Rice Post Game Thread

[cohenzone]

okay, so there are people that have become numb to the negative performance seen on the field. I am a fan who never got numb! I want UConn to win the games they should win, play up to the challenge for those games that seem impossible where we are over-matched. Develop a winning attitude this way, so fans can come and see their team win when they should win. Yes there may be an upset but why should UConn fans be different than fans of other schools. We should not accept not playing well. We should demand better as fans. Our team will feed off that energy! Not saying we give them tough love. I am saying that we trust in our coaches until there is a reason not to.

Um. We are better. But you have to be real. We have been garbage and we arevIndy. That doesn’t make for dramatic change.

 

[Stray_Dog]

Um. We are better. But you have to be real. We have been garbage and we arevIndy. That doesn’t make for dramatic change.

Yes we are better but not yesterday. I do believe we could have and should have played better against Rice. I do NOT for a second believe we played our best or even close to our best yesterday! And that is being REAL. I believe yes we have improved - yes we have a long way to go. YES we are far from there. But against Rice this team looked like teams of old. I believe at our worst we may have won or lost to this team. It was an unknown then and unfortunately - seeing the way we played - an unknown for today! Yes we won but we won like we would have won 4 years ago!.

 

[Gburyhusky]

If people didn’t think we have a long way to go, they are not paying attention. A work in progress. If people aren’t prepared ahead of time for a possible ugly game, this is not the team for you. Winning ugly is way better than losing a shoot out. Just my feeling after 25 years of seasons tickets with 10 years of pretty pathetic and most of a little crowd gone by the end of the 3rd quarter.

This spot on. If someone (like me) has season tickets, and has suffered (in person) through numerous non-competitive dogs@%!t performances pre-Mora, then by all means you are entitled to post negative or complain. But if you haven't supported the program by getting yourself to the Rent on a semi regular basis, and your just a keyboard warrior with no skin in the game, then take your ridiculously negative takes elsewhere.

 

[cohenzone]

Yes we are better but not yesterday. I do believe we could have and should have played better against Rice. I do NOT for a second believe we played our best or even close to our best yesterday! And that is being REAL. I believe yes we have improved - yes we have a long way to go. YES we are far from there. But against Rice this team looked like teams of old. I believe at our worst we may have won or lost to this team. It was an unknown then and unfortunately - seeing the way we played - an unknown for today! Yes we won but we won like we would have won 4 years ago!.

We would have lost 4 years ago.

 

[uconndogs]

I'm just not seeing it in Evers and maybe he's banged up, but he had open receivers and was simply missing them.

This program still has a long way to go and folks simply have to realize that what we are seeing now is, in fact, significant progress. Reality is that we are NOT a top 50 program and we will likely be near a two TD dog at Cuse.

 

[huskymedic]

Did ever get an explanation of whether that was a straight up QB switch or an injury situation?

EJ Warner was injured against Tulane and he was “questionable” all week leading up to UConn.

 

[Classof87]

In defense of Nick Evers, this was the first time he's been able to play in back to back games and complete them. He is still a QB who has not played much except for this season. I'm ok with him starting as long as he is healthy, and from my vantage point behind the UConn bench he looked kinda gimpy; maybe the toe is still bugging him and limiting his mobility.

To everyone wanting Fagnano, be careful what you wish for. Yes, he's completed some passes, but he's also thrown some bad picks too.

Our D was stellar, even without Rice having Warner in the game. Rice's points came from a FG that was the result of great field position after a UConn fumble, and a KO return late in the game.

 

[JMick]

The stats this doesn’t capture is how long each opposing team’s Defense is on the field and turnovers AND ts I would love to see is the average yard line that the opponents Offenses in each game start drives. Second, how long the Defenses are on the field.

I agree 100% with B Lawyer, our D played essentially a perfect game.

I wish Mora would be a bit more open to mixing up Offense - Put Joe in game Evers can’t effectively run the ball - have some fun trying to shake things up.

The only reason we aren’t 3-5 right now is our defense - the unsung hero’s of this season.

I was trying to find adjusted point per possession stats based on opposing offense starting position but I couldn't find it anywhere. I feel like that stat would be very telling. Think of how often the other team starts on our side of the 50 - we're still 2nd in punts per play. That's a crazy stat.

 

[cohenzone]

The stats this doesn’t capture is how long each opposing team’s Defense is on the field and turnovers AND ts I would love to see is the average yard line that the opponents Offenses in each game start drives. Second, how long the Defenses are on the field.

I agree 100% with B Lawyer, our D played essentially a perfect game.

I wish Mora would be a bit more open to mixing up Offense - Put Joe in game Evers can’t effectively run the ball - have some fun trying to shake things up.

The only reason we aren’t 3-5 right now is our defense - the unsung hero’s of this season.

But defense is part of the equation. We are 5-3 and if D is what gets us wins, it still counts. I wouldn’t have minded Fagnano in the second half. But the second half is also where we scored all of our points. 17 in a half is not bad at all and who knows if Fagnano could have done any better. As i wrote in another post, 5 weeks ago a lot of this board had no use for Fagnano I know we had 2 big plays with great individual effort, but that i think is what you kind of hope for. As it stands, only Syracuse might be too much for us. Of course i will be disappointed if we don’t beat teams we “should” beat. I’m not sure how many teams we “should” beat. but we seem headed in the right direction. And at the moment i am not high on Evers either.

 

[Stray_Dog]

It’s only his 6th start though. If we keep giving him reps he’ll be passing for 180 yards a game in 2026. Sometimes you gotta let those late bloomers marinate for a season or three.

...and in 2026 who might he be throwing to? There is no guarantee he will have the recovers we have now. Also, what collegiate program allows an athlete to marinate for 3 seasons, when in year three they are looking for who is going to start when he is gone???

 

[cohenzone]

I was trying to find adjusted point per possession stats based on opposing offense starting position but I couldn't find it anywhere. I feel like that stat would be very telling. Think of how often the other team starts on our side of the 50 - we're still 2nd in punts per play. That's a crazy stat.

As i said, game situations vary, so stats do only tell so much. But they can give you a general idea that teams tend to score less on the average against our D than they do against their other opponents.

 

[UCan3]

I'm just not seeing it in Evers and maybe he's banged up, but he had open receivers and was simply missing them.

This program still has a long way to go and folks simply have to realize that what we are seeing now is, in fact, significant progress. Reality is that we are NOT a top 50 program and we will likely be near a two TD dog at Cuse.

He consistently throws behind receivers running crossing patterns. It’s almost like he sees the deep defender behind where the receiver is going to be and either doesn’t trust the receiver to make the catch or is afraid to throw the pick.

He needs to get over this and lead the receivers to they can make the play.

We have an very good group of receivers and they deserve a chance to make plays;

 

[Stray_Dog]

We would have lost 4 years ago.

Play this game again same staff with same offensive performance like we had yesterday and its a toss-up is my point. But I would like to think that with a do-over and them with their starting QB who didn't play yesterday. Our offense playing to their potential we win with a score reminiscent of the Buffalo game! I do believe, but because of that belief - yesterdays offensive performance was a dog turd!

 

[Scoe]

When you get off to these slow offensive starts fans are going to leave early. The thing is the offense does seem to come around in the 2nd half. We got off to a very slow offensive start in the Temple game with Fagnano as well. So Mora has talked getting off to better starts but we continue to get off to bad starts in every game.

As far as the Rice game, this looks like our best defense since 2011, they deserved to play with a lead. Evers can very good on some plays so I see why he is the starter, then he makes very bad decisions the next play on the 2nd TD drive after the completion to Bell, Evers throws it into the middle of on 1st and goal caught a break with the DPI on Rice.

On one of the drives we had momentum then 2 of our guys go onto the Rice sidelined I didn't see what happened but your just asking for a penalty resulting in a drive killer. Had a feeling the refs were on the lookout for taunting from us and they were the right calls need to be smarter then that.

The drive that was a fg I totally get running the ball and have Rice burn their remaining timeouts but the rbs looked like they were told to just fall to the ground not even trying to get a 1st down that was a little dissapointing. With the 2 minute warning now it's more impararive to wrap up the game clinching TD going up 3 scores not that the final outcome was really in doubt. The kickoff coverage needs to be better too.

 

[RedStickHusky]

EJ Warner was injured against Tulane and he was “questionable” all week leading up to UConn.

Thanks.

 

[UCan3]

But defense is part of the equation. We are 5-3 and if D is what gets us wins, it still counts. I wouldn’t have minded Fagnano in the second half. But the second half is also where we scored all of our points. 17 in a half is not bad at all and who knows if Fagnano could have done any better. As i wrote in another post, 5 weeks ago a lot of this board had no use for Fagnano I know we had 2 big plays with great individual effort, but that i think is what you kind of hope for. As it stands, only Syracuse might be too much for us. Of course i will be disappointed if we don’t beat teams we “should” beat. I’m not sure how many teams we “should” beat. but we seem headed in the right direction. And at the moment i am not high on Evers either.

Syracuse in my book is a must win IF we want some respect - right now every time we’ve played a good team, we’ve lost. Buffalo is an okay team - maybe that’s a good win?

Rice, Merrimack, the others, add up their wins so far this season and it isn’t pretty.

I like 5-3 but comon Syracuse is getting blown out in some games, they are ripe for us.

 

[RedStickHusky]

your just a keyboard warrior with no skin in the game, then take your ridiculously negative takes elsewhere.

You can listen to whoever you choose to, but you don't get to decide who can have an opinion...

 

[UCan3]

Play this game again same staff with same offensive performance like we had yesterday and its a toss-up is my point. But I would like to think that with a do-over and them with their starting QB who didn't play yesterday. Our offense playing to their potential we win with a score reminiscent of the Buffalo game! I do believe, but because of that belief - yesterdays offensive performance was a dog turd!

Lot of truth there… The offense, with what our defense did yesterday, was abysmal. Pointing to a win against a team like Rice (playing with 2nd string true FROSH QB) isn’t enough. We were fortunate w. the needless turnovers and got bailed out by our defense.

We don’t have alot of quality wins this season other than maybe Buffalo and we can pin none of that on our Defense - which in my book gets a solid ”A” so far this season.

Trying to do bare minimum on offense has produced a decent record but it we’re looking for respect, we’ve got to shake it up - we will lose to Syracuse badly without some changes to how we play offense.

 

[huskymedic]

Syracuse in my book is a must win IF we want some respect - right now every time we’ve played a good team, we’ve lost. Buffalo is an okay team - maybe that’s a good win?

Rice, Merrimack, the others, add up their wins so far this season and it isn’t pretty.

I like 5-3 but comon Syracuse is getting blown out in some games, they are ripe for us.

They have one loss by 2 pts and one loss by 28 to undefeated Pitt?

 

[NEforceUConn]

UConn has a QB who can run?
When is he going to play?

 

[ATLDYKA]

It’s only his 6th start though. If we keep giving him reps he’ll be passing for 180 yards a game in 2026. Sometimes you gotta let those late bloomers marinate for a season or three.

Sort of like Fagnano. I just don't understand the love affair for Fagnano. He is as inaccurate as Evers. He has been playing for 5 years and still hasn't figured it out. Evers has played what 6 games. Yes, he may not be great either, but certainly has a higher upside. Fagnano is gone after this season. He had a big game against Merrimack and in garbage time against teams that Evers put us way ahead in. Need to stick with Evers even though it is tough to watch or move on to Welliver and start to give him reps and see if he is your leader at the QB position going into next year or if you need to bring in a new QB through portal.. I just don't see it with Fagnano. He is not accurate either.

 

[cohenzone]

Play this game again same staff with same offensive performance like we had yesterday and its a toss-up is my point. But I would like to think that with a do-over and them with their starting QB who didn't play yesterday. Our offense playing to their potential we win with a score reminiscent of the Buffalo game! I do believe, but because of that belief - yesterdays offensive performance was a dog turd!

Buffalo was a weird game. We basically didn’t have to throw a single pass. Would have been malpractice the way they couldn’t stop our runs. I really have a hard time getting a fix on this team because the quality of our opponents has been all over the place and in a few cases the records of our opponents a little misleading based on the quality of their opponents. Plus our QBs had been a bit of a revolving door. I am not saying our O was good, just the performance to date has been all over the place so i think expecting sudden beauty will lead to disappointment. I just can’t be disappointed with a win even if it is the way we beat Temple. Wins are what we play for and if we win ugly, there is no asterisk in the record book.

 

[storrsroars]

only team left is Southern Connecticut State

Only D1 team is Kennesaw State.

 

[businesslawyer]

Syracuse in my book is a must win IF we want some respect - right now every time we’ve played a good team, we’ve lost. Buffalo is an okay team - maybe that’s a good win?

Rice, Merrimack, the others, add up their wins so far this season and it isn’t pretty.

I like 5-3 but comon Syracuse is getting blown out in some games, they are ripe for us.

Buffalo is not a good team. They are a poor team that got a win at Northern Illinois despite being outplayed. We are 5-0 against really bad G-5 and lower teams and 0-3 against P-4 teams.

 

[Punkbo]

Jayden MacDonald 2024 MVP

Totally agree. MacDonald has had an incredible year. I also want to send some love to Dal’Mont Gourdine, who also has played extremely well.