UConn Football: The Bridge Year

[FfldCntyFan]

Diaco rebuild = Edsall rebuild.

It also may equate to a George O'Leary rebuild (look at his first year at UCF). Also, those b!tch!ng about how we closed the season last year need to take a good look at how Memphis, in their second season with Fuente in charge closed he 2012 season. I would wager that many here saw their season ending game first hand.

 

[CL82]

I don't think it is reasonable to conclude just yet that the Program is likely to perform like it did last year on a consistent basis, considering the circumstances. Me either.

I interpreted your: "Bob has to show something this year," as not giving him the BotD, like so many others. I think that Diaco actually had a method to his madness last season. The comments? Some could have been worded differently without losing the over all point. Others were taken out of context. C'est le vie. It's a new season. It's a different team and fully expect improvement until he shows me otherwise. For Pasqualoni, it was the Temple game in Season 2, which if I recall correctly, was a win!!

I think we're in agreement.

The Bob has to show something comment is a fundamental truism. Have a bad year at work, well if you have a good track record you've got a good shot at surviving it. Have a bad year in your first year, you've got to show something in year two and show it fairly quickly. It doesn't have to be winning season, obviously, just progress. More cohesive play, the ability to score consistently, smothering D...something. That's how it is.

I think Diaco appeared to be a great hire, and I truly hope he does, but, like I said above, I'm worried because we can't afford another bad hire which would result in another restart.

We'll see soon enough. Nova is a tough enough test to give us a sense of the progress that has been made.

 

[J187Money]

Bob Diaco is the head coach, and it's his job to put a team together that can achieve success in #1 the classroom and #2 on the field in the AAC conference. He appears to have taken the past year to squarely address #1 successfully. He was hired in December 2013, and as of Thursday evening Sept 3, 2015, he will have had essentially 20-21 calendar months on the job to identify and assemble a roster of 105 players, 85 scholarships, for kickoff that night, that fit both #1 and #2. He will have had 2 spring football sessions, 2 fall camps, and 1 full season of practice and game experience as a head coach in guiding his staff in running practices, developing game plans, and competing in games. The majority of his roster will have had at least one full off season strength and conditioning program, and most will have had 2. On Thursday night Sept. 3 will play Andy Talley's Villanova 1-AA team. The game should be a fight early, but by the second half, we should be dominating them. Their quarterback should come away from this game beaten up and bruised, and their running game held to a very low total. Our offense should be efficient enough to maintain possession and advance the ball and gain first downs (NO TURNOVERS) - and disciplined enough not to be committing procedural and fundamental skill penalties (PLEASE NO MORE CHOP BLOCKS) and win the battle of the line of scrimmage on offense because of strength condition and recruiting of lineman and TE's and backs, and generate high percentage field position scoring opportunities. Then we need to score. The kicking game needs to cover kicks and punts effectively, and catch kicks effectively without turnovers. We do all of that, and this game should be over by middle of 3rd quarter - in our favor. Apologies to JMoney, but if we're relying on our own QB play to win this game - we are in trouble I think. Following that - we get Army at home. The terrible triple option offense. That will be another fantastic test of where we are at as a coaching staff and a team, and once again, apologies to JMoney, but if we are relying on QB play again to win that game, we are in trouble. We shouldn't really need a great game from the QB position until week 3. We will know a heck of a lot more about this team, and Bob Diaco as a head coach, by the end of week 2, than we learned all of last season - I think.

You have no idea how much I want to agree with you. I'm not being a pessimist. I will just believe it when I see it.

Btw I enjoy the experience either way. I don't like losing but it isn't going to keep me from coming to the games.

The only thing that will is outside obligations. Looks like my sons high school football schedule was designed specifically to keep me from the Rent.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Diaco did what he hinted he was going to do; I have a fighter that is fat, weak, unconditioned and mentally undisciplined. He has to go 12 rounds. He wont be able to throw many punches because missing is going to wear him out. He will be covering up for most of the fight. We just got to get through this fight. We are going to be better prepared for the next one.
We are sorry, we felt we had to do this, here is a couple of hockey tickets and btw we are truly interested in your input on how to improve the game day experience.
No one is going to pay to see a fight where one of the combatants just covers up. He bought himself a year to get his guy in shape and learn some skills. Diaco can't coach like he did last year. Nobody will show up after the Army game.

 

[06029]

Calhouns first season UConn went 9-19. Different sport but same concept, these things take time

Not even close to analogous. BB can be impacted by 1 to 2 outstanding players surrounded by 5 to 6 adequate role players. In BB, the head coach has a much more dramatic impact as the interaction with all the players is constant. The coaching is constant. The imposing of the coaches will is constant and immediate.

FB, you need at least 15 to 20 adequate role and 2 to 3 outstanding players at the skill positions on both sides of the ball. Finding the 2 to 3 and not surrounding them with adequate during a season, they look ordinary. The head coach in FB has less of an impact as well since the day to day interactions and coaching of the players is up to the position coaches. While BD may interact with every player (and I am sure he does), his ability to impose his will is far less than any BB head coach.

Baby steps should be the expectation after the last few years. BD has done about as good a job as he can in setting the expectation bar fairly low. I hope he exceeds it.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Diaco rebuild = Edsall rebuild.

There are ways that this makes sense. Edsall had to take a team that was built to 1-AA conference recruiting standards under Skip Holtz and bring it up to 1-A conference standards. We had lots of really good players in the late 1990's under Skip Holtz, but it was a 1-AA roster and 85-63 = 22.

That's the difference between 1A and 1AA, a full 11 man squad on both sides of the ball for the depth chart to be recruited to play scholarship ball through NLI cycles. Given the state of the program in 2011 with a coaching change and a small class that needed to be large, with attrition, and then another coaching change, that kind of recruiting problem is similar to what Edsall had to do b/w 1999 and 2001.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You have no idea how much I want to agree with you. I'm not being a pessimist. I will just believe it when I see it.

Btw I enjoy the experience either way. I don't like losing but it isn't going to keep me from coming to the games.

The only thing that will is outside obligations. Looks like my sons high school football schedule was designed specifically to keep me from the Rent.

We are on the same page JMoney. I'm going to continue buying tickets, that's a given now. If I was going to stop, it would have been this year. I'll hold on to them like baseball cards I suppose, and hope they're valueable again someday. I'm in a tough spot with my family too. It's easy to justify going to games when they are good, and missing other stuff, but I've really had to work this season. Army and Navy are givens, as is opening day, but I will have a tough sell later in the season if things proceed like they did last year. My wife isn't going to put up with me going to games with my buddies and ending up turning it into what it turned into most of the time last year. The Cincinnati game was the last straw. Showing up at home, when I did, in the condition I did, after a 41-0 loss? I'll need better excuses to go out with my old buddies and do that again in the future. I didn't even know the final score until the next day. I think it was 33-0 when we left.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Diaco did what he hinted he was going to do; I have a fighter that is fat, weak, unconditioned and mentally undisciplined. He has to go 12 rounds. He wont be able to throw many punches because missing is going to wear him out. He will be covering up for most of the fight. We just got to get through this fight. We are going to be better prepared for the next one.
We are sorry, we felt we had to do this, here is a couple of hockey tickets and btw we are truly interested in your input on how to improve the game day experience.
No one is going to pay to see a fight where one of the combatants just covers up. He bought himself a year to get his guy in shape and learn some skills. Diaco can't coach like he did last year. Nobody will show up after the Army game.

The only thing I disagree with is the last line. Some people will show up for Navy.

 

[freescooter]

What are you trying to say? This is HFD-style incoherent, but let's see if I can parse through this...


I assume you meant Stony Brook, who UConn beat last year and if you did not adjust your expectations for what the 2014 could do after the Temple game, then that is on you.



Um, ok, but I'm unclear on what has to do with anything. Franklin beat Rutgers last year when he was coach of Penn State. According to the 2011, 2012, and 2013 schedules, the Commodores did not play Rutgers, let alone not beat them while Franklin was at Vanderbilt.



So Vanderbilt was playing with a broken 2nd string QB, behind a (more or less) makeshift offensive line and a roster with less depth than most Div. 2 schools?



UConn was also were in striking distance going into the 4th quarter vs. Boise State, East Carolina, USF (despite the stupid game plan adjustment), and ARMY. I had to leave the SMU game because of a medical emergency, but UConn was winning when I left. There are no two ways around UConn being a bad football team last year so I am not sure what makes you think UConn should have won any of the games you mentioned. After Temple, I thought one, maybe two more tops. On the other hand, I did not think either one would be UCF.

I don't know what else can be said except that 2015 is a new season.

Look Franklin went into the worst college football situation in the country, lined up and won 6 games in year 1, something nobody had done there since 1980s. If he had so much talent how come they won 2 to he year before and UConn ran them out of the building I might add. Before Franklin they had a worse history than Rutgers before Schiano. That was the point. This guy coming in and wins in year 1 in a place where there had been 1 winning season in 30 years I the SEC and you say he had a weak schedule. I thought UConn was set up to make a run in 2014 because we had a weak schedule. Maybe we win 6. Maybe we get lucky and get 7. It can be done. But not if you treat the first 4 games as pre-season, basically run up the white flag against USF and don't bother game planning for the rest.

 

[J187Money]

Diaco did what he hinted he was going to do; I have a fighter that is fat, weak, unconditioned and mentally undisciplined. He has to go 12 rounds. He wont be able to throw many punches because missing is going to wear him out. He will be covering up for most of the fight. We just got to get through this fight. We are going to be better prepared for the next one. We are sorry, we felt we had to do this, here is a couple of hockey tickets and btw we are truly interested in your input on how to improve the game day experience. No one is going to pay to see a fight where one of the combatants just covers up. He bought himself a year to get his guy in shape and learn some skills. Diaco can't coach like he did last year. Nobody will show up after the Army game.

Close.

But choosing not to punch when the guy leaves himself open or is dancing around the ring with his back to you is never a winning strategy. At least try.

 

[J187Money]

We are on the same page JMoney. I'm going to continue buying tickets, that's a given now. If I was going to stop, it would have been this year. I'll hold on to them like baseball cards I suppose, and hope they're valueable again someday. I'm in a tough spot with my family too. It's easy to justify going to games when they are good, and missing other stuff, but I've really had to work this season. Army and Navy are givens, as is opening day, but I will have a tough sell later in the season if things proceed like they did last year. My wife isn't going to put up with me going to games with my buddies and ending up turning it into what it turned into most of the time last year. The Cincinnati game was the last straw. Showing up at home, when I did, in the condition I did, after a 41-0 loss? I'll need better excuses to go out with my old buddies and do that again in the future. I didn't even know the final score until the next day. I think it was 33-0 when we left.

I will only miss UCONN football for other football (or other really special events). This year in order of importance.

1a) Vegas for iHeartRadio music festival (kills the Mizzou trip)

1b) My son's HS games. He should be varsity this year.

2) Packers games (for the 2 or 3 I will go to)

3) UConn games.

4) Anything else.

 

[freescooter]

Close.

But choosing not to punch when the guy leaves himself open or is dancing around the ring with his back to you is never a winning strategy. At least try.

And that, at the end of the day is my issue. I actually think we agree more than we disagree J. I just think we need to see the evidence of progress more quickly than you do.

 

[J187Money]

And that, at the end of the day is my issue. I actually think we agree more than we disagree J. I just think we need to see the evidence of progress more quickly than you do.

I think the only thing we really disagree on (this time) is what the Villanova game means. Until I see it on the field, I believe based on recent evidence that Villanova is a better football team than we are. Army is a different story. I think this is a 2 game story, not a 1 game story. 2-0, great. 1-1, ok. 0-2, yes we have a serious problem.

 

[Husky25]

Look Franklin went into the worst college football situation in the country, lined up and won 6 games in year 1, something nobody had done there since 1980s. If he had so much talent how come they won 2 to he year before and UConn ran them out of the building I might add. Before Franklin they had a worse history than Rutgers before Schiano. That was the point. This guy coming in and wins in year 1 in a place where there had been 1 winning season in 30 years I the SEC and you say he had a weak schedule. I thought UConn was set up to make a run in 2014 because we had a weak schedule. Maybe we win 6. Maybe we get lucky and get 7. It can be done. But not if you treat the first 4 games as pre-season, basically run up the white flag against USF and don't bother game planning for the rest.

Worse than Louisiana-Lafeyette? North Texas? Worse than UConn 2014? Vanderbilt was the worst college football situation in the SEC, but country-wide at that time or versus UConn 2014 is highly, highly, debatable.

Regarding UConn winning vs. Vandy in 2010: I assume you remember that UConn went to the Fiesta Bowl that year. UConn then lost Frasier, Todman, Shoemate, Frey, Sherman, Olivier, Hurd, Polito, 'Bama, Lloyd, and Lutrus before the 2011 season (Oh, and their coach). Of course, that doesn't fit your spin.

I never said Vandy had a weak schedule in 2011. I did however point out that they did not have a win vs. an opponent with a winning record and the combined W% of those teams was barely over .360. Whatever. Good for him. His team won the games and he parlayed it into a Big Ten coaching gig. Still doesn't mean he had a quality win in 2011.

Finally, I thought 7-5 was in play in 2014. I drank every last drop of the Diaco Kool-Aid in December 2013. I also took him at his word when giving his assessment of the team during the Spring, Summer and throughout the fall. It became quite obvious what he was doing and as such, I adjusted my expectations. I do wish he stopped saying it as time went on, but pretty much everything he said was true. Diaco gets the benefit of the doubt from me until it's time where he doesn't deserve it. That time is nowhere near upon us.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

And that, at the end of the day is my issue. I actually think we agree more than we disagree J. I just think we need to see the evidence of progress more quickly than you do.

Who would you and J trust to that? On O and Specials? Who?

 

[freescooter]

H25
You miss the point. Vandy had 1 winning season in 30 years. Let me say that again. They had one winning season in 30 years. And this guy comes in and turns it around. They were a joke. We on the other hand lost to Army and SMU. And the coach quit at South Florida. And called the first 4 games the pre-season. So we need to se major improvement this year. He threw last year away against a weak schedule. Squandered lots of goodwill as the "crowd" at the SMU debacle showed and as the season ticket sales are showing now. Here's the thing. You can do what Diaco did and some other coaches have done but you best be successful going forward or you wreck the program for years to come.

 

[kemba]

I thought UConn was set up to make a run in 2014 because we had a weak schedule. Maybe we win 6. Maybe we get lucky and get 7.

I thought the same, optimistically.

Should be obvious now though that we were wrong. Regardless of preseason games, etc., a quick turnaround like that was never on the table.

 

[J187Money]

If CC hadn't been hurt we might have been ok. I think most of us thought that 6/7 wins were possible BECAUSE we thought we had a QB. Turns out we didn't. And also turns out we didn't have Cardale Jones on the bench.

 

[Jimdish255]

Diaco did what he hinted he was going to do; I have a fighter that is fat, weak, unconditioned and mentally undisciplined. He has to go 12 rounds. He wont be able to throw many punches because missing is going to wear him out. He will be covering up for most of the fight. We just got to get through this fight. We are going to be better prepared for the next one.
We are sorry, we felt we had to do this, here is a couple of hockey tickets and btw we are truly interested in your input on how to improve the game day experience.
No one is going to pay to see a fight where one of the combatants just covers up. He bought himself a year to get his guy in shape and learn some skills. Diaco can't coach like he did last year. Nobody will show up after the Army game.

Not even close to analogous. BB can be impacted by 1 to 2 outstanding players surrounded by 5 to 6 adequate role players. In BB, the head coach has a much more dramatic impact as the interaction with all the players is constant. The coaching is constant. The imposing of the coaches will is constant and immediate.

FB, you need at least 15 to 20 adequate role and 2 to 3 outstanding players at the skill positions on both sides of the ball. Finding the 2 to 3 and not surrounding them with adequate during a season, they look ordinary. The head coach in FB has less of an impact as well since the day to day interactions and coaching of the players is up to the position coaches. While BD may interact with every player (and I am sure he does), his ability to impose his will is far less than any BB head coach.

Baby steps should be the expectation after the last few years. BD has done about as good a job as he can in setting the expectation bar fairly low. I hope he exceeds it.

These two posts pretty much cover where we are at right now, but if you look at the impact of certain coaches and their ability to elevate an offense ie: Spurrier or a mid-level team into one that consistently goes Bowling you can see the risk we took hiring a guy that a) was not a head coach and b) was a defensive coordinator. I think it's clear at this point that Coach D, with all the positive changes he's trying to implement needs an OC he can lean heavily on from scheme to preparation to game management. The fitness and culture are foundational prerequisites to the team being mentally and physically ready to compete. But the right coaches utilizing their talent with the proper gameplan and gameday decisions, determine whether we're just competing versus winning games.

It would be nice to hear some introspective responses during AAC media weeks from Coach D on the evolution of his own approach to coaching and preparation as opposed to just an x's and o's evaluation of our players.

 

[Husky25]

You can't make a discernible point when your analogies don't work. I seems like you entered "first year coach winning record" into the search bar and fill in selective details after the fact. You are a broken record and only interested in picking at the low hanging fruit fed to you by Wikipedia. At this point you are the very definition of insanity.

I'm done with the Vanderbilt comparison because it is not one. The only similarity is a rookie head coach. Vanderbilt did not lose their starting quarterback for the season. 80% of their line did not turn over (In fact they came back 100% intact in 2011 with experience...and Zac Stacy). They did not end the season with 60 scholarship players, and they did not lose a 1st round draft pick or high impact receiver halfway through the season.

I understand you can only Judge Diaco on what he has already done (for the umpteenth time, Diaco never said preseason. You are spinning Jeff Jacobs' interpretation.), but after seeing what he had to work with and the condition of the conference on the field in 2014 (not on paper), did you really not adjust your expectations? Also, in hindsight I don't think it reasonable to maintain that UConn's 2014 schedule was all that weak either. BYU and Boise State added to Cincinnati, Central Florida, and ECU. All the while, Memphis was obviously drastically improved.

Instead of the doom and gloom comparisons, how about comparing apples to apples. Temple was 2-10 in 2013 with a new coach. They were 6-6 in year 2 (No bowl bid). Better yet, Matt Rhule is a first time head coach.

Looking forward, I agree. Given how Diaco managed the team last year, they must show major signs of improvement if UConn hopes to be taken seriously. This may not happen anyway. Even after the Fiesta Bowl bid, UConn fans still "don't travel well" and the National BB Championship 4 months later cements UConn as a basketball school. Be that as it may, it makes no sense to ignore reports coming out of spring camp or player tweets this summer about their conditioning and development only to assume improvement won't without evidence of it.

 

[uconnphil2016]

OT but a few members of the football team were volunteering at the camp where I work today in Hartford and I have to say I was so impressed with how well they engaged with the kids. We've truly got a group of great kids on our hands and that's something worth rooting for. Whether were 2-10 or 10-2 this season, we ought to be proud

 

[hardcorehusky]

Where Diaco got himself on the hotseat with the fanbase(not anyone at the University) is as follows:
(1) off the wall comments - first 4 games are pre-season, etc
(2) Not trying to win at USF, losing to an Army team that lost to Yale and losing to SMU at home
(3) a perceived lack of improvement offensively as the year progressed.

When Randy first came in - he cleaned house and brought in his own guys - but you could see the improvements- and a lot of it had to do with Orlovsky figuring things out the second half of his sophomore year. But Randy did not say anything that off the wall and even if he did not say much, a fan could relate to what he was doing.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Randy didn't follow PP who should have been brought up on negligent charges.

 

[uconnphil2016]

Where Diaco got himself on the hotseat with the fanbase(not anyone at the University) is as follows:
(1) off the wall comments - first 4 games are pre-season, etc
(2) Not trying to win at USF, losing to an Army team that lost to Yale and losing to SMU at home
(3) a perceived lack of improvement offensively as the year progressed.

When Randy first came in - he cleaned house and brought in his own guys - but you could see the improvements- and a lot of it had to do with Orlovsky figuring things out the second half of his sophomore year. But Randy did not say anything that off the wall and even if he did not say much, a fan could relate to what he was doing.

Totally agree. I'm rooting for HCBD to succeed but his comments are dangerous in that they make us a laughingstock rather than simply a bad program. Once your program becomes the brunt of comedic routines you're kinda screwed. If we're going to suck, let's at least do so quietly.

 

[Nostical]

As I've said before, Diaco, while currently labeled as zany, will be deemed to be inspirational and witty when he wins. In the meantime a friend in St Louis says the word out there is that MO better not sleep on the Huskies as UConn is "expected to be much improved and will sneak up on some folks". Mizzou opens vs Southeast Missouri State and then Arkansas State, both of which they are expected to dominate. UConn is up next and the thought (I wouldn't say fear) is that the Tigers will be coasting and we could surprise. They obviously got some positive feedback on us from spring practice since I was told they track every opponent and their spring game). I liked hearing that.