This is what rock bottom looks like | Page 2 | The Boneyard

This is what rock bottom looks like

Status
Not open for further replies.
What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...The tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!

What the fluck happened to the Boneyard I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? ...
 
nelsonmuntz said:
UConn football is there. This is as bad as it can get for a program.

To wit:

1) The team has looked terrible. Most likely UConn is one of the 5-10 worst FBS programs this year. The team held on to beat a bad FCS school, and got destroyed the week before against a borderline Top25 team. We are not competitive, and there is no near term fix on the horizon. Uconn could lose the rest of its games, and there may not be a game the rest of the year where UConn will be favored. SMU and Army are the leading candidates.

2) This is not a young team that could rapidly improve. The cupboard is not well stocked, and without the conference affiliation, Diaco has resorted to a lot of under-the-radar recruiting.

3) Diaco has looked lost the first two games and in the press conferences. We knew there would be some bumps with a first time HC, but i did not expect this. The team is playing significantly worse than it was playing under Weist. Wins over Temple, Rutgers and Memphis look pretty good now.

4) Cochran was a devastating loss for the program. I know that his own health is the priority, but this was a huge loss for the program at absolutely the worst time. A healthy Cochran could have chucked enough to Davis to keep us in and probably win a few against the bottom tier AAC teams. Whitmer has gotten worse since arriving at UConn, and Boyle is not ready. I am underwhelmed by the OC, and do not expect much improvement at the QB position this year. UConn is not a competitive program without Cochran.

5) The conference situation is horrendous. The AAC has ONE victory over a D1 opponent this year. This conference is really bad.

This program is in really serious trouble at the absolutely worst time for this to be happening. I expect Diaco to get better, but the rest of the problems are going to take years to sort out. UConn is a long way from the team that could easily beat South Carolina in a bowl game. I don't think there is much we can do other than take the lumps and hope Diaco can turn it around. If he can not, the rest of the problems may become permanent.
Expand ...

You forgot:

6) Dour fans who moan and groan and claim the sky is falling at every setback.
 
The way I see it is we can either (1) continue to fight on and support the program or (2) go back to trailers. I'm not a fan of trailers so I will be there Saturday with my loudest voice supporting the team on the field! #GoHuskies #HuskyUp
 
FfldCntyFan said:
I remember when rock bottom occurred somewhere between losing to a bad Yale team in the second game of the season and having our two best players (Cliff Robinson & Phil Gamble) declared academically ineligible about six weeks later.
Expand ...
An article in the Boston Herald at that time said that if Gamble and Robinson were declared ineligible UConn would put on the floor "the worst team in Big East history." The first game UConn played after they got the boot was on ESPN in prime-time, back when ESPN had only one channel. It was against BCU, at BCU. And the first year coach and UConn won.

I don't mean to be a pollyanna, but I don't think things are quite that bad yet. Maybe this weekend can be our BCU game?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TKs
.-.
J187Money said:
This is rock bottom: I agree with NelsonMuntz.
Expand ...
Rock bottom will be losing to Army. WSe fell through the floor with Pasqualoni's hiring. Really we've been bouncing along the bottom since Towson. But we can go lower, sad to say.
 
Yesterday was a bad day for this Husky fan. We've been waiting since Dan O to have a QB who could put up prolific passing numbers. Along comes this kid last year, the third option passes for a school record 461 yds, and we think were on our way. One start later, his career is done. This is pretty damn close to rock bottom. I had the exact same thought/choice of words yesterday.

That said all we could do as a fan base is roll up our sleeves and bear it, bare it, or beer it. My biggest fear is that if this season spirals hopelessly out of control with blowout losses you will see repeated record low crowds at the rent. Believe me, I AM NOT PUTTING THIS ON DIACO, but any casual fan that signed up due his energy and positivity will be long gone in heartbeat.

As for Boyle, he is going to play there is no doubt about that. It's just a matter of when.
 
Coming from a UMass fan who has seen rock bottom, believe me when I tell you that you guys will be fine. Granted, the timing is bad to have a down year but I can still see you scratching out 4 or possibly 5 more wins. Burning Boyle's redshirt could turn out to be a blessing. Good skillset, strong arm...he has the tools. Now is the time to get him the experience. You put your trust in him to play in the toughest part of your schedule last year....trust him again. You've still got a WR who will be playing on Sundays next year. I believe Boyle can get him the ball. You've got a good defense that will continue to get better. I believe you've got a HC that will continue to grow in that position and become more comfortable.
Rock bottom?....been there....you're not even close!
 
As others have mentioned, rock bottom is when we come off a couple more bowl ineligible seasons and UCF/Cinci are snatched up by the Big12.

At that point, I have no idea what you even do.
 
Well rock bottom could mean different things to different programs, but thanks for the kind words.
 
.-.
ConnHuskBask said:
As others have mentioned, rock bottom is when we come off a couple more bowl ineligible seasons and UCF/Cinci are snatched up by the Big12.

At that point, I have no idea what you even do.
Expand ...
I'd say we need to pump more money/resources into football but we all know that ain't possible.
 
noeynox said:
Well rock bottom could mean different things to different programs, but thanks for the kind words.
Expand ...

Agree...expectation levels are set at very differently for the two schools. I guess I just see a much higher ceiling for UConn this year than some others. Going through what you went through under the past regime I would expect a 5-6 win season to be considered a positive. I still think that will happen. I was at the BYU game and was very impressed with what I saw in the second half. I thought Coach D made great adjustments and the team played a very good half. The Stony Brook game was a fluke. Chalk it up to thinking ahead to Boise...whatever. Deep down you guys know you are light years better than them. You got the win.
 
Waquoit said:
An article in the Boston Herald at that time said that if Gamble and Robinson were declared ineligible UConn would put on the floor "the worst team in Big East history." The first game UConn played after they got the boot was on ESPN in prime-time, back when ESPN had only one channel. It was against BCU, at BCU. And the first year coach and UConn won.

I don't mean to be a pollyanna, but I don't think things are quite that bad yet. Maybe this weekend can be our BCU game?
Expand ...

I may be overly optimistic (about the program's long term prospects) myself but for the program to get to where I want it to be it needs to be built over more than one offseason.

I don't know what some of the whiners have been watching from 2011 forward but their current reactions lead me to believe they felt we entered this season with a team ready to make a run at double digit wins. We need to build this, this year, next year, the following few seasons. Thinking that this could be turned around in a few months is as silly as believing that this past spring or summer we would hear from the B1G about joining their conference.

Would I prefer a winning season and a bowl game to another year that ends the first weekend in December? Absolutely. Do I believe that we need a bowl game this year in order to rebuild the program? Absolutely not. This year is about starting a foundation. A positive win-loss record would be gravy, nothing else.
 
The first rule of CR is "Thou Shall Kick UCONN In The Sack". There is no doubt in my mind that UCF and Cincinnati are next up on the P5 invite list, likely to the B12 in a few years once they realize that their round robin tournament doesn't generate the cash that other P5 conferences get from CGs. CCSU and Fairfield University will be the replacements.

But not young?? We play 200 guys per game and over half of them are FR. How could this roster get any younger?
 
FfldCntyFan said:
I may be overly optimistic (about the program's long term prospects) myself but for the program to get to where I want it to be it needs to be built over more than one offseason.

I don't know what some of the whiners have been watching from 2011 forward but their current reactions lead me to believe they felt we entered this season with a team ready to make a run at double digit wins. We need to build this, this year, next year, the following few seasons. Thinking that this could be turned around in a few months is as silly as believing that this past spring or summer we would hear from the B1G about joining their conference.

Would I prefer a winning season and a bowl game to another year that ends the first weekend in December? Absolutely. Do I believe that we need a bowl game this year in order to rebuild the program? Absolutely not. This year is about starting a foundation. A positive win-loss record would be gravy, nothing else.
Expand ...

I hear you, but if we don't have a reasonable QB back there, we could lose every game by 25 points. I'm more optimistic than most, and I'll be ok if we end up a very competitive 4-8. But if we end up 2-12 and get blown out weekly, how in the world will Diaco even be able to recruit kids to come play here?

I'm going to go to games even if it means I'm in the stadium by myself. I'm mostly worried about apathy reaching even higher levels and we end up with 12K in the seats by the end of the season.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
I don't know what some of the whiners have been watching from 2011 forward but their current reactions lead me to believe they felt we entered this season with a team ready to make a run at double digit wins. We need to build this, this year, next year, the following few seasons. Thinking that this could be turned around in a few months is as silly as believing that this past spring or summer we would hear from the B1G about joining their conference.
Expand ...

See, this is just bs. Yeah, everyone complaining on here really expected 10 wins and to contend for an AAC Title. Please.

My hope was we could get back to respectability and at least be able to beat the bad teams like at the end of last season. A bowl was the goal, but I thought 4/5 wins was more likely.

With all that being said and given the injury to CC, it's still unacceptable for ANY team that UConn fields, in any season to get pushed all over the field by Stony Brook and if Foxx doesn't return that punt... potentially lose to them at home.

My expectations are low but under no circumstance is last week's game even remotely tolerable.
 
.-.
Fishy said:
You really could say that the top of the bottom was P's introductory press conference, but Towson was definitely a branch we hit on our plummet down to the bottom of the canyon.
Expand ...

You mean the one that half the board was swooning over because he said we'd try to get more big plays a game on offense?
 
This sounds like the heavy drinkers thread. I'm going to change my handle to "Doomed."
 
Palatine said:
Then again, Boyle could be the real deal.
Expand ...

Thanks for that. What a bunch of whiners. The team has been terrible, but the D dominated Stony Brook, despite our obvious mistakes that handed them points and took points away from UConn. That game was definitely not as close as the score, and the BYU game was closer than the score.

The single most disappointing thing for me has been the mistakes. Through the whole PP era, this team constantly fumbled at critical times, missed key kicks, botched special teams when it mattered, took bad sacks and threw interceptions at key moments. It's still freaking doing that. It has to stop.

Stop the mistakes. Give Boyle a shot. At some point the light-bulb is going to appear over Tim's head and he's going to just get it. At that point, we'll have the best QB we've had since Dan O. I am convinced of that fact. If we've fixed the stupid mental errors by that time, this team will be far from rock bottom.
 
TheJerk said:
A blimp could crash into the stadium, the growling dog on 3rd down gets cranked up to 11, they raise the cost of water another $1, more birds poop on the bleachers without a pressure wash, it rains every home game the rest of the way, we lose out, punters foot comes flying off after his 18th punt in a single game, UCF Cincy Houston SMU and East Carolina get invited to a P5 Conference, MAC and CUSA refuse to invite the rest of the AAC..there is still plenty of "bottom" to be found
Expand ...

Wish it weren't so, but the thing I learned with the Big East slowly falling apart is that there always seems to be a new bottom around the corner.
 
.-.
Dooley said:
The first rule of CR is "Thou Shall Kick UCONN In The Sack". There is no doubt in my mind that UCF and Cincinnati are next up on the P5 invite list, likely to the B12 in a few years once they realize that their round robin tournament doesn't generate the cash that other P5 conferences get from CGs. CCSU and Fairfield University will be the replacements.

But not young?? We play 200 guys per game and over half of them are FR. How could this roster get any younger?
Expand ...

It won't. A year from now it will be experienced and better than ever.
 
I want every coach spending every extra minute of their time and thought process scouring the earth for offensive lineman. JUCO's, transfers, lumberjacks whatever. Our skill positions that have some talent depend on these guys to develop and produce. It's a good group and we can't afford to waste them.
 
It could be worse, SMU's head coach June Jones just resigned.
 
TheJerk said:
A blimp could crash into the stadium, the growling dog on 3rd down gets cranked up to 11, they raise the cost of water another $1, more birds poop on the bleachers without a pressure wash, it rains every home game the rest of the way, we lose out, punters foot comes flying off after his 18th punt in a single game, UCF Cincy Houston SMU and East Carolina get invited to a P5 Conference, MAC and CUSA refuse to invite the rest of the AAC..there is still plenty of "bottom" to be found
Expand ...
Well that was...oddly comforting.
 
The only way I am wrong about this being rock bottom is if it continues to get worse. I don't see that as possible, and I also hope it isn't possible because worse really is "shut the football program down" time. So let's go with this being rock bottom.

It really comes down to Diaco. He is the program's last chance, because by the time we would pull the plug on him being a failure, the program would be already dead. So he has to succeed. He has not looked good early, but it is way to early to tell if he will figure it out or not.
 
I had posted this as a hypothetical in a different thread, but IF some other conference a few months back were to have said : show us that the P era was a temporary setback, show us that UConn football has a pulse, show us Diaco can turn this around, show us that your fans support your team... And let's talk after the season.

IF that were said, then we are in a world of hurt. Ok even if that wasn't said, but more so if it was.

So is it rock bottom watching our demise in person week to week? No one game seals our fate of course... But for the love of god we need to give fans, non-fans, conferences a reason to believe. So far we haven't and it kills me. Diaco will get us there eventually but will it be too late? That's why barely eeking out a W against SB is unacceptable... There are larger issues at play than simply boiling it down to "a win is a win".
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,381
Messages
4,569,580
Members
10,475
Latest member
Tunwin22


Top Bottom