Random thoughts at this point in the season:
1. Seems like something really negative happened in the offensive room after the NC State game. RB's quit. Things took a few games to heal.
2. Coming into the season, the big concern in the defensive room was the loss of very good LB's. This has been confirmed.
3. Our WR room has to be improved. Not enough separation and creative route running. Way too many drops.
4. OC and ST coaches have to go.
5. Defense tries way too much arm tackling. Gotta get the basics tought.
6. We need a DC; Mora is spread too thin.
7. The first few games I feel like the players (defectors) let the coaches down and the last few games the coaches have let the players down.
I agree with most of your points, but I have some pushback. My feedback on your points:
1) I don't know.
2) Agree.
3) There was plenty of separation at the BC game today as guys were open. I do think the lack of RB depth really hurt as there were no screen passes to RBs to make the defense honest or fresh RB legs. I do agree we need a couple of athletic tall WRs and I would like to see a big receiving TE. Drops have been a killer this year.
4) On the ST coach, this guy is a proven ST coach. Unfortunately, he lost his 2 best returners which wasn't his fault. I do think the punts are too low which means they are easy to return. And, he inherited McFadden as his scholarship FG kicker and he has been disappointing. As for Charlton, he needs to revamp his offense. Last year, he had to go with a true freshman QB on the fly who hadn't participated in Spring football, lost his 2 best WRs to injury, lost 2 to 3 RBs to injury, and he made the offense good enough to win some games. This year, the offense is better than last year, but not good enough. He needs more weapons and I don't understand why UConn went into the season with 5 scholarship RBs with a run heavy offense. BC has 7 scholarship RBs.
5) Agree but it has gotten better as the season went on.
6) 100% agree.
7) I don't agree. UConn is close, but they are just not making winning plays. Were the coaches responsible for the 2 horrible dropped passes yesterday? Or for the LBs crashing the wrong holes and allowing runs up the middle? I do think UConn's strategy on Castellanos, BC's best offensive weapon, worked pretty well.
Objectively, UConn is somewhat better than last year, but not good enough. 5 of UConn's 7 losses have been by 10 points or less. T win close games, you need very good coaching and winning plays by the players. Last year, UConn benefitted by having 3 of the last 4 games at home. This year, only 1 of the last 5 games are at home. I was worried about that going into the season as I thought UConn would take some time to gel.