UConn vs SMU game thread | Page 21 | The Boneyard

UConn vs SMU game thread

BlueDogs said:
Let's just be a little consistent here. Last year we had one of the worst offenses in CFB and you can go back and find thousands of comments about there being no talent, not enough speed, no playmakers, no line, the worst QB, etc... I don't think you can have it both ways. Let's put aside scheme and just deal with straight facts. The O is transformed and D is not competitive with the same upfront core. Yes, the DBs are young and inexperienced. I'll grant that. They will and do get burned. Fine. Getting routinely beat this badly virtually every series, including by Holy Cross just doesn't seem to add up. There is something more fundamental afoot. I agree Beavers and Taj are going to be very good.
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I mean, there's also the possibility that Lashlee is just a really, really good coach. That doesn't mean by comparison Crocker is bad because he didn't get the defense up to speed as fast as Lashlee has.
 
JMick said:
I mean, there's also the possibility that Lashlee is just a really, really good coach. That doesn't mean by comparison Crocker is bad because he didn't get the defense up to speed as fast as Lashlee has.
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As I said, I'm ok with that idea but dead last? I don't know. I'll give you there were signs of improvement on the D for a few series.
 
Not sure about others but I saw some improvements today on defense in stopping the run and better than in the past three games. I like our Freshman who starts or plays a good deal. Herring-Wilson, Van Demark, DeGeorge, Fortt, Beavers, Donaldson, and Skanes. The future is looking healthier than it has in a few years. Just have to add others to the mix.
 
Who is Mike Anthony at the Courant? He's a clown. He said the stadium was "virtually empty". I was there. I saw a half-full stadium of about 16,000, maybe 18,000. "Virtually empty" would be 1,000 or 2,000.
 
uconnbill said:
Not sure about others but I saw some improvements today on defense in stopping the run and better than in the past three games. I like our Freshman who starts or plays a good deal. Herring-Wilson, Van Demark, DeGeorge, Fortt, Beavers, Donaldson, and Skanes. The future is looking healthier than it has in a few years. Just have to add others to the mix.
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Improvements in tackling ... we did better in YAC today.
 
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Redding Husky said:
Who is Mike Anthony at the Courant? He's a clown. He said the stadium was "virtually empty". I was there. I saw a half-full stadium of about 16,000, maybe 18,000. "Virtually empty" would be 1,000 or 2,000.
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He was there too...
 
huskymedic said:
He was there too...
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I'm sure he was. And I don't understand it. I'm sincerely confused (no trolling here). Why would he claim the stadium was empty when it was about half full?
 
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Shirreffs gets criticism for holding the ball too long, but he didn't have any int's today. The game would have been lost much earlier if he had thrown a couple pick 6's.
 
BlueDogs said:
Let's just be a little consistent here. Last year we had one of the worst offenses in CFB and you can go back and find thousands of comments about there being no talent, not enough speed, no playmakers, no line, the worst QB, etc... I don't think you can have it both ways. Let's put aside scheme and just deal with straight facts. The O is transformed and D is not competitive with the same upfront core. Yes, the DBs are young and inexperienced. I'll grant that. They will and do get burned. Fine. Getting routinely beat this badly virtually every series, including by Holy Cross just doesn't seem to add up. There is something more fundamental afoot. I agree Beavers and Taj are going to be very good.
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The offense was horrible the last few years, granted, but I don’t blame the talent. It was the coaches. Diaco, who is/was considered a great DC was at the helm. A defensive coordinator at the helm! Then hires Verducci as the OC? Really? Oh let’s not forget Mike Cummings lol you can have Alabama players with these three weak offensive minded coaches and we still may have been weak in the AAC or nation at that. The talent is there on offense and finally we have a creative offensive minded coach like Lashlee to take control. On Defense, I get the sense that we lack talent, depth and speed, that’s evident. Crocker is a PROVEN defensive coordinator, unlike Verducci, Cummings, and Diaco who are NOT PROVEN offensive coordinators. Shouldn’t compare both sides of the ball. It’s going to take time unfortunately. Did you see Beavers get into the backfield a few times? With speed? Guess what? He was not recruited by Diaco. If you haven’t seen Crocker’s defense at work, I’d suggest you go watch some film.
 
huskymedic said:
Recruited and offered by Diaco staff as SS/WR coming out of Ohio - committed to Edsall staff.
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I had to think about that one, but still looks to be a great fit on Crocker’s defense.
 
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Attendance today: 17,237 (capacity 32,000)

Disappointing for SMU because they have a pretty good team and the weather was good (a little warm).
 
Redding Husky said:
Attendance today: 17,237 (capacity 32,000)

Disappointing for SMU because they have a pretty good team and the weather was good (a little warm).
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I think they stole our designated attendance announcer. That guy usually fluffs the numbers a good 25-50%. In no way did that place look to be half full. I was thinking most of the game, smu has a good fun team and are playing an exciting game today. They have been at least listed as others receiving votes in the polls. Why aren't more there. Their fans missed out.
 
Managed to watch the ESPN3 replay late last night.

In the fourth quarter the wheels came off with about 8 minutes to go in the game. Just eight minutes left!

It seems like a couple things happened.
-The spiral started with the bad snap at mid field. That just put us in too deep of a whole.
-On offense the Oline play suddenly fell apart. Did they just tire? I think so. But also Sherriffs started to hold the ball a wee bit too long in a couple downs leading to sacks as well.
-SMU on offense started to really roll with running the ball. We lost contain on the edge and we lost it up the middle too (and we had been defending the run up the middle pretty well). In some ways it was scheme, but maybe we just felt gassed.

I feel like both the offense and Dline just hit a wall in the last 8 minutes of the game. The tired out.
 
TheDrifter75 said:
I think they stole our designated attendance announcer. That guy usually fluffs the numbers a good 25-50%. In no way did that place look to be half full. I was thinking most of the game, smu has a good fun team and are playing an exciting game today. They have been at least listed as others receiving votes in the polls. Why aren't more there. Their fans missed out.
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I was there. It looked slightly more than half full to me. The West side was filled, and there were another 2,000 or 3,000 in the end zones and on the east side.

The east side was about 90% empty.
 
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uconnbill said:
Not sure about others but I saw some improvements today on defense in stopping the run and better than in the past three games. I like our Freshman who starts or plays a good deal. Herring-Wilson, Van Demark, DeGeorge, Fortt, Beavers, Donaldson, and Skanes. The future is looking healthier than it has in a few years. Just have to add others to the mix.
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Saw huge improvements.. Pressure on the QB, blitz schemes, multiple fronts. Baby steps. 21St century offense, need to get these pups up to speed on defense. A lot of freshmen playing in the secondary, huge learning curve.
 
Entertaining game and much better product on field all season but still long way to go and need to tighten up a lot and while refreshing to have somewhat positive announcers, thought they were going to give us a participation trophy. Special teams have to stop taking a stupid penalty every game and kicking game still makes me nervous. On defense SMU is an explosive team but we need to move away from 3-3-5 except in maybe passing downs as we have more serviceable linebackers than DB's and got sliced up on running plays as with three man line while the linemen occupy line you need linebackers to make tackles and also lack of linebackers leaves big gap in middle of field. Secondary will struggle with 4 or 5 back there but 3-4 front seven could be a strength. Like Lashlee, Crocker and Edsall ( sure he is involved on defense) have to work around what they have. Lashlee has been great, enjoy him while we have him as he will be a head coach next year or move back as a OC to a P5 team, either way making a 1M a year next year and probably taking Grimes with him. Shirreffs played great and got ball out quickly and made great reads as he is smart, receivers did great job getting open, getting big gains after catch and downfield blocking. McLean was a revelation. Was very disappointed in line play against a weak defense as running game and pass protection fell apart with Crozier and Hopkins out of line up. Oak might had first game jitters but did wear down as game worn down, being light and athletic makes Van Demark a big asset in space on screens, being light also makes him a huge liability in run and pass blocking as he is just not strong enough yet to be full time player. Shirreffs took some huge hits, after pass completion in first half and sideline sack in second half thought he might have been injured initially and will not last if they do not get line back on track. Running backs hard to judge as nowhere to go but Hopkins ran hard. Future is bright and team fun to watch again, hoping with some adjustments will be able to win some of these games this year.
 
What was the attendance at the game? There looked to be NO ONE there.
 
Redding Husky said:
Who is Mike Anthony at the Courant? He's a clown. He said the stadium was "virtually empty". I was there. I saw a half-full stadium of about 16,000, maybe 18,000. "Virtually empty" would be 1,000 or 2,000.
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It certainly looked empty on TV.
 
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