Rice post game thread
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Windham4th
What a life a mess can be
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So Freeman slipped a bit earlier in game but made the kick. Why are we not towelling off the kick spot on every single kick after that. Why did we allow him to kick as rain continued and field presumably got more wet. I didn't even know that was legal but it is so WTF. Fire the ST coordinator for that. That 3 points missed killed us.
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This is all mostly true. I feel like the program is still in the long corner though. Like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier. Jim Mora has absolutely done a great job improving the program. I feel like UConn should be at the level of the top half of every G5 conference to be considered having turned the corner, but it's not there yet. Delaware, FIU, Ball St, Buffalo are in the middle of their conferences but it's CUSA and the MAC. Rice is the bottom half of the AC with FAU and UAB. Air Force is the bottom of the MWC. Beating the rest of these teams helps but losing to them is going to be a problem. UAB can certainly beat UConn. This loss to Rice is going to knock UConn down hard in the rankings. As the only non-power independent, big picture, we probably can't expect too much more. I really believe UConn's destiny is G5 until the ACC implodes.
Tackling is horrid at every level in football, taking contact out of practice, while great for safety, has caused issues, tackling a foam wheel is much, much different than tackling someone moving at you, generating their own force. The secondary spent half the game diving at ankles, head down so you can't adjust, plus once you leave your feet, you've ended any chance for you to produce your own force.
The defensive philosophy is hyper-aggressive, the positives are things like the sack counts. What hasn't followed with a hyper-aggressive defense is getting turnovers. For a team with the number of sacks as UConn has and the pressure it generates, they just don't get turnovers. The team's aggression lends itself to over-penetration and failure to maintain gap controls (and as a result getting gashed on runs) and over-pursuit failing to maintain contain (and as a result getting beaten on misdirections, reverses and the naked bootlegs Rice used).
When they back off the aggression you start to see the confusion creep into the defenders and they get stuck flat-footed as linemen make it to the second level on blocks or (worse) the rusher makes it to the second level.
I do think the ease of the first stop and the ensuing score did get guys starting to feel good and try to make big/highlight plays rather than staying focused on the task at hand. Then they realized they were in a game and things started to tighten. Offensively, just too many missed passes, none bigger than the wide-open shot to Murphy in the second OT. It also felt like Fagnano was far less willing to pull the ball and run in this game, which led to Rice being able to key the running back the whole game long.
Overall the game went from fun for about 5 minutes, the first two stops and the Bell pass, but (as was mentioned earlier) with the stop of Edwards on 3rd & 1 (where it looks like Fagnano collided with Edwards, perhaps he was trying to pull the ball to take the open outside run (the end crashed)) and Rice's ensuing score. UConn then punts after an ok drive and Rice scores the long run. The long scores gave Rice the confidence that they'd be able to hang with UConn and keep up with the Huskie offense (which then disappeared in the second half) and instead of UConn being able crush the Owl confidence with a 21-3 lead; it's 21-17 at the half.. and well we saw the disaster from there.
The defensive philosophy is hyper-aggressive, the positives are things like the sack counts. What hasn't followed with a hyper-aggressive defense is getting turnovers. For a team with the number of sacks as UConn has and the pressure it generates, they just don't get turnovers. The team's aggression lends itself to over-penetration and failure to maintain gap controls (and as a result getting gashed on runs) and over-pursuit failing to maintain contain (and as a result getting beaten on misdirections, reverses and the naked bootlegs Rice used).
When they back off the aggression you start to see the confusion creep into the defenders and they get stuck flat-footed as linemen make it to the second level on blocks or (worse) the rusher makes it to the second level.
I do think the ease of the first stop and the ensuing score did get guys starting to feel good and try to make big/highlight plays rather than staying focused on the task at hand. Then they realized they were in a game and things started to tighten. Offensively, just too many missed passes, none bigger than the wide-open shot to Murphy in the second OT. It also felt like Fagnano was far less willing to pull the ball and run in this game, which led to Rice being able to key the running back the whole game long.
Overall the game went from fun for about 5 minutes, the first two stops and the Bell pass, but (as was mentioned earlier) with the stop of Edwards on 3rd & 1 (where it looks like Fagnano collided with Edwards, perhaps he was trying to pull the ball to take the open outside run (the end crashed)) and Rice's ensuing score. UConn then punts after an ok drive and Rice scores the long run. The long scores gave Rice the confidence that they'd be able to hang with UConn and keep up with the Huskie offense (which then disappeared in the second half) and instead of UConn being able crush the Owl confidence with a 21-3 lead; it's 21-17 at the half.. and well we saw the disaster from there.
Purple Stein
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The despair is a great sign for UConn football. People care about the program.
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The worst thing is his coaches getting paid a lot of money to make decisions like this. I don’t think anyone on this board would have an issue with them going for two and even if they didn’t make it at least we tried. For God sakes, were on the road in our defense couldn’t stop a high school Football team yesterday.
Looking at that stadium at Rice just remember things could be worse! I am still shocked at the lack of attendance there. It was like there was nobody there like no students no band no season ticket holders like virtually empty.
I’ll take us with all the losses and us coming up short of expectations and a somewhat full stadium every day of the week.
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7th year not 6th year.
When we don’t get a first down, I can live with that, I can live with bad days, but Joe going to a check down or quickly getting rid of the ball throwing to someone who’s covered who’s 3 yards short of the yard stick that I have no tolerance for…
All will be fine for the gatekeepers like yourself who like to treat the program like a toddler heading off to the bus stop for the first time and say all will be well when they get an F on their report card.
You want to normalize losing games to bad teams when you are a double digit favorite. Almost every team on this schedule outside of Duke is a BAD football team. We are watching bad games vs bad teams where the winner is the team that does just a little less bad stuff. And people like you want accepting that standard to be normalized.
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Reminded me of his refusal to make adjustments in the Temple game last year.
100%. Broadcasters called it a "signature win" for Rice. Delaware and Rice brought the energy against us that we brought against BC.
The loss stings, but there's some solace in people getting up to play us.
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Rice can be proud of this game - they played well.
Their 15 fans who attended picked the right game to attend
Some thoughts:
Almost a bad thing we scored on first play. I even was overconfident at ghat point. After that we were flirting with disaster all game by not going up 2 TDs. I was worried about run D for good reason I guess. Seems this will be unfixable this year st this point. Two long TDs by yhem shoyld have been tackles by us at least 20 yards from end zone and then maybe we can get a stop. 100 percent u go for 2 this was not a second guess. Good fans are pissed and I am too as we should minimum be 7-1. But overall Mora has done what we needed to this point. I am not ready to not give him benefit of the doubt. Programs need to learn to win. There is a lot of losing to overcome. Next year was always the barometer year as schedule is much better. Also credit punter, we slmost lost in regulation. Heck of a play.
Almost a bad thing we scored on first play. I even was overconfident at ghat point. After that we were flirting with disaster all game by not going up 2 TDs. I was worried about run D for good reason I guess. Seems this will be unfixable this year st this point. Two long TDs by yhem shoyld have been tackles by us at least 20 yards from end zone and then maybe we can get a stop. 100 percent u go for 2 this was not a second guess. Good fans are pissed and I am too as we should minimum be 7-1. But overall Mora has done what we needed to this point. I am not ready to not give him benefit of the doubt. Programs need to learn to win. There is a lot of losing to overcome. Next year was always the barometer year as schedule is much better. Also credit punter, we slmost lost in regulation. Heck of a play.
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Those questioning Mora in terms of rebuilding this program are out of their minds.
JF is a special player and probably as good a QB as we've ever had.
Team was flat after a big win at BC. It happens.
Would not be at all surprised if we take down Duke at home in two weeks.
JF is a special player and probably as good a QB as we've ever had.
Team was flat after a big win at BC. It happens.
Would not be at all surprised if we take down Duke at home in two weeks.
What does this even mean? How is next years schedule so different (it’s marginally tougher) that you just ignore what is happening this year (year 4 BTW)??
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UConn does not have a big budget for the Football staff. Neither coordinator is making significant money.
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Very accurate observation. Need to get back to more "Oklahoma drills" in practice, pulling players off the field and sitting them on the bench when their tackling is pathetic. Many of these players, particularly in the secondary, play like they are afraid of contact. Too many that look like swinging gates, or worse, they get run over, trying to bring down runners without smashing into them. And with transfer portal, I think many coaches are afraid to get in the faces of those weak-, would be, tough guys.
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Another totally false premise in bad faith. It’s all the head patters of the program have at this point.
The vast majority are not questioning his “rebuilding”. Notice you don’t say coaching. Or recruiting. Or game management. You know the things people are actually criticizing him on.
It happens should be the motto for the head patters. You admit they didn’t do their jobs which led to them hurting program momentum by losing to a bad team. It happens! Move on. Nothing to see.
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OK........and your solution?
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How braindead do you have to be not question the coaching and decision making on sidelines basically all season?
Build a team on the field that is a top 10 G5 team. This requires knowing how to navigate the portal effectively and being willingly to spend the necessary money. Something we clearly didn’t do when putting the defense together this year. Win games you are supposed to win. Beat bad teams. Stop normalizing losing to them and call it for what it is.
Let’s start there.
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Those are outcomes not solutions, other than spending money which is magically going to come from where?
In my opinion Mora has pieced together some good teams given what he has to work with. We're fortunate to have someone with his experience at this stage of his career. He goes and we are not likely to see the same level of experience or ability because.....we simply won't have the money.
You have no idea who I am, but I can assure you I am no "head patter". I am a realist and try to avoid being condesending on ananomous sites like this.
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I mean at $2.5M/year you would think that good game-day coaching and decision making wouldn't cost extra but here we are. Bring in someone to infuse some modernity and basic sense on the sidelines. We don't go for it on 4th nearly enough.
Going for that long field goal instead of the first down was crazy. Freeman had already showed that he was having trouble with his footing. Every player on the field was slipping like a baby deer on ice skates.
Not going for two in OT was the absolutely infuriating. We we basically scored that TD at will. I truly believe had he made the right decision we would be talking about an ugly loss.
PS: Nobody is coming for Mora or Sammis. Nobody wants and old coach who loses to Rice, Delaware and Syracuse. And nobody wants and OC who doesn't seem to understand where the first down marker is.
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Getting elite defensive players linemen, linebackers, safeties, and cornerbacks cost significant NIL. Mora needs to find diamonds in the rough via his coaches evaluation process. Unfortunately, he struck out this year. The other way is to build up the foundation of the team through high school recruiting. Unfortunately, the team was so bad prior to Mora arriving that it will take time for the better recruits to consider coming to UConn.
Alum86
Did they burn down the ROTC Hangar?
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We’re all ticked off at this loss, and the 2 other winnable OT games. A lot of what ifs from yesterday from Freeman not slipping to our center’s personal foul moving us out of FG range. But it is a post game thread and not a future of our sports program with/against a FB “cupcake schedule.” Relax and watch your Jets at 1. LOL
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Their defensive front 7 outplayed our offensive front 6 is more accurate.
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I think that signing and evaluating talent is one of Mora's superpowers. He's clearly comfortable in that process..
As for this season's defense? We lost a bunch of stud DLs to graduation and the portal and the guys we brought it weren't as good. Nobody stepped up to lead either. Basically we replaced good with worse. This will happen with the portal, it's not exact science and while we have a decent NIL budget we don't have the funds for can't miss type recruits.
Having said all that, better decision making on gameday would have delivered victory in every single loss this season. And at $2.5M a year we should get a coach who can win close games against programs that have much smaller budgets than us.
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