we cant give up on passing (again), and beat our RB's to death (again), and be amazingly predictable (again)....because we can win 6-9 games per year that way (just like weve been doing), or we can develop a well-rounded offensive attack (like every great team), and become a great team ourselves. that may take a few lumps, like throwing the ball when were not ready yet, and maybe losing a few extra games in year 1....but it will also convince a few QB & WR recruits that we can be a program that knows and values the passing game. And maybe one of those recruits will say "hey...i can beat out those QB's they already have and get playing time early", and maybe he's great,and maybe we can establish a passing game...finally.

but we will never get there by running the ball 500 times per game, and losing to every good team we play. We need to pass, to learn how to pass.


Well said. Cannot praise this insight enough. Let's move into the modern era of college football - exciting offenses.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

We need to pass to learn how to pass? What are we doing in practice? Pretending? These kids are BCS recruits, some with offers from other BCS programs.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't understand why any QB/WR recruit would be more attracted to UConn because we started throw the ball more, but also started losing more games in the process.
Winning attracts recruits, not losing.

I don't understand why any QB/WR would be attracted to UConn BECAUSE WE CONTINUOUSLY IGNORE THE PASSING GAME. Kids want to come to winning programs . . . absolutely, no one is arguing otherwise. But high profile QB's in high school want to show their stuff in college. Doesn't take exceptional skill to hand off right, hand off left, hand off up the middle (even the UConn QB's have been able to do that). The best high school QB's want to throw and certainly the best WR's want the "rock". The best NFL WR's aren't there because the could block downfield or serve as a decoy. They want the ball.

 

[businesslawyer]

In 7 of 12 games last year we threw the ball 29 or more times.

Is 29+ passing attempts ignoring the pass? Because if it is, then Pasqualoni just ignored the pass too.

Please do not inject facts into this discussion. That is just guarantying that the discussion won't go anywhere.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

but how many of those were over 10 yards ?

i agree there was "passing", but it was mostly HB or WR screens.

in my opinion, QB's want to THROW the ball down the field....and WR's want to catch it there.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

but how many of those were over 10 yards ?

i agree there was "passing", but it was mostly HB or WR screens.

in my opinion, QB's want to THROW the ball down the field....and WR's want to catch it there.

Absolutely. Plus a lot of those 29 passes per game, came when UConn was trailing and forced to throw the ball. The forward pass is an afterthought in a UConn game plan early in a game when the game is up for grabs. This HAS to change is the UConn offense is ever to move forward and become a legitimate D1/BCS unit the way the defense has.

 

[IMind]

It's actually pretty staggering how inept we've been at QB and WR over the last 6 years. I mean look at every other position on the field.. Edsall was able to find quality BCS kids... NFL prospects at just about every position.... except QB and WR. It's actually kind of amazing.

 

[CTHUSKY74]

The answer here is not as simple as coaching, coaching decisions, player performance, choice of starter. No matter the decisions made -- different choices MAY have also led to a bad result. We don't know for sure. I still have faith that the coaches know a lot more than all of the posters on this board, including myself. I expect them to remedy the situation and produce a better result. Constant second guessing of coaching decisions won't help the situation, but careful review of the strengths of the starters and potential starters with the intent of starting the most productive group will. My personal choices include MN, SMc and DJS as either starters or getting major minutes. Even if JM and LM produce in this game and correct mistakes I still want to see them play. I believe that MN will produce more for us given equal time and DJ will give us a different look that will help LM's game by not wearing him out. In addition, DJ may be a better blocker on the pass plays then we saw from LM. BUT -- the coaches know all this and are planning to implement what they think will work best on friday. If they choose to go with the same starting group, I won't necessarily agree, but I feel that the result will be different. I often felt I wanted RE to rotate RB's more but I couldn't really criticize the results too much. I have a gut feeling that it will be the same with PP. I won't always understand why he is using certain starters but I still trust he knows a hell of a lot more about it than I do and he's familiar with the injury status of the players involved. Let's try to give the staff the benefit of the doubt for a while longer here since we have so much new that needs to be shaken down. The first BCS road game was not to our liking and left us feeling we left a win on the field. The coaches feel the same way. I don't expect us to have a similar performance on offense again this year. I expect the defense to continue to be able to pressure other teams and this should get better as we go along. Special teams will improve over what we saw saturday, specifically punting, coverage and punt receiving/runbacks. If some of you want to blame this loss on the coach -- fine, but there were enough good things that occured here with the decisions that were made that this could have been a win. So it's easy to criticize since we don't have the decision to make. I believe in this staff. They will get this fixed and they will get these existing players playing more productively. I don't necessarily disagree with all the criticism but it's very harsh and all or nothing. BL has usually been the most balanced and even handed in criticisms on this board. I want to follow in that mold, and really be constructive in posting. We are not doomed yet!