Taking a look at why the struggling UConn defense is so reliant on first-year players (Fuller)

[huskymedic]

Good deep dive by Fuller:

Taking a look at why the struggling UConn defense is so reliant on first-year players

>>Nine different true freshmen and 11 freshman overall have started at least one game on defense for the Huskies. That number could increase with defensive end Pierce DeVaughn getting more time with the first team in practice with each passing week and linebacker Hunter Webb likely to get some snaps this weekend.

When UConn returns home to play host to Cincinnati, the Huskies could once again start all freshmen and sophomores on defense. As a point of reference, 4-0 Cincinnati’s top 10 tacklers includes five seniors and two juniors. UConn and Memphis are the only American Athletic Conference teams with more double-digit tacklers who are underclassmen while the only upperclassmen among UConn’s top 10 tacklers are a pair of junior-college transfers.<<

>>Perhaps no period of time was more damaging to the UConn football program than from Aug. 9, 2013 until Jan. 19, 2014. During that stretch, which included the firing of head coach Paul Pasqualoni, UConn did not add to its recruiting class. It wasn’t until Bob Diaco was hired in December of that year that the recruits considered coming to UConn again. Less than seven weeks later Anthony Watkins and Steve Hashemi became the first players to commit after Diaco’s hiring. Ryan Crozier and James Atkins were also part of that recruiting class and they are the only players to be with the program for the last five seasons.<<

A lot more in the full article... worth a read.

 

[SubbaBub]

Why would I want to hurt myself? I'm trying to see the that the end of the tunnel is closer than the beginning.

 

[Exit 4]

Did everyone see this bit of news buried at the bottom??!!

Before leaving Edsall did announce that freshman running back Khyon Gillespie underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL while receiver and kickoff returner Keion Dixon will also miss the Cincinnati game.

 

[History Geek]

Spells it out in black and white. Fuller does a great job.

 

[Exit 4]

Sure would be nice to have Tahj Herring-Wilson and Keion Dixon around for Saturday's game. And with Gillespie now out for the year, guess the WO Banton inches closer to seeing snaps too. Of course Black and Scott are still in front of him...

Did the program pick up anyone from tryouts?

 

[huskymedic]

Did everyone see this bit of news buried at the bottom??!!

Before leaving Edsall did announce that freshman running back Khyon Gillespie underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL while receiver and kickoff returner Keion Dixon will also miss the Cincinnati game.

It’s in GameWeek thread - did it in practice last week. He didn’t travel to Syracuse this past weekend.

 

[Exit 4]

It’s in GameWeek thread - did it in practice last week. He didn’t travel to Syracuse this past weekend.

Oh okay. I actually knew about it...but wasn't sure if it had hit the media and the board just yet.

 

[Scrutineer]

Did everyone see this bit of news buried at the bottom??!!

Before leaving Edsall did announce that freshman running back Khyon Gillespie underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL while receiver and kickoff returner Keion Dixon will also miss the Cincinnati game.

Saw that. Hope he's OK and will be able to come back and have a great career.

 

[History Geek]

As posted by Huskymedic in the Chief’s “latest attempt to get Crocker fired” thread, it was Fuller who asked the question led to Edsall shutting down the press conference. In that thread you can access the link to Fuller’s blog post explaining his reasoning behind the question.

IMO, I agree with others who posted who think it was a fair question and fair response from Edsall. I'm OK with him protecting his people at this point and time. Ask me again at the end of the season.

 

[UConnNick]

I don't know how good or bad anybody's recruits have been over the past several seasons because it seems like we never get to see a crop of annual recruits progress all the way through to becoming true or redshirt seniors.

When you hire a new coach every three years, they each tend to recruit over or refuse to play the prior regime's recruits. This eventually results in a mass exodus of prior recruits, leaving the program totally bereft of any experience. I also have it on good authority from a former player that it doesn't help with team morale. You're either passed over and transfer, or you play out the remainder of your career stapled to the bench, while observing that less talented players are seeing the field.

When you keep changing coaches every three years this process never ends. It has to be a large part of the reason the defense is horrifically bad.

 

[CarI Spackler]

Good deep dive by Fuller:

Taking a look at why the struggling UConn defense is so reliant on first-year players

>>Nine different true freshmen and 11 freshman overall have started at least one game on defense for the Huskies. That number could increase with defensive end Pierce DeVaughn getting more time with the first team in practice with each passing week and linebacker Hunter Webb likely to get some snaps this weekend.

When UConn returns home to play host to Cincinnati, the Huskies could once again start all freshmen and sophomores on defense. As a point of reference, 4-0 Cincinnati’s top 10 tacklers includes five seniors and two juniors. UConn and Memphis are the only American Athletic Conference teams with more double-digit tacklers who are underclassmen while the only upperclassmen among UConn’s top 10 tacklers are a pair of junior-college transfers.<<

>>Perhaps no period of time was more damaging to the UConn football program than from Aug. 9, 2013 until Jan. 19, 2014. During that stretch, which included the firing of head coach Paul Pasqualoni, UConn did not add to its recruiting class. It wasn’t until Bob Diaco was hired in December of that year that the recruits considered coming to UConn again. Less than seven weeks later Anthony Watkins and Steve Hashemi became the first players to commit after Diaco’s hiring. Ryan Crozier and James Atkins were also part of that recruiting class and they are the only players to be with the program for the last five seasons.<<

A lot more in the full article... worth a read.

This is why you don't fire a head coach in September. But when it comes to big time national division 1 NCAA athletics, nobody has ever accused the UConn BOT, President and Pronovost, and most Athletic Directors of having a good understanding of what fuels and runs a Division 1 athletic department, and drives the train. Football. Recruiting. Scholarships.

 

[JustSaying]

I don't know how good or bad anybody's recruits have been over the past several seasons because it seems like we never get to see a crop of annual recruits progress all the way through to becoming true or redshirt seniors.

When you hire a new coach every three years, they each tend to recruit over or refuse to play the prior regime's recruits. This eventually results in a mass exodus of prior recruits, leaving the program totally bereft of any experience. I also have it on good authority from a former player that it doesn't help with team morale. You're either passed over and transfer, or you play out the remainder of your career stapled to the bench, while observing that less talented players are seeing the field.

When you keep changing coaches every three years this process never ends. It has to be a large part of the reason the defense is horrifically bad.

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

 

[JMick]

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

Seniority has never mattered. The best players play. If the upperclassmen can't beat out true freshman then that's on them. Don't we also have like 7 seniors?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

I don't understand which 4 and 5 year players should be playing more.

 

[UConnNick]

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

No, it doesn't. Each successive three-year coaching staff has consistently thrown the prior regime's recruits under the bus. It's an ego driven exercise. They'd rather play their own, less experienced recruits to prove they're smarter than the last guy. The problem with this mode of operation is the team never gets better because you keep running off the prior recruits until you end up with nothing but underclassmen, like we have now. We don't recruit remotely well enough to throw these freshmen to the wolves. If Edsall survives the present three-year cycle then maybe things will change for the better.

 

[BlueMAB]

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

"Having talent" and "paying dues" isn't enough. They need to be more talented than 1) the other players at their positions, and 2) the players on the other side of the field. This isn't a union. If they can't beat out underclassmen that's on them.

 

[Pudge]

No, it doesn't. Each successive three-year coaching staff has consistently thrown the prior regime's recruits under the bus. It's an ego driven exercise. They'd rather play their own, less experienced recruits to prove they're smarter than the last guy. The problem with this mode of operation is the team never gets better because you keep running off the prior recruits until you end up with nothing but underclassmen, like we have now. We don't recruit remotely well enough to throw these freshmen to the wolves. If Edsall survives the present three-year cycle then maybe things will change for the better.

I have a tough time believing this.

Look at the POINT Fuller makes on the period firing PP and bringing on Diaco. Then look class by class at those last names of PP and the classes that aren't here from Diaco. Anything earth shattering>? No. The answer is that - whatever the ranking or typology - Diaco's kids did not develop. Few would be helpful now. If you see a LB after Joseph and Matt Walsh, let me know. It is shocking.

I have found Edsall to be a shrewd manager of a roster. He fills out 50 players that are useful, takes chances on a bunch (because we are UConn of the woods) and he uses some scholarships/walk-ons very cleverly. Far more impressed player to player than the other 2.

I do not think there are many kids that fit the category of "passed over" by the new regime. I do like the suggestion that Bryce McAllister is the one. But, you seem to exclude that Fortt, Coyle and O Robinson have the capacity to surpass Bryce in the very near term. No line guy really is missing. Hashemi? Just an amazing point of a Program.

 

[UConnJim]

No, it doesn't. Each successive three-year coaching staff has consistently thrown the prior regime's recruits under the bus. It's an ego driven exercise. They'd rather play their own, less experienced recruits to prove they're smarter than the last guy. The problem with this mode of operation is the team never gets better because you keep running off the prior recruits until you end up with nothing but underclassmen, like we have now. We don't recruit remotely well enough to throw these freshmen to the wolves. If Edsall survives the present three-year cycle then maybe things will change for the better.

Except, the offense is full of Diaco recruits as the only real Edsall recruits that are starting are Mensah and Pindell. It seems like the offense runs OK, so it looks like the best players are playing, not Edsall's recruits. You had a foundation on offense that you could build on and wait for the young players to develop.

Defense is a different story. UConn lost their best defensive players to graduation last year: Fatukasi, Joseph, Stapleton, Summers, ... and many of the backups last year were young guys. Sure, there were a couple of players that could have stayed around for an extra year and maybe added some depth, but none of them were going to make or break the defense. There is no foundation on defense which is why the young players have to play. UConn is a development program, so the true freshmen that UConn recruits should almost never be ready to play when they step on campus.

 

[BlueMAB]

No, it doesn't. Each successive three-year coaching staff has consistently thrown the prior regime's recruits under the bus. It's an ego driven exercise. They'd rather play their own, less experienced recruits to prove they're smarter than the last guy. The problem with this mode of operation is the team never gets better because you keep running off the prior recruits until you end up with nothing but underclassmen, like we have now. We don't recruit remotely well enough to throw these freshmen to the wolves. If Edsall survives the present three-year cycle then maybe things will change for the better.

Back to back 2 win seasons does wonders for a coach's ego. I'm sure that's why he's playing freshman all over the defense, but not the offense. Makes sense.

 

[Tdaley]

Excellent point! This season with so much focus placed on the freshmen, I've wondered about the upperclassmen. These guys continue to work hard and contribute and they've surely paid their dues. They have talent (or they wouldn't be here!) and they also have more experience. Does seniority matter anymore?

 

[UConnNick]

I have a tough time believing this.

Look at the POINT Fuller makes on the period firing PP and bringing on Diaco. Then look class by class at those last names of PP and the classes that aren't here from Diaco. Anything earth shattering>? No. The answer is that - whatever the ranking or typology - Diaco's kids did not develop. Few would be helpful now. If you see a LB after Joseph and Matt Walsh, let me know. It is shocking.

I have found Edsall to be a shrewd manager of a roster. He fills out 50 players that are useful, takes chances on a bunch (because we are UConn of the woods) and he uses some scholarships/walk-ons very cleverly. Far more impressed player to player than the other 2.

I do not think there are many kids that fit the category of "passed over" by the new regime. I do like the suggestion that Bryce McAllister is the one. But, you seem to exclude that Fortt, Coyle and O Robinson have the capacity to surpass Bryce in the very near term. No line guy really is missing. Hashemi? Just an amazing point of a Program.

Not my take, but from a former player who played for two of the past three coaching regimes. I tend to believe what a player has to say about it over a bunch of internet posters. They're not stupid, they see what's going on.