The View From Section 241 -- Preseason | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The View From Section 241 -- Preseason

Chin Diesel said:
I think part of that was the complete melt down of the weight and conditioning program under the incompetent duo who preceded Red Pants.

The last year of the PP/GDL regime had an offense and defense that looked like a HS team when lined up against the FCS opponents. They were completely physically overwhelmed.

And, as happens too often, the next regime looks to do a 180 of what was happening prior to them taking over when the correct answer was to realize they needed stronger and faster, not just bigger.
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I think this is pretty much spot on and I had some look into the program when P was running the show and the indication was that the emphasis on off season S&C was a far cry from what it was under Edsall. It was very evident on the OL.
 
freescooter said:
I think this season has a feel of maybe a solid run for a change. All the things you listed plus a far more manageable schedule. Other than the obvious ones, UCF and Clemson, who do is so good that you’d be shocked if we won? Not to say we will beat them but if we snuck out a 27-24 win over Fresno because they played badly in their opener would you be shocked ? More like mildly surprised.
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You only would be "mildly surprised" if UConn, flying cross country, on their season opener, after a two year lay off, playing in 105 degree heat, as a 27.5 point underdog won the game?
 
ConnHuskBask said:
You only would be "mildly surprised" if UConn, flying cross country, on their season opener, after a two year lay off, playing in 105 degree heat, as a 27.5 point underdog won the game?
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Well yeah. Maybe mildly is a bit strong. I don’t think they will win but it isn’t at the same level of impossible as say Clemson. As I said if they win it won’t be on the level of Appalachian State beating Michigan or JMU beating #4 VaTech. It will be a good win but it isn’t going to be the lead on Gameday. There are often opening day upsets which is another factor. After all there is a reason for the saying that the biggest improvement comes from game 1 to game 2. Final factor is that for all the talk about how good they are, we really don’t know. After all they are coming off a 3-3 season but the wins came over teams with a combined record of 2-15 or something and ended last year on a loss to a 2-5 New Mexico. They aren’t exactly Alabama. So I will be pleasantly surprised if they win but not shocked.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
You only would be "mildly surprised" if UConn, flying cross country, on their season opener, after a two year lay off, playing in 105 degree heat, as a 27.5 point underdog won the game?
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Somehow, one would think there should be a middle ground between "mildly surprising" upsets and "all time epic" upsets. But I know the Boneyard isn't big on middle grounds.
 
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uconndogs said:
I think this is pretty much spot on and I had some look into the program when P was running the show and the indication was that the emphasis on off season S&C was a far cry from what it was under Edsall. It was very evident on the OL.
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I don’t know if it is totally accurate but I’ve been told by a few people that P thought off season conditioning should be lest to the player. No organized program. Not even a plan for each player or group. Just left it up to them to figure it out
 
businesslawyer said:
Somehow, one would think there should be a middle ground between "mildly surprising" upsets and "all time epic" upsets. But I know the Boneyard isn't big on middle grounds.
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The boneyard color palette has only two options; black and white...
 
freescooter said:
I don’t know if it is totally accurate but I’ve been told by a few people that P thought off season conditioning should be lest to the player. No organized program. Not even a plan for each player or group. Just left it up to them to figure it out
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Almost like a basketball coach telling a player the plan for improvement in the off season is to get in the gym? I kid. Mostly.
 
Here's the other thing I'm looking for with the proverbial "eye test".

Discipline.

This team has had over 500 days with mostly the same players, the same staff, the same schemes.

On offense.

So, I don't want to see false starts. Players should know the QB's cadence, hard counts, etc. No surprises.

Illegal procedure or formation. Everyone should know where to line up on every play. No too many on the back field, a WR line up on the line when they should off the line, etc.

Missed assignments on base plays. Yes, FSU will have some stunts and blitzes which confuse the blockers. Happens every game. On base plays, if two blockers go after one player and another breaks through untouched? Not acceptable.

No busted plays. WR breaks in, QB throws out type stuff. Everyone should know where to be on every play. QB should know ever route and every option.

On defense.

Offsides or encroachment. Can't be giving away free yards and downs.

No, busted coverages where the camera pans out and there isn't a Husky jersey to found.

Tackling. Good, solid techniques. If not a clean tackle, hold on until the rest of the players can pile on.

Special teams. Be solid. No botched plays. Yes, there is a probability of a missed FG or a shanked punt. Happens to the best of them. But keep coverages, assignments, lanes, etc and make special teams at least be a draw for impact.
 
It’s easy to be skeptical of what this team might accomplish this year, however the signals are pointing to a more optimistic outlook than history would suggest. One predictor is the attention the team is receiving from NFL scouts who’ve been at several of our practices to see Travis Jones and RVD. They’ve also taken note of several other players at the suggestion of the coaches and have been “surprisingly impressed”. Does it mean much? Who knows but it certainly doesn’t hurt team confidence.
 
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Nostical said:
It’s easy to be skeptical of what this team might accomplish this year, however the signals are pointing to a more optimistic outlook than history would suggest. One predictor is the attention the team is receiving from NFL scouts who’ve been at several of our practices to see Travis Jones and RVD. They’ve also taken note of several other players at the suggestion of the coaches and have been “surprisingly impressed”. Does it mean much? Who knows but it certainly doesn’t hurt team confidence.
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This and the quality of teams we are beating out for recruits and the quality of scheduled opponents going forward. All point to external entities looking at UConn as a "program" again.
 
freescooter said:
I don’t know if it is totally accurate but I’ve been told by a few people that P thought off season conditioning should be lest to the player. No organized program. Not even a plan for each player or group. Just left it up to them to figure it out
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That’s the feeling I got as well although I have no inside information. They tried to use all their recent NFL experience to run a NFL team without NFL players.
 
Bongo Fury said:
That’s the feeling I got as well although I have no inside information. They tried to use all their recent NFL experience to run a NFL team without NFL players.
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And while he had forgotten more about football than any of us ever knew, he saw no need to try to motivate the team. And when execution to NFL standards was lacking, he boiled over with frustration and stared at his shoes. Still, his record in the first two years looks awesome by today's standards.
 
Just listened to REM's don't go back to Rockville. Kind of summed up my fandom for Uconn Football. I need HCRE to eliminate the "waste another year" aspect of that song. Hope springs eternal.... Bring that passion back!
 
Our QB's need to avoid sacks which for us are complete drive killers. JZ in as a freshman struggled with this and SK really never got enough time to show his ability to avoid this mistake. Throw it, run it or throw it away!. The decision making speed has to speed up.
 
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Really don’t have any expectations for this season except to be better overall as a program. I think the time off did help us in terms of giving this young squad time to mature in the weight room, work on their bodies and hone their craft. Hoping to see a more well oiled machine from the offense with Zergiotis leading the charge and a stacked receiving core (Cam Ross, Jay Rose, Cam Hairston, Jayce Medlock to name a few) and backfield with Kevin Mensah who will hopefully break records this season.

Defensively up front should be much improved over what we saw in 2019, hopefully the young secondary isn’t our Achilles heel.

Really excited to see Joe McFadden too kicking!
 
wethyhusky said:
Just listened to REM's don't go back to Rockville. Kind of summed up my fandom for Uconn Football. I need HCRE to eliminate the "waste another year" aspect of that song. Hope springs eternal.... Bring that passion back!
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If going back to Rockville means getting Bill Romanowski as an LB for UConn, we ought to sprint back to Rockville.
 
jdb50 said:
Our QB's need to avoid sacks which for us are complete drive killers. JZ in as a freshman struggled with this and SK really never got enough time to show his ability to avoid this mistake. Throw it, run it or throw it away!. The decision making speed has to speed up.
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The o- line needs to give them a little time.
 
Overall a good take by businesslawyer but I disagree with two points:

1) BL understates how bad the defense was in 2018 and 2019. In fact, it was less a defense than 11 guys dressed the same that were milling about the field. They were not even slowing the opposing offenses down.

2) I didn’t like Edsall 1.0 and I don’t like 2.0 any better. I think Edsall is a fossil in a sport that has changed so much the last 10 years. The recruiting is decent, but we need to be loading up on transfers instead of making insulting generalizations about kids that might want to come here.
 
We are a developmental program, period. We want kids in the program for 5 years. We want to build a culture. That’s hard to do with transfers. We are not going to see an influx. More Venns, less 1-2 year rentals.

I’d like a lot of things that won’t happen. Constantly talking about them won’t make them happen.
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
Overall a good take by businesslawyer but I disagree with two points:

1) BL understates how bad the defense was in 2018 and 2019. In fact, it was less a defense than 11 guys dressed the same that were milling about the field. They were not even slowing the opposing offenses down.

2) I didn’t like Edsall 1.0 and I don’t like 2.0 any better. I think Edsall is a fossil in a sport that has changed so much the last 10 years. The recruiting is decent, but we need to be loading up on transfers instead of making insulting generalizations about kids that might want to come here.
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LOL. Nothing more needs to be said about the defense in 2018 other than that I said it was the worst college football defense of all time, probably by a lot, and yet I have no issue with Nelson saying I understated the scope of the problem.
 
businesslawyer said:
LOL. Nothing more needs to be said about the defense in 2018 other than that I said it was the worst college football defense of all time, probably by a lot, and yet I have no issue with Nelson saying I understated the scope of the problem.
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The stats don't tell the whole story. I think it took being the the stadium to realize how many opposing receivers were wide open on every possession. Or how big the holes were on running plays. That 2018 UConn defense may be the worst FBS defense that there will ever be.
 
hardcorehusky said:
Just to add: Zergiotis also broke his leg and couldn't practice before coming to UConn- so we can add that to everything else. If he has learned how to read defenses especially near the red zone, we will have something here.

I judged my opinions on the eye test. Seeing how much bigger and stronger the kids were, told me about their commitment to turning this around. How few key players left is another important key. We have a very good DC who can now do more with better players and if the O line is decent, Giufre can do more as well.

I have been saying 7 wins consistently over the last few months. Seeing how RE V1 jelled up close as the talent level increased, this has the same feeling. Fresno might be an issue but by Purdue, I expect us to really turn it on.
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How are we feeling about 7 wins?
 
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