Starting Quarterback

[ZooCougar]

It may be bad for Roberson, but let's not forget that Fagnano "won the job" last year. If he starts the first game and UConn looks as pathetic as it did in Fagnano's last start, "Mora must go" chants will be heard.

Might as well start Tucker or Cole. We’ve seen this movie before.

 

[uconntailgater]

would he be our starter if he transfers to UConn?

With most of the spring games, taking place this weekend it will be a very active portal week. The players in the locker room will know where they stand unofficially and will start jockeying for position.

 

[Huskiefan78]

Anyone but Fagnano, I didn't even know he was still on the roster. Boy did it kill me seeing him play exponentially worse than freshman Zion.

 

[coachcap]

I really hope it's a healthy Roberson under center for the opening night snaps. He's not very good but no one else on the roster is better and I don't think Welliver as a true frosh is going to be ready.

It's just frustrating knowing for the past decade over 80% of the games the opposing team has clearly had a better QB than whomever UConn had under center.

As to Welliver not being ready, a word of caution. Over the history of college football there are examples of freshmen being Day 1 starters. Dan O. didn't Start his first game, but came in due to injury to the starter & never relinquished the position. At 'Nut Hill, a 4th string freshman named Doug Flutie showed so much during preseason practice that he leapfrogged the 3 qbs ahead of him. I'm not saying that Welliver should be named the starter NOW, i just think that he has had spring practice to begin to learn the system, with summer practice yet to come to further absorb it. Who's to say how fast he progresses?

 

[RC111]

Anyone but Fagnano, I didn't even know he was still on the roster. Boy did it kill me seeing him play exponentially worse than freshman Zion.

He only played 5 quarters. And he kept us within a touchdown of a far superior NC State team if you consider the poor officiating and short field that directly led to a touchdown after the Rosa penalty. I thought he looked far better than Roberson when Roberson came in. And he might have grown into the role just as well if not better than Roberson.

Fagnano may have come from FCS, but he had tons of experience with Maine against superior FBS opponents. Low on turnovers and even managed to put up some decent points on ranked teams. Having a doom and gloom and negative vibes because of second-guessing the coaching staff isn't the best way to start the season.

 

[UCan3]

Anyone but Fagnano, I didn't even know he was still on the roster. Boy did it kill me seeing him play exponentially worse than freshman Zion.

My only comment on Fagnano is that I think all of us, myself included, had no idea how bad were last year - as a team, when the season started.

So when we stunk it up out of the gate with fan expectations high - Fagnano took the brunt of it. Yes, must be the QB, right?

Well, when others came in to play QB, we got no better / no worse.

I am for anyone by TR. We are not good enough to have solely a pocket passer who is afraid to take a hit when he runs. Not a knock on him as he might fit in somewhere else but not at UConn IMO.

TR off the bench.


I say start Cole W. We likely only have him for a couple of years, let’s get him on the field.

 

[ZooCougar]

He only played 5 quarters. And he kept us within a touchdown of a far superior NC State team if you consider the poor officiating and short field that directly led to a touchdown after the Rosa penalty. I thought he looked far better than Roberson when Roberson came in. And he might have grown into the role just as well if not better than Roberson.

Fagnano may have come from FCS, but he had tons of experience with Maine against superior FBS opponents. Low on turnovers and even managed to put up some decent points on ranked teams. Having a doom and gloom and negative vibes because of second-guessing the coaching staff isn't the best way to start the season.

He looked really bad after that first drive.

 

[RC111]

He looked really bad after that first drive.

Ha. I agree. But I thought Roberson also looked terrible at the beginning of the season. My thought is that if he could get it done on the first drive, a lot of the poor results afterwards were on Charlton. Charlton always seemed to have the first possession well planned, and the offense stuttered afterwards. Or maybe the opposing D was playing conservative to start?

I'm not saying Fagnano is the answer, more that I'm not convinced we had someone better at the time. I'm all for giving the young guys a chance, but only if they're ready.

 

[ZooCougar]

Ha. I agree. But I thought Roberson also looked terrible at the beginning of the season. My thought is that if he could get it done on the first drive, a lot of the poor results afterwards were on Charlton. Charlton always seemed to have the first possession well planned, and the offense stuttered afterwards. Or maybe the opposing D was playing conservative to start?

I'm not saying Fagnano is the answer, more that I'm not convinced we had someone better at the time. I'm all for giving the young guys a chance, but only if they're ready.

Hopefully with some more tools to play with we can put together a makeshift offense like we did in 2022.

But those P4 games sure do look like Ls at this point.

 

[AllHusky]

Start the best of Roberson vs Fagnano, give the best of Welliver vs McDonald(or Wisconsin kid) a set number of reps/series in first few games, enough for them to give a glimpse of how ready they are. Maybe the best young'un shows it is close enough to their time to turn it over to them.

I do like that Fagnano stayed and fought for his job(so far).

 

[RC111]

Hopefully with some more tools to play with we can put together a makeshift offense like we did in 2022.

But those P4 games sure do look like Ls at this point.

I think our WR pickups were as good as we could have hoped for. Two P4 players who have shown some athleticism and a G5 guy with experience, decent stats on a bad team, and a couple years of eligibility. I hope they make a difference. I think lack of separation was a big issue last year, and I think all 3 of our new additions can achieve it. The P4 games look like Ls, but I'm very cautiously optimistic, and I'm trying to decide which game to drive back to CT to see.

 

[RC111]

Start the best of Roberson vs Fagnano, give the best of Welliver vs McDonald(or Wisconsin kid) a set number of reps/series in first few games, enough for them to give a glimpse of how ready they are. Maybe the best young'un shows it is close enough to their time to turn it over to them.

I do like that Fagnano stayed and fought for his job(so far).

All of this.

 

[UConnJim]

Here's a look at drops.

Well Known QBs 2023:
Caleb Williams 3.9%
Quinn Ewers. 4.1%
Kyle McCord. 6.5%
Tyler Van Dyke. 7.2%
JJ McCarthy. 7.3%
Drake Maye. 8.2%

UConn QBs 2023:
Ta'Quan Roberson 9.2%
Joe Fagnano. 18.2%

UConn QBs 2022:
Turner. 9.7%

UConn Receivers >20 targets 2023:
Porter. 4.3%
Buckman 8.0%
Joly 9.7%
Ross. 12.0%

Recent UConn Receivers Career:
Joly. 7.6%%
Turner 9.7%. (8.3% at Cincinnati)
Clercius: 14.0%

UConn Portal Adds 2023:
Sheffield. 3.0%
Gathings. 8.3%
Bell. 15.6%

I think UConn as a team needs to have 8% or less drops. As for Fagnano, the receivers weren't helping him during his starts with 18.2% drops and he played against one of the best defenses UConn faced last season, so I think we need to give him a break on last year's limited performance.

 

[UCONNRPh]

Why not start Cole? NC State did the Freshman route with Philip Rivers. It seemed to work.

 

[huskidork]

Never was crazy about Fagnano, was actually really disappointed that neither Zion or Roberson who had seen considerably better competition on and off the field were the starters

That being said I felt it was mostly a scheme and wr issue last year, lack of TE involvement and drops were exhausting

 

[Huskiefan78]

He only played 5 quarters. And he kept us within a touchdown of a far superior NC State team if you consider the poor officiating and short field that directly led to a touchdown after the Rosa penalty. I thought he looked far better than Roberson when Roberson came in. And he might have grown into the role just as well if not better than Roberson.

Fagnano may have come from FCS, but he had tons of experience with Maine against superior FBS opponents. Low on turnovers and even managed to put up some decent points on ranked teams. Having a doom and gloom and negative vibes because of second-guessing the coaching staff isn't the best way to start the season.

I wouldn't say "he kept us within a TD". More like 'we were within a TD despite zero production from the QB spot'. I mean heck, we had less that 115 total passing yards.

Outside of the very first drive of that game, he was so uninspiring and missing throws constantly. I am not particularly for Roberson this year, he too was very uninspiring at times. But, I can't deny that we were able to see him improve and get more comfortable the second half of that year. Which to me gives more hope that the hypothetical of maybe Fagnano also would have improved over time. I think ideal world for me is give Roberson the keys Week 1, with the idea that McDonald or Welliver takes over if we start the season 2-3 or worse.

 

[History Geek]

Why not start Cole? NC State did the Freshman route with Philip Rivers. It seemed to work.

May the person who gives us the best chance to win Week 1 be the starter coming out of camp. We are not in a position to take Ls in the name of development.

 

[AllHusky]

May the person who gives us the best chance to win Week 1 be the starter coming out of camp. We are not in a position to take Ls in the name of development.

And, we have to find a way to develop our anointed rookie "in game". Kind of like a pitch count in baseball. "The next coming of Dan Orlovsky" will get x# of reps or x# of series in each game. Requires the OC to have discipline and creativity to figure that out.

 

[RC111]

I wouldn't say "he kept us within a TD". More like 'we were within a TD despite zero production from the QB spot'. I mean heck, we had less that 115 total passing yards.

Outside of the very first drive of that game, he was so uninspiring and missing throws constantly. I am not particularly for Roberson this year, he too was very uninspiring at times. But, I can't deny that we were able to see him improve and get more comfortable the second half of that year. Which to me gives more hope that the hypothetical of maybe Fagnano also would have improved over time. I think ideal world for me is give Roberson the keys Week 1, with the idea that McDonald or Welliver takes over if we start the season 2-3 or worse.

I'm not really opposed to this either, honestly. But jeez was Roberson mediocre at best. If Fagnano looks better during practice, I have to believe he can't really be worse for a couple games? I'd almost say that if we get pummeled at Maryland we let one of McDonald or Welliver give it a go sooner than later. No difference than Zion stepping in and handling himself well

 

[Skies2018]

I'm not really opposed to this either, honestly. But jeez was Roberson mediocre at best. If Fagnano looks better during practice, I have to believe he can't really be worse for a couple games? I'd almost say that if we get pummeled at Maryland we let one of McDonald or Welliver give it a go sooner than later. No difference than Zion stepping in and handling himself well

Merrimack is game two. Ideally that should be a cake walk. Maybe give the freshman a shot there.

 

[RC111]

Merrimack is game two. Ideally that should be a cake walk. Maybe give the freshman a shot there.

I forgot the schedule after game 1, but that would be a perfect time for some reps at the very least

 

[UCONNRPh]

May the person who gives us the best chance to win Week 1 be the starter coming out of camp. We are not in a position to take Ls in the name of development.

True. That is correct. I do believe if he is given an equal opportunity and if he is darn close, then go with him.. We need a thrower.

 

[ktuck911]

If we do what Michigan did to us is probably the only way the true frosh gets a snap or 2...

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Could one of the QBs be given a different role on the team?

 

[Jimdish255]

I like McDonald.
Based on nothing but old film and a coach's comment recently. It really is a guessing game at this point and no one should be considered probable starter. Follow Summer progress and give them all competitive snaps in scrimmages in the fall. Nobody has proven anything at this point.