God awful

[PolisHusky]

Idk if anyone else remembers this, but TE Ryan Griffin really disappointed me. I think Delahunt and McQuillan made up for it with some surprise efforts, but Griffin had two scoring chances and some of those reads that J-Mac made were right on target for Griffin. There is a wealth of talent at that position, but Griffin seemed timid and unfocused.

Disclosure: I'm not saying that Johnny McEntee was stellar and none of the fault falls on him for not executing. He had plenty of sailing passes that never gave the players a chance. He made mike smith look bad while casey had better looks at smith. I'm just saying that there could have been better effort on Griffin's part. Very disappointing to see a guy with his size and route running not finishing the play.

 

[nycscooby]

Think HCPP should name Whitmer the starter today going in to fall practice. This 5 QB Stop is distracting and will limit this team's ceiling. I can't tell what O it is that we have, impossible from yesterday.

 

[CTMike]

It's easy to say that everything was awful, but really it was all keyed off the O-Line. Between being banged up, and then split up across two teams - yes, they were bad. But remember that not a single line combination from Saturday will be represented in a game this year. The lines were beyond worst case scenario. And, in light of that, I'm encouraged that Whitmer put up points with a sieve in front of him. I think that is the biggest thing in his favor to be QB once practice starts again. Cool under pressure.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Whaler11 is an energy sucker first class.

Great day, great energy, great atmosphere, great crowd, great spring game.

By my not so specific analysis to this point, i don't think the defense got out of a single package. a couple of shifts at the line is all i saw. I saw some glimpses of potential in the run game on offense. THe diversity of the fullback and TE positions was on display. Whitmer and Philips have a leg up on everybody by my eye on timing and Nick Williams was a focal part of the offense. I saw all kinds of different stuff happening on offense, and I saw a defense that was fundamentally sound in tackling from every position. I told y'all a while ago that the C position is going to be key. Bockeloh was switching blue and white jerseys to get reps.

Offense has a bit of a way to go on getting rolling, but the potential is there. I would hope, that when it comes to the QB position, if the performances out of that position on the field Saturday were representative of the entire spring - that we know who the QB will be in the fall, and they start in the pre-season camp repping appropriately to get that timing and chemistry on offense clicking.

Remember that this game is going to available for every coaching staff in the Big East to pick apart, and the coaches know exactly what they themselves want to look at, and more importantly, what they don't want the rest of the Big East to see.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Whaler11 is an energy sucker first class.

Great day, great energy, great atmosphere, great crowd, great spring game.

By my not so specific analysis to this point, i don't think the defense got out of a single package. a couple of shifts at the line is all i saw. I saw some glimpses of potential in the run game on offense. THe diversity of the fullback and TE positions was on display. Whitmer and Philips have a leg up on everybody by my eye on timing and Nick Williams was a focal part of the offense. I saw all kinds of different stuff happening on offense, and I saw a defense that was fundamentally sound in tackling from every position. I told y'all a while ago that the C position is going to be key. Bockeloh was switching blue and white jerseys to get reps.

Offense has a bit of a way to go on getting rolling, but the potential is there. I would hope, that when it comes to the QB position, if the performances out of that position on the field Saturday were representative of the entire spring - that we know who the QB will be in the fall, and they start in the pre-season camp repping appropriately to get that timing and chemistry on offense clicking.

Remember that this game is going to available for every coaching staff in the Big East to pick apart, and the coaches know exactly what they themselves want to look at, and more importantly, what they don't want the rest of the Big East to see.

Bockeloh was in street clothes with his arm in a sling. I saw Mateas, Greene, and Bullock all switching jerseys.

I was by far and away much more concerned after last year's spring game than I am now.

 

[Woof 101]

It's easy to say that everything was awful, but really it was all keyed off the O-Line. Between being banged up, and then split up across two teams - yes, they were bad. But remember that not a single line combination from Saturday will be represented in a game this year. The lines were beyond worst case scenario. And, in light of that, I'm encouraged that Whitmer put up points with a sieve in front of him. I think that is the biggest thing in his favor to be QB once practice starts again. Cool under pressure.

A well stated and factual comment here. Unlike the doomsday hocky fan that apparently has the ability to predict the future of a team with out a clue of what she or he claimed to see on the field......

 

[Duncan Idaho]

If it is possible to attend the open practice in August, try following DeLeone, upclose with the Oline. You are going get a pretty good idea of how the season will go. We are good to go everywhere else.

 

[Srqhusky]

Well if it was a 31-28 game would he be crying about the defense. Theres no pressure !!! Our front four are weak!! The corners are slower than the golden girls. The sky is falling...We don't need a chicken little.
Our O-line was diluted against arguably what will be one of the most physical front fours in the conference. The Qb whitmer seems to be able to get rid of the ball. Haven't heard anyone giving props to David Stevenson but added depth at corner is going to be big given it was a weakness last year.

 

[whaler11]

A well stated and factual comment here. Unlike the doomsday hocky fan that apparently has the ability to predict the future of a team with out a clue of what she or he claimed to see on the field......

I guess we'll see won't we. I hope that I'm very wrong. I lied to myself last year after the Fordham game and ignored what I saw. I fully expected to hear every excuse in this thread, I could have written them into the first post.

Line up the quality of the offensive line against the program's record over the last decade. You'll see they have never even had a mediocre season when the line wasn't good. With the line they showed up with yesterday they go 3-9. Maybe Bennett saves them, but he's never stayed on the field yet.

 

[CTMike]

The lines are crazy important, because so many things key off of it. So, yeah, if you JUST want to consider yesterday's practice... worry away. But our next game isn't for another 5 months. In the mean time, the O-Line can get healthy, can practice, can study, and even play a few games before we start Big East play. It's a question mark, for sure. Not a death sentence.

 

[uconnbill]

The one thing that can't happen is going into the season with the quarterback position not settled unlike last season. They need a define leader heading into the season.

Remember Masters and Bennett were both out yesterday. They are the two best lineman on this team. So I have faith going forward to the summer and fall.

 

[Jerry27]

Given the amount of walking wounded, and the fact that the way they divided the teams up it was not a 1's against 2's format, you can't come away saying a "unit" is going to be be bad or good for that matter. Judging the "unit" in this instance is as rediculous as saying our schemes were awful, neither will be what is represented on August 30th.

You can say however that you witnessed many players show signs of adding quality depth to key positions on both sides of the ball. Individual players that stood out for me, with the focus being on the newer guys (and I may miss a few here until I rewatch my TIVO);
Oseiski
Delorenzo
McQuillan
Whitmer
Cruz
Gifford
Mack
Phillips
Christen
Pruitt
Clark
Ashiru
Foxx
Stevenson
Lee
Adeyemi
McBryde

Edit: I am far more optimistic this year compared to last year.

 

[mattp]

They were too focused on throwing the ball to bother to gain yards with their top backs. They just tried to run it a few dozen times with zero success for fun.

are you serious with this? our number one goal was to figure out our best QB, do you really want us to run 60% of the time? i was thrilled we threw a lot. our biggest concerns are passing offense and passing defense, it seems that one of them improved quite a bit, and Whitmer did a godo job of moving the offense. Some of the Olinemen that made mistakes arent' even on our 2 deep so it might be time to step off the ledge. i thought it was a great spring game and i saw a lot of what i wanted to see

 

[whaler11]

are you serious with this? our number one goal was to figure out our best QB, do you really want us to run 60% of the time? i was thrilled we threw a lot. our biggest concerns are passing offense and passing defense, it seems that one of them improved quite a bit, and Whitmer did a godo job of moving the offense. Some of the Olinemen that made mistakes arent' even on our 2 deep so it might be time to step off the ledge. i thought it was a great spring game and i saw a lot of what i wanted to see

I don't care what the mix of throw versus run was. Im simply noting when they tried to run they could not.

Im not on any ledge, I'm just not going to pretend that something so poor was not.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

The offense was pathetic today. Anyone who tells you different is lying to you and themselves.

I wasn't even at the game and I believe you. Whitmer sounds impressive. Likewise, Phillips at WR. But the rest??? Same old offense, or lack thereof.
Defense had a good day or so it seems. Of course, look at the offense they were up against. Aside from Fordham, most other teams did look good against the UConn offense last season.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

are you serious with this? our number one goal was to figure out our best QB, do you really want us to run 60% of the time? i was thrilled we threw a lot. our biggest concerns are passing offense and passing defense, it seems that one of them improved quite a bit, and Whitmer did a godo job of moving the offense.

I'm with you on this one matty. Wasn't at game,but glad to hear that Whitmer and Phillips may provide an pulse for the anemic UConn offense. Also, got to hope that McNeal from Clemson will add even more come August. Maybe Juco's and transfers are the way to go.

FWIW, I've made similar "suggestions" in the past about using the Spring Game or early season, patsy OOC's to work on the passing game. But the response has usually been "We're UConn, we run, stop us if you can, punting team out on the field".

 

[Palatine]

I don't care what the mix of throw versus run was. Im simply noting when they tried to run they could not.

Im not on any ledge, I'm just not going to pretend that something so poor was not.

Good grief, the offensive lines were thrown together for the day. What did you expect?

 

[freescooter]

One other thing is that had Whitmer started the game instead of coming in in the 2nd quarteer, I suspect everyone's perspective would have been different. Pasquoloni let Mac have the first series, which was a nice move on his part. But had Whitmer come out, played as he did, move the team in for a score, or come very close, all of a sudden everyone is talking about the new UCONN quarterback and how things looked great until he came out. Because of the rotation they set up, it gave the impression that Whitmer doesn't have the lead in the qb battle. Usually in these types of games the starter plays the early series and backups play later.

 

[gioff23]

I was at the game and thought it was a good day. Anyone looking for O consistency w/rotating lines and qb's, a very limited playbook, and key components missing was looking for the wrong things. What we learned is that we have depth at all positions - I thought Gifford looked ok for a freshman OT, I thought Cruz did a decent job at G, I thought Williams and Phillips showed the ability to create space, I thought Osieki looked strong at FB, I thought the DL push was tremendous, i thought the depth at LB was lights out, and I believe we have 4 good CBs and a 3rd S. Those were things I was unsure about and was looking for in the spring game.

If you were looking for the O to open up the playbook and challenge the D i think you went to the worng event - the staff said all week, this would be basic formations and fundamental football. The time for sizzle is in the late summer, early fall.

I am optimistic for 12.

 

[Srqhusky]

I wasn't even at the game and I believe you. Whitmer sounds impressive. Likewise, Phillips at WR. But the rest??? Same old offense, or lack thereof.
Defense had a good day or so it seems. Of course, look at the offense they were up against. Aside from Fordham, most other teams did look good against the UConn offense last season.

When you play Madden on your Xbox, Your the Dream Team vs 2008 Detroit lions Right?

 

[ZooCougar]

Whaler just misses Edsall.

Hey Whaler. P just may be awful, but at least when we punt, we can be reasonably certain that it won't get blocked.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

When you play Madden on your Xbox, Your the Dream Team vs 2008 Detroit lions Right?

No UConn vs Texas Southern '10