That was a very promising spring game

[Skiblets]

good qb play. Defense looked solid. Thought the PI call was wrong. Back judge was bored. Very good crowd. Fewer pre snap penalties until late in the fourth. Sheriffs looks solid and will compensate for remaining holes in o line. I almost gave up in the off season. But they looked a lot better. Think tight end will be a strength. Cautiously optimistic. One beef. Still can't get the PA guy the music guy and the band psynched up. Should be that difficult. Loved the band singing he alma mater post game.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I think the only thing we learned was about the QB position. I thought Shirreffs was ok (not great), Boyle is still unplayable, and Davis needs to RS.

Surprised by the good turnout.

OL play......didn't get a good feel for that. They didn't look like they regressed, but I think too much is made out of the spring game anyway.

Offense still has a lot of work to do. Defense has a chance to be good.

 

[Skiblets]

Agreed on all points. But at least they looked competent. Two years away imho

I think the only thing we learned was about the QB position. I thought Shirreffs was ok (not great), Boyle is still unplayable, and Davis needs to RS.

Surprised by the good turnout.

OL play.didn't get a good feel for that. They didn't look like they regressed, but I think too much is made out of the spring game anyway.

Offense still has a lot of work to do. Defense has a chance to be good.

rred

 

[Dooley]

Very good turnout. Any early estimates posted anywhere? I'm fairly sure that there were more fans there today than at the SMU finale.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Very good turnout. Any early estimates posted anywhere? I'm fairly sure that there were more fans there today than at the SMU finale.

I thought significantly more today.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Agreed on all points. But at least they looked competent. Two years away imho


rred

I hope so. I want to see live game action before I can come to that conclusion.

I'll say it again, I hope I am dead wrong about Diaco and he serves me a cold dish of humble pie. I'd eat it happily.

 

[whaler11]

Very good turnout. Any early estimates posted anywhere? I'm fairly sure that there were more fans there today than at the SMU finale.

Pravda says 3,500. Which seems pretty low ball to me.

The line for the women's basketball autographs looked insane.

 

[Dooley]

Pravda says 3,500. Which seems pretty low ball to me.

The line for the women's basketball autographs looked insane.

3500 seems low to me too. I guesstimated 5-6K with my brother earlier this afternoon. We both think there were more there today than in the 2nd half of SMU.

 

[Skiblets]

3500 is low. Whatever. 6 and 6 seems reasonable this year

 

[Carl Spackler]

What happened to Ron Johnson? I couldn't tell if it was just dehydration/calf cramps or if he pulled something. Didn't look good.

 

[Skiblets]

Talked to him after the game. Rolled an ankle. He's fine

 

[Carl Spackler]

good qb play. Defense looked solid. Thought the PI call was wrong. Back judge was bored. Very good crowd. Fewer pre snap penalties until late in the fourth. Sheriffs looks solid and will compensate for remaining holes in o line. I almost gave up in the off season. But they looked a lot better. Think tight end will be a strength. Cautiously optimistic. One beef. Still can't get the PA guy the music guy and the band psynched up. Should be that difficult. Loved the band singing he alma mater post game.

I was sitting in the section right next to the band, at probably the exact moment you describe with the PA guy. It was really bad. Other than that single moment though, today was a really fun day at the stadium. I can't say that has happened much recently and for that I'm thankful and happy.

But.......they were playing against each other, and they weren't going full contact, and they have a lot to prove. Coach Talley will have that Villanova team ready to play. I don't want another Townson, and then we get Army and Navy back to back at home. Full speed out of the gate. It was promising today, but I'm not sure if I'm happier that the stands were crowded and it was a fun day, or if it was the play on the field. Fumbles. Penalities. Interceptions.........I'm leaning toward the crowd and the sun.

How's that pee in your cornflakes? LOL. It was a good day at the stadium.

 

[sportsart]

Talked to him after the game. Rolled an ankle. He's fine

So now we know your source

 

[Carl Spackler]

Talked to him after the game. Rolled an ankle. He's fine

I was moving around today, but was right near the band when it happened. Didn't look good with my view down the sideline. Looked almost like a groin pull the way he pulled up and went to the sidelines without taking contact. On the field after the game, I got a kick out of some the younger players pointing over to Andreas and saying - that guy is HUGE. LOL.

Just a good feeling all around today and that's great. Complete opposite from my last day at the stadium. (41-0) Too many mistakes on the field though, still.

 

[BugsyCT]

Thought the turnout was better than 3500. Nice day & all. Ah well.

Shirreffs was OK. Showed good scrambling ability at least. He looked like the best of the rotation.

Competent is a good word for the overall performance. Still a lot of work to do though.

 

[tiger8mush]

3-4k was my guess on attendance. Shady side was almost empty except for the blue seats in lower bowl.

I thought Shirreffs looked good. Quick release, decent (not great) accuracy, decent arm strength, was able to buy time by evading the rush, decent throwing on the run, and found guys open in the middle of the field. He put beautiful touch on a pass to a TE on a short seam route, while the rest of his throws he threw with good zip. I saw at least 3 drops by TEs and another by Ron Johnson. Boyle looked slightly more accurate/comfortable than last year (thats not saying much, I know), he's horrible throwing on the run, and still doesn't like to throw over the middle unless its a check-down to the HB. Was neat to see Tyler Davis get the 4th qtr (and some of the 3rd) for the white team. I thought he looked like a raw version of Shirreffs with some powerful throws. That INT he threw was pretty ugly as he didn't step into it and follow thru - I'm sure the wind played a role too. Hoping either him or Boyle can redshirt which would mean a full season of Shirreffs at QB.

But the final was 13-3. Understandable that the backup offense struggled vs the starting defense, but I was hoping our starting offense would do a little better vs the backup defense.

As for the the event itself, A+. The parking attendants were very accommodating for us tailgaters, it was about as close to a real game as you can get, the band brought energy, and the players interacting w/the fans after the game was great. It is the first football tailgate & game my 6 & 8 year olds have been to, and they had a blast. Will definitely do it again next year!

 

[uconnfan68]

good qb play. Defense looked solid. Thought the PI call was wrong. Back judge was bored. Very good crowd. Fewer pre snap penalties until late in the fourth. Sheriffs looks solid and will compensate for remaining holes in o line. I almost gave up in the off season. But they looked a lot better. Think tight end will be a strength. Cautiously optimistic. One beef. Still can't get the PA guy the music guy and the band psynched up. Should be that difficult. Loved the band singing he alma mater post game.

Thanks for the reports. Was going to watch until it said "listen" only. :-(

 

[uconnbill]

Maybe I saw it differently, but I thought Boyle played well and was way better than last season. He has the best arm out of the the three quarterbacks and has a very good touch.
Sheriffs can make the throws between the hash marks, but has a lot of trouble getting the ball on the outside and bounce a couple of passes today. Yes he can move in the pocket, but not sold on him as the starter come September.
Tyler looked like a freshman today, but did show a good arm and mobility on one play avoiding the pass rush and completing a pass for a first down. He needs to redshirt this year and get stronger and learn the college game. He has talent, just is raw.

 

[whaler11]

The only thing that was different for Boyle was that the passes he threw into coverage were just harmlessly deflected instead of intercepted.

Down the right side in the first half - pretty ball but Summers made that play in his sleep. The intererence pass was an easy interception if Williams turned around. Third and goal the ball he threw into the corner had zero chance of being completed but could have been intercepted.

 

[rich1122]

First I thought that we were in the 5K range for people. If you took everybody from the Press Box side and put them on the other side the place was definitely 1/8th full - that's 5K.

Great afternoon. Finally got a little tan.

One huge step was that we actually were able to have a game with 2 QB's, Full Offense and Defense. I mean that in itself showed how far we came since last year.

There was not much to show given the rules. My only take is that Sheriifs is a Tyler Lorenzen clone. Got wheels, can throw on the run, can scramble to get receivers open for big plays. It appears that use of TE's will dominate the pass game. I could not get over the size of Bloom, McQuillan and Meyers. They look like Linemen. No deep balls thrown so it was hard to see anything there, although Lucas looks the Big wide receiver part, however he made a drop on an over the shoulder catch - great effort, thought it would have been the play of the game if he had caught it. But .... Geremy Davis ain't walking through the door any time soon. Walsh can play LB that's great.

All in all the game was more organized, everybody played faster and appeared to be in much better shape than last year. And yes we took pretty good care of the ball. No injuries.

 

[BoatShow]

Good, not great weather. Loses points for the wind and how the temp would go drop about ten degrees if a cloud passed in front of the sun but considering what we were dealing with vs. SMU, Cincy and UCF at the end of last year it is very hard to complain about 50 and sunny.

D played well. Nice to see Stewart getting pressure on the QBs.

Little disappointed by the run game. Optimistically I'd like to chalk that up to our DLine which will definitely be a strength next year.

Guys like Bradley, and to a greater extent Thomas played well as the third-fourth option out wide as the year progressed with defenses keying in on Davis and Foxx. It'll be an adjustment for them and likes of Lucas and Lemelle as everyone gets bumped on the target list. It won't be what it was last year but we still have a talented receiver corps.

Are we gonna run two tight end sets and send them downfield? That would be fantastic. The long pass to Tommy Meyers was great. McQuillan and Bloom are also decent pass catchers and big targets. Lots of options at tight end and they all have their strengths.

As for the QBs, Shirreffs played quite well. Loved his ability to scramble with a purpose and throw on the run. He looked like a rich man's Whitmer which with an improved OLine is way ahead of what he had. Like I stated in another thread I expected him to be way bigger than he is though. Boyle was Boyle. Didn't see enough to form an opinion on Davis but man he is a BIG dude. Give him a year in the weight room to turn what his now just big kid mass into man muscle and he could be a Taysom Hill-like scrambler. Is he still at BYU? Do we have to play that dude again?Ugh

I think the 3500 estimate is a little low. Probably afraid of being accused of inflating numbers. Everyone for the most part was in the bottom level of the sunny side and it was full minus the top few rows of the center section of chairbacks. A couple hundred sprinkled elsewhere. Probably closer to 4500-5k to me.

 

[coachcap]

Had a fun day. Wish the o-line was mere adept at opening holes for the runners. Getting the plays in from the sidelines was an issue. The qbs were staring at the hand signals consistently until there were only about 15 seconds left on the play clock. There were plays that gave a glimmer of hope for the future, which is all that I could ask for out of a spring game.

 

[Tdaley]

I would have like to see our first offensive line and running game dominate more as well as our first team defense. However, it is a spring game and the coaches do not want to show too much nor do they allow the defense to be too aggressive. We played a lot of vanilla type defense out there. I thought the most impressive thought that I came away with was how large and athletic looking our quarterbacks looked. Its a far cry from a few years ago when we had under 6 foot quarterbacks who did not look very athletic. Tyler Davis could be the real deal!!!! RED SHIRT THAT KID!!!!!!!

 

[UConnFranklin]

Looks like there is still a lot of work to do before the season starts but I was very optimistic. The are significantly further ahead than last year.

Looks like we will have at least one functional QB. Good pass protection be OL but disappointed more holes for the running game didn't open up.

Corners were playing up on the WR. That could be a function of them knowing the receivers and if they could beat the corner down the field. Will this translate to the games when they don't know the receivers that well? Last year they tended to play off them, opening up the short game.

Good crowd---I estimated 5,000 to 6,000.

 

[UConn2006]

Great day for the Blue/White game. Shireffs and Boyle both looked good for running a new offense. But the Blue team (1st team offense & 1st team defense) should have won by at least 3 TDs or more. The difference is still the 1st team Oline. They pass protected better but they could not run the football at all. Blue team had to pass most of 2nd half on because they could not run. On the flip side, the White team (2nd team offense) ran the ball better especially considering they were going against the 1st team defense. Good job to Rutherford, Rugg, Oak, Vechery, and Hashemi. I think a level of complacency has been established on 1st Oline. Four of the 5 lineman started or played most of last year and same results. Time to make some major changes. Cannot blame Oline Coach anymore!