Updated Roster - 2.2.22 | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Updated Roster - 2.2.22

Would be nice to see a walk-on or 2 step up and contribute. Not unheard of. Plus we're definitely not done. If someone becomes available it's always possible Mora has a pipeline.
 
Guru13 said:
I would’ve made that assumption too, but looking at Barboza playing time at UTEP he wasn’t a starter there and was behind a Rs-FR at tackle. I say the reason we couldn’t run was also part of play calling and choice of picking Mensah over Nate most of the time. I really wanna say we have a way talented roster than UTEP but because of play calling and QB rotations throughout the season we didn’t really maximize our potential.
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You are free to say it. And you may be right. But there is no evidence that our roster was better than anyone’s.
 
Jimdish255 said:
Would be nice to see a walk-on or 2 step up and contribute. Not unheard of. Plus we're definitely not done. If someone becomes available it's always possible Mora has a pipeline.
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If some guy becomes available, the week before summer camp - particularly at a position we need - we are gonna take him. Not like the old days. and definitely helps to have an NFL mindset
 
zmart said:
I would love to see Johnson and Hardy move to LB
Is there any talk of moving Chris Johnson to linebacker? When they recruited him he mainly was an LB - 6-2 215.
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gioff2323 said:
Certainly puzzling to say we had a better roster than a team that went bowling.
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We can agree to disagree but if you look at the recruiting rankings from 2017 with the exception of 2019 we’ve had a better recruiting class. I am going just off the rankings by 247. Nothing spectacular, but we brought in quality players and this past season showed we can keep up with certain schools but had too many missed opportunities and leaving points off the board and questionable play calling, especially with having an underwhelming coaching staff. Yea I get it as a fan base we’re tired of losing and underachieving but, we’ve had couple guys hit the transfer portal go FBS to better schools with better coaching. The talent on the roster is definitely here, but with better coaching I think this team can win at least 5-7 games against the schools we play against. I may be optimistic and putting a lot of faith on the roster we have, but it’s all due to coaching and you can’t tell me last year coaching staff was as experienced as the coaching staff we have right now. As bad as we’re, I’m surprised that we at least have sent some players to the league.
 
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Guru13 said:
We can agree to disagree but if you look at the recruiting rankings from 2017 with the exception of 2019 we’ve had a better recruiting class. I am going just off the rankings by 247. Nothing spectacular, but we brought in quality players and this past season showed we can keep up with certain schools but had too many missed opportunities and leaving points off the board and questionable play calling, especially with having an underwhelming coaching staff. Yea I get it as a fan base we’re tired of losing and underachieving but, we’ve had couple guys hit the transfer portal go FBS to better schools with better coaching. The talent on the roster is definitely here, but with better coaching I think this team can win at least 5-7 games against the schools we play against. I may be optimistic and putting a lot of faith on the roster we have, but it’s all due to coaching and you can’t tell me last year coaching staff was as experienced as the coaching staff we have right now. As bad as we’re, I’m surprised that we at least have sent some players to the league.
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There is talent but is it better than the opponents? Last year’s team was maybe more talented than 3 of their opponents. ( New England)
 
Bongo Fury said:
There is talent but is it better than the opponents? Last year’s team was maybe more talented than 3 of their opponents. ( New England)
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To some degree that supports his point of the coaching issue hiding any talent UConn had. Win one of three games where have more talented and none of nine games where are not highlights under achievement/coaching issues.

UTEP's best win was over Massey #103 Fl Atlantic. Interesting that a team can win 7 games and not a single one against a team rated better than #100. They did play Fresno State a lot better than UConn.

Still bit of a stretch to say UConn had more talent than UTEP.
 
Husky68 said:
To some degree that supports his point of the coaching issue hiding any talent UConn had. Win one of three games where have more talented and none of nine games where are not highlights under achievement/coaching issues.

UTEP's best win was over Massey #103 Fl Atlantic. Interesting that a team can win 7 games and not a single one against a team rated better than #100. They did play Fresno State a lot better than UConn.

Still bit of a stretch to say UConn had more talent than UTEP.
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It is a stretch but I am just basing it off of recruiting rankings from the previous years we have recruited players. I guess for example I could use is a team like Texas they now and then pull in a top 6 recruiting class. In the Big 12, it is usually Texas and OU dominating in the recruiting trail, most Texas fans are disappointed in their teams shortcomings because they believe they should be winning the Big 12 or at least have a chance in the playoffs just because they pull in better recruits than a lot of teams so why are the players they recruited not playing as they were advertised.

Ultimately it pours down to coaching and scheme, and I believe a good coach can turn around a roster that is talented into a competitor with the right pieces in place. No one in the state of Texas recruits better than UT, but UT lost to Kansas…. Does that mean Kansas has a talented roster than UT? Now I’m not trying to say UConn is like Texas in any regards but all i am saying is we should at least be competitive with the right coaching staff to win games.
 
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Guru13 said:
We can agree to disagree but if you look at the recruiting rankings from 2017 with the exception of 2019 we’ve had a better recruiting class. I am going just off the rankings by 247. Nothing spectacular, but we brought in quality players and this past season showed we can keep up with certain schools but had too many missed opportunities and leaving points off the board and questionable play calling, especially with having an underwhelming coaching staff. Yea I get it as a fan base we’re tired of losing and underachieving but, we’ve had couple guys hit the transfer portal go FBS to better schools with better coaching. The talent on the roster is definitely here, but with better coaching I think this team can win at least 5-7 games against the schools we play against. I may be optimistic and putting a lot of faith on the roster we have, but it’s all due to coaching and you can’t tell me last year coaching staff was as experienced as the coaching staff we have right now. As bad as we’re, I’m surprised that we at least have sent some players to the league.
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Perfectly rational response. But you put more faith in the rankings than I do. Are they useful to separate Alabama's class from ours? Sure. But once you get down below the level of 3 and 4 star players, I view them as utterly useless.
 
We have brought in 28 new players with a maximum limit of 32. By accounts on this board we have 1 slot open after Rochester departed but I expect we fill those 4 spots after the spring with natural turnover.

We are down to only 14 OL and any FBS program should have 16-18, so that is our greatest need.

Here are some portal names to keep any eye on based on Twitter stalking...

OL
Jacob Brammer UNT - Mora/Sammis
Raiquon O'Neil Rutgers - Mora/Sammis
Kanan Ray Colo - Mora/Sammis
Chance Lytle Colo - Sammis
Anthony Whigan Penn St - Sammis/Barthel
Lance Robinson MTSU - Sammis/Barthel
Jacob Isaia Mich St - Sammis/Hill

Non OL
Kaulana Makayla USC - Mora
Chris Conti Rutgers - Barthel
 
If we pick up additonal OL recruits after spring practice, I would expect our targets to be P5 OL behind better OL on a stacked roster. I’ll be curious to see what happens at a school like Texas, where I believe they have an NIL setup for all of the OL. Would a player leave for paying time, giving up the income? It will be interesting.
 
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Guru13 said:
It is a stretch but I am just basing it off of recruiting rankings from the previous years we have recruited players. I guess for example I could use is a team like Texas they now and then pull in a top 6 recruiting class. In the Big 12, it is usually Texas and OU dominating in the recruiting trail, most Texas fans are disappointed in their teams shortcomings because they believe they should be winning the Big 12 or at least have a chance in the playoffs just because they pull in better recruits than a lot of teams so why are the players they recruited not playing as they were advertised.

Ultimately it pours down to coaching and scheme, and I believe a good coach can turn around a roster that is talented into a competitor with the right pieces in place. No one in the state of Texas recruits better than UT, but UT lost to Kansas…. Does that mean Kansas has a talented roster than UT? Now I’m not trying to say UConn is like Texas in any regards but all i am saying is we should at least be competitive with the right coaching staff to win games.
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Did you factor in roster attrition? How many recruits left either school?

I’m confident this staff will get better results, but comparing last years team to a bowl team seems a stretch, regardless of metric. And I don’t care if they beat Texas community college, look who beat us and look who we beat. At some point, you are what your record says.

Let’s agree that this program is better today than it was 4 months ago and that for the first time in sooooo lon, we can have pride in our program.
 
Gang, I have now completed the update of the roster tracker to include a simple eligibility estimate next to each name. The first number is the total span of remaining of eligibility years and the second number is the number of years of on field eligibility. By example 5-4 would mean 5 years to play 4 or 2-2 would mean two years to play two (which means said player has already used their redshirt).

Things to keep in mind:
1) The entire 2020 season does not count towards any athlete's eligibility regardless if they played or not.
2) I have not factored in medical redshirts which are often not made public until the moment it is relevant (ie a player is in their final year, then they might apply regarding a prior season for the exemption). Seems like Myles Bell might be a future medical redshirt candidate.
3) I haven't perfected what to do about kids that simply graduate or exit the program but not enter the portal. So, rather than crowd up the charts with more designations I decided to just tag anyone that exits UConn who doesn't entire the portal as "NFL Draft" because surely that is a simple way to state that they are done with college athletics and now are draft candidates (like all us old people!).
4) I haven't bothered to get too accurate with the remaining eligibility of kids that are transferring out, particularly the kids the left prior to this fall. If I have mistakes, its probably with this info which I consider no longer relevant for our purposes anyway.
5) On the first tab I continue to have kids in academic class standings, generally I would ignore that as the academic standing is irrelevant to the essential questions which is # of years of remaining eligibility!
6) I welcome corrections as I am sure I have a few mistakes. But I ask that if you have a correction/question could you please take the time to detail your eligibility assertion rather than merely challenge it w/o doing any homework? Please briefly outline their prior years - Thanks.

Observations:
Congrats to Nyadu and Swenson as the players with the most seasons with the program going back to 2018!
Congrats to Jacob Guidone - he's 22! A 22 year old center ought to be beneficial.

List of 2021 redshirt freshman scholarship players (played 4 or less games):

Joshua Tracy
Yakiri Walker
Maxwell Modeste
Malcolm Bell
Deon McLean
Pryce Yates
Langston Hardy
Deondrick Speight
Danny Antolovich
Chris Johnson
Tyler Phommachanh

And class of 2020 players that still have four years of eligibility (2020 didn't count and they appeared in less than 4 games in 2021):
Darious Bush
Carter Hooper
Brendan Heatherman Jr
 
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Exit 4 said:
Gang, I have now completed the update of the roster tracker to include a simple eligibility estimate next to each name. The first number is the total span of remaining of eligibility years and the second number is the number of years of on field eligibility. By example 5-4 would mean 5 years to play 4 or 2-2 would mean two years to play two (which means said player has already used their redshirt).

Things to keep in mind:
1) The entire 2020 season does not count towards any athlete's eligibility regardless if they played or not.
2) I have not factored in medical redshirts which are often not made public until the moment it is relevant (ie a player is in their final year, then they might apply regarding a prior season for the exemption). Seems like Myles Bell might be a future medical redshirt candidate.
3) I haven't perfected what to do about kids that simply graduate or exit the program but not enter the portal. So, rather than crowd up the charts with more designations I decided to just tag anyone that exits UConn who doesn't entire the portal as "NFL Draft" because surely that is a simple way to state that they are done with college athletics and now are draft candidates (like all us old people!).
4) I haven't bothered to get too accurate with the remaining eligibility of kids that are transferring out, particularly the kids the left prior to this fall. If I have mistakes, its probably with this info which I consider no longer relevant for our purposes anyway.
5) On the first tab I continue to have kids in academic class standings, generally I would ignore that as the academic standing is irrelevant to the essential questions which is # of years of remaining eligibility!
6) I welcome corrections as I am sure I have a few mistakes. But I ask that if you have a correction/question could you please take the time to detail your eligibility assertion rather than merely challenge it w/o doing any homework? Please briefly outline their prior years - Thanks.

Observations:
Congrats to Nyadu and Swenson as the players with the most seasons with the program going back to 2018!
Congrats to Jacob Guidone - he's 22! A 22 year old center ought to be beneficial.

List of 2021 redshirt freshman scholarship players (played 4 or less games):

Joshua Tracy
Yakiri Walker
Maxwell Modeste
Malcolm Bell
Deon McLean
Pryce Yates
Langston Hardy
Deondrick Speight
Danny Antolovich
Chris Johnson
Tyler Phommachanh

And class of 2020 players that still have four years of eligibility (2020 didn't count and they appeared in less than 4 games in 2021):
Darious Bush
Carter Hooper
Brendan Heatherman Jr
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Nice job with the projected starting line-up.

One thing that stands out is how young the team is. Only three projected starters have 1 year of eligibility remaining.
 
metsfan2323 said:
Nice job with the projected starting line-up.

One thing that stands out is how young the team is. Only three projected starters have 1 year of eligibility remaining.
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Thanks- just a crude guess. At the college level most of the players on the 2 deep end up with significant playing time - unless they are beyond an nfl caliber OL or QB, in that case the rotation can be very limited. So my point is, I expect the names in the 1s and 2s to get most of the snaps this season. Surprises welcome.
 
Exit 4 said:
Seems like LG will be a battle between Nyadu and Barboza.

I do like the idea of
LT: Senn
LG: Nyadu and Barboza to battle it out, probably both get starts this year
C: Guidone backed up by Fortin, Y Walker with Barboza as your emergency 4th option
RG: Haynes
RT: Nikko/Lundt/Brown battling it out, give a small edge to Nikko, but could see multiple starters over the season
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O-Line may be better just from the new coaches - see highlights in bold below:

Ryan Van Demark, OT, UConn​

UConn players who get selected for all-star games certainly must have had some skill before getting here. In Ryan Van Demark’s case, that was apparent all throughout his career with the Huskies. And he showcased that at will during the week of practices.

Not only did Van Demark have a great week with his natural ability, but you could also watch the coaching he was receiving sink in. He got better with every rep, set, and practice.
 
Also it is nice to see Robert Burns sticking around for an extra year. I'd like to see how the new staff utilizes him. This kid was no slouch coming out of HS - he had offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson and went to the University of Miami. I mean he played and averaged 4.0 yards per carry at Miami, but a 1-11 team can only get him 12 carries?

1644239070646.png
 
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Coach J said:
Also it is nice to see Robert Burns sticking around for an extra year. I'd like to see how the new staff utilizes him. This kid was no slouch coming out of HS - he had offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson and went to the University of Miami. I mean he played and averaged 4.0 yards per carry at Miami, but a 1-11 team can only get him 12 carries?

View attachment 73050
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Yes. I'm still puzzled why he did not see the field more. Maybe we will never know.
 
Coach J said:
Also it is nice to see Robert Burns sticking around for an extra year. I'd like to see how the new staff utilizes him. This kid was no slouch coming out of HS - he had offers from Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson and went to the University of Miami. I mean he played and averaged 4.0 yards per carry at Miami, but a 1-11 team can only get him 12 carries?

View attachment 73050
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Whatever weight anyone wants to give to a recruiting ranking, you think a ranking from 7 years ago is important? Really?
 
businesslawyer said:
Whatever weight anyone wants to give to a recruiting ranking, you think a ranking from 7 years ago is important? Really?
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Agreed. And the other thing is that offers made by the top P5's are also often misleading as it could be roster-padding, a PWO offer, etc.
 
CTFAN4LIFE said:
Agreed. And the other thing is that offers made by the top P5's are also often misleading as it could be roster-padding, a PWO offer, etc.
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I doubt they are offering a guy ranked in the top 450 in the country as PWO, watch his videos the kid is a stud. He got injured while at Miami and it dropped him down on the pecking order, not sure if it lingered last year, but the point was he is coming back (probably with the new staff's blessing) maybe this staff will use him more effectively. That's all.
 
CTFAN4LIFE said:
Agreed. And the other thing is that offers made by the top P5's are also often misleading as it could be roster-padding, a PWO offer, etc.
Expand ...
How many UConn players on the opening day roster of 2021 could get a roster padding postion at Alabama (not even sure what that is), or even a PWO role.
The Washington kid (think that was his name) bounced around after unfortunate UConn incident and then in last year (after he wasn't going to come back but did due to injuries) of play for Utah was super duper. Could be lot of reasons it hasn't worked for this kid, pedigree does matter when viewing a player potential. A good coach can quickly determine if there is still something there.

Why is BL et al (little law lingo) so negative on all things where people try and see the upside potential, regardless of how much is more hope than probability? Prove this, prove that, how do you know, why do you see glimmer of upside.

This is just another of the many upside potentials for UConn in 2022, not all will work but some will. Mora is doing a super job to date and if his staff wants to keep a former Alabama recruit (and Miami player) for his last year, I am optimistic they see some good potential and the fact the kid was once a sought after recruit just helps with the "could this really be found gold" thoughts.
 
The Robert Burns playing time question has a simple answer, he wasn't as good as the players who were getting playing time. Running back is a position where talent almost never goes unnoticed.
 
.-.
Husky68 said:
How many UConn players on the opening day roster of 2021 could get a roster padding postion at Alabama (not even sure what that is), or even a PWO role.
The Washington kid (think that was his name) bounced around after unfortunate UConn incident and then in last year (after he wasn't going to come back but did due to injuries) of play for Utah was super duper. Could be lot of reasons it hasn't worked for this kid, pedigree does matter when viewing a player potential. A good coach can quickly determine if there is still something there.

Why is BL et al (little law lingo) so negative on all things where people try and see the upside potential, regardless of how much is more hope than probability? Prove this, prove that, how do you know, why do you see glimmer of upside.

This is just another of the many upside potentials for UConn in 2022, not all will work but some will. Mora is doing a super job to date and if his staff wants to keep a former Alabama recruit (and Miami player) for his last year, I am optimistic they see some good potential and the fact the kid was once a sought after recruit just helps with the "could this really be found gold" thoughts.
Expand ...
I assure you I see both sides of where we are today. I also have consistently for decades been somewhat in the middle on recruiting rankings. There are many here who will say they are useless and irrelevant. I don't go nearly that far.

But I don't get the thought that one can't want the team to succeed, and be hoping Mora can get us there, without having to build that belief on silliness. And worrying what a young man who struggled for playing time on an awful team last year was rated by a service seven years ago is pure silliness. Or that I should suspend how much I think ratings are worth when they're used optimistically, but it's o.k. to criticize them when they're used pessimistically.
 
Husky68 said:
How many UConn players on the opening day roster of 2021 could get a roster padding postion at Alabama (not even sure what that is), or even a PWO role.
The Washington kid (think that was his name) bounced around after unfortunate UConn incident and then in last year (after he wasn't going to come back but did due to injuries) of play for Utah was super duper. Could be lot of reasons it hasn't worked for this kid, pedigree does matter when viewing a player potential. A good coach can quickly determine if there is still something there.

Why is BL et al (little law lingo) so negative on all things where people try and see the upside potential, regardless of how much is more hope than probability? Prove this, prove that, how do you know, why do you see glimmer of upside.

This is just another of the many upside potentials for UConn in 2022, not all will work but some will. Mora is doing a super job to date and if his staff wants to keep a former Alabama recruit (and Miami player) for his last year, I am optimistic they see some good potential and the fact the kid was once a sought after recruit just helps with the "could this really be found gold" thoughts.
Expand ...

Probably not as many as you think. They have linebackers that are faster than many of our Wide Receivers.
 
Coach J said:
I doubt they are offering a guy ranked in the top 450 in the country as PWO, watch his videos the kid is a stud. He got injured while at Miami and it dropped him down on the pecking order, not sure if it lingered last year, but the point was he is coming back (probably with the new staff's blessing) maybe this staff will use him more effectively. That's all.
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I wasn't referring to this one player - I was speaking in general terms.
 
Husky68 said:
How many UConn players on the opening day roster of 2021 could get a roster padding postion at Alabama (not even sure what that is), or even a PWO role.
The Washington kid (think that was his name) bounced around after unfortunate UConn incident and then in last year (after he wasn't going to come back but did due to injuries) of play for Utah was super duper. Could be lot of reasons it hasn't worked for this kid, pedigree does matter when viewing a player potential. A good coach can quickly determine if there is still something there.

Why is BL et al (little law lingo) so negative on all things where people try and see the upside potential, regardless of how much is more hope than probability? Prove this, prove that, how do you know, why do you see glimmer of upside.

This is just another of the many upside potentials for UConn in 2022, not all will work but some will. Mora is doing a super job to date and if his staff wants to keep a former Alabama recruit (and Miami player) for his last year, I am optimistic they see some good potential and the fact the kid was once a sought after recruit just helps with the "could this really be found gold" thoughts.
Expand ...
Not many/none - you can't compare our roster to Alabama as it's Venus and Mars.

My point was that in the past the top P5 programs would stuff guys on their roster and then recruit over them knowing that it was difficult for guys to transfer to another program. This was happening all across the SEC for example (and other top tier P5's). This practice is going to dissipate with the advent of the transfer portal.
 
metsfan2323 said:
Nice job with the projected starting line-up.

One thing that stands out is how young the team is. Only three projected starters have 1 year of eligibility remaining.
Expand ...
Exit 4 said:
Gang, I have now completed the update of the roster tracker to include a simple eligibility estimate next to each name. The first number is the total span of remaining of eligibility years and the second number is the number of years of on field eligibility. By example 5-4 would mean 5 years to play 4 or 2-2 would mean two years to play two (which means said player has already used their redshirt).

Things to keep in mind:
1) The entire 2020 season does not count towards any athlete's eligibility regardless if they played or not.
2) I have not factored in medical redshirts which are often not made public until the moment it is relevant (ie a player is in their final year, then they might apply regarding a prior season for the exemption). Seems like Myles Bell might be a future medical redshirt candidate.
3) I haven't perfected what to do about kids that simply graduate or exit the program but not enter the portal. So, rather than crowd up the charts with more designations I decided to just tag anyone that exits UConn who doesn't entire the portal as "NFL Draft" because surely that is a simple way to state that they are done with college athletics and now are draft candidates (like all us old people!).
4) I haven't bothered to get too accurate with the remaining eligibility of kids that are transferring out, particularly the kids the left prior to this fall. If I have mistakes, its probably with this info which I consider no longer relevant for our purposes anyway.
5) On the first tab I continue to have kids in academic class standings, generally I would ignore that as the academic standing is irrelevant to the essential questions which is # of years of remaining eligibility!
6) I welcome corrections as I am sure I have a few mistakes. But I ask that if you have a correction/question could you please take the time to detail your eligibility assertion rather than merely challenge it w/o doing any homework? Please briefly outline their prior years - Thanks.

Observations:
Congrats to Nyadu and Swenson as the players with the most seasons with the program going back to 2018!
Congrats to Jacob Guidone - he's 22! A 22 year old center ought to be beneficial.

List of 2021 redshirt freshman scholarship players (played 4 or less games):

Joshua Tracy
Yakiri Walker
Maxwell Modeste
Malcolm Bell
Deon McLean
Pryce Yates
Langston Hardy
Deondrick Speight
Danny Antolovich
Chris Johnson
Tyler Phommachanh

And class of 2020 players that still have four years of eligibility (2020 didn't count and they appeared in less than 4 games in 2021):
Darious Bush
Carter Hooper
Brendan Heatherman Jr
Expand ...
Thanks for all your hard work it is greatly appreciated. Also, Steven Krajewski was in the 2018 class with Nydau and Swenson.
 
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