What I Learned Today

[TouchdownHusky]

The fact that there were so many empty seats was piss poor. Even the parking lots didn't fill up early. Maybe UConn isn't ready for this big time stuff. The offense? Still looking for a Dan O successor. Sad but nine years ago with Dan O, UConn almost offenses a win on the road against NCState. How little we've become.

 

[whaler11]

agreed penalties were not a problem today, but switching to wildcat in that situation - which killed momentum after a long gain - was one of many poor offensive coaching decisions today.

Yes, the Wildcat is idiotic and that is where they committed penalties so it sticks out.

If DeLeone was running the turntables, we'd hear the Macarena between the 1st and 2nd quarters.

 

[husky210]

Our o line sucked today. We couldn't sustain drives because the run game just wasn't there. Whenever we did get something going the penalties killed us. Penalties on who? The o line. Whitmer was decent. Did he make bad choices? Maybe. Remember before you fry him about 3 picks that the wind was blowing like ten million mph out there today. Are the o line problems personel or coaching? I don't know, but if we are to be successful this season we need to fix the problems blocking, establish a running game and kill the penalties.

 

[UconnFamily]

agreed penalties were not a problem today, but switching to wildcat in that situation - which killed momentum after a long gain - was one of many poor offensive coaching decisions today.

Agree!

 

[J187Money]

I was 30 minutes late and I the back part of blue lot by silver lane was barely half full. At the UMASS game I was 20 minutes early and had to park over by the RVs because blue lot was full.

I wonder how many people didn't show because of the media screaming about torrential rains and tornadoes, neither of which ended up happening.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I told myself never to start a thread after extreme frustration, because I'm sure at least one of my statements will be ridiculous, but here's what I learned today:

1) Our Defense is For Real - They held a very talented NCState offense to 10 points, even when you factor in that we turned the ball over 4 times. The fact that we were still in the game with 2 minutes left to go is a real testament to how good these guys are. They are silly good, and they didn't even have Stephen or Jennings.

2) Our Offense is Horrid - Not just the four turnovers, which is horrible, but we have absolutely no running game now. If you took away the yards from the McCombs swing pass, we were really bad. I'm mostly concerned about the absolute lack of a run game for the second consecutive week, and for those people who were calling for Foley to be the line coach instead of DeLeone, they may have a point. This was our game to have and we gave it away.

3) Our Fans Stink - Somebody who went to the game, correct me if I am wrong, but that was a ridiculously lame crowd. You have a UConn defense doing fantastic things, and the crowd was seemingly non-existent most of the game. Shaking your keys does not generate decibels, people! Start clapping, yelling, and give us a home-field advantage!! There were multiple third down plays for NCState where I saw camera shots of UConn fans sitting on their a$$es, quiet as church mice. Finally, after we scored the touchdown to make it 10-7, they panned the stadium and it was about 1/3 empty. Are you kidding me??? WTF, UConn nation!

That's all for now. Back to the whiskey...

If there is one thing that George DeLeone was really good at for Syracuse, it was his ability to coach almost any group into a reasonably productive run offense. He is very well respected for coaching the fundamentals of line play, like trap blocks, counters, etc.

As an SU fan who watched up close during those years, what drove he and Pasqualoni into the ditch was that they got so conservative with the play calls. Even as we were slipping from a 9 win team every year to a 6 win team, we still churned out 1000 yard rushers every year, none of whom went on to play in the pros, for the most part.

I understand the frustration right now with your offense. While it may never turn into a gun-slinger's delight, they ought to be able to implement a solid ground game within the next couple weeks. That's George's specialty.