How is anyone not talking about strictly football?
The head coach put a player in a position where he wasn't likely to succeed.
Well, again, staying at a Holiday Inn Express, as my crednetials, when you're an employee of the state of CT, or soemthing like that, and you have a contract, there has got to be very specific reasons that meet a criteria for what could be, sometimes phrased as, 'just cause' for termination.
All I can do is point out what I see on the football field, and compare it to what's on the video recordings. I can stay at every Holiday Inn Express in the country, but it won't make me a decision maker for this football program.
Well, again, staying at a Holiday Inn Express, as my crednetials, when you're an employee of the state of CT, or soemthing like that, and you have a contract, there has got to be very specific reasons that meet a criteria for what could be, sometimes phrased as, 'just cause' for termination.
All I can do is point out what I see on the football field, and compare it to what's on the video recordings. I can stay at every Holiday Inn Express in the country, but it won't make me a decision maker for this football program.
The entire sequence of this play, in the course of the football game, was one very interesting part of the chess game to me, that's all.
The head coach put a player in a position where he wasn't likely to succeed.
Well, again, staying at a Holiday Inn Express, as my crednetials, when you're an employee of the state of CT, or soemthing like that, and you have a contract, there has got to be very specific reasons that meet a criteria for what could be, sometimes phrased as, 'just cause' for termination.
All I can do is point out what I see on the football field, and compare it to what's on the video recordings. I can stay at every Holiday Inn Express in the country, but it won't make me a decision maker for this football program.
He does that every time our QB gets behind the Center!
I'm not defending the call - high risk w/score 20-13. But if you read TMack's quote - he may have pushed the envelop as well.
>>"Coach told me to go back and catch the ball. I looked up and it was me trying to make a play and help the team. I guess if I would have taken a knee it would have been at the 20 and the offense could have gone somewhere else. I was just trying to make plays.
"If it happens and it goes positive you see it as a good highlight if it doesn’t come out then you are answering these types of questions. It just depends on what happens but everybody wants to make plays so you can’t get by trying to play it safe."<<
He's returned punts and kick offs in his years here. The thing I see is that you trust kids to make the right decision when it is theirs to make (catch/run/no run/no catch) - it's never going to be foolproof. This was a regrettable decision on the coaches and the player.
Not a 50-50 responsibility split on that one, Medic. Mack shouldn't have been back there in the first place. Upon further review, it's 100 percent on the coaches. Again. The guy making $1.6 million a year shouldn't have put him in that situation.

Heck - He does that every time our QB gets behind the Center!
I'm not defending the call - high risk w/score 20-13. But if you read TMack's quote - he may have pushed the envelop as well.
>>"Coach told me to go back and catch the ball. I looked up and it was me trying to make a play and help the team. I guess if I would have taken a knee it would have been at the 20 and the offense could have gone somewhere else. I was just trying to make plays.
"If it happens and it goes positive you see it as a good highlight if it doesn’t come out then you are answering these types of questions. It just depends on what happens but everybody wants to make plays so you can’t get by trying to play it safe."<<
He's returned punts and kick offs in his years here. The thing I see is that you trust kids to make the right decision when it is theirs to make (catch/run/no run/no catch) - it's never going to be foolproof. This was a regrettable decision on the coaches and the player.
I'd have to refresh myself on the rule book, but I'm pretty sure that a field goal try is the equivalent of punt, in that it is a dead ball kick. But that's NFL. I'm not sure of the NCAA rule.
I do know that both teams lined up for a field goal try, a TO was called, the field goal try was lined up again, and we had a player deep that fielded a short kick, and began a return into a full field kick coverage that forced him immediately to the sideline.
I lost it after this. Just sheer stupidity put on display.
It's not even debatable in the P era, he just makes unequivocally wrong decisions.
I think Fishy hit the nail on the head. We could have had the ball in great field position, in which case our odds of scoring were about 0.5%. If PP thought Mack could return it even 1% of the time, he sends him back.
That's pretty much the decision PP made. He said it was more likely for Mack to score a TD on that return than Whitmer lead us from the 40 yard line.
Yet we have one guy on here trying to claim it was the right decision. Unbelievable. Only thing more unbelievable is that an actual paid football coach did it, too.
For the most part it is similar to a punt. There is a significant difference however in that if (in the case of a FG attempt that was not blocked, landing in the field of play, if the receiving team does not attempt play the ball after it lands the LOS is the spot of the kick. By playing the ball we altered the application of the rules (if downed in the end zone it becomes a touchback, if carried out from the end zone, it becomes identical to a punt or kickoff return). The main advantage on returning one iof these comes when the kicking team does not treat it as a returnable kick (I'll wager that at least 80% of these that have had quality returns happened with the kicking team having at least two players who did not treat it as a returnable kick until it was too late, including the 2006 return Hester had against the Giants).
I still see any instruction beyond 'if they cover the return, run away from where the ball will land' as assinine and I would love an explanation from anyone claiming anything different.
It's the kind of desperate move that makes me worry about next week.
Well, certainly Mack is right that if he takes it all the way, attitudes might be different. But there are a lot more reasons to dislike the idea, especially given that field position was pretty good and the chances of there being a decent alley with MD being aware of the potential run back and almost guaranteed to be in his face by the time he got to the 5, leaving it up to him to make a bad decision was a not a good plan. Getting the ball at the 35 against a pass D that was not very good when the rush didn't succeed (big "if", I know) gives them a fighting chance.
I didn't read many of the posts here but I disagree with all the people who are hating on the decision to send Mack back there. HCPP is an idiot of the most grandiose fashion and has put us in turmoil. However, it was Mack's poor decision to bring the ball out rather than just kneel on it.
The field goal unit is typically comprised of a kicker, a holder (usually another K or P or QB) and 9 other fat olinemen......We badly need big electric game changing plays. For a guy who is typically anti-aggressive in his decision making at least he tried shaking things up to get a speedster in Mack matched up in a return with 10 fat guys on the field. Now unfortunately the timeout was called by Edsall and I'm sure he warned them about that so it completely worked against them but Mack should have just kneeled it.
It is definitely not nearly the worst decision ever.
Obviously you didn't read the rules. He shouldn't have taken a knee because if he left it alone and didn't touch it they get it at the 33 yd line.
Mack never said he was told if the MD team was running toward him to not touch the ball. Mack went into great detail about the play so obviously PP or any other coach didn't tell him the scenario and what to do.
I'm not sure on this, but I think Mack was never asked what his instructions really were, beyond "catch the ball.".
This is my biggest problem with the whole situation, and why I went through this whole confusing mess. We don't have people in place, that are asking the right questions. The closest I've seen to anyone that's actually trying is the blogger that has actually been looking at the film that's available and trying to understand it, and the guy from SNY that's clearly making an effort to understand the sport.
I remember a time, when Randy Edsall actually had a meeting with the local media, to describe what's happening on the football field.
A guy like Pasqualoni, has got to be laughing to himself when he gets up in front of the CT media - even with a 10-16 record. The guys asking questions are clueless, and they get their material to write on from an anonymous message board.
I'm pulling for that blogger to get press credentials.
Obviously you didn't read the rules. He shouldn't have taken a knee because if he left it alone and didn't touch it they get it at the 33 yd line.
Mack never said he was told if the MD team was running toward him to not touch the ball. Mack went into great detail about the play so obviously PP or any other coach didn't tell him the scenario and what to do.
I've referred to the NCAA rulebook, and as I expected, I can't find a situation that clearly describes what happened in the game. A field goal try (unblocked) that crosses the neutral zone is what happened. The moment that it was touched by Mack, all of the rules of a scrimmage kick went into effect, meaning that the moment Mack touched it - it becomes a live ball - for BOTH teams and it happened to be in the end zone.
Had Mack been tackled, or downed the ballwith a knee in the endzone after catching, I believe the correct call from the officials, would have been a safety and 2pts and possession after a free kick for Maryland. Had he touched the ball, and not fielded it cleanly, and/or fumbled Maryland would recover a live ball, and either a score a TD if in the endzone, or at maintain possession at the spot in the field.
From Jim Fuller @ NHR:
"Just for clarification, I called a supervisor of officials who works at local high school and college games to make sure I understood the rule properly and he informed me that if the field goal was missed and not caught in the end zone then UConn would have gotten the ball at the 33. If Mack had taken a knee, the ball would have been placed at the 20 but instead the drive began at the 10."
LOL. Too much for ya, huh, Jimmy.
There are many things to be worked up about, but seeing a player trying to make something happen, from a situation they are in on the field, is not something I have difficulty with at all, and none of us have the information to determine anything more than that, because nobody asked it - and that in of itself, is a problem That's the take home point.
I'll let it go now, I'm done thinking about Maryland. We've got Michigan at our home field on Saturday night. I'm incredibly disappointed in where we are at as a program, three years into a head coaching job, with this kind of event only a few days away now, but that's where we are at.
TIme to get ready for Michigan.
I think catching the ball wasn't the problem. It was the decision to take it out that was a brain fart.