The View From Section 241 — Syracuse

[businesslawyer]

Well, that was pretty disastrous. Especially when you add Utah State’s god awful outing, which takes away any right we had to feel good about ourselves based on a competitive loss. I’ll get through the game quickly and circle back to what I think it means.

We were totally outclassed last night. Nothing we could have done would have made that game competitive the way they executed. I was disappointed that we didn’t give them a bit of a game, but they were better. I think they are probably pretty good. That looked to me like it might be a ranked team when all is said and done. We held up fine with them both running the ball and defending the run. Whatever the numbers show. But the passing game and special teams — oh vey. We gave up about 12 yards a pass attempt and over 80% completion percentages. Just God awful. Are we improved at all? I don’t know. Nor do I know how much to blame the DBs without much of a pass rush, but man, that was just depressing to watch. And our passing offense was worse than our passing defense. As has already been pointed out, if he back out Aaron Turners great acceleration to turn what I thought wasn’t even going to be a first down into a long TD, we averaged about 3 yards a completion. Again, a stat that shouldn’t even be possible. As I said in another thread, I’m not willing to blame this on the coaches, ZT, the receivers, the injuries or the OL. It may be one. It may be all. We’re so incompetent I can’t tell. And the special teams — yuck. Lousy KR returns, lousy puniting and if I see Harrison return another punt this year I’m not watching any more. No need to say more than that.

So that game, with the kick in the gut from realizing Utah State sucks, obviously changes the overall view of how much progress we’ve made. We’re now at a start where I think I’m just going to close my eyes for a month and wait to see what happens when we get to FIU, UMass and Ball U. Win UMass and one other and we can talk about whether we are moving forward at all. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that Jim Mora, apparently, isn’t a miracle worker. My lukewarm reception of his hiring, which I got beat upon for, was because we were in need of a miracle worker and that isn’t what Benedict went for. We went for a solid football coach, who is a professional from Sunday to Saturday morning in a manner we hadn’t seen before. If we give him time, there is no doubt in my mind that he can help us put out the dumpster fire that our program has become. But my opinion remains unchanged, that I think improvement under him is more likely to be slow and incremental rather than turning our program on a dime, and I don’t know how much better he’s going to make us. Time will tell. It is possible we’ll be little better this year than last year, and he will still need to be given time to get his players to be upperclassmen. But optimism needs to be careful and balanced.

One last thought. I know if you buy season tickets you’re helping the program financially, and that you have every right to do with them what you want, but if I can’t go to a game against Syracuse or BC I promise you that I will not make them available to anyone where they are likely to be bought by a visiting fan. I’d rather eat the tickets if I can’t find a UConn fan to go. Please consider doing that. When you put rival fans in core seasons ticket section, you’re making the experience even more painful for our fans who are going to the game.

 

[giddyup]

. Please consider doing that. When you put rival fans in core seasons ticket section, you’re making the experience even more painful for our fans who are going to the game.

The number of Orange fans in regular seats was disgusting and made a miserable night even more intolerable. Pathetic. Give them to some local kids. For the rest, get your butts in seats by game time instead of tailgating into 1stQ. Just a sad fan showing all around.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I hear you on the last comment BL. Two rows in front of me, in seats that normally are almost always filled, there were half a dozen bright orange s occupying the seats. At one point I said to my buddy "I'm going to beat the p!ss out of a few people next home game". There was no excuse for that much orange in 241 (or anywhere else in the stadium).

 

[MrHockey9]

Amen to final comment…orange fans dancing And celebrating around me added a root canal experience to an already miserable outing. It was disgusting.

 

[ZooCougar]

Can’t take too much issue with what you are saying. The next three games will be bloodbaths, but didn’t we already know this?

I really don’t know what to say to people who expected more from this game. We are obviously not as good as we thought and that Syracuse team is actually Top 25 caliber.

I don’t think there is a such thing as a miracle worker who can replace an entire 85 person roster in one season. That’s effectively what we needed to attain a miracle. You just can’t lose that many starters and expect to compete against the best.

I think Mora has enough cache to come in lay a new foundation and make a solvent program again. This program was a needle pointing at zero trying to go the other direction. It’s going to take a few seasons to rebuild this team and we are in year zero.

 

[Go Dogs!!]

What to say? agree, agree and agree!! My frustration, if you can't get enough food and drink in you when the gates open 6 - 7 hours prior to kickoff, you have a problem!! It's always been a problem and most likely always will. Some fans just don't get it and that's being nice!! Break out the 60 minute prior to kick off horn!!

 

[UConnJim]

I'm not pointing at BL, but I really don't understand how people's expectations were so high for this year. UConn was terrible last year on both offense and defense and Mora was going to have to rebuild, although he is going faster than what would have happened in the past with the portal. I have been thinking 3 wins was the right expectation and 4 wins would be a major success which would match the total win total over the past 3 seasons!

Unfortunately, Syracuse looks to be better than people expected and it would not surprise me if they become a top 25 team. Thus, I think people are disappointed that the game wasn't closer last night as they didn't expect a better than expected Syracuse team. Fortunately, it looks like BC, Army, and Liberty aren't as good as expected so perhaps it will balance out and there will be more opportunities for wins. We all knew that the back half of the schedule was going to be a lot easier than the first half.

And, I think the team has improved. On offense last year, UConn averaged 15.3 points per game and was ranked 129 out of 130 FBS schools and 3rd down conversion % was 130 out of 130 at 23.7%. So far this year, UConn is ranked 107th in scoring offense at 20.7 points per game and 25th in 3rd down conversions at 52.2%. Sacks? UConn QBs were sacked 3.33 times per game last year and 1.33 times per game this year. In almost every offensive and defensive statistic, UConn has shown improvement EXCEPT in turnover margin. This year, UConn is averaging -1.67 turnover margin per game vs -0.67 last year. I would think the stats will worsen over the next few weeks, but I would expect improvement over the back half of the year and positive comparisons over last year.

Clearly, UConn is not where they want or need to be. I do think the offense would have been been better so far this year if Roberson remained healthy as I think the offense would have been more aggressive with a more experienced QB who had been at UConn for spring ball and with a healthy backup QB. I just don't think UConn can be aggressive on offense right now with a true freshman QB (who arrived in the summer) and what appears to be no fully healthy backup QBs and minus the top 3 WRs.

 

[TJT]

Be thankful for the opposing fans that buy tickets that others apparently do not want. UConn football needs the money.

 

[Punkbo]

It’s nice to see rational posts after some of the extremely negative comments last night. We’re all disappointed with the result, but it’s not fair to blame Mora at this point. It’s crazy to believe that anyone could put the pieces back together this quickly after the train wreck of the last few seasons. We’re clearly making progress, albeit slower than we’d all like. I hope we can trust the process and let Mora rebuild the program as I believe he will.

 

[LIUCHusky]

Be thankful for the opposing fans that buy tickets that others apparently do not want. UConn football needs the money.

UCONN has already gotten the money from those UCONN fans who sell tickets to opposing fans.

 

[kemba]

But it should come as no surprise to anyone that Jim Mora, apparently, isn’t a miracle worker. My lukewarm reception of his hiring, which I got beat upon for, was because we were in need of a miracle worker and that isn’t what Benedict went for. We went for a solid football coach, who is a professional from Sunday to Saturday morning in a manner we hadn’t seen before.

Don’t really understand this. Mora was a complete shock when we hired him and was somebody much more accomplished than anybody who was being rumored for the job. What would have going for a miracle worker looked like?

 

[businesslawyer]

Don’t really understand this. Mora was a complete shock when we hired him and was somebody much more accomplished than anybody who was being rumored for the job. What would have going for a miracle worker looked like?

I said at the time, I would have hired someone who had turned a crap football program around. Those coaches exist, although the one we could have hired are doing it at the lower end of FBS, and certainly don’t have on their resume coaching in the NFL and UCLA.

But that’s neither here nor there. Jim Mora is a good football coach and he is our football coach. I will give him time to succeed. But I’m not particularly excited because we’re better at press conferences and social media either.

 

[Dizzy21]

I said at the time, I would have hired someone who had turned a crap football program around. Those coaches exist, although the one we could have hired are doing it at the lower end of FBS, and certainly don’t have on their resume coaching in the NFL and UCLA.

But that’s neither here nor there. Jim Mora is a good football coach and he is our football coach. I will give him time to succeed. But I’m not particularly excited because we’re better at press conferences and social media either.

Jim Mora's whole sell is that he turned a crap UCLA team and a crap Falcons team around in one season. I can't think of any coach that has turned around a crap NFL team and a crap college team in one season each like he has.

 

[uconnric]

Well, that was pretty disastrous. Especially when you add Utah State’s god awful outing, which takes away any right we had to feel good about ourselves based on a competitive loss. I’ll get through the game quickly and circle back to what I think it means.

We were totally outclassed last night. Nothing we could have done would have made that game competitive the way they executed. I was disappointed that we didn’t give them a bit of a game, but they were better. I think they are probably pretty good. That looked to me like it might be a ranked team when all is said and done. We held up fine with them both running the ball and defending the run. Whatever the numbers show. But the passing game and special teams — oh vey. We gave up about 12 yards a pass attempt and over 80% completion percentages. Just God awful. Are we improved at all? I don’t know. Nor do I know how much to blame the DBs without much of a pass rush, but man, that was just depressing to watch. And our passing offense was worse than our passing defense. As has already been pointed out, if he back out Aaron Turners great acceleration to turn what I thought wasn’t even going to be a first down into a long TD, we averaged about 3 yards a completion. Again, a stat that shouldn’t even be possible. As I said in another thread, I’m not willing to blame this on the coaches, ZT, the receivers, the injuries or the OL. It may be one. It may be all. We’re so incompetent I can’t tell. And the special teams — yuck. Lousy KR returns, lousy puniting and if I see Harrison return another punt this year I’m not watching any more. No need to say more than that.

So that game, with the kick in the gut from realizing Utah State sucks, obviously changes the overall view of how much progress we’ve made. We’re now at a start where I think I’m just going to close my eyes for a month and wait to see what happens when we get to FIU, UMass and Ball U. Win UMass and one other and we can talk about whether we are moving forward at all. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that Jim Mora, apparently, isn’t a miracle worker. My lukewarm reception of his hiring, which I got beat upon for, was because we were in need of a miracle worker and that isn’t what Benedict went for. We went for a solid football coach, who is a professional from Sunday to Saturday morning in a manner we hadn’t seen before. If we give him time, there is no doubt in my mind that he can help us put out the dumpster fire that our program has become. But my opinion remains unchanged, that I think improvement under him is more likely to be slow and incremental rather than turning our program on a dime, and I don’t know how much better he’s going to make us. Time will tell. It is possible we’ll be little better this year than last year, and he will still need to be given time to get his players to be upperclassmen. But optimism needs to be careful and balanced.

One last thought. I know if you buy season tickets you’re helping the program financially, and that you have every right to do with them what you want, but if I can’t go to a game against Syracuse or BC I promise you that I will not make them available to anyone where they are likely to be bought by a visiting fan. I’d rather eat the tickets if I can’t find a UConn fan to go. Please consider doing that. When you put rival fans in core seasons ticket section, you’re making the experience even more painful for our fans who are going to the game.

Congratulations for stating the obvious. Weren’t going to beat Syracuse last night with a true freshman quarterback with limited options in the passing game going against a quarterback who might be playing on Sunday with an experienced compliment of players on offense. Yes injuries have hurt us. Phoma is still not 100% from his knee injury last season, we’ve lost Roberson and now most likely Brenton and our best options at receiver. Defensively we started poorly, gave Schrader way too much time. Defense settled down but were on the field way too long.

I was hoping for a more competitive game also, but Syracuse is better than most people thought, and we can’t keep turning the ball over and muffing punts. Syracuse can also recruit ACC level talent, we can’t. The proliferation of southern schools making the jump to FBS has made competition for recruits even tougher, especially for an independent in the northeast.

Next week may be even worse and NC State is no piece of cake either. The schedule eases up a bit after that. Not sure who your mystery miracle worker coach would have been but this team is a work in progress and that was going to be the case injuries or not. We’re a very frustrated fan base but I’ll reserve judgment on this team until later in the season.

 

[RSTuthill]

Well, I happen to like Mora, and I was one of the most critical initially. He is the very opposite of the curmudgeon that PP and RE2.0 were. He knows how to motivate, how to cheerlead, and based on his experience we know that he can bring down the hammer if needed. He's gotta know his stuff given his background. I think he will get two more wins this year and maybe three more. So given that there are certain lines that UConn will not cross, I am completely happy for the moment.

 

[uconndogs]

Measure Mora this season on whether he can keep the kids focused and motivated. That will be a huge challenge especially over the next three games.

Frankly, the expectations by some on this board were ludicrous. Progress for this season is showing up focused and motivated. With that, we might have enough talent to pick up a win of two in the second half of the season.

I‘ll judge Mora in November. He stepped into a heap of it and deserves some time.

 

[Woof 101]

One last thought. I know if you buy season tickets you’re helping the program financially, and that you have every right to do with them what you want, but if I can’t go to a game against Syracuse or BC I promise you that I will not make them available to anyone where they are likely to be bought by a visiting fan. I’d rather eat the tickets if I can’t find a UConn fan to go. Please consider doing that. When you put rival fans in core seasons ticket section, you’re making the experience even more painful for our fans who are going to the game.

This should be a thread or pinned. There were more Cuse fans in chair backs than the visitor section on the shade side. I've always given tickets available to those who will be attending and supporting UConn only.

Be thankful for the opposing fans that buy tickets that others apparently do not want. UConn football needs the money.

@TJT No attack but BL pass went right over your helmet and you never got a hand up. Yes we have to respect opponents that buy tickets available that want to attend a game via the box office. The tickets he is talking about are already pennies in the UConn pocket, season ticket holders that sell an extra ticket to scalpers.
Nothing more than an adversary getting in cheep. Let those who want to root against us at least pay the price and as you say UConn can use the money.

Personally I am not big against someone sitting out of their section as our attendance has been so low. Having said that I wish security would have been checking tickets last night and had the oranges spending half the game finding the seat they should have been in.

 

[CL82]

I really don’t know what to say to people who expected more from this game. We are obviously not as good as we thought and that Syracuse team is actually Top 25 caliber

I expected us to compete for a little while, but not be able to sustain it. I didn’t expect to win but I didn’t expect Syracuse to score on it for seven possessions either. I said in the run up to the game that we would know a lot more about our team and where we stand after the game. We do. I think Syracuse is a pretty good team, but it may just be that we are pretty bad. We need a few more games for both of us to get a better sense of that.

I don’t think there is a such thing as a miracle worker who can replace an entire 85 person roster in one season. That’s effectively what we needed to attain a miracle. You just can’t lose that many starters and expect to compete against the best.

Ironically, I don’t think we could’ve kept those starters and competed against the best either. I think overall the talent has been upgraded. The thing is, even with that upgrade, it is still below the well below the level to compete against decent P5 teams.

I think Mora has enough cache to come in lay a new foundation and make a solvent program again

I agree. But I don’t know is what our potential actually is and how long will it take us to reach it. Competency, I do feel like we’ll get there. How far beyond that can we do, I’m not sure.

 

[kemba]

I don’t enjoy seeing orange fans here but I mean they are getting in no matter what. If I had the more expensive season tickets and couldn’t make the game I’m not going to feel bad about getting as much money back as possible. Plus since you can pretty much sit wherever you want these days many of those might have bought cheap seats, walked in to an empty stadium at 6:30 been like let’s go down to the good seats until someone kicks us out and no one ever did

 

[Punkbo]

I expected us to compete for a little while, but not be able to sustain it. I didn’t expect to win but I didn’t expect Syracuse to score on it for seven possessions either. I said in the run up to the game that we would know a lot more about our team and where we stand after the game. We do. I think Syracuse is a pretty good team, but it may just be that we are pretty bad. We need a few more games for both of us to get a better sense of that.


Ironically, I don’t think we could’ve kept those starters and competed against the best either. I think overall the talent has been upgraded. The thing is, even with that upgrade, it is still below the well below the level to compete against decent P5 teams.


I agree. But I don’t know is what our potential actually is and how long will it take us to reach it. Competency, I do feel like we’ll get there. How far beyond that can we do, I’m not sure.

I’m probably a bit more optimistic than most about our future and prefer to focus on our positive development. However, it’s clear that our talent level is well below most of our opponents. Therefore, I don’t think that it’s fair to be highly critical of the players unless they’re not bringing passion to each practice and game.

However, we certainly can be critical of the salaried coaching staff for things we may disagree with regarding overall scheme, play calling, player utilitization, etc. For instance, our offensive play calling and passive scheme on defense with regards to pass rush and pass coverage were horrific last night.

 

[Greg]

Amen to final comment…orange fans dancing And celebrating around me added a root canal experience to an already miserable outing. It was disgusting.

I was in 240 wearing orange. What struck me as saddest of all was student section giving upon a team that was outclassed but fighting. The second touchdown run by CT was a fantastic play. Too bad they missed it. Hard for any decent recruit to want to go to UCONN and turn that around. Just no electricity in your fanbase. At least your hoops games have a fantastic atmosphere. Syracuse football suffered from the exact same malady but is getting better so you have hope. Does the school run shuttle busses from Storrs?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Does the school run shuttle busses from Storrs?

Yes we do.

Does your school run sled teams to the the Carrier Dome?

 

[CL82]

Yes we do.

Does your school run sled teams to the the Carrier Dome?

And do American students need a passport to cross into Canada to see games?

 

[Bongo Fury]

Our last coached turned around a program. I haven’t watched or looked into except for score but Morehead’s offense is not looking great. Don Brown’s defense not looking great. They were just a better team and played hard from the beginning not like Wyoming last year.

 

[ZooCougar]

In the “miracle worker” category, I wanted Al Golden who turned around a putrid Temple program is very little time. He actually made Edsall look hopeless a couple of times.

Well he went from the Bengals LB Coach to ND DC and that also isn’t going so hot.