whaler11
Head Happy Hour Coach
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 44,364
- Reaction Score
- 68,239
Hasn't been too much chatter so far - so I guess you are stuck with more Whaler commentary.
Overall thoughts on the event:
Don't know if they had a reason for moving the event to Friday, but this should be a Saturday noon event every year. The biggest variable to enjoyment is the weather and turnout is the weather and you'll never hit the weather jackpot Friday night especially eliminates too many potential attendees geographically.
Hopefully they figured this out already - but naming the teams UConn and Huskies is a bad idea. The media tweeters and the guy running the scoreboard couldn't keep it straight never mind anyone in the stands. When you include the quarterbacks swapping teams, I stil can't tell you who was UConn and who was the Huskies without the stat sheet.
The big apparel/gear sale was pretty awesome. I was in there at like 5 and they were dropping the prices even further. I spent $100 and got about 20 different things. I got a sweatshirt and a Nike golf polo shirt that would have been $100+ on their own retail. I didn't know I needed a UConn Swimming and Diving shirt - I did know I didn't need male speedo swim trunks.
The ticket sales guys are trying - they brought a bunch of us down on the field for a half hour to watch warmups around 6. Always fun to be down on the surface. Grass is in tremendous shape for where the weather has been this spring after the late blizzard.
One observation from watching warmups - don't be surprised when Jon Wholley is a head coach somewhere (or here) someday.
Someone commented on the yellow jackets - they were in mid-season form. I understand why they shut half the stadium down and put us all on one sideline - but not letting people walk past the student section to get to the sale was the usual stupidity you see from Rent 'security'.
Orlovsky seems like he has the potential to be really good in the media. Dan - if you read this - ask your question and let them answer. You don't need to rephrase the question 3-4 different ways stealing half their answer in the process
.
Hopefully next year they can figure out the stream. Don't know why that changed if IMG was looking to get paid for it or something but it doesn't do anyone any good to not have it available.
Overall impression of the staff and program:
This isn't a political comment - but when you look at Edsall it's hard to not make the comparison to Obama and how much their time in Maryland/DC impacted them physically. Edsall who looked like he didn't age from 1999-2010 picked up all the years in the meantime. While I'm now thrilled to have him back it made me feel old because I was 25 the first time I met him and it feels longer than 18 years ago now.
Who knows if this impression is right or wrong - but he seems for lack of a better term content to be here now. It never really bothered me when he was here that he at times had his eyes on bigger jobs, to me that's just the nature of the business. I don't know if it changes the results at all this time - but it's nice to not sweat.
In that vein, don't get too attached to Rhett Lashlee. If he's coaching the bowl game at the end of the 2018 season just be glad we got to enjoy the run. Hopefully Jerry Kill is available again after Rutgers goes 0-127 in the next two years.
It's going to be a challenge to not mock Diaco constantly but two comments relative to HCVV:
1. His phony nonsense about love and family. There was more love and family in that program on a damp Friday night in April this weekend than there was the past three seasons combined.
2. Warde is lucky he cashed in and didn't have to live with the Diaco hire. Diaco might be the worst FBS head coach of the decade.
Thanks to AD David Benedict for having the guts to take the paddles to a program that was flatlining. A lot of administrators would have looked at that buyout and given him year 4 and made the rebuild even more impossible.
The actual game:
I was with a couple of casual fans and it's a pretty social event so it's not like I can break down who looked better at guard.
The first thing that jumps out at you - is just what a chore watching this team has been for 6 years. They came out on the first drive and it was like watching a different sport.
It's hard to come to too many conclusions because of the no contact with the quarterback rules which of course takes away a lot of what Lashlee runs.
Sherrifs looked pretty good. It turns out that working through a quick progression and getting rid of the ball gives you a fighting chance even with a mediocre offensive line.
Bisack has progressed to he point where you wouldn't freak out if they had to use him. Not bad for a former walk-on - maybe should have gotten the call over Williams towards the end of last season if Sherrifs' injuries were really part of that decisions. (Oh Bobby)
The running backs looked more promising that I expected. Newsome is a known quantity and I have little doubt he'll be a lot more successful with someone who is a good enough offensive mind to know how to use him. Vickers looks pretty good and Hopkins of course had the scores even if he didn't have a huge YPC. Hopefully they blow Holy Cross out so bad they can get Thompson a touchdown. That kid looks like he works his rear end off and those guys are important to programs.
The Donald Brown spring game breakout award goes to: Keylon Dixon. Mayala of course had big numbers and a huge play. I've been waiting for Beals to break out and he was solid, also with a big play. Can you even imagine back to back long touchdown passes - surreal. McLean had an impressive catch and can contribute. Skanes had a couple of catches - looking forward to see more of him. Davis might find his home here - hopefully someone figures out what to do with him before he runs out of eligibility.
There have been other seasons where we thought we had some high end talent and depth at receiver - but it's been a long time since it panned out - generally we've had one guy get all the catches and a bunch of guys who we can't figure out why they don't produce more.
Bloom and Myers both got targeted a little bit and the results weren't too much different than the past few years. Didn't see Holman. This somehow has turned into the thinnest position on the roster (kudos Bobby). Hopefully Lashlee can turn the flashes we see from Bloom and Myers into something more consistent.
Defensively they really didn't tackle well. Vickers, Beals, Mayala... all got yards on plays where they should have be stopped much sooner. The one goal line stand was fairly impressive - it was at the opposite end of the field from me and I thought Newsome got in one attempt. The interior of the line looked like a strength.
Defense relies on so much emotion and when you can't hit the quarterback, I think it makes it tough in general on the defense because of the mentality.
The secondary didn't look great - I'm not sure who Mayala ran past on the 80 yard score. I didn't actually see Beals 55 yard score coming back from the half so I don't know what happened there. Garland dropped the easiest pick 6 he'll ever score in his life.
As for the specialists - get well soon Michael and we need some punting competition in August.
Overall thoughts on the event:
Don't know if they had a reason for moving the event to Friday, but this should be a Saturday noon event every year. The biggest variable to enjoyment is the weather and turnout is the weather and you'll never hit the weather jackpot Friday night especially eliminates too many potential attendees geographically.
Hopefully they figured this out already - but naming the teams UConn and Huskies is a bad idea. The media tweeters and the guy running the scoreboard couldn't keep it straight never mind anyone in the stands. When you include the quarterbacks swapping teams, I stil can't tell you who was UConn and who was the Huskies without the stat sheet.
The big apparel/gear sale was pretty awesome. I was in there at like 5 and they were dropping the prices even further. I spent $100 and got about 20 different things. I got a sweatshirt and a Nike golf polo shirt that would have been $100+ on their own retail. I didn't know I needed a UConn Swimming and Diving shirt - I did know I didn't need male speedo swim trunks.
The ticket sales guys are trying - they brought a bunch of us down on the field for a half hour to watch warmups around 6. Always fun to be down on the surface. Grass is in tremendous shape for where the weather has been this spring after the late blizzard.
One observation from watching warmups - don't be surprised when Jon Wholley is a head coach somewhere (or here) someday.
Someone commented on the yellow jackets - they were in mid-season form. I understand why they shut half the stadium down and put us all on one sideline - but not letting people walk past the student section to get to the sale was the usual stupidity you see from Rent 'security'.
Orlovsky seems like he has the potential to be really good in the media. Dan - if you read this - ask your question and let them answer. You don't need to rephrase the question 3-4 different ways stealing half their answer in the process
.Hopefully next year they can figure out the stream. Don't know why that changed if IMG was looking to get paid for it or something but it doesn't do anyone any good to not have it available.
Overall impression of the staff and program:
This isn't a political comment - but when you look at Edsall it's hard to not make the comparison to Obama and how much their time in Maryland/DC impacted them physically. Edsall who looked like he didn't age from 1999-2010 picked up all the years in the meantime. While I'm now thrilled to have him back it made me feel old because I was 25 the first time I met him and it feels longer than 18 years ago now.
Who knows if this impression is right or wrong - but he seems for lack of a better term content to be here now. It never really bothered me when he was here that he at times had his eyes on bigger jobs, to me that's just the nature of the business. I don't know if it changes the results at all this time - but it's nice to not sweat.
In that vein, don't get too attached to Rhett Lashlee. If he's coaching the bowl game at the end of the 2018 season just be glad we got to enjoy the run. Hopefully Jerry Kill is available again after Rutgers goes 0-127 in the next two years.
It's going to be a challenge to not mock Diaco constantly but two comments relative to HCVV:
1. His phony nonsense about love and family. There was more love and family in that program on a damp Friday night in April this weekend than there was the past three seasons combined.
2. Warde is lucky he cashed in and didn't have to live with the Diaco hire. Diaco might be the worst FBS head coach of the decade.
Thanks to AD David Benedict for having the guts to take the paddles to a program that was flatlining. A lot of administrators would have looked at that buyout and given him year 4 and made the rebuild even more impossible.
The actual game:
I was with a couple of casual fans and it's a pretty social event so it's not like I can break down who looked better at guard.
The first thing that jumps out at you - is just what a chore watching this team has been for 6 years. They came out on the first drive and it was like watching a different sport.
It's hard to come to too many conclusions because of the no contact with the quarterback rules which of course takes away a lot of what Lashlee runs.
Sherrifs looked pretty good. It turns out that working through a quick progression and getting rid of the ball gives you a fighting chance even with a mediocre offensive line.
Bisack has progressed to he point where you wouldn't freak out if they had to use him. Not bad for a former walk-on - maybe should have gotten the call over Williams towards the end of last season if Sherrifs' injuries were really part of that decisions. (Oh Bobby)
The running backs looked more promising that I expected. Newsome is a known quantity and I have little doubt he'll be a lot more successful with someone who is a good enough offensive mind to know how to use him. Vickers looks pretty good and Hopkins of course had the scores even if he didn't have a huge YPC. Hopefully they blow Holy Cross out so bad they can get Thompson a touchdown. That kid looks like he works his rear end off and those guys are important to programs.
The Donald Brown spring game breakout award goes to: Keylon Dixon. Mayala of course had big numbers and a huge play. I've been waiting for Beals to break out and he was solid, also with a big play. Can you even imagine back to back long touchdown passes - surreal. McLean had an impressive catch and can contribute. Skanes had a couple of catches - looking forward to see more of him. Davis might find his home here - hopefully someone figures out what to do with him before he runs out of eligibility.
There have been other seasons where we thought we had some high end talent and depth at receiver - but it's been a long time since it panned out - generally we've had one guy get all the catches and a bunch of guys who we can't figure out why they don't produce more.
Bloom and Myers both got targeted a little bit and the results weren't too much different than the past few years. Didn't see Holman. This somehow has turned into the thinnest position on the roster (kudos Bobby). Hopefully Lashlee can turn the flashes we see from Bloom and Myers into something more consistent.
Defensively they really didn't tackle well. Vickers, Beals, Mayala... all got yards on plays where they should have be stopped much sooner. The one goal line stand was fairly impressive - it was at the opposite end of the field from me and I thought Newsome got in one attempt. The interior of the line looked like a strength.
Defense relies on so much emotion and when you can't hit the quarterback, I think it makes it tough in general on the defense because of the mentality.
The secondary didn't look great - I'm not sure who Mayala ran past on the 80 yard score. I didn't actually see Beals 55 yard score coming back from the half so I don't know what happened there. Garland dropped the easiest pick 6 he'll ever score in his life.
As for the specialists - get well soon Michael and we need some punting competition in August.
and don't recall any mention of it. Pics anyone?
