Thoughts about this recruiting class!

[Hoophound]

Just once I’d like the football team to catch lightning in a bottle and far exceed expectations due to an unforeseen confluence of people and events. It would be such a welcome joy ride for a UConn sports fan this fall. I’m actually looking forward to the basketball coach search just so I can feel passionate about something.

 

[ktuck911]

With Edsall fully entrenched this is possible now.

 

[SubbaBub]

There lived an old farmer who had worked on his fields for many, many years. One day, his horse bolted away. His neighbors dropped in to commiserate with him. “What awful luck,” they tut-tutted sympathetically, to which the farmer only replied, “We’ll see.”

Next morning, to everyone’s surprise, the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How amazing is that!” they exclaimed in excitement. The old man replied, “We’ll see.”

A day later, the farmer’s son tried to mount one of the wild horses. He was thrown on the ground and broke his leg. Once more, the neighbors came by to express their sympathies for this stroke of bad luck. “We’ll see,” said the farmer politely.

The next day, the village had some visitors – military officers who had come with the purpose of drafting young men into the army. They passed over the farmer’s son, thanks to his broken leg. The neighbors patted the farmer on his back – how lucky he was to not have his son join the army! “We’ll see,” was all that the farmer said!

-Proverb

 

[SubbaBub]

If you are losing 8 starters on the worst D in the nation, are you really losing anything?

The bookend to this is, "If last year's guys were so bad, why couldn't their backups who will be starters this year beat them out?"

Under PP and BD, a case could be made for coaching incompetence (favoring upperclassmen, making the easy evaluations on things like the weight room, attendance, and breakfast. I don't think you can make that argument with RE. If there were better guys, RE played them. Look no further than QB. During the pre-season he made one call and once BS showed he was better (took all of one quarter) he stuck with him when the last two guys would have said DP is the starter and will start next week.

 

[hardcorehusky]

People forget this is college football. Kids develop from year to year- I wouldn't look at anyone's previous production as they have an extra year in the weight room and also under this scheme. We still don't have all the pieces- but I bet the pieces fit better than last year's.

I don't care about last year- the D stunk. Yes, this is a rebuild- and I still like what Crocker's D did at Villanova. Given the right players, he can do that here as well. I like the DB's- yes, I like them. They are young but we have enough bodies to make things happen. I like the LB - last year's group was too slow for this D and people made Junior Joseph out to be the Alfred Fincher. Guess what, he wasn't. No knock on him, but the fleeter of foot linebackers will help out. Who was our best blitzing linebacker- Beavers? He was a true freshman playing the position for the first time.

From a D line perspective- if you want your linemen to hold off the O line so the LB's can make the play, then we have the pieces. If you want the D line to disrupt and make the play, you don't have the pieces.

Overall, more familiarity with the D will help them play faster. Crocker was limited because the defensive backfield and linebackers couldn;t do the fundamentals - tackle the ball carrier or receiver in front of you. They had to play guys 10 yards off. They couldn't blitz from wherever because of this. While I am not predicting a Top 75 defense here- I know it will be better than last year. Players will make names for themselves just like those that proceeded them. Time to stop the doom and gloom and trust the coaches.

 

[Hornet22]

People forget this is college football. Kids develop from year to year- I wouldn't look at anyone's previous production as they have an extra year in the weight room and also under this scheme. We still don't have all the pieces- but I bet the pieces fit better than last year's.

I don't care about last year- the D stunk. Yes, this is a rebuild- and I still like what Crocker's D did at Villanova. Given the right players, he can do that here as well. I like the DB's- yes, I like them. They are young but we have enough bodies to make things happen. I like the LB - last year's group was too slow for this D and people made Junior Joseph out to be the Alfred Fincher. Guess what, he wasn't. No knock on him, but the fleeter of foot linebackers will help out. Who was our best blitzing linebacker- Beavers? He was a true freshman playing the position for the first time.

From a D line perspective- if you want your linemen to hold off the O line so the LB's can make the play, then we have the pieces. If you want the D line to disrupt and make the play, you don't have the pieces.

Overall, more familiarity with the D will help them play faster. Crocker was limited because the defensive backfield and linebackers couldn;t do the fundamentals - tackle the ball carrier or receiver in front of you. They had to play guys 10 yards off. They couldn't blitz from wherever because of this. While I am not predicting a Top 75 defense here- I know it will be better than last year. Players will make names for themselves just like those that proceeded them. Time to stop the doom and gloom and trust the coaches.

Amen

 

[huskyrob1]

People forget this is college football. Kids develop from year to year- I wouldn't look at anyone's previous production as they have an extra year in the weight room and also under this scheme. We still don't have all the pieces- but I bet the pieces fit better than last year's.

I don't care about last year- the D stunk. Yes, this is a rebuild- and I still like what Crocker's D did at Villanova. Given the right players, he can do that here as well. I like the DB's- yes, I like them. They are young but we have enough bodies to make things happen. I like the LB - last year's group was too slow for this D and people made Junior Joseph out to be the Alfred Fincher. Guess what, he wasn't. No knock on him, but the fleeter of foot linebackers will help out. Who was our best blitzing linebacker- Beavers? He was a true freshman playing the position for the first time.

From a D line perspective- if you want your linemen to hold off the O line so the LB's can make the play, then we have the pieces. If you want the D line to disrupt and make the play, you don't have the pieces.

Overall, more familiarity with the D will help them play faster. Crocker was limited because the defensive backfield and linebackers couldn;t do the fundamentals - tackle the ball carrier or receiver in front of you. They had to play guys 10 yards off. They couldn't blitz from wherever because of this. While I am not predicting a Top 75 defense here- I know it will be better than last year. Players will make names for themselves just like those that proceeded them. Time to stop the doom and gloom and trust the coaches.

I would say Travis Jones at nose, and Pierce DeVaughn and Guguak at the ends are three very good pieces. Yes, they are Freshman but better than we've had in a few years. Kevon Jones and Hunter Webb aren't bad at LB either. Yes, let's see how they turn out but I feel very good about our defensive recruiting.

 

[ktuck911]

Whatever we do, hopefully all of our DL kids get on campus as soon as they can to get acclamated to one another and the system a little quicker....