The View From Section 241

[upstater]

Which CT players in particular are in over their head that you've seen? Stewart may not be sio moore, or bama Wilson yet, but it's a little early to say he is in over his head.

Not to mention that he was a highly rated 4 star with a lot of exposure and a scholarship from Florida.

 

[ZooCougar]

The difference in team speed between the two teams was astounding, especially when you consider that last year I wouldn't have told you there was a difference. Now, part of that is actual speed, but part of that, to be fair, is mental speed -- the ability to use your physical speed because you are not thinking but running with the confidence that your body is taking you in the right direction. Our DL does not have a single pass rusher on it. We've wasted three years listening to this clown talk about prototypical bodies, and what we've got are a group of DLs with not one guy who started undersized and grew into a small DE who can actually generate a pass rush. And our OL utterly sucks. Lack of physical talent? Guys being held back by the zone schemes that P made clear in his presser we are still running? Both? I don't know, but I know this -- the game was over when Kevin Friend limped off and Xavier Hemingway came on. I'm sure he's a good young man, but I don't see a RT who is big enough to get it done. And I say that having watched him be overrun for two games. So what happened? Stop wasting my time about play calling and schemes. Yes, I liked the way they ran the freeze option, but the bottom line is coaching aside the vastly superior team won, and we were only able to stay in the game for 30 minutes because they kept shooting themselves in the foot early. Everyone here needs to wake up and smell the coffee -- firing P and GDL now is not going to save this season. We are going to have to struggle for a few bad years while we restock the talent. Whether we do that Edsall's way or find a new strategy, who knows. But we will have to do it while we suck and play in a suck conference . Good luck.

This is the most important part of the OP's post.

It's not just the overall difference in team speed. They had an advantage in team speed when it comes to QB, RB and WR.

Look, Edsall basically put Maryland through a self imposed NCAA suspension with all of the transfers and yet still in year 3, they have an incredibly dynamic offense. They will probably make a bowl. Edsall has a solvent program. We don't under PGDL.

Pasqualoni has had three years to build an offensive line and pull this thing together and in year three we look worse than ever.

I disagree about firing PGDL. I think it would make no difference in terms of saving the season, however firing them is not about saving the season, it's about getting a head start in saving the program.

Instead of being a stronger leftover Big East team in the AAC, this team will become an AAC team if we can't bring in the right staff. If we create the vacancy then we can start shopping early. With all of the high level vacancies that are about to exist, it's not like we'll be first in line ever. But we can put ourselves in a better position by acting early and not waiting until December 8.

 

[Sea Goat]

In the irony of ironies, for an hour or two there it looked like FHCRE was going to revive our program. When I rolled in to the blue lot at 5:40, I was parked rows, rows further away from what I would have expected. It looked to me like we sold out all the normal seats, and sold some tickets in the temporary bleachers to boot. A higher percentage of fans wore blue than, say -- ever. And, while not as enthusiastic a crowd as we would have had for a big night game if we were any good, the crowd stated incredibly into it given how our team and program has gone. And, to their credit, the players seemed to play with more heart than against Towson. That having been said, it should be obvious to anyone who watched the game that what P has done to our program is not going to be solved short term just by changing coaches. The difference in team speed between the two teams was astounding, especially when you consider that last year I wouldn't have told you there was a difference. Now, part of that is actual speed, but part of that, to be fair, is mental speed -- the ability to use your physical speed because you are not thinking but running with the confidence that your body is taking you in the right direction. Our DL does not have a single pass rusher on it. We've wasted three years listening to this clown talk about prototypical bodies, and what we've got are a group of DLs with not one guy who started undersized and grew into a small DE who can actually generate a pass rush. And our OL utterly sucks. Lack of physical talent? Guys being held back by the zone schemes that P made clear in his presser we are still running? Both? I don't know, but I know this -- the game was over when Kevin Friend limped off and Xavier Hemingway came on. I'm sure he's a good young man, but I don't see a RT who is big enough to get it done. And I say that having watched him be overrun for two games. So what happened? Stop wasting my time about play calling and schemes. Yes, I liked the way they ran the freeze option, but the bottom line is coaching aside the vastly superior team won, and we were only able to stay in the game for 30 minutes because they kept shooting themselves in the foot early. Everyone here needs to wake up and smell the coffee -- firing P and GDL now is not going to save this season. We are going to have to struggle for a few bad years while we restock the talent. Whether we do that Edsall's way or find a new strategy, who knows. But we will have to do it while we suck and play in a suck conference . Good luck.

Offense, defense and specials? I'm suck of the comments about McCombs. No one here as any reason to think he is less a player today than he was as a frosh, when he was competent to fairly good. The OL sucks. Plain and simple. There are not holes, and putting a TB in who is less accomplished at finding them isn't going to help. If we had John Delahunt (or Steve Brouse or Danny Murray) lined up next to Hemingway at TE, we could help Hemingway in protection. We don't. McQuillan is an H Back (although I thought he played well) and Parker is a walk-on. How we didn't recruit TEs earlier .... The WRs as a group may have been our one bright spot. I love Davis, even though he didn't have a great game, right down to how he wants to block LBs on short yardage runs (a la Marcus Easley before he became a star), and if Phillips has now put it together to, that's a good sign. And I get both the praise and the criticism of Whitmer, but I really think some of the judgments are unfair given how poor the OL is and the lack of a credible running game.

On D, I have very little to say. Credible performances by Taylor Mack and Smallwood, but beyond that .... Other LBs aren't making plays, too many missed tackles, not enough of a pass rush and too many blown coverages and angles (yes, Mr. Melinfonwu, I am talking to you despite your physical talent). I really don't want to bash people individually, because the D's failure is a team effort. But it starts with the lack of any semblance of a pass rush, and that starts with the fact that we have guys who look like DTs playing DE. Our "prototypes." When we "fixed" a "problem" that had been working well with the Osundes and Campbells and Trevardos and Wittens and other guys who were recruited when they weighed 220 and less.

And can we not lose fact of the fact that, for all that went wrong, that may have been the worst special teams game I remember UConn playing since the blocked punts day at Chapel Hill. If Lemelle isn't going to catch the ball because he's worried about fumbling, put someone else back there. Cole Wagner is not playing like a senior leader. And the inability of the coverage team to down a punt inside the ten was disheartening.

So that's all I can muster the enthusiasm to say. I thought the crowd's effort was more than good considering. I do think the team played hard. But, unfortunately, I don't see firing P, and switching from zone to man blocking, in the middle of the season as a panacea that is going to instantly cure all (which is not to say I wouldn't like to try it). Whether or not you liked him, Edsall had a plan for what could be accomplished short term in Connecticut and how he was going to accomplish it. P, at best, has a generic plan that isn't working. Given the lack of talent and the conference fiasco, I hope to God the next coach will have a plan that makes sense for and can be implemented at UConn. Whether it's the plan that people on this board think is the way to win or not. Oh -- and please, no more speculating about whether we would take Edsall back, o.k.? First, the answer to that has always been "no thanks," and second, he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Despite the anger of the MD fanbase for him blowing up a decent team two years ago, this year's team is going in the right direction, will go bowling and if they don't win 8 this year I fully expect them to next year.

Let's talk again next Monday and see how much you can take.

 

[upstater]

This is the most important part of the OP's post.

It's not just the overall difference in team speed. They had an advantage in team speed when it comes to QB, RB and WR.

Look, Edsall basically put Maryland through a self imposed NCAA suspension with all of the transfers and yet still in year 3, they have an incredibly dynamic offense. They will probably make a bowl. Edsall has a solvent program. We don't under PGDL.
Pasqualoni has had three years to build an offensive line and pull this thing together and in year three we look worse than ever.

Agree about how disorganized PP looks compared to Edsall, but in the two years UConn has played Edsall, the "execution" has looked very familiar as well. Randy is en route to 8-4 and 7-5.

Same as it ever was.

 

[SubbaBub]

I disagree that it would make no difference in the season. At the very least it will give the returning players 3 months free from exposure to the PGDL program suicide plan.

If as most now suspect, there is tension between PDGL and his staff and PDGL and the players, then removing them might earn an extra win or two. Who here is confident of a victory at Buffalo?

If we catch lightning in a bottle, the AAC stinks. Only UL, UCF, and RU gave shown themselves to be anything above decent. Beat the rest and that's 5 wins. Improve enough to pick off RU, Buffalo or UCF and we go bowling.

It may tie us to the interim coach for a few years but that is a problem I'm willingly to discuss later.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I have a few views on the current situation. have to say I agree with biz about the running back situation. when there are no holes, I don't care who you put back there...and as for McCombs not breaking tackles or pushing the pile, he did, on a number of runs. but he was simply swallowed up most of the time by the defense who A. knew he was coming (at one point I think we ran on 1st down 8 straight times...hard not to guess right if you're on defense and you sell out on the run). To me the fundamental problem is the offensive line. Until something changes there we will struggle to beat anyone. It is a chore for UConn to do anything offensively so until that is fixed, which to me means a new oline coach next year (Mike Foley, please apply) we'll struggle. Impossible to evaluate anyone else completely.

We clearly have some receivers for the first time in a while. Davis is solid, Phillips is pretty good, and while I know it was garbage time, the kid Green, I think, who replaced Philips, made a couple of nice plays, though one he might have been better off letting fall(diving 3 yard gain with time winding down). But he looked like he might have some upside. Whitmer is a real challenge to me. I'd love to see what he can do behind a competent offensive line. He isn't Brady but to me he looks like he's got some ability. But he still has a tendency to throw bad picks. the 1st one was just a terrible throw to a guy who was well covered. The pick-6 was a poor throw but it looked like he got hit just as he let it go so I'm not sure what to say. Might have been partly on the oline.

I don't get the lack of any type of pass rush on defense. I think I read somewhere that we only had something like 2 TFLs the whole game. How can that be? The linebacking corps is like the oline, from my perspective. UConn has always had good linebackers, even when we were new to this game. Now, they seem out of place,donahue looks a step slow to me and Stewart looks like a guy who was destined to spend his entire Florida career on the kick team...never seemed to be in the right place.

One last point on recruiting. for UConn to be successful we need to be recruiting in Florida, in the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and so forth. landing the best players from Connecticut is nice for the local folks but clearly isn't getting it done. Maybe Boyle is the real thing. Maybe the running back coming next year is the real thing. But every time you recruit one kid you're making a choice. And when you recruit a kid from Connecticut over a kid from Florida or Pennsylvania you're deciding that a kid who has had limited exposure to big time players has more upside than a guy who has played top competition. In a typical year, Connecticut produces maybe a dozen D1 players. And at least half are MAC level. Florida produces 325. Florida produces 15% of all D1 recruits in the average year. Connecticut less than 1%. 1 of the reasons P was brought in was that he could "keep players home." And to a large degree he's done that. the problem is that the players aren't that experienced, need lots of coaching which he isn't inclined to give, and in some cases are really over their heads.

FWIW: Stewart went out pretty early hurt, and Ashiru played most of the game in that linebacker spot. The big play at the end of second quarter, pretty sure Ashiru missed something.

 

[ZooCougar]

I disagree that it would make no difference in the season. At the very least it will give the returning players 3 months free from exposure to the PGDL program suicide plan.

If as most now suspect, there is tension between PDGL and his staff and PDGL and the players, then removing them might earn an extra win or two. Who here is confident of a victory at Buffalo?

If we catch lightning in a bottle, the AAC stinks. Only UL, UCF, and RU gave shown themselves to be anything above decent. Beat the rest and that's 5 wins. Improve enough to pick off RU, Buffalo or UCF and we go bowling.

It may tie us to the interim coach for a few years but that is a problem I'm willingly to discuss later.

This is hindsight 20/20. But we could have been better off firing PGDL last fall, spend this season with Hank Hughes while the coaching market grows a little.

It just seems to me that the bad organization Pasqualoni has put together that we will always be the second best team on the field on gameday.

If Warde doesn't believe that we can get to seven wins under P this year, then there is no point letting him run this program any longer.

Maybe the magic number is 7 losses.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Up at 2:30am? Get some sleep.

The defensive line didn't get the killer sacks, but they put enough pressure on to give us a good chance to be in the game. They gave up two killer big plays around the half time period, one before half and one after that resulted in 14 points, but they kept us in a single possession game, until late. We set sack records in the past two seasons - did it help us win more games than we lost?

direct your talent issue magnifying glass problems where they belong and why we don't have an offense that can do anything productive through the course of a game.

Pressure?, no they didnt Carl, they avg close to 20 yards a catch, many over the middle while the plays were allowed to develop... and dropped a sure td on a long throw. The problem(s ) are all over the place.

 

[Vowelguy]

We looked like a mid-major squad in every way, with the exception of the fact that mid-major teams play with a chip on their shoulder and UConn played like they had scheduled a football game between English Comp and Intro to Calculus.

Well that's the problem right there. In the SEC, games are scheduled between Hooked on Phonics and Counting 101.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Pressure?, no they didnt Carl, they avg close to 20 yards a catch, many over the middle while the plays were allowed to develop... and dropped a sure td on a long throw. The problem(s ) are all over the place.

Tell it to someone that matters Duncan.

Our defense has problems that are correctable, and understandable. We could have been burned for a lot more than we were but we weren't. We got 3 turnovers. We got an interception. They came back from the two explosions (one before half and one soon after) and had Maryland stopped with turnovers and 3 and outs as the third quarter ended and into the fourth quarter in a single possession game.

Our offense sucks. We have the structure in a passing game in the system that hasn't existed in at least 8 years - in the ability to get people open downfield and deliver the ball, but we don't have a QB on the field that can deliver and make good decisions like we did years ago, and we have no longer any resemblance of running threat.

 

[freescooter]

In the overall scope of things, I think we have a defense that is probably good enough. Nothing special. But good enough to keep us in some games. they are a bit more opportunistic than previous year's version, which I think is a Hank trait. The first fumble recovery was caused by Mack stripping the receiver. But until something happens with the offensive line, this team is doing nothing. They can't run and they aren't talented enough at either quarterback or wide out to be a pure passing team.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

I think people didn't listen to Burton because of his letter and because his son was demoted when he played for Pasqualoni at Syracuse. If Burton was calm, rational, and didn't have a vendetta against Pasqualoni, perhaps people may have listened. There were a lot of posters on this very board who did NOT want Pasqualoni when he was hired.

Greenwich guy here. I heard it wasn't a demotion, it was Joe not being named a Captain that set the old man (Burton) off. Joe was a three-yr starter. If there was a demotion, it was during his sr. yr.

 

[ZooCougar]

The absurdity of going out on a limb for and possibly spoiling a relationship with a generous donor for PAUL PASQUALONI just can't be overstated.

I wasn't against it at first. I was more like "really? him?" bahahahahahaha

 

[businesslawyer]

In the overall scope of things, I think we have a defense that is probably good enough. Nothing special. But good enough to keep us in some games. they are a bit more opportunistic than previous year's version, which I think is a Hank trait. The first fumble recovery was caused by Mack stripping the receiver. But until something happens with the offensive line, this team is doing nothing. They can't run and they aren't talented enough at either quarterback or wide out to be a pure passing team.

I really think that is overly optimistic based on the past two weeks. If we have no pash rush, our CBs, while o.k., are not going to be anywhere near good enough to cover people. I'm not sure we wouldn't be asking too much of Blidi and Dwayne with this pass rush.

What kills me is that, on paper, Norris might have been our best passrushing DE coming into the season. And now he's moved for Ruben Frank? Frank has been coming in on passing downs, but I've never seen him without the LT between him and the QB.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I really think that is overly optimistic based on the past two weeks. If we have no pash rush, our CBs, while o.k., are not going to be anywhere near good enough to cover people. I'm not sure we wouldn't be asking too much of Blidi and Dwayne with this pass rush.

What kills me is that, on paper, Norris might have been our best passrushing DE coming into the season. And now he's moved for Ruben Frank? Frank has been coming in on passing downs, but I've never seen him without the LT between him and the QB.

I agree with this. Moving Norris to TE was a head scratcher for me. But unfortunately, for this regime, par for the course.

 

[freescooter]

bl, I don't disagree really. though they weren't great by any means I thought our defense wasn't terrible. At one point Maryland was something like 0-8 on 3rd downs and we had a big 4th and inches stop and we did have 3 take aways. As I said the 1st fumble recovery was absolutely a Mack strip when you saw the replay. Mack's INT reminded me of the the "bend don't break" philosophy we used on D under Edsall. Agree the lack of a pass rush is worrisome and the only justification I can come up with for the Norris move is that "we got nutin' "for blocking tight ends and they needed somebody, though I'd be inclined to look at maybe Walsh, the frosh fullback,though he might be a bit smallish or Frank who was a blocker for 2 years and even had a few catches out of the backfield. At 6-3 he is closer to the size you're looking for.

 

[defense]

While I'm sure part of the reason moving Norris to TE is because we need help there and he played that position in high school, that can't be the entire reason. He barely had any stats in 2012.

 

[businesslawyer]

While I'm sure part of the reason moving Norris to TE is because we need help there and he played that position in high school, that can't be the entire reason. He barely had any stats in 2012.

He barely had any stats in 2012 because he only got playing time when both Jennings and Joseph went down, and then shortly after he made the rotation he got injured. Having seen him, he was more the pass rushing type DE than the big run stuffer, and got after the passer even as a true frosh better than I've seen anyone do this year. But, again, that was from a limited number of snaps.