Spanos -- are you freakin' joking?

[Palatine]

The DC whose defense NEVER used disguise. No movement on D line pre-snap. Just show the defense and play the defense Spanos.

Disappointed beyond belief. He has been flat off awful. And Mora hires him? WTTF?

 

[RioDog]

What?

 

[Palatine]

Mora to retain former UConn interim head coach Spanos as DC

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn coach Jim Mora announced Wednesday that he is retaining the man he replaced, former interim head coach Lou Spanos, to serve as his defensive coordinator.

lancasteronline.com

 

[RioDog]

Holy Schneikes

 

[Pudge]

wouldn't be the Boneyard without Palatine puking on something someone somewhere

 

[Palatine]

wouldn't be the Boneyard without Palatine puking on something someone somewhere

Grow up. Have you watched the Huskies in recent years? The defense sucks and the coaching is a HUGE reason why.

What are you saying Pudge, you like the hire?

 

[uconnric]

The DC whose defense NEVER used disguise. No movement on D line pre-snap. Just show the defense and play the defense Spanos.

Disappointed beyond belief. He has been flat off awful. And Mora hires him? WTTF?

We had a defense that was on the field for most of the game and our secondary was pretty weak. I don't think that Spanos got to show what he is capable of. Hopefully we'll see what he can do with better recruits.

He was also a favorite of the players on the team, and I think that had something to do with it. He managed to salvage a semblance of a season, and would have had more success but for Phommachanh's injury.

 

[pepband99]

The success of many, MANY, HCRE assistants, without, well, HCRE, gives me hope.

 

[uconndogs]

This is not a bad hire.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I was just thinking about how easy it is, two weeks into the season to scrap everything you worked on during the offseason to install a new system with an entirely different philosophy. I was however thinking in terms of a video game, not something real where to compound the difficulty, most of the players are neophytes.

Would Spanos have been my first choice? Hell, he wouldn't have been in my long list but at the time I heard Mora took the job I assumed he (and Mazzone) would be part of the staff.

I'm not sure what happened here. One possibility is that DB wanted to turn over every rock before agreeing to this. Regardless, the defense Mora wants to run will be the defense we run. That would have happened with any potential hire for DC.

 

[scotty0330]

 

[Chin Diesel]

Everyone should have seen this as a possibility. Maybe he was a fallback option, but we always knew the previous relationship between the two as HC and DC.

 

[Blades]

Would Spanos have been my first choice? Hell, he wouldn't have been in my long list but at the time I heard Mora took the job I assumed he (and Mazzone) would be part of the staff.

I'm not sure what happened here. One possibility is that DB wanted to turn over every rock before agreeing to this. Regardless, the defense Mora wants to run will be the defense we run. That would have happened with any potential hire for DC.

Completely, kinda weird how it almost seemed a given with Mora/ Spanos connection, how Spanos had no problem with Mora working right there looking over his shoulder and then it seemed to be over. I'm pretty luke warm about this now since we had our hopes up for someone bringing new energy after all the other hires that have gone on. This seems as much of a shock as Mora's hire was and seemed to come out of nowhere (now) after all the DC speculation. But like you said Jim L. has been a DC and worked on that side of the ball for most of his career, so there's that.

 

[UConnJim]

I put these stats in another thread. Spanos did dramatically improve the defense in 2019, but I don't think you can judge 2021 due to the off year in 2020 and the chaos of 2021 with Spanos being appointed interim HC and Horton appointed DC and he had no experience as a DC. And, the defense looked much worse than it was due to the terrible offense.

Here are the total defense stats for the last 3 seasons:

2018 (Crocker): #130 617.4 yards per game
2019 (Spanos): #116 466.8 yards per game
2021 (Spanos/Horton): #115 451.8 yards per game

One thing we do know. The Spanos/Mora defenses at UCLA were good, so we should be optimistic.

 

[CL82]

Mora to retain former UConn interim head coach Spanos as DC

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn coach Jim Mora announced Wednesday that he is retaining the man he replaced, former interim head coach Lou Spanos, to serve as his defensive coordinator.

lancasteronline.com

Say what???!!

I don’t know how to feel about this. I’m glad the endless search is over and I would’ve been perfectly fine with this if this was announced early on, but the continuing search had me hoping for something better.

Well, okay then.

 

[freescooter]

I thought this was likely given the long delay in hiring a DC. I’m not sure why the wait to make the announcement, but it seemed likely given their previous relationship, and given that Mora was filling every defensive coaching slot. Not likely to do that without Discussing it with his incoming DC I suspect. A lot easier if the incoming DC is in the next room rather than getting ready for a bowl game or something.

Plus I recall Spanos UCLA defenses as being known for aggresiveness and a ball hawking style. Of course they didn’t have to play 58 minutes a game…

 

[fgbrault]

As Coach Mora has been a defensive coordinator, isn't possible he will set the type of defense that will be run and keep close watch, while taking advantage of the relationship that Spanos has with the players; setting the overall plan and leaving it to Spanos to implement it.

Coach Mora, has made clear that the offense will be very different from the recent past. Why not the defense?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Players love him and the D was improved. Who cares. I see this is a positive

 

[JMick]

Bad news:

seems pretty obvious this was not the first. or second. or maybe even third choice

Good news:

Mora is a defensive guy. His fingerprints will be all over the defense, and Spanos will be calling Mora's type of game.

 

[Buffett10]

We had a defense that was on the field for most of the game and our secondary was pretty weak. I don't think that Spanos got to show what he is capable of. Hopefully we'll see what he can do with better recruits.

He was also a favorite of the players on the team, and I think that had something to do with it. He managed to salvage a semblance of a season, and would have had more success but for Phommachanh's injury.

So the offense being in the field too long was the reason why the defense didn’t disguise what defense they were in? Interesting.

 

[ZooCougar]

The DC whose defense NEVER used disguise. No movement on D line pre-snap. Just show the defense and play the defense Spanos.

Disappointed beyond belief. He has been flat off awful. And Mora hires him? WTTF?

Not totally excited but I am not sweating it. If anyone on the staff should have been retained it was Lou and Jarren Horton.

I sat behind the bench for the last game. The defense actually looked pretty switched on as a unit. Organized, the coaches were coaching. The offense was doing nada, even goofing off.

 

[BugsyCT]

Surprised by this that they kept someone from the old regime around, but on the other hand, if it had to be anybody it was likely to be Spanos. He did bring energy to the team once Edsall was out, and the brief time that Puma was playing we looked genuinely competitive with FBS teams (Wyoming game was their best game of the year).

Not sure it's the best move long run but maybe Spanos has better success with better recruits here and Mora at the helm.

 

[Bomber36]

That is very surprising and perhaps a bit disappointing. Hopefully Mora will have lots of input as to how he approaches next year defensive scheme.

 

[Bubba1957]

My eyes saw a team that was much better on defense even if the numbers against them added up. Take the Clemson game, they forced them to 3 fourth down conversions in a row. That would never have happened before (assuming no Trevor Lawerence). They did not play soft off the ball and they actually hit some people. Obviously not great, but with a few improvements, I think they will be fine. If you looked at Spanos' resume without a name attached, you'd see this as a pretty good hire.

 

[jdb50]

It was quite a ride we had this year as fans and imagine what the players went through. Something that I observed at the Rent was how even when the D came up short Lou would walk onto the field and meet the players walking to the bench and give them words of encouragement and interact with them. We forget these players are 18-23 years old. Lou knew what we were up against and beating them into the ground was not going to be the correct choice. Because they were going to be right back out there trying to stop our opponent again in a couple minutes. To me I felt we had improvement in the secondary in coverage and tackling. I know there are some ugly plays where we did not tackle but overall it was better this season. Our biggest hole on D is pass rush. Losing Jones at D-tackle we could be worse at run D this year. Lou could not focus on defense after the Holy Cross game. I have a feeling our players on defense are going to amped up with Lou returning.