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- Aug 6, 2023
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What a great game!! Having watched it lived was awesome! I brought a lot of friends and I think UConn made some new fans. We were on TV several times since we sat close to the bench.
Atmosphere / Game Day Experience:
Rice Stadium is a pretty nice facility. Easy parking. Lots of tailgating. LOTS of UConn fans came! Saw a car with a giant UConn flag and parked near him. Worked great for me; he had a nice tailgate going and offered my crew unlimited drinks. My wife took a White Claw. (If you're reading this, thanks again, Awesome UConn Fan!).
Then I saw the Yakiri Walker clan. At least 20 of them. They pitched a little UConn tent. Everyone had custom Yakiri + UConn t-shirts. So awesome to see!
It was some military appreciation day. Army had a band on a stage singing various pop hits. Lots of recruiters there from all branches giving away all the standard stuff you would get at a conference (drink cozys, stress balls, etc). Before the game started, there was fireworks, honoring various local soldiers, plus an orange coast guard Seahawk helicopter flew across the stadium.
Heard the announced attendance was 21k. Highly, highly doubt that (@Steve UConn72). 10k seems more accurate if not still pushing it (6k is my guess). The UConn side looked just as full as the Rice side. TV might show it as empty, because most people sat higher up for the better view and shade. You could move anywhere after you got in. I can tell you that there was a lot of UConn cheers and chants. It was LOUD whenever UConn did something good.
I never saw Mr. @BlueWhiteKid take a seat in his little corner of the stadium. I'm proud of our fanbase for showing up to this away game even though we're 0-5 with little hope at the time.
UConn Sideline Notes:
Roberson happy after his first passing TD.
QBs:
All the assistant coaches were coaching every second of the game. Sammis stood out to me (partly because he's so big) as always talking to his players. Even when we were down 0-14, they were coaching. The staff seemed focus at all times.
We never looked defeated or demoralized at any moment during the game. All the players were engaged and vocal. No one slammed their helmets or yelled at each other in disgust. The coaches didn't put their hands on their faces. I wouldn't blame them since they're 0-5 and it seemed like the game had spiraled one quarter in.
On every defensive play, the bench players called "Run" or "Pass" helping out the defense on the field. This was every single down. Can't stress this enough, no one gave up.
Joly was always smiling and joking around. But he showed his "let's get serious" face every now and then.
Some of the TEs never had their helmets on, which was funny to me with the "OR" situation.
Special Teams:
Lots have been said about our special teams lately. It does seem like they are working on the issues. During halftime, all the kickers and punters came out early and practiced their craft. This is me inferring, but it sort of seems like there's not enough hours in the day to practice everything which is why they're cramming as much as they can, when they can.
It looks like everyone on special teams is a bench player. Like, I thought I followed the team closely, but there were a lot of names I didn't recognize. Without the efforts of @huskymedic and @Exit 4 I would have had no clue who some of the players were. So this could be the source of some of the issues on special teams.
Rosa and Edwards seemed like best buddies. They were always together, talking and sometimes laughing.
On the field stuff:
One person in my group was a former MWC assistant coach turned TX high school coach. Really smart football mind, just hated the travel and hours. These are mostly his notes.
Roberson has a lot of potential. He has some good fundamentals, good enough arm. Lacks decisiveness at times, but these are things that will come with more experience.
An example he gave was the wheel route play early in the 3rd quarter where he over threw Ross. Roberson was running towards the sideline to make the throw, but no one was coming directly at him. So Roberson would've had time to set his feet and square his shoulder vs making a running throw which made him inaccurate. It would've been an easy TD had that connected.
Overall, "Roberson looks like a QB whose development was stunted." Buddy said this without me giving him much background info. Said to be patient and looks like it'll pay off sooner rather than later.
Buddy asked if we do outside zone runs often, which made me laugh hard. Rice's defensive strength is their linebacker corps. So we kept running into the strength of their defense. At the same time, our weakness on defense is our OLBs, which is why Rice tried so many laterals or sideline passes. But in Rice's case, that's not really who they were on offense and why it bit them in the butt on that fumble.
There were many times, when UConn had the ball, where my buddy correctly guessed run or pass. For my group, it was like having a personal Tony Romo, which made it fun for the newbies among us. Buddy said that UConn's play calling was too predictable, which made it easier for the opposing defense to counter. We don't have enough variation in our play design and our formations. Rice has one of the worst defenses in CFB, even worst than some FCS schools according to Massey. Better defenses will feast against our lack of schemes.
In general, Buddy thought we were too conservative on both sides of the ball. Defense could have blitz more. As predicted, Rice's o-line was a weakness. Could have had a lot more sacks or negative plays.
Offense needs more verticality. Would really helped our run game. Buddy thinks we have capable receivers, but WRs needs touches to get into the "groove" of the game just like QBs and RBs. He emphasized that every team thinks their WRs can't get separation. But separation isn't a black and white thing. Most of the time, the separation is a few seconds per route. The best QBs can find those precious few seconds of "openness" and fit in a pass.
Speaking of WRs, Buddy was confused as to why Porter was our X receiver. Buddy knows a little of Porter from New Mexico and sees him more as a Z receiver with his speed but lack of size. Thinks Joly should line up more as a WR as well, in the X-spot with his height. Since Joly is probably our best offensive weapon, teams would likely have a safety cover on Joly's side, making everything else easier for the offense. And Buckman fits more of the slot-type WR. He also said to take all of this with a grain of salt because he doesn't know our offense and personnel. I told him that I wish I could explain our offense to you.
Well this is a getting super long. Some leftover notes in bullet points:
Atmosphere / Game Day Experience:
Rice Stadium is a pretty nice facility. Easy parking. Lots of tailgating. LOTS of UConn fans came! Saw a car with a giant UConn flag and parked near him. Worked great for me; he had a nice tailgate going and offered my crew unlimited drinks. My wife took a White Claw. (If you're reading this, thanks again, Awesome UConn Fan!).
Then I saw the Yakiri Walker clan. At least 20 of them. They pitched a little UConn tent. Everyone had custom Yakiri + UConn t-shirts. So awesome to see!
It was some military appreciation day. Army had a band on a stage singing various pop hits. Lots of recruiters there from all branches giving away all the standard stuff you would get at a conference (drink cozys, stress balls, etc). Before the game started, there was fireworks, honoring various local soldiers, plus an orange coast guard Seahawk helicopter flew across the stadium.
Heard the announced attendance was 21k. Highly, highly doubt that (@Steve UConn72). 10k seems more accurate if not still pushing it (6k is my guess). The UConn side looked just as full as the Rice side. TV might show it as empty, because most people sat higher up for the better view and shade. You could move anywhere after you got in. I can tell you that there was a lot of UConn cheers and chants. It was LOUD whenever UConn did something good.
I never saw Mr. @BlueWhiteKid take a seat in his little corner of the stadium. I'm proud of our fanbase for showing up to this away game even though we're 0-5 with little hope at the time.
UConn Sideline Notes:
Roberson happy after his first passing TD.
QBs:
- Mentioned before that Roberson was very vocal. Wasn't angry or anything like that. Be he looked fierce and determined, constantly talking to members of the offense.
- Zion was quiet, but focused.
- McDonald and Millen rarely had their helmets on and talked to each other a lot. McDonald is bigger than I expected.
All the assistant coaches were coaching every second of the game. Sammis stood out to me (partly because he's so big) as always talking to his players. Even when we were down 0-14, they were coaching. The staff seemed focus at all times.
We never looked defeated or demoralized at any moment during the game. All the players were engaged and vocal. No one slammed their helmets or yelled at each other in disgust. The coaches didn't put their hands on their faces. I wouldn't blame them since they're 0-5 and it seemed like the game had spiraled one quarter in.
On every defensive play, the bench players called "Run" or "Pass" helping out the defense on the field. This was every single down. Can't stress this enough, no one gave up.
Joly was always smiling and joking around. But he showed his "let's get serious" face every now and then.
Some of the TEs never had their helmets on, which was funny to me with the "OR" situation.
Special Teams:
Lots have been said about our special teams lately. It does seem like they are working on the issues. During halftime, all the kickers and punters came out early and practiced their craft. This is me inferring, but it sort of seems like there's not enough hours in the day to practice everything which is why they're cramming as much as they can, when they can.
It looks like everyone on special teams is a bench player. Like, I thought I followed the team closely, but there were a lot of names I didn't recognize. Without the efforts of @huskymedic and @Exit 4 I would have had no clue who some of the players were. So this could be the source of some of the issues on special teams.
Rosa and Edwards seemed like best buddies. They were always together, talking and sometimes laughing.
On the field stuff:
One person in my group was a former MWC assistant coach turned TX high school coach. Really smart football mind, just hated the travel and hours. These are mostly his notes.
Roberson has a lot of potential. He has some good fundamentals, good enough arm. Lacks decisiveness at times, but these are things that will come with more experience.
An example he gave was the wheel route play early in the 3rd quarter where he over threw Ross. Roberson was running towards the sideline to make the throw, but no one was coming directly at him. So Roberson would've had time to set his feet and square his shoulder vs making a running throw which made him inaccurate. It would've been an easy TD had that connected.
Overall, "Roberson looks like a QB whose development was stunted." Buddy said this without me giving him much background info. Said to be patient and looks like it'll pay off sooner rather than later.
Buddy asked if we do outside zone runs often, which made me laugh hard. Rice's defensive strength is their linebacker corps. So we kept running into the strength of their defense. At the same time, our weakness on defense is our OLBs, which is why Rice tried so many laterals or sideline passes. But in Rice's case, that's not really who they were on offense and why it bit them in the butt on that fumble.
There were many times, when UConn had the ball, where my buddy correctly guessed run or pass. For my group, it was like having a personal Tony Romo, which made it fun for the newbies among us. Buddy said that UConn's play calling was too predictable, which made it easier for the opposing defense to counter. We don't have enough variation in our play design and our formations. Rice has one of the worst defenses in CFB, even worst than some FCS schools according to Massey. Better defenses will feast against our lack of schemes.
In general, Buddy thought we were too conservative on both sides of the ball. Defense could have blitz more. As predicted, Rice's o-line was a weakness. Could have had a lot more sacks or negative plays.
Offense needs more verticality. Would really helped our run game. Buddy thinks we have capable receivers, but WRs needs touches to get into the "groove" of the game just like QBs and RBs. He emphasized that every team thinks their WRs can't get separation. But separation isn't a black and white thing. Most of the time, the separation is a few seconds per route. The best QBs can find those precious few seconds of "openness" and fit in a pass.
Speaking of WRs, Buddy was confused as to why Porter was our X receiver. Buddy knows a little of Porter from New Mexico and sees him more as a Z receiver with his speed but lack of size. Thinks Joly should line up more as a WR as well, in the X-spot with his height. Since Joly is probably our best offensive weapon, teams would likely have a safety cover on Joly's side, making everything else easier for the offense. And Buckman fits more of the slot-type WR. He also said to take all of this with a grain of salt because he doesn't know our offense and personnel. I told him that I wish I could explain our offense to you.
Well this is a getting super long. Some leftover notes in bullet points:
- Buddy likes Lee Molette a lot. Thinks Molette has good instincts, always at or near the play. Can't teach that. Was surprised to hear this was his first start and that Molette is a RS FR. Sure he made some mistakes, but he's young. Still lead the team in tackles in his first start. Wow!
- In general, thought our secondary was pretty good. Was really surprised that we were without some starters. Lots of toughness there, not afraid to give and take hits. Also liked Shearin, Durante, and Bin-Wahid. (Side note, Bin-Wahid was a pacer, up and down the sideline.)
- Thought our d-line was phenomenal, especially the DEs. Looked like the Bosa brothers against Rice's o-line.
- We started going conservative too early. On defense we switched to Cover-3 early in the 4th quarter. On offense, too many outside runs or screens when Rice had quick-strike offense abilities.
- During halftime, Rice PA announcer was trying to make a weird/lame joke about our Civil Conflict thing with UCF. I didn't hear the whole thing cuz I was taking a piss, but it was something about real vs fake rivalries. In my head I was thinking, "Can't wait to not care about the historic Rice vs UAB rivalry."
