Syracuse Post Game Thread

[ShakyTheMohel]

It’s amazing how impactful a good quarterback can be. I am curious how good Brown and Cuse look next year without McCord.

UConn keeps striking out on QB recruiting. We are due for a success. If you UConn can somehow get a McCord level QB, I am confident Mora will find a way to beat the P4 teams on our schedule. Turner wasn‘t it, Roberson wasn’t it…and so far Evers isn’t it. Maybe Welliver will be that guy…or the portal has a hidden McCord in there.

 

[UConn2SF]

Yea I figured he wasn’t part of the staff but he was down there in the first half and at one point he was in moras ear and it looked like he was waving him off after saying something to him. Odd either way.

Definitely not the first game I've spotted him on the UConn sideline interacting with Mora.

 

[freescooter]

In both of those games, we came out of the off week and and lined up against a better team than we had been playing before the off week.

Well yes, that’s true, But I’m actually not talking about just this year. Or just this team. It seems to be a problem for lots of teams I follow.. after a bye it seems to take a quarter for the team to shake the cobwebs off. Maybe it only seems that way but I’ve seen many football games over many years and I’d rather face a team coming off a bye than be the team who had the bye.

 

[freescooter]

Except when he didn’t…. Like when he took a year off

You’re complaining about our National Championship year?.

 

[gioff2323]

Maryland and Purdue are weakest teams in Big10. We lost to Maryland 56-0. If we don’t beat a P4 team or ranked opponent next year we will have to admit stagnation

I don’t think the 22 squad could hang with this team. We have to admit we were lucky to get 6 wins that year, playing backup qbs and a really bad BC squad. The 22 squad is not sitting at 7-4.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I can't figure out if Syracuse was letting us move the ball or if we were actually moving the ball. We were definitely picking on one of their corners. So we found something and the Syracuse defense looked kinda gassed. If we recovered that onside kick....

When I think about Joe's best drives at UConn, I think they were all in the hurry up or scripted. Like the first drive against NC State. We should run a high tempo offense more often than not.

He should definitely start against UMass. Don't take the bowl eligibility for granted. The math doesn't look so good that you can eliminate the possibility that we will get left out. Evers hasn't been able to run well since maybe ever. We have three great running backs who can run better. Joe should be able to throw better against UMass's secondary.

Overall I can't see how anyone rational could say that we haven't improved. We were within a TD of three ACC teams with winning records. These games would have been blowouts in 2022.

In the final few minutes of each half Cuse played a prevent that may have been the softest prevent played at a level above high school in decades.

Yes, our offense deserves credit for both TD drives but there was a reason our passing game appeared so much better on those two drives in comparison to the rest of the game

 

[businesslawyer]

I love how he's using a six win season, Mora's first here, as the baseline for comparison while ognoring the fact that in the previous four seasons combined (spread over five years) we won a total of four games, Rhode Island on a stop inside the red zone when they were driving to tie the game, Wagner by a field goal, UMass when they were most likely the only FBS school worse than us and Yale on a late drive stop at our 25 (IIRC fourth down was a near completion in the end zone) with us up by six.

Yes, an argument (not necessarily a strong one) can be made that there should be more improvement from 2022 to now, but we would be intentionally lying to ourselves if we ignore the immense improvement from where we were from 2018-2021 to 2022.

I remain of the belief that the '22 team accomplished more than this year's team, but that if they played each other one game I'd put my money on this year's team. But that's all irrelevant to whether our program is heading in the right direction. No football program constantly improves in a clear straight line.

 

[DoctorWho85]

Maryland and Purdue are weakest teams in Big10. We lost to Maryland 56-0. If we don’t beat a P4 team or ranked opponent next year we will have to admit stagnation

And how do your propose we get my P4 schools on the schedule if we continue to improve? OOC games are all cupcakes for any school for P4 schools except for maybe one or two on occasion. If we continue to improve then these schools are not going to watch to schedule because it doesn't bring money like ND or a guarantee win like cupcakes do. Florida State hasn't beaten a P4 school this year and no one is saying they stagnated.

 

[psilotic]

Our matador tackling and Joey “Shoestrings.” The score was actually closer than the game play.

Still trying to figure how they outgained us by 300 yards, w/no turnovers by either side, and didn't cover. still not a cover even w/missed chip shot FG

 

[UConnDan97]

I remain of the belief that the '22 team accomplished more than this year's team, but that if they played each other one game I'd put my money on this year's team. But that's all irrelevant to whether our program is heading in the right direction. No football program constantly improves in a clear straight line.

And yet I can safely say that Mora has accomplished more than the last 3 coaches under worse circumstances (no conference, greater importance of transfer portal, etc.), so it's easy for me to say we're headed in the right direction.

Edsall 2.0 - came back while we were still in a conference, and had a complete understanding of the institution and surrounding infrastructure. Hatred of the portal and modern schemes led to a disastrous return. Record 6-32

Diaco - despite coming here hot off of a Broyles award at Notre Dame, took Pasqualoni's recruits and ruined them, and then recruited a bunch of FCS level guys. At least he won breakfast and talked about fish oil. Record 11-26

Pasqualoni - took a team that just played in the Fiesta Bowl and found a way to never have a winning record after that. Recruited some good talent, but he didn't know an offensive scheme to save his life, nor did his buddy GDL. Record 10-18

I'm not going to add in the games from Spanos or Weist. Suffice it to say that we haven't experienced success in over a decade. Mora has us succeeding, after having taken over a much worse situation than all his predecessors. We're headed in the right direction...

 

[psilotic]

- Cuse spent how many millions on renovations and still has trough potties and the circular sinks with foot pedals? No more complaints about the Rent for a while please lmao

first trip to dome and it exceeded low expectations I had. Could tell it had gone through some serious sprucing up, which the Rent desperately needs. TBH no prob with the troughs, but agree sinks a minus . Tight concourses of 70s-80s era arenas also a negative. But scoreboards (including nice one hanging over the 50)/signage/lighting all fine. Biggest edge to Dome is efficiency of concession stands -- the grab and go as opposed to having a person go back to the dog/burger/pizza/etc one order at a time works much better.

 

[UConnJim]

It’s amazing how impactful a good quarterback can be. I am curious how good Brown and Cuse look next year without McCord.

UConn keeps striking out on QB recruiting. We are due for a success. If you UConn can somehow get a McCord level QB, I am confident Mora will find a way to beat the P4 teams on our schedule. Turner wasn‘t it, Roberson wasn’t it…and so far Evers isn’t it. Maybe Welliver will be that guy…or the portal has a hidden McCord in there.

I think you have to bring in 2 QBs per year and see how they perform. UConn is bringing in a HS QB and I would expect a portal QB as well. I thought UConn's QB recruiting under PP made sense as he brought in 2 per year although ultimately it did not work out. Year 1 was Chandler Whitmer and Casey Cochran, and year 2 was Tim Boyle and Richard Lagow.

I think the transfer portal is the big opportunity for UConn. I don't think UConn will have much success recruiting top 30 HS QBs, but they are available in the portal.

 

[SubbaBub]

Then how come we have not had a good qb in ages?

Because they first wouldn't come to an expansion program, then a run heavy program, then and terrible, unstable program that was circling the drain of conference realignment.

Mora has returned stability, and the independent status has shown to be viable. The addition of the portal and NIL has expanded the accessible pool of talent beyond longshot freshman, juco transfers and cast-offs.

A sustainable winning program can be achieved.

 

[Patman]

Because they first wouldn't come to an expansion program, then a run heavy program, then and terrible, unstable program that was circling the drain of conference realignment.

Mora has returned stability, and the independent status has shown to be viable. The addition of the portal and NIL has expanded the accessible pool of talent beyond longshot freshman, juco transfers and cast-offs.

A sustainable winning program can be achieved.

bingo, QBs are going to start seeing there's a role for them. A firm road to a Px conference would also boost that. People want to be part of success and be part of a story. That's when you get a Dan O. The real question/issue is why we never got another top line QB during Edsall I.

 

[UCan3]

That is not outclassed. That is a statistic and we were lost by 7 and they scored 31 pts, which isn't a crazy amount. Outclassed was Maryland game. This was one where we gave up passing yards but not much on the ground.

Outclassed is such an inappropriate term that should not be in this discussion.

Outclassed means that you played to the best of your ability and got smoked by a far superior team.

It’s not the same as playing bad like we did against Maryland (who’s gone on to be rather average) or losing to Syracuse by 7 points with a chance to have won/tied this game at the end.

We’ve belonged on the field for every game this season.

We‘ve lot to 3 ACC Teams by a total of 17 points.

We have not marque wins on our resume so I get the frustration, however.

But can we move on as this comment has taken us off rails of a good post game recap?

 

[KryHavok]

For as much as Fagnano was maligned yesterday, he payed good enough to keep us in the game. On the other side, McCord was on fire averaging 10 yards per throw, basically a first down every pass. If our secondary limits that yardage or gets turnovers, we may be talking about how we won. I don't put the loss only on Fagnano, he didn't turn the ball over and made plays. He need to make just a few more, which may have been possible if the DBs better defended against the pass. We had our chances and needed to alter the momentum that McCord dictated.

 

[huskysupporter]

bingo, QBs are going to start seeing there's a role for them. A firm road to a Px conference would also boost that. People want to be part of success and be part of a story. That's when you get a Dan O. The real question/issue is why we never got another top line QB during Edsall I.

That’s not what will get a qb to UCONN. More NIL money than other programs are offering will get a qb. Let’s not kid ourselves here.

 

[Bubba1957]

McCord is really good. His NFL stock might take a hit with all his interceptions though. We could have 3, 1 for sure. It’s something he’ll need to work on.

 

[UCan3]

McCord is really good. His NFL stock might take a hit with all his interceptions though. We could have 3, 1 for sure. It’s something he’ll need to work on.

He sure looked like he could play on Sundays. I was most impressed when we broke through the line and he had a mili second to throw the ball and he still delivered it downfield. He was next level as were his receivers. Glad we don’t face him again in his college career!