What A Difference A TD Makes: Improving Offense Brings Promise For UConn's 2016 Season (Des

[huskymedic]

Lot of info packed in here...

What A Difference A TD Makes: Improving Offense Brings Promise For UConn Football's 2016 Season

 

[CTMike]

It's like they keep waiting for everything to be perfect before they loosen things up... It sounds like there may be evolutionary improvement but for gods sake at least be confident enough to return punts. I'm optimistic but very cautiously so.

 

[uconnphil2016]

It's like they keep waiting for everything to be perfect before they loosen things up... It sounds like there may be evolutionary improvement but for gods sake at least be confident enough to return punts. I'm optimistic but very cautiously so.

I'm very optimistic about the quality of the team, but I'm not sure how that's going to translate in terms of wins and losses this coming year. Every reasonable fan can recognize that our record benefited from beating a few absolutely awful teams this past season, and I'm not sure we'll have that luxury next year. A tougher OOC schedule coupled with a (hopefully) improved UCF should make it a bit tougher to build on last year's win total.

 

[JMick]

It's like they keep waiting for everything to be perfect before they loosen things up....

It's frustrating, but when your defense is leaps and bounds better than your offense, it at least makes sense. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I get where they're coming from.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I was 100% fine with what they did with what they did with punt returns last years.

 

[RedSoloCup]

I was 100% fine with what they did with what they did with punt returns last years.

Right, conservative and don't screw it up!

 

[uconnkelly]

Every time Lamelle is back for a punt return, I think about his freshman year: he got walloped and was out for several games with an injury. From that point on he seems hesitant (rightly so). With marginal protection from the rest of the punt return team, how do you get past that? Need to work on the whole group, or we might as well send someone back there with a peach basket and call it a day. The offense isn't that good that we couldn't benefit from special teams' yardage to help flip the field.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I gotta give props where props are due. Dez is crushing it this spring.

 

[Palatine]

I was 100% fine with what they did with what they did with punt returns last years.

Last in the nation is good enough? I don't get it.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Last in the nation is good enough? I don't get it.

I'm not surprised.

It was discussed ad nauseum last year. You want the team to be coached like a video game. In real life football it doesn't work that way.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Public opinion views Bill Parcells as one of the better coaches of his generation. As a lifelong Giant fan I will always be exceptionally appreciative of what he did when he ran the show for the team. I also will gladly state that there are things he did that (as someone in his mid 20's at the time) I initially did not like but in retrospect (and looking at it as someone now in his mid 50's) realize was the better approach.

All too often he was willing to be overly conservative on offense, believing that a field position/defensive struggle was the better approach with how that team was built. Adding to this, he had steady but unspectacular Phil McConkey returning punts as a) McConkey did not turn the ball over and b) he seldom let the ball hit the turf, preventing the possibility of a punt adding five, ten, fifteen yards to the punt (and therefore sacrificing field position).

At the moment (although we have let too many punts hit the ground) I have no problem with being overly conservative on our punt return game.

 

[SubbaBub]

Making a bowl game last year was a must. We would have run him out if town. Given that any turnover likely meant a loss and that more than a few punts were being muffed it was reasonable to avoid the risk.

The problem was and is that on a team of 85 scholarship players there must be players that van catch and return a punt along with players who can block for a punt return.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Making a bowl game last year was a must. We would have run him out if town. Given that any turnover likely meant a loss and that more than a few punts were being muffed it was reasonable to avoid the risk.

The problem was and is that on a team of 85 scholarship players there must be players that van catch and return a punt along with players who can block for a punt return.

If Houston beat us in a tight game I'm pretty sure you and the hair guy would've been the only two that would've tried to run him out of town.

Your second point about the roster is very true. It was a big problem that people don't want to admit exists because they are either delusional or they think it's an insult to the players. To expect Diaco to fix the roster in 2 years is not reasonable. I'm hoping that Skanes can be that guy to return punts and our roster is at the point where we have the depth to field a competent special teams unit.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Having a punt return game that is based on just catching the ball is a result of having a return team on the field that doesn't rush the punter and doesn't set up blocks for the returner.

Opponents' punters had plenty of time to catch and hit a high hanging punt and UConn's return team wasn't quick enough to retreat to form a wall or set up return lanes.

The ability of a team to consistently return punts for good yardage is a function of pressuring punters and setting up return lanes. Deion Sanders would have averaged 2 yards per return with UConn's punt return team.

 

[SubbaBub]

If Houston beat us in a tight game I'm pretty sure you and the hair guy would've been the only two that would've tried to run him out of town.

Your second point about the roster is very true. It was a big problem that people don't want to admit exists because they are either delusional or they think it's an insult to the players. To expect Diaco to fix the roster in 2 years is not reasonable. I'm hoping that Skanes can be that guy to return punts and our roster is at the point where we have the depth to field a competent special teams unit.

I think it's generally a good thing that making a bowl last year is helping everyone forget the WTF moments of the Diaco era and there have been many. That of course doesn't put Bob in the HOF. His record to date is still a free pass for year one and meeting the minimal amount of progress for year two which required a flea flicker from the back up fullback and a loss to a CUSA team in a bowl game. Still nowhere near where we need to be. Miss a bowl game this season and we are back to being a laughingstock. Those are just the rules of the game. This is the first year of Bob's recruits being the base of the team, so we'll see if he's as good a recruiter as we all think he is.

 

[31GuardTrap]

Beals.

Put him back there.

Block and let him catch the ball and run with it