UConn Coaching changes

[Waquoit]

No one is saying he will suck at his new position.

We are saying he was great at his last position, so why move him?

And it seems that the feedback is that it seems he was most effective under HCRE's ball control system, less so under Coach P's more pass oriented system.

 

[2Infinity]

Hmmmm. I wonder where we ranked in pass attempts?

Some interesting stats contrasting the last two seasons passing-wise:

Year --- Att/G --- Yds/G --- Rating --- TDs --- INTs --- Sacks Alw/G
2010 --- 27.5 ----- 151.1* --- 103.07* --- 10* ----- 9 -------- 1.15*
2011 --- 29.9 ------194.7* --- 113.22* --- 14 ------ 9*-------- 3.42

* lowest in Big East conference

A nice move up in yardage per game, though not where we want to be. Lowest interception total in league! With only two passing attempts more per game, the sacks allowed per game jumped a lot! From the stats, and not saying he is great, but it doesn't look like Johnny Mac was the worst QB we could have had, as some would like us to believe.

 

[Excalibur]

Some interesting stats contrasting the last two seasons passing-wise:

Year --- Att/G --- Yds/G --- Rating --- TDs --- INTs --- Sacks Alw/G
2010 --- 27.5 ----- 151.1* --- 103.07* --- 10* ----- 9 -------- 1.15*
2011 --- 29.9 ------194.7* --- 113.22* --- 14 ------ 9*-------- 3.42

* lowest in Big East conference

A nice move up in yardage per game, though not where we want to be. Lowest interception total in league! With only two passing attempts more per game, the sacks allowed per game jumped a lot! From the stats, and not saying he is great, but it doesn't look like Johnny Mac was the worst QB we could have had, as some would like us to believe.

What I noticed this year is that, if Mac was hit early, he got really gun shy, and would often tuck the ball and take the sack at the slightest hint of pressure. This was more of an issue early in the year, where the protection was nowhere near as good as it was later on.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Let me make this point again. I think it was missed. We play in the big east. The big east has some of the strongest defensive fronts, and pass rushers in the country, guys that come through and move on to the NFL year in and year out. It's something that's been here for a while in this league, many years.

Anyone think that Randy Edsall didn't know this? In the past, we overcame, by developing an offense that didn't rely too much on 1-1 battles at the line with the OL. We were an offensive line that moved A LOT. We pulled, we trapped, we ran the ball. WHen it came to pass protections, we didn't send out 4 and 5 routes regularly, a majority of the time there were two major route trees in any play call, and sometimes a third, rarely 4, never 5. That means more guys in tight to block on passing downs.

The head guy we've got now, is also quite aware of the type of defenses out there in this league, and is putting in an offensive system, such that when we face those kinds of defensive fronts, with guys out there that will play in the NFL, we're going to do it by having players on our side of the ball that can take them on 1-1 in blocking situations at the line of scrimmage while we're sending out plays with 4 routes and 5 routes built in. That means TE's and OT's better be top notch, because the pass rush coming around the edge are the ones that are most dangerous.

So why do you take a guy that's successful at one little piece of the football game, and move him to something else? To challenge him to be better, and to make your team better at the same time. To tell him, that we've got a serious and focused job to do, and you got it.

It's a pretty common management tool at higher level management. You take people that are smart and good, and make them smarter and better by giving them new tasks. It wouldn't surprise me - IF - Foley is still here next year, that he's back to the full OL duties.

But for now, we need somebody who's going to get the TE's and OT"s up to the speed and skill they need to be to handle an NFL quality pass rush 1-1, and get them up to speed quick, and at the same time get the TE's up to speed in being as diverse in teh offense down field and in the various roles in the formations, and Foley is the guy that drew the stick.

As for my comments on lack of development in pass rush skills, well - that's your management challenge right there. I don't think there's anybody that can question whether or not we've been good at developing run blocking offensive linemen. That's not to say the coach CAN'T do it, but now he's got the challenge to go out there and prove that he CAN do it.

We'll see. I'm excited about the move.

I"m still very much concerned though, as to why we've got no QB coach yet. Surprises me that everybody's concerned about this Foley / Deleone thing, and nobody's talking about that.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

No one is saying he will suck at his new position.

We are saying he was great at his last position, so why move him?

usually i right with you dave, but i think we need a guy who can coach pass blocking technique. obviously pp saw something lacking in that area from foley.

i like this move. when PP was with Dallas, he had the best TE group one year, then was moved to LB coach. it worked well because PP is a football guy....not just a LB/TE guy. Foley is the same. he has been in the game for a long time, and knows probably every position.

We needed the O line to pass block better this season, and we needed the TE's to run block better. Foley can definitely teach that. I think this move solves both problems pretty darn well.

 

[Carl Spackler]

usually i right with you dave, but i think we need a guy who can coach pass blocking technique. obviously pp saw something lacking in that area from foley.

i like this move. when PP was with Dallas, he had the best TE group one year, then was moved to LB coach. it worked well because PP is a football guy....not just a LB/TE guy. Foley is the same. he has been in the game for a long time, and knows probably every position.

We needed the O line to pass block better this season, and we needed the TE's to run block better. Foley can definitely teach that. I think this move solves both problems pretty darn well.

Excellent points. The TE's need to get better at both pass and run blocking. The OT"s need to be able to handle 1-1 situations against the best pass rushers in the country.

Putting Foley specifically on this, and leaving Deleone to handle interior OL with the OC duties is a bad thing? not to me.

Randy Edsall is/was a very good football coach and tactician. He developed a program in the big east, built a football program that was pretty darn solid based on the building blocks he was working with against the competition we face year in and year out. He did it on both sides of the ball.

What happened though, very clearly, over the years in the big east, is that the tactics he came up with to be successful on the football field on offense and defense, not as clear on D as O, but against the competition in our league, the offensive system we developed to be competitive came at the cost of progressively limiting our ability to do things on the field offensively in the passing game.

and defensively....what happened is that the ability to move outside the boundaries of a very rigid system progressively decreased. I mean we were so god damn predictable on the field by 2010 it was ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with being that predictable, but if you're going to be, the flip side of the coin is that you need to have the very best athletes on the field, at every single position,

The passing game went progressively down the ladder as an aspect of offensive football in recent years, and the concepts of pressuring the offense on defense went progressively out the window. and it made us more and more predictable year in and year out, and we didn't have the best players in the country up and down the roster, and all of that factors in to the type of athletes that you're going to be able to recruit successfully - especially if you're not a real exceptional kind of personality guy when it comes to recruiting.

It needed to change. The program needed to change. It has changed.

 

[FDNY99]

I honestly thought we would see a massive staff purge after Moorehead left given our record and the fact that aside from DeLeone, Brown, and White the rest of the staff isn't one of P's guys. I said it once in this thread and I will say it again...we have been spoiled as fans with the longevity of our assistant coaching staff. What happened to this staff when Edsall left is the exception not the norm! If P ends up getting fired or not having his contract extended be prepared for a complete staff turn over. If Foley ends up leaving after next season I wish him luck, he has done a good job for us while he was here; and someone else will take his place that P hires....P's guy.