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The View From Section 241

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upstater said:
That sounds like an eminently sane position.

Especially when you can't even seem to understand the facts of the case. Frey needed credentials to practice in PA, something UConn couldn't provide him.
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Yes that's how they spun it afterwards.

It's a sane position if you don't care about competing in football at the highest level.
 
TouchdownHusky said:
Please save and repost periodically. College football is all about recruiting and talent levels. We've had many fans downplay the "Star system" as meaningless, yet these players end up at other programs that are more talented than UConn. I have always maintained the view that what is most important is the programs that UConn beats out is the biggest tell tale.

If UConn were to be beating out Iowa, Maryland, UNC, Kentucky, Illinois that would be one thing. But if they are in the mix with the likes of Temple, Buffalo, Kent State, New Hampshire and UMass then . . . . Well no wonder we don't compete well with the big boys anymore.
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And I've given you stats to the contrary. UConn has a lot of players in the NFL. Is that NOT a measure of talent? I've also shown how lightly recruited the state is. While only 2% of two-star players make the NFL nationally, Connecticut's rate is higher than 25%. 11 of 41 over the last 5 years.

Maybe UConn has had bad luck in the past because we beat schools like Penn State, UCLA, West Virginia, Florida, Rutgers, South Carolina, Syracuse, Louisville, Kentucky, Florida, Iowa, Kansas St., Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Purdue, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, NC State, Auburn, Virginia, Cincy, Michigan St, Boston Coll., Virginia Tech, Tennessee

Seth Fogarty, Donnell Ford, Afa Anoia, Donald Brown, Kitt Pommels, Matthew Lawrence, Harold Stanback, Ken Tinney, Maurice McLellan, Todd Dorcelus, Lawrence Green, James Nixon, Brad Kanuch, Greg Robinson, Jarvis Hicks, Jarrell Miller, Dwayne Gratz, Jimmy Bennett, Dwayne Difton, Steve Greene, Malik Generett, Leon Kinnard.

That's 22 players. UConn beat out peer or bigger football schools for these guys. Only Donald Brown and Dwayne Gratz panned out. Bennett has been middling... Greene is a little better.

This basically is showing that UConn has had a lot more success putting 2 star players in the NFL than it has with 3 and 4 star kids.
 
whaler11 said:
Yes that's how they spun it afterwards.

It's a sane position if you don't care about competing in football at the highest level.
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Do you realize how absurd you sound?
 
I am glad to see Ford mentioned. I wish I could share my stories about him.
 
upstater said:
Do you realize how absurd you sound?
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It's absurd that schools that take football seriously ignore academics for the football team? Someone should tell the University of North Carolina - all those fake classes are going to hurt them in the eyes of a few hundred academics who can't see past their own navels.
 
Frey was being helped into the UConn Grad program by PP. He chose PA because he was from there and his girlfriend/fiancée was there. This has been hashed to death and covered in the media. My goodness...we have more than enough things to complain about from last night, and Robbie Frey doesn't need to be one of them...
 
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whaler11 said:
It's absurd that schools that take football seriously ignore academics for the football team? Someone should tell the University of North Carolina - all those fake classes are going to hurt them in the eyes of a few hundred academics who can't see past their own navels.
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No, I'm not arguing UConn shouldn't have fake classes. I don't have much interest in that discussion. I am sitting here listening to you argue that Frey going to Ed. school at UConn is the difference between a serious program and an unserious one. Absurd.
 
I was going to start another thread for this, but it will fit here. Too many threads on the same stuff already.

When did P and GDL know? That this system was going to be a complete failure.

Picture P after year 1. 5-7 could have made a bowl and won a few more games. McCombs rushes for 1,000 yards. He picks up Whitmer and he has upgraded QB. He gets Phillips and Davis is a stud. So he doubles down on the system and figures that he can improve McCombs YPC and improve the pass game with Whitmer. But this was a round peg in a square hole and they did not, as coaches, figure out how to make this work AT ALL. So they take basically the same guys this year and triple down - we get 13 yards rushing in the first half. If you heard P on TIC he just plainly admitted the OLine gets no push and that he had to pass in situations that he should not have.

Weist must be pulling his hair out. Give Weist credit for this. The receivers are better and the pass game is better. If we ran the ball 150 yards per week, we would keep the D off of the field.

The D I am not sure. It has to be talent. The LB's are the biggest disappointment. And why absolutely no pressure on the QB is beyond me. Last year, the same guys had sacks and the were younger . Norris becomes a TE and started last year??? Something weird here.

Executive Overview
Somewhere in the scheme they had to have known that this was disaster yet they just stuck with this mess.

I think that the talent level is about the same as was under RE, except we always had two or three NFL caliber guys to carry the load. I can't think of one except Smallwood and maybe Davis. Edsall left us with no D1 QB and evidently not much in the way of an OL. Endres smoked his way off of the team. He pushed Todman out. Frye the heir apparent got out of town. The cupboard was. let's say, barer than usual and along comes these two guys who were going to reinvent the wheel. A perfect storm of square peg round hole, stubbornness to compromise, and recipe for failure. I guarantee that if you interviewed any of the coaches that left, they would have told you that that they had told P that he was full of it and this system would not work.
 
Yeah, but these are really smart guys. They coached in the NFL and at Syracuse when they won BE championships. All they need are a few more prototypes and another 165 LB RB and they should be good.
 
I think Robbie Frey leaving was my first sign that this regime was poorly placed at UConn.
 
Pudge said:
I think Robbie Frey leaving was my first sign that this regime was poorly placed at UConn.
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Ding ding ding. No more calls. We have a winner.
 
One of my first signs was listening to GDL explain that he had all kinds of plays, enough to wallpaper a room. Then he talked about zone blocking schemes. Then he brought in the wildcat. And I said....."oh duckk, he's one of those guys". Makes it real complicated because he's smarter than everyone else. Pretty sure that's what we're dealing with.....and a HC who let it happen.
 
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whaler11 said:
You wouldn't think Miami having mild success one season with the Wildcat would help ruin UConn's program but here we are.
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You seriously think things would be different if we never ran the Wildcat? What the...

Why not take a shot at "solve your problems with aggression" since you are in scapegoating mode.

I sure miss solving our problems with aggression.
 
The second loss to Western Michigan should have removed all doubts.
 
metsfan2323 said:
You seriously think things would be different if we never ran the Wildcat? What the...

Why not take a shot "solve your problems with aggression" since you are in scapegoating mode.

I sure miss solving our problems with aggression.
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It was just a joke.
 
You cannot run the read/freeze option when the QB isn't a threat to run. The DE's don't even bother to pay token attention to it. We are up 7 - 0, your WR are killing their DBs, how about using play-action to freeze the LBs and Safeties? Not one play-action play. Our O-Coordinator has not impressed me. Our O-Line is solid...when Friend is there. Once he limped off I knew we were in trouble.

On D, Stewart looks like a guy who missed a year of football. His instincts are there yet. That TD run by their QB was his play to make. I thought Ashuiru looked much better. Donahue is smart, but he is too slow to be and OLB in a 4-3.

We need to retain this staff to keep the OL recruits we need in the worst way, then I would fire all of the except our former WONDERFUL O-line coach and maybe Perkins.
 
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Pudge said:
I think Robbie Frey leaving was my first sign that this regime was poorly placed at UConn.
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Robbie's parents came on the Boneyard and were pretty straight up about why he left. If you know anything about the teaching profession it's that having a license in one state does not give you one in another. There is no cross certification. So basically you are stuck in the state where you do student teaching and get your license. So if you want to live in PA you get licensed in PA, not here. It's a hassle otherwise. Finishing Grad school here meant license here, which is what he did not want. He was banged up a couple of times and maybe saw no NFL future. Time to move on.
 
I am of the opinion that it is FUN to play CFB at UConn and at the BE level (stay with me).

Therefore ... a Robbie Frey who exhibited HUGE passion for the game should have been a priority for PP to have a running game with a Back who can break tackles. McCombs to complement. And beyond this ... Edsall would have seen this coming from a mile and never have been in this position. Frey left for academic and career reasons. 1 year though ... and he could have had ONE GREAT last UConn run. I don't think convincing him was hard for a coach who understood what he could bring.
 
Pudge said:
I am of the opinion that it is FUN to play CFB at UConn and at the BE level (stay with me).

Therefore ... a Robbie Frey who exhibited HUGE passion for the game should have been a priority for PP to have a running game with a Back who can break tackles. McCombs to complement. And beyond this ... Edsall would have seen this coming from a mile and never have been in this position. Frey left for academic and career reasons. 1 year though ... and he could have had ONE GREAT last UConn run. I don't think convincing him was hard for a coach who understood what he could bring.
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Your last sentence is the operative statement. I'll leave it at that.
 
Carl Spackler said:
One thing that's really bipolar I notice around here, is the view on our talent levels. I don't get it. I'm not going through the roster right now, but I'm 99% sure that we've got multiple players out there on this team, that played significant minutes last night, that were not recruited by Pasqualoni.

I'm not defending anyone or making excuses, just stating facts.

Those players, are being coached by coaches, that did not recruit them, and are using different schemes than they were recruited for.

THe players that were recruited by the current coaches were recruited for the systems they are supposed to be playing in now. AGain - not doing anything but stating the facts.

THe only talent deficiency I could see, between our team and theirs last night, was in the offensive backfield and WR. We don't have a QB and a WR that can match theirs with speed and running.

(and to be fair, they didn't have receivers that could match our size and physical ones either. )

I don't know what PHilips stats were, but he was having the game of his career until he hobbled off late, and Davis made some very, very key catches.

We could not run effectively, and as I've said, I'm not putting that on this OL this time. McCombs simply doesn't run with force, and it's beyond me how he is still our #1 back. But I'm done with making those kinds of conclusions and reasoning. He's our #1 and for some reason, that means it's been decided that we don't have a better option.

Is this a talent issue? Yes. WHo's fault is it? the people that recruited all the backs - our fastest, and most talented guy that came in is apparently an idiot because he didn't think it would be a problem to use somebody else's credit card without permission to order something to his own house and he's no longer playing. THe other ones are freshmen.

Just stating facts.

We are what we are. An 0-2 team, that is turnover prone in the passing game, and cannot run the ball on offense, and a defensive team that plays poorly coming out of half time of games, and a kicking team that is inconsistent and makes strange decisions.
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You don't think the ability of a front four to rush a passer has anything to do with talent? Please
 
businesslawyer said:
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.
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I hate to blame lack of talent for the reason why the team is going to be 1-11 this season and 5-7 for the past two seasons. If we had Chip Kelly or Nick Saban instead of PP you think that we would of went 5-7 for the last 2 seasons? or maybe 0-2 this season? I doubt it.

I'm pretty sure we have/had more talent than Towson, Western Michigan, Temple etc... There's a difference between not enough talent and a coach not utilizing talent, a coach makes a difference.

TJ Weist is doing a heck of a job with the WR's and D. Brown did a heck of a job with the defense for the past 2 seasons. Max and Hypp are less accomplished maybe because they only have 1 carry each so far this season and maybe 10 carries last season, that's not enough to accomplish anything. McCombs was struggling to get 100 yards rushing in a game last season and as soon as Max was given a shot in 1 game he had 91 yards, if it wasn't for a penalty he would of had over 100 yards that game. Why? Max broke tackles and if there was no whole he would create his own, something McCombs does'nt do. Then, he barely touched the ball after that game once McCombs came back. Is that lack of talent or poor talent utilization?

PP and GDL sucks period, it starts from the top (PP) and it works its way down. Just like a company, it starts with the Managers then it works its way down. If the Manager sucks your employees will under perform. Same situation we have at UCONN

GDL's resume:
1999: Syracuse 80th in nation in total offense, 39th rushing, 88th passing (7-5 won-loss)​
2000: Syracuse 52nd in total offense, 18th rushing, 92nd passing (6-5)​
2001: Syracuse 93rd in total offense, 41st rushing, 98th passing (10-3)​
2002: Syracuse 54th in total offense, 34th rushing, 79th passing (4-8)​
2003: Syracuse 70th total offense, 26th rushing, 91st passing (6-6)​
2004: Syracuse 78th total offense, 31st rushing, 100th passing (6-6)​
2005: Ole Miss 111th total offense, 116th rushing, 79th passing (3-8)​
2006: Temple 118th in total offense, 118 rushing, 98 passing (0-11)​
2007: Temple 112th in total offense, 108 rushing, 73 passing (1-11)​
2011: UConn 108th in total offense, 84th passing, 97th rushing (5-7)​
2012: UConn 109th in total offense, 117th rushing, 64th passing (5-7)​
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
I think next week will be the last time a UConn football game will ever be an "event". We should enjoy it. I am not going to rant about how awful Pasqualoni is because there is nothing to say that is not obvious to everyone. Let's enjoy the last full house in UConn history. To be honest, we should think of it as more of an "End of the World Party" like some of the dorms on South Campus threw before they were torn down. By keeping Pasqualoni, Manuel announced he was tearing down UConn's football program. We should have a party to celebrate the memories.
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While I agree that UConn football maybe in its darkest hours, as I fan I have to hope for the best. I remember South Campus’s last year and the end of the world parties. It was a great time. I also remember the pile of bricks that were left behind for nearly a year, until it was announced that President Clinton & Nelson Mandela would visit UConn for the opening of the Dodd Center. Less than a month later, the brocks were gone. About 2 years after that, the New South Campus opened at it was whole new game, just like how the rest of Storrs have been transformed over the last 15 years. With the right leadership, a lot of work, and some good fortune, UConn will rise again.
 
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.
 
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.
 
freescooter said:
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.
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Over the last 5 year span between 2005 and 2010, Connecticut produced 41 FBS players who were rated as two stars. 11 of them are now in the NFL.

This is why recruiting Connecticut heavily is an excellent idea.
 
Carl Spackler said:
One thing that's really bipolar I notice around here, is the view on our talent levels. I don't get it. I'm not going through the roster right now, but I'm 99% sure that we've got multiple players out there on this team, that played significant minutes last night, that were not recruited by Pasqualoni.
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Maybe this will clear up the matter on the level of talent PP has to work with. It has been said there is a riff between Weist and PP on the offensive play calling.

I know it to be true that PP has unofficially taken over the defense, not only in practice, but during the game for the most part.

Could it possibly be that the 2 mad scientists have not a clue and have given the more than adequate talent NO CHANCE to succeed?

The BS talk of the talent RE left was not good needs to stop. Randy and his staff could coach up players who had minimal or even no high school football experience or success to a legit D 1A level. He didn't all of a sudden bring in players who could not play.

Jeff Hathaway, PP and GDL have ruined this program. People need to stop blaming Randy.
 
businesslawyer said:
You don't think the ability of a front four to rush a passer has anything to do with talent? Please
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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.
 
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