Ugly Wins Vs Not Winning | The Boneyard

Ugly Wins Vs Not Winning

cohenzone

cohenzone

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So last week there was a lot of whining on the BY about an “ugly” win over Rice. That would be the same Rice that beat a pretty good Navy team yesterday. I know the loss to us caused Rice to fire the coach, but still. I know it’s futile, but i hope everybody accepts the simple truth that a win doesn’t have to be a work of art. There are no asterisks in the record books subtracting beauty points.
 
cohenzone said:
So last week there was a lot of whining on the BY about an “ugly” win over Rice. That would be the same Rice that beat a pretty good Navy team yesterday. I know the loss to us caused Rice to fire the coach, but still. I know it’s futile, but i hope everybody accepts the simple truth that a win doesn’t have to be a work of art. There are no asterisks in the record books subtracting beauty points.
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I generally agree with your take. Every case is different though. For the 2024 edition of UCFB, my frustration (and whining if I'm honest) comes from seeing the extent to which QB play has clearly cost us wins/easier wins and, yes beauty points. If we look at the mean of O, D, and ST play it's hard to avoid the fact that QB play is the weakest link, and not by a little. And let's face it, top level college football still has a significant unofficial beauty contest element to it. Not gonna beat this horse anymore. Just expressing the reason for frustration (and whining if I'm being honest). I'm curious if others feel the same way.
 
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cohenzone said:
So last week there was a lot of whining on the BY about an “ugly” win over Rice. That would be the same Rice that beat a pretty good Navy team yesterday. I know the loss to us caused Rice to fire the coach, but still. I know it’s futile, but i hope everybody accepts the simple truth that a win doesn’t have to be a work of art. There are no asterisks in the record books subtracting beauty points.
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I honestly think the people who complain are one if the following:

1. Football fans who think every game is a P4 referendum

2. Secret football haters who are mad they are winning and would rather program seize. Ugly wins are infuriating.

3. Fans can't get over the fact that winning is more important than performance. And I don't mean that rhetorically. How you win matters in cfb, because rankings are subjective.

But, for UConn, just winning is most important now. Huskies are sindsr removed from a top 50 program, gotta chill there. Win games.
 
I would add that a significant number of complainers didn't play or coach. The W is lost on them. Yes we can and will always debate style of play, how to improve or personnel or coaching decisions. That is the right of fans who love the sport and their team. Complaining that we didn't win properly or with the right players is silly or illuminates lack of experience competing at higher than a little league level.

The Boneyard for me replaces my closed coffee shop where I would stop every day for a coffee and a newspaper. Read the newspaper, sports first of course, finish my coffee, and then head to work. Place had a regular crew of 5-10 who all could be there on a weekend or as few as 5 during the week. They were long time UConn fans whose stories were fascinating. They all had a couple of things in common, they had an opinion about every aspect of the last game, and you never heard a criticism of how we won, only "could you believe that one" when it was fluky, crazy or improbable.
 
RioDog said:
I generally agree with your take. Every case is different though. For the 2024 edition of UCFB, my frustration (and whining if I'm honest) comes from seeing the extent to which QB play has clearly cost us wins/easier wins and, yes beauty points. If we look at the mean of O, D, and ST play it's hard to avoid the fact that QB play is the weakest link, and not by a little. And let's face it, top level college football still has a significant unofficial beauty contest element to it. Not gonna beat this horse anymore. Just expressing the reason for frustration (and whining if I'm being honest). I'm curious if others feel the same way.
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The thing is, UConn’s program right now is about getting wins no matter how. We are trying to emerge from over a decade of crap and mostly losing. And trying to do it without a conference. I like an efficient machine as much as anyone - heck, I suffer with Daniel Jones - but i think we are not yet to where the way we win counts for anything. I have had seasons tickets since the year before the Rent opened. I am also old, and went to most home games as a student in the mid - 60s when UConn was a mediocre YanCon team. I just think every inch of winning is a big deal right now regardless of how. Even being competitive in losses to good teams. Everyone is entitled to how they react, i just think now isn’t the time to be fussy.
 
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JohnFSilver said:
I honestly think the people who complain are one if the following:


3. Fans can't get over the fact that winning is more important than performance. And I don't mean that rhetorically. How you win matters in cfb, because rankings are subjective.
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You seem to be disagreeing with yourself here.

You say winning is more important than performance and then contradict yourself by saying how you win matter because rankings are subjective. Which is it?

Also there is a 5th group. People who are enjoying not losing but also can't look past how abysmal the teams we are beating are. I'm also pleased that we aren't that abysmal. Lastly, we had some good opportunities to win against Duke and Wake was very gettable. And the reason we didn't was because of ... decisions. I'll leave it there.
 
JohnFSilver said:
3. Fans can't get over the fact that winning is more important than performance. And I don't mean that rhetorically. How you win matters in cfb, because rankings are subjective.

But, for UConn, just winning is most important now. Huskies are sindsr removed from a top 50 program, gotta chill there. Win games.
Expand ...

Style points matter for teams in the 10-20 ranked range hustling for the at-large bids in the playoffs. For the remaining 100 teams, few outside of each team's fandom and professional better care how you got your record. All they have time to do is scan W's and L's.
 
The 17-0 Dolphins ended their perfect season winning ugly could even say the Chiefs won ugly too when they repeated. Sports isn't a beauty contest especially football.
 
The great coaches and players strive for perfection knowing it is unattainable. There is always room for improvement. After shooting a 59 Justin Thomas said, "I left a few stokes out there." Bill Lee once said, "A perfect game is to walk every batter and pick off every one of them from first base." It's just the nature of sports.
 
The day after the season ends the only thing anyone will care about this season is the total number of wins this season. The higher the better. The rest is noise.

The last 10 seasons have had win totals of 3, 6, 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 6, 2, 3. Posting an 8-5, 9-4, or OMG, 10-3 record would be huge for the program, P4 win or no P4 win. Next season's job would be to back up this season's total. After that P4 wins start to matter as program builders, though as one-offs they would still be a nice gift for the fanbase.
 
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i think this is one of those cases where no one's wrong, per se.

  • Wins are all that matters, yes.
  • Passing game matters, yes.
  • UConn winning against REALLY BAD G5 teams will soon not be good enough for spying P4 eyes - also yes (i believe).
Eventually, SOON, we will need to beat a P4 team besides that 2022 garbage BC team who came to the Rent. And then we will need to beat more of them to silence the talk radio haters talking about "it was a one-off against a meh team".

I think boneyard "complainers" are just painfully aware that the anemic passing offense we've demonstrated will not get it done against even the worst of the P4 - this team has confirmed it perfectly so far - 0 for 3 against recognizable programs, even a lame one like WF. And the syracuse humble-pie-reality-check game is coming up real soon, barring a miraculous emergence of Nick Evers.

You're both right (be happy + complainers) - For 2024 it's good enough. It might not be good enough by next year.
 
Jetskies said:
i think this is one of those cases where no one's wrong, per se.

  • Wins are all that matters, yes.
  • Passing game matters, yes.
  • UConn winning against REALLY BAD G5 teams will soon not be good enough for spying P4 eyes - also yes (i believe).
Eventually, SOON, we will need to beat a P4 team besides that 2022 garbage BC team who came to the Rent. And then we will need to beat more of them to silence the talk radio haters talking about "it was a one-off against a meh team".

I think boneyard "complainers" are just painfully aware that the anemic passing offense we've demonstrated will not get it done against even the worst of the P4 - this team has confirmed it perfectly so far - 0 for 3 against recognizable programs, even a lame one like WF. And the syracuse humble-pie-reality-check game is coming up real soon, barring a miraculous emergence of Nick Evers.

You're both right (be happy + complainers) - For 2024 it's good enough. It might not be good enough
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And I don’t particularly disagree about next year or maybe the one after. i just think we are watching a growth (hopefully) where learning to win means more than how. As far as Evers goes, obviously his passing needs a lot of work. Whether it’s his not having played much in 3 years or having that concussion that produces what we have seen so far, I guess time will tell since Mora seems intent on using him absent injury. All I know is this has been one of the more fun years of the decade and for home games, waiting for the end of the game to beat all the early departing traffic didn’t work. The half time lines to the men’s room were even getting long again.
 
We went 5 years between wins vs FBS schools (UMass doesn't count).

At this point I'm happy that we're winning games even if they're close ones against lower level G5 schools - and getting bowl-eligible in the process.
 
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I think winning is the important thing. Beatin P4 teams is something we want to do for us, but I don’t know how essential it is. Let’s look at SMU. They play ok 1-2 P4 teams a year. Mostly lost pretty big. They are in the ACC. What Houston and SMU and the rest did was win games on a regular basis. Not P4 games. Those they played 1-2 a year and for the most part lost. We play 4. We need to win most of the non-P4 games, win an occasional P4 game, and we’ll be fine. I’d personally like us to get into a league for football, AAC or PAC would be best, and compete for championships. Maybe even get the G5 playoff slot. But we simply do not need to win 3 P4 games. We don’t even have to play 3-4 of them. We just need to win the majority of the games we play.
 
Scoe said:
The 17-0 Dolphins ended their perfect season winning ugly could even say the Chiefs won ugly too when they repeated. Sports isn't a beauty contest especially football.
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College football is definitely a beauty contest.
 
ZooCougar said:
You seem to be disagreeing with yourself here.

You say winning is more important than performance and then contradict yourself by saying how you win matter because rankings are subjective. Which is it?

Also there is a 5th group. People who are enjoying not losing but also can't look past how abysmal the teams we are beating are. I'm also pleased that we aren't that abysmal. Lastly, we had some good opportunities to win against Duke and Wake was very gettable. And the reason we didn't was because of ... decisions. I'll leave it there.
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Not really.

I think how you win college football matters for cfp and bowl purposes. But, with UConn in this current state, there really is no reason to care how they win.

It is so infrequent, and expectations so low, that Huskies just getting to a bowl game and a winning recirdnis critical.

We aren't really fighting for anything other than pride and an open bowl slot.

I want to win against syracuse. I'd trade 1-2 if the one win is cuse.
 
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JohnFSilver said:
I want to win against syracuse. I'd trade 1-2 if the one win is cuse.
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lol UConn WOULD beat syracuse and then turn around and lose to UMass the following week.
But i'd take that trade too... i guess?
 
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