Spanos -- are you freakin' joking?

[RSTuthill]

Frankly I was a little surprised it didn't happen sooner.

 

[gtcam]

I see nothing wrong with this selection - the kids absolutely loved Spanos
I am sure Mora interviewed others and maybe some turned him down but in the long run, Spanos knows UConn and that in itself is a comfort level that maybe Mora felt he needed. They know each other well over the years also.
Puke all you want Palatine but it's Mora's team and he made the selection
Live with it as Mora will - it's not the end of the world - he will do what Mora wants

 

[Ajs120102]

I see nothing wrong with this selection - the kids absolutely loved Spanos
I am sure Mora interviewed others and maybe some turned him down but in the long run, Spanos knows UConn and that in itself is a comfort level that maybe Mora felt he needed. They know each other well over the years also.
Puke all you want Palatine but it's Mora's team and he made the selection
Live with it as Mora will - it's not the end of the world - he will do what Mora wants

Personally think it was Spanos’ job all along.

 

[JMick]

After reporting that none of the prior coaching staff would be retained.............this is a major surprise. So who jumped the gun, the press, or Mora? My guess............................surprise..................... the press.

you know you can look this stuff up, right? Mora said to the press that 2021 staff wouldn't be retained.

 

[oldanintheway]

It was quite a ride we had this year as fans and imagine what the players went through. Something that I observed at the Rent was how even when the D came up short Lou would walk onto the field and meet the players walking to the bench and give them words of encouragement and interact with them. We forget these players are 18-23 years old. Lou knew what we were up against and beating them into the ground was not going to be the correct choice. Because they were going to be right back out there trying to stop our opponent again in a couple minutes. To me I felt we had improvement in the secondary in coverage and tackling. I know there are some ugly plays where we did not tackle but overall it was better this season. Our biggest hole on D is pass rush. Losing Jones at D-tackle we could be worse at run D this year. Lou could not focus on defense after the Holy Cross game. I have a feeling our players on defense are going to amped up with Lou returning.

After HCRE 2.0 "left" it must have been a very unsettled and depressed locker room/team. Now in an instant Coach Lou had to keep the whole ship from sinking, and despite the record he may have done just that. With no real OC, Coach Lou, I believe, was, no matter what he was feeling inside, deep in a week to week, game to game grind of keeping his Very young team somehow together.
His body language, and I believe his genuine upbeat encouraging tone kept the ship from sinking altogether.
If I may, I think Palatine's and other's initial reaction is legit in that most of us were getting used to the idea that a clean sweep would be a good thing, but there was initial "votes"/suggestions, for perhaps Corey, because of his relationship with some seemingly good recruits and our Special Teams coach to be retained. Most of us agreed regarding our Strength & Conditioning coach staying.
So, now we shall see. Coach Spanos is a "Young 50"(?), has plenty of positive energy, his, again, very young players, genuinely respect/like him, and so will play hard for him. Continuity in this case, could well be a positive as he has first hand knowledge on both sides of the ball regarding communicating with all the coaches regarding personnel, their individual personalities, psyches, and physical abilities. The criticism regarding his "vanilla' defense may well be legit also, but now he was HC, down a coach, (or two), and working with what he had.
He and HCJM have worked together before, very successfully. He now has on the D side, energetic, hungry coaches accepting the challenge of turning around the #130 team in D1. And they now are under the umbrella of an experienced, (not old, lethargic) coach who has had success at the highest level. Coach genuinely seems to love it here, his players seem to know that and we should have at least have no doubt that Coach Spanos will tirelessly work to do the best job for HCJM, his players, and UConn.
We await the results. Good Luck Coach and Congratulations.

 

[Hornet22]

We had a defense that was on the field for most of the game and our secondary was pretty weak. I don't think that Spanos got to show what he is capable of. Hopefully we'll see what he can do with better recruits.

He was also a favorite of the players on the team, and I think that had something to do with it. He managed to salvage a semblance of a season, and would have had more success but for Phommachanh's injury.

I’ll chime in here. My opinion- the secondary was actually pretty solid. Our D Line, while decent against the run barely generated a pass rush. You try playing defensive back when the QB literally makes cups of coffee in the pocket and see if you can cover skilled receivers for 5-7 seconds. The best secondaries are ones where the pass rush gets home a decent amount of time and forces the ball out the QB’s hand quickly or forces bad throws.

Not to mention our defensive backs literally had about 90 seconds of rest on average with the amount of 3 and outs our offense had.

 

[giddyup]

Not sure how bad the ten steps back are, how many steps had he taken forward prior to hiring Spanos.

The D has been generally terrible to moderately functional at best. Cleaning house was job 1, not handing out favors to friends. Program first and thus isn’t program first.

 

[uconnfan68]

The D has been generally terrible to moderately functional at best. Cleaning house was job 1, not handing out favors to friends. Program first and thus isn’t program first.

Then leave.

 

[Block C]

The D has been generally terrible to moderately functional at best. Cleaning house was job 1, not handing out favors to friends. Program first and thus isn’t program first.

Thank you for your interest in UConn football. If you don’t want to be a positive fan than good bye.

 

[businesslawyer]

Without even chiming in on whether or not this is good (because I don’t know), what happened is fairly obvious. Mora wanted to clean house, but struck out at finding anyone better. Not good or bad, but almost certainly what happened.

 

[RSTuthill]

Personally think it was Spanos’ job all along.

Exactly.

 

[Rosebud70]

I like spanos as a person and how the team rally around him. However the D performance has not been well around him. I say he gets one to two seasons tops to turn the D around or we gotta turn the page

 

[tower1]

Mora to retain former UConn interim head coach Spanos as DC

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn coach Jim Mora announced Wednesday that he is retaining the man he replaced, former interim head coach Lou Spanos, to serve as his defensive coordinator.

lancasteronline.com

I hope this is a damn joke ! Bad hire !!!

 

[CL82]

Without even chiming in on whether or not this is good (because I don’t know), what happened is fairly obvious. Mora wanted to clean house, but struck out at finding anyone better. Not good or bad, but almost certainly what happened.

Agreed. And, if is correct that we struck out with better talent, it is kind of bad, just not horrible.

Let’s see how it works out. It is entirely possible that with a talent upgrade a summer to work on a new defensive scheme and an upgraded offense trust burns some clock it may be fine.

 

[Buffett10]

This is where I am too. I say give him a year and see what happens.

Give him the first 3 games. If they’re still near 35 a game make the change

 

[tower1]

The DC whose defense NEVER used disguise. No movement on D line pre-snap. Just show the defense and play the defense Spanos.

Disappointed beyond belief. He has been flat off awful. And Mora hires him? WTTF?

This is ridiculous !! Our defense sucked and this fool hires Spanos. I thought he was doing an ok job until this news. This program isn't going to improve.

 

[superjohn]

Hate this. Mora clearly struck out on all his targets.

 

[Nostical]

I understand Palatine's concern but I'm sanguine about it. Here's why. It worked at UCLA. Mora is a defensive coach. Spanos was really the only coach the players heavily lobbied for. Who knows who was better out there that said no. One thing is important to me. Spanos isn't headstrong. He'll create a defense with Mora that fits Mora's philosophy and the skills and strengths of the players that have to execute it. Bottom line it's a done deal. I'm supporting it.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Without even chiming in on whether or not this is good (because I don’t know), what happened is fairly obvious. Mora wanted to clean house, but struck out at finding anyone better. Not good or bad, but almost certainly what happened.

I agree with this. He obviously had people he targeted and, for whatever reason, couldn't close the deal. However, I'm actually fairly positive on the hire. Mora could have hired someone. I'm sure he received plenty of contacts from coaches and their agents. However, rather than just taking someone he wasn't confident in, he decided Spanos was the best available option. He's not stupid - he undoubtedly knew his own words, "Members of the 2021 staff will not be retained" (and ideally that probably would have been the case), would be used against him. But he felt confident enough that Spanos was the best option that he went ahead anyway.

As for the famous comment that UConn played the most transparent defense (seemingly in keeping with our relatively transparent offense), I'm sure Spanos has heard it and so has Mora. They know improvement is required. I wouldn't expect Belichickian disguises and schemes, but I expect more as our talent, experience and confidence level (on field and in coaches box) improve. Mora and Spanos have been in charge of or part of top college and professional defenses so it's not as if they don't understand and haven't executed the concepts.

As hard as it is to believe, I think FHCRE actually became more vanilla as time went on (and he was hardly Rocky Road when he started). As he seemingly lost confidence in what the players could do he adopted the "well let's just do a few things well" philosphy and spurned any complexity that he didn't think they could handle. The problem is that the other team quickly learns the few things so they are bound to fail - making the problem worse. That's why he had to go.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

It was quite a ride we had this year as fans and imagine what the players went through. Something that I observed at the Rent was how even when the D came up short Lou would walk onto the field and meet the players walking to the bench and give them words of encouragement and interact with them. We forget these players are 18-23 years old. Lou knew what we were up against and beating them into the ground was not going to be the correct choice. Because they were going to be right back out there trying to stop our opponent again in a couple minutes. To me I felt we had improvement in the secondary in coverage and tackling. I know there are some ugly plays where we did not tackle but overall it was better this season. Our biggest hole on D is pass rush. Losing Jones at D-tackle we could be worse at run D this year. Lou could not focus on defense after the Holy Cross game. I have a feeling our players on defense are going to amped up with Lou returning.

Think it became about bailing water until the season was over and not about being creative. They would have kept Mazzone or his concepts otherwise, also.

 

[Bubba1957]

If he couldn’t coach defense and young men, Mora would not have given him the job. IMO the idea that he could find anyone else is ridiculous and goes along with a defeatist mentality that many have.

 

[Husk1881]

This thread is becoming a joke. We are gonna hammer the guy for last season when 90% of other coaches would have been polishing their resume and looking for their next job. He wants to be here, he understands the program and has experience with the current HC. He is a coordinator, he works with the HC and personnel. Why bail on the guy before you see what he can install in a new system. If you can’t see what this hire meant to the players who obviously have faith in his ability then you’re not paying attention. Let’s hold judgement till the season shall we.

 

[businesslawyer]

This thread is becoming a joke. We are gonna hammer the guy for last season when 90% of other coaches would have been polishing their resume and looking for their next job. He wants to be here, he understands the program and has experience with the current HC. He is a coordinator, he works with the HC and personnel. Why bail on the guy before you see what he can install in a new system. If you can’t see what this hire meant to the players who obviously have faith in his ability then you’re not paying attention. Let’s hold judgement till the season shall we.

I’m neutral on the hire, but how the heck do you know he wasn’t polishing his resume and looking for his next job? And, at the end of the day, just didn’t have a better opportunity anywhere?

It’s o.k. to be happy that we have a former NFL coach and a mostly new staff without needing to pretend that every bite of steak you ever eat came from Capital Grill.

 

[Skiblets]

I’m neutral on the hire, but how the heck do you know he wasn’t polishing his resume and looking for his next job? And, at the end of the day, just didn’t have a better opportunity anywhere?

It’s o.k. to be happy that we have a former NFL coach and a mostly new staff without needing to pretend that every bite of steak you ever eat came from Capital Grill.

I prefer Abe and Louies but get your point

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't know if he more or less always was the guy, given he had the same job for Mora at UCLA or whether we struck out. I don't care really. The kids liked playing for him. I don't think he's a bad coach or doesn't know defense. He couldn't fix our offense as interim HC but the defense was slightly better then. Not sure any defense can survive an offense that doesn't get first downs and constantly gives up field position while never letting them rest.

So let's hope for the best.