Way too early question: What are your expectations for next season? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Way too early question: What are your expectations for next season?

RSTuthill said:
Well ... let's see who comes from the portal. The Feb signing period may provide some great prospects but no one likely to play right away, or at least make a big impact. UConn won one game this year and is losing its best player on each side of the ball. So as it stands now they could go 0-12. That is a definite possibility. But I think that 2 or 3 wins would be more realistic. I am quite sure that respected professional observers would fall into this range. The lower end of the "exceeds expectations" range would be 4 wins. Four wins would represent a sea change and trigger unbridled enthusiam and bowling predictions in 2023 on this board.

Zero possibility of getting 5 wins or more.
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As I said, lets see who comes from the portal. Just this one get, a QB from Penn State, I an inclined to raise my guidance to the top of the band. But there may be more coming. Both lines surely need help. If there is significant upgrade to the OL and DL, I could easily see UConn getting to 4 or 5 wins. But lets wait and see who comes to Storrs. The semester starts soon so it should not be all that long for the first tranche to fill up.
 
excited bill murray GIF
 
I expect to lose my voice at 6 home games, tailgate our arses off, hit Michigan or NCST on the road, destroy central, haze all massholes when the fLagShiP rolls in, win a couple more, save some PTO for bowl season, and.. hopefully.. not be disappointed come October.
 
New coaches rarely come in and take over a team that is this down and turn them into a .500 team in their first year. It’s just incredibly unrealistic. To me, the number of wins doesn’t really matter, I just want to see growth in the level of play from last year. There will be games that disappoint us, and there will be games that surprise us. Like I said, I don’t see .500 or better as realistic, the closer we can get to .500 the better, but I’m not expecting to be particularly close next year. There will be a lot of new faces, let’s get everyone gelling next year and improve, and then hit the ground running the year after.
 
I have no clue what to expect. With the influx in wr and qb depth coming in. I would hope to be competitive even if it means 4-8 that’s a huge improvement. If we go 6-6 I would be very happy.
 
Greedo said:
New coaches rarely come in and take over a team that is this down and turn them into a .500 team in their first year. It’s just incredibly unrealistic. To me, the number of wins doesn’t really matter, I just want to see growth in the level of play from last year. There will be games that disappoint us, and there will be games that surprise us. Like I said, I don’t see .500 or better as realistic, the closer we can get to .500 the better, but I’m not expecting to be particularly close next year. There will be a lot of new faces, let’s get everyone gelling next year and improve, and then hit the ground running the year after.
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If Mora and his staff keep on recruiting 3 and 4 star players, they’ll play 500 ball at the very least, and with luck maybe better than that.
 
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CONN78SEJ said:
If Mora and his staff keep on recruiting 3 and 4 star players, they’ll play 500 ball at the very least, and with luck maybe better than that.
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I hope you’re right. I think they’ll need a season to gel and will struggle next year, but will have a big leap the year after. I hope I’m wrong though.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
If Mora and his staff keep on recruiting 3 and 4 star players, they’ll play 500 ball at the very least, and with luck maybe better than that.
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If they don't get better on the OLine, you'll see those same recruits and the talented returning players running for their lives again. If they don't get better on defense they may lose 48-31 instead of 48-10, even if the offense was fixed. The skill position players get all the attention and the nice highlights, but the line is where wins are built and UConn's line may have been the worst unit in FBS last year (and that coach was also the OC Head bang).

I love the positivity, but setting an expected floor of .500 for this team is setting yourself up for disappointment. Between new systems to learn, necessary talent upgrades and honestly the culture that needs to be established (it's hard to get used to winning and not going into the tank everytime the team hits adversity, something the returning players have seen all too often), I'd expect a step forward... not the giant leap it would take to get all the way from barely beating Yale to being a .500 team with 5 FBS wins.
 
ScottVib said:
If they don't get better on the OLine, you'll see those same recruits and the talented returning players running for their lives again. If they don't get better on defense they may lose 48-31 instead of 48-10, even if the offense was fixed. The skill position players get all the attention and the nice highlights, but the line is where wins are built and UConn's line may have been the worst unit in FBS last year (and that coach was also the OC Head bang).

I love the positivity, but setting an expected floor of .500 for this team is setting yourself up for disappointment. Between new systems to learn, necessary talent upgrades and honestly the culture that needs to be established (it's hard to get used to winning and not going into the tank everytime the team hits adversity, something the returning players have seen all too often), I'd expect a step forward... not the giant leap it would take to get all the way from barely beating Yale to being a .500 team with 5 FBS wins.
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You’ll be critical of UConn football no matter what, it’s your nature.
 
Greedo said:
I hope you’re right. I think they’ll need a season to gel and will struggle next year, but will have a big leap the year after. I hope I’m wrong though.
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Did UCF take a year to gel after they lost 11 games?
 
L @Utah State
W CCSU
L Syracuse
L @Michigan
L @NC State
L Fresno State
W @FIU
L @Ball State
W Boston College
W UMass
L Liberty
L @Army

4-8

Btw, was the effect of the most recent CR on our future schedules brought up anywhere? Asking as it looks like at least BYU and Liberty are trimming down their schedules, meaning they're unlikely to do much with UConn in future. I'd be wondering if the 2023 game vs Liberty is in potential jeopardy.
fbschedules.com

Virginia cancels future football series with BYU, Liberty

The Virginia Cavaliers have canceled future football series with the BYU Cougars and the Liberty Flames, FBSchedules.com has learned.
fbschedules.com
 
CONN78SEJ said:
If Mora and his staff keep on recruiting 3 and 4 star players, they’ll play 500 ball at the very least, and with luck maybe better than that.
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He hasn’t pulled in a four star yet though and I think it will be very difficult to do so. All previous staffs recruited four stars as well with no luck.
 
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CONN78SEJ said:
You’ll be critical of UConn football no matter what, it’s your nature.
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So critical is expecting a step forward... but not a jump all the way to .500? There's a difference between what I expect to happen and what I hope to happen. (Ironically I'm known as the optimist within my group of season ticket holders)

To be clear, I hope you're right, but if that is the floor of your expectations, I fear that you'll be disappointed. More importantly, I don't think that, that level of expectation is fair considering where this team is coming from and the work ahead of it.

To ask the question, would you be disappointed if this team wins "only" 4 games next year? Why or Why Not?


I set my expectation at the minimum acceptable level of performance, based on what we know about the team now, not what I hope might be possible, or any additional talent that may or may not come in. Overshooting the expectation should signify a good performance by the team and recognizes that performance. Repeatedly missing expectations is the kind of thing that puts a coach on the hot seat... I'd argue that missing your expectation by 33% is still a successful season for this team, as currently constructed, your mileage may vary.
 
huskysupporter said:
How is it possible people are checking off BC as a win? We will be four touchdown underdogs at least in that one. Isn’t Jurcovic coming back too?
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Other than during RE 2.0, most years had one surprising win. Michigan, ND, Houston, etc. So why not.
 
businesslawyer said:
Fair question but I’m going to wait a while. I’m not one who thinks we went 1-11 because game day coaching was holding back players who were much better than 1-11 players. I think we had a severe talent deficit.

So predicting next year’s record, for me, requires seeing what we can get in the portal and Juco ranks to make both lines better. The kid from Dartmouth is a start, but upgrading the skill players on offense, which we’ve done at QB and TB (and WR may be the strongest group of players he is inheriting), isn’t going to make us much better unless we block and have enough speed on the DL to not give opposing QBs who escape the pocket enough time to surf the internet before deciding to run or throw.
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This is where I am. Along with upgrading the talent Mora needs to build a system and integrate the kids into it. That does not happen over night. This is a rough schedule for a program in the state ours is in. Folks need to be realistic. Expecting us to beat programs like BC and NC State and play Michigan tough (........ Michigan!) is simply not realistic in my mind.

I know folks don't want to hear it, but I don't think measuring success next season resides solely with Ws and Ls. We need to show we can be competitive with some offensive prowess. Without that, we won't look much different. In fact, if we can make meaningful progress with the offense I think the defense may be a pleasant surprise. You simply can't have a defense on the field as much as our program has done over the past several seasons and expect them to hold up. I agree that we desperately need speed rushers and some much better play at LB.
 
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This team's issue was for the most part, the talent just not being there. We were good on special teams because there was talent there in McFadden, Brewton, Keating, etc.

Our starting Quarterback for the first two games is now at a program which is in the middle of a bottom conference in FCS. That should say something. Our OLine was absolutely insufferable, defense was tolerable with some clear talent mixed in to it.

This is probably a rough take to a lot of people on here, but Kevin Mensah was never really that good. Yeah he had a bad OL this year, but Nate Carter proved that he's just better. a lot of times, putting Mensah in slowed the team down.

Phommachanh was what the team needed, but Krajewski was not too bad. He did alright with what he had. I don't see him getting many snaps in '22, but he was important to this team for getting any points on the board at all in games like Houston.

With an improved OLine, this team scores much more points. I think they've made plenty of steps to improve it.
A refined already good defense with the likes of Jackson Mitchell returning, we definitely give up less points
We have a skilled and athletic Quarterback in Ja'Quan Roberson. When was the last time we had something like that? I've seen him ball in person before. He's a key talent we've been missing.

Also on offense, we have a beyond solid skill position set. I'm surprised Keelan Marion didn't leave us, he is damn good. We picked up some good receivers (Although I think that some, like Matt Hoffman, will be playing other positions as he is playing IOL)

Nathan Carter, Keelan Marion, and Victor Rosa will be our most important receivers/runners.

If these parts of the team can be made consistently decent/good.... I think it's safe to expect 4 wins.
 
KembaKek said:
This team's issue was for the most part, the talent just not being there. We were good on special teams because there was talent there in McFadden, Brewton, Keating, etc.

Our starting Quarterback for the first two games is now at a program which is in the middle of a bottom conference in FCS. That should say something. Our OLine was absolutely insufferable, defense was tolerable with some clear talent mixed in to it.

This is probably a rough take to a lot of people on here, but Kevin Mensah was never really that good. Yeah he had a bad OL this year, but Nate Carter proved that he's just better. a lot of times, putting Mensah in slowed the team down.

Phommachanh was what the team needed, but Krajewski was not too bad. He did alright with what he had. I don't see him getting many snaps in '22, but he was important to this team for getting any points on the board at all in games like Houston.

With an improved OLine, this team scores much more points. I think they've made plenty of steps to improve it.
A refined already good defense with the likes of Jackson Mitchell returning, we definitely give up less points
We have a skilled and athletic Quarterback in Ja'Quan Roberson. When was the last time we had something like that? I've seen him ball in person before. He's a key talent we've been missing.

Also on offense, we have a beyond solid skill position set. I'm surprised Keelan Marion didn't leave us, he is damn good. We picked up some good receivers (Although I think that some, like Matt Hoffman, will be playing other positions as he is playing IOL)

Nathan Carter, Keelan Marion, and Victor Rosa will be our most important receivers/runners.

If these parts of the team can be made consistently decent/good.... I think it's safe to expect 4 wins.
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Can't disagree about Mensah. I believe he gave his best for the Huskies, but after we got guys like Carter on the team it felt like hand-offs to Mensah had a high opportunity cost.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
You’ll be critical of UConn football no matter what, it’s your nature.
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There is a difference between being objective and being critical. He was being objective. I agree wins are built up front. UConn just lost their best player up front on both sides of the ball. He is being objective.
 
RSTuthill said:
There is a difference between being objective and being critical. He was being objective. I agree wins are built up front. UConn just lost their best player up front on both sides of the ball. He is being objective.
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I don’t think he is being objective when he’s calling other posters unrealistic because they are very positive on a new coaching crew. Opinions are not objective, especially when the new coach just signed UConn’s first 4 star rated qb in its history.
 
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CONN78SEJ said:
I don’t think he is being objective when he’s calling other posters unrealistic because they are very positive on a new coaching crew. Opinions are not objective, especially when the new coach just signed UConn’s first 4 star rated qb in its history.
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Zach Fraser from ND. Higher rated too, I believe.
 
CONN78SEJ said:
Um…….yes he has.
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Getting a guy who WAS a 4-star in high school is very different from getting a 4-star out of high school. Roberson had one other offer that he announced which was Tennessee State.
 
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