UConn football 2012

[Clears Cleaver]

Year two of Coach Blue. It doesn't look like there is much chance of being asked to join the ACC or Big10 anytime soon. ITs the last year of playing Pitt and Syracuse and a year away from playing Boise, SMU, Houston, etc. Can you feel the excitement? So far they've only sold 19,000 season tix, down a few thousand from last year. This was the start of a new three-year season ticket plan, where the entire pitch was the Michigan game next year (which Michigan may still buy out of, although they have publicly said they'd stick with commitment).

2012 Schedule

2012 Connecticut Huskies Football Schedule
Date Opponent Time/TV Tickets Thursday
08/30/12 UMass Minutemen
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT 7:30 p.m. ET
ESPN3 Buy
Tickets Saturday
09/08/12 NC State Wolfpack
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT 12:00 p.m. ET
ESPN3 & BEN Buy
Tickets Saturday
09/15/12 at Maryland Terrapins
Byrd Stadium, College Park, MD 12:30 p.m. ET
ACCN Buy
Tickets Saturday
09/22/12 at Western Michigan Broncos
Waldo Stadium, Kalamazoo, MI 2:00 p.m. ET
ESPN3 Buy
Tickets Saturday
09/29/12 Buffalo Bulls
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT 12:00 p.m. ET
ESPN3 & BEN Buy
Tickets Saturday
10/06/12 at Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Rutgers Stadium, Piscataway, NJ TBA Buy
Tickets Saturday
10/13/12 Temple Owls (HC)
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT TBA Buy
Tickets Friday
10/19/12 at Syracuse Orange
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY 8:00 p.m. ET
ESPN Buy
Tickets Saturday
10/27/12 --- Open Date --- --- Saturday
11/03/12 at USF Bulls
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL TBA Buy
Tickets Friday
11/09/12 Pittsburgh Panthers
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT 8:00 p.m. ET
ESPN2 Buy
Tickets Saturday
11/17/12 --- Open Date --- --- Saturday
11/24/12 at Louisville Cardinals
Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, Louisville, KY TBA Buy
Tickets Saturday
12/01/12 Cincinnati Bearcats
Rentschler Field, East Hartford, CT Time TBA
ABC/ESPN/2 TBA Buy
Tickets

According to Athlon, Uconn ahs ten of the top 50 players in the Big East. I actually think that # is about right, yet every publication picks them to finish alst or next to last. Why? The QB play last year was abysmal. Will chandler Whitmer be the guy? I'm sure he will based on the fact that his play in the spring game was better than anything UConn has seen since Orlovsky. Defense should be stout, perhaps best in the conference.

I'd love to beat Maryland at Maryland

 

[Captaincoop]

The offense was a complete and total disgrace last year. Not just the QB play (which was awful - McNemee was horrendous), but the whole attack looked sloppy and uncoordinated. I do not expect that to improve one bit, since they have the worst offensive coordinator ever, and this is how his units have typically performed in recent years.

 

[Skeesix]

How the hell did we get scheduled to play at Kalamazoo?

 

[Clears Cleaver]

[sub]I forget the reason why, Western Michigan filled in an open date last eyar late and would only do it for a home and home. Of course, Uconn lost to them last year....brilliant![/sub]

[sub]Huskies got two new recruits today, including an OG from St Tomas Acquinas in FT Lauderdale (who had an offer from South Carolina). [/sub]

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

UConn picked to finish 6th, Louisville 1st.

http://www.ctnow.com/sports/hc-big-east-media-day-0801-20120731,0,318294.story

I guess this means the football team has a slightly better chance than the men's hoop team to make the postseason playoffs in 2012-2013.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

If Uconn gets good QB play they have a chance to win the Big East. Its that simple. Louisville is best team, but are not very deep yet.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Blaudschun's new venture, ajerseyguy.com has a great interview with Mike Tranghese, who calls out BC and their actions regarding UConn and the ACC. Fascinating stuff. HAve to think the performance of BC football of late is a bit of karma for being so shortsighted:

Q. What about the status of Connecticut in the Big East and its flirtation with other conferences?
A. I think Connecticut is in a very precarious situation. I know there was a lot of interest by Connecticut in the ACC, but we know that that the Boston College administration was very critical of Connecticut. I found that amusing. Connecticut is not the one who left. And behind the curtains it was Boston College and I will argue that if Connecticut had done to Boston College what Boston College had done to Connecticut, they probably would have reacted the same way. But you get over it. But I feel badly for Connecticut because they have been a great member. I would like them to be some place where they can succeed long term. Some people get turned off by (UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun) Jim, but he’s been unbelievably supportive of the Big East and he’s won 3 national championships. I don’t know what you can do but clearly you have an institution in the ACC that does not want them there. I don’t know what went on during the ACC expansion talks, but my instincts tell me there was a lot of support for Connecticut and Syracuse. We know the Boston College administrations did everything they could do to prevent Connecticut from coming in. We know they have always been critical of them. I always found that to be amusing because Connecticut is not the one who left.

 

[StuckOnYouk]

If Uconn gets good QB play they have a chance to win the Big East. Its that simple. Louisville is best team, but are not very deep yet.

Agreed. at the very least it will be better because a) they're bringing back the starter last year to compete for the spot and b) he likely isn't good enough to be out Whitmer.

Watch out for their defense this year too. Could end up being the best in the conference. A lot returning players and the 2nd year of Don Brown's defensive schemes. It usually takes two years for players to get acclimated to his defense. Especially how conservative Edsall's D played. Brown's second year at Maryland the defense did a complete 180.

The NC state game at home will be a very interesting test for them. The place should be rocking and we'll see exactly what we get from the D. As RGIII once said, the Rent was the toughest place for him to play. Fans right on top of you, loud, etc.

 

[Captaincoop]

Wait a minute, run that back...RGIII said that the Rent was the toughest place he ever played?

 

[Dan Murfman]

Sort of

http://espn.go.com/espn/thelife/videogames/blog/_/name/thegamer/id/7621393/robert-griffin-iii-talks-video-games-draft?readmore=fullstory


Jon Robinson: Another cool thing they have in the game is the atmosphere from the crowd, where they're cheering wildly for the home team, while making it tough on the road teams to call audibles with all the crowd noise. When you were at Baylor, what was the toughest place for you to play in terms of crowd noise?

Robert Griffin III: The thing that people think is when you go to these big stadiums and they have 80,000 people or 100,000 people, that these are the toughest stadiums to play at, but really, those aren't. When you have that many people, most of the time, the fans are pretty far away from the field. The toughest places to play are the ones that are jam-packed, are really tight to the field, and sit about 45,000 people. When we played at UConn my freshman year, that was the loudest place I've ever been as a football player. The stands are right next to the field, it was packed, and everyone was yelling. That was probably the coolest place for me to play at aside from Texas, Texas A&M, and Nebraska.

 

[Williams Head Case]

Chandler Whitmer officially named QB1 on UConn depth chart. Somewhere, the trick-shot QB lobby mourns.

 

[Captaincoop]

That's great, Deleone gets another young prospect to destroy.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Nebrich, the highly touted broke-all-vick's-records-in-virgina recruit, transferred, likely to Fordham. Another diamond in the rough. with Casey Cochrane out with broken arm and reshirted, the backups are Johnny Mac (no thanks) or Scott Wildcat McCummings.

No one is on this team locally or nationally (for good reason), but the team literaly lost three games last year becaseu the QB was worse than high school level. If Whitmer is competent, I think they can win 8 games. the MD, NCState, Pitt and Rutgers games will be the key games (and they cannot lsoe in Kalamazoo despite being a road game after MD and NCS)

 

[Captaincoop]

Having watch most of the games last season, do you really think the problem with the offense was Johnny Mac? I think he was awful, but man, the offensive schemes were awful too. I'm not sure this gets any better regardless of who plays QB.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

He missed a lot of throws, at least the ones not thrown to garbage cans.

 

[Dan Murfman]

This is actually about 2013. Michigan tried to help UConn out by offering to move next's years game out of the Rent to play it in the Meadowlands. But The game is still scheduled for the Rent. The Michigan AD also said they will not buy out the game so it does look they are coming.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120822/SPORTS06/120822032/Videos-Dave-Brandon-sticks-up-Oklahoma-kid-U-M-T-shirt

 

[RedOctober3829]

This is actually about 2013. Michigan tried to help UConn out by offering to move next's years game out of the Rent to play it in the Meadowlands. But The game is still scheduled for the Rent. The Michigan AD also said they will not buy out the game so it does look they are coming.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120822/SPORTS06/120822032/Videos-Dave-Brandon-sticks-up-Oklahoma-kid-U-M-T-shirt

Not sure how this helps them out except in their pockets(which we know is huge but.....) UConn will be playing a de facto road game as a bigger stadium will allow more Michigan fans to buy tickets.

 

[Dan Murfman]

Not sure how this helps them out except in their pockets(which we know is huge but.....) UConn will be playing a de facto road game as a bigger stadium will allow more Michigan fans to buy tickets.

Exactly. I was being a little sarcastic but UConn really has to play the game in Connecticut. They have been promoting multi year season tickets with the fact Michigan was coming. It's nice that Michigan isn't buying out the game because they certainly could have bought it out and replaced them with someone else and more than made up for the 2mm. Maybe our AD being a Michigan guy helped out.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Yes. There may be a future game at the Meadowlands or Gillette.

the thing about Johnny Mac...he never really learned the offense. I've been told its a lot more complicated than what we saw last year. And supposedly the WRs will actually have some playmaking ability. we'll see. The big concern right now is the O-Line. I really like the promise of the D.

Looking at the schedule....the NC State game is huge. If they can win that game, then MD on the roac looks easier than it was with all the injuries they6 have. WMU is actually a big trap game after NCS and MD, but there is a chance if things fall right they could be 7-0 or 6-1. 5-2 is what they "should" be, but I think I am suffering from pre-season optimism

 

[Captaincoop]

Yes. There may be a future game at the Meadowlands or Gillette.

the thing about Johnny Mac...he never really learned the offense. I've been told its a lot more complicated than what we saw last year. And supposedly the WRs will actually have some playmaking ability. we'll see. The big concern right now is the O-Line. I really like the promise of the D.

Looking at the schedule....the NC State game is huge. If they can win that game, then MD on the roac looks easier than it was with all the injuries they6 have. WMU is actually a big trap game after NCS and MD, but there is a chance if things fall right they could be 7-0 or 6-1. 5-2 is what they "should" be, but I think I am suffering from pre-season optimism

Just a little bit. I'll be shocked if they don't lose at least 3 of the first 7. Shocked.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

They may actually have a decent QB this year.

 

[Franklin Fanatic]

I know the UMass offense has its, um, issues, but the Uconn defense was very impressive last night. Hopefully, that defense is a lot tougher than what UMass will see in the MAC.

 

[bosox188]

I expect the defense to be excellent this year with seniors all over the place and given Don Brown's history.

For starting seniors you have 3 defensive linemen (Williams, Wirth, Joseph), 2 linebackers (Moore, Johnson), and both cornerbacks (Blidi and Gratz). Safety is the only position with less experience.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Just a little bit. I'll be shocked if they don't lose at least 3 of the first 7. Shocked.

If they can shore up the offensive line, this team has a chance to be good. Maybe very good. Whitmer is best QB since Orlovsky. And the defense and specials could be best in conference type

 

[Captaincoop]

If they can shore up the offensive line, this team has a chance to be good. Maybe very good. Whitmer is best QB since Orlovsky. And the defense and specials could be best in conference type

I hope you're right, but it's a lot easier for a QB to look good when he's playing against a mediocre D-1AA team (which is essentially what UMass is right now even though they are technically 1-A).

I'll believe in this offense when they look competent against a real opponent.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Agreed. They beat NC State they could start5-1 or even 6-0. But they lose who knows. The offense is a black box and the o-line is huge question mark. Saturday should be interesting

 

[Captaincoop]

So, I promise I'll back off my non-stop mockery of George DeLeone if they put together a good offensive game Saturday, but until then...it irks me that he gave the quote below at the press conference this week. If the offense can be disrupted by a UMass middle linebacker...that's going to be a problem, because UConn will see between 1 and 3 better linebackers than him EVERY week this year:

“We were not pleased with how we ran the ball,” DeLeone said. “We have to run the ball better. We’re a team that believes that we can run the ball. We’re a team that is going to pride ourselves on our run game and we spend a lot of time on it. We didn’t get the results against UMass that we wanted. It was a combination of issues: No.1, I thought, fundamentally, we gotta coordinate some things better between the running backs and offensive line. No.2, I didn’t think the offensive line, at times, played as well as they can play: No.3, UMass’ middle linebacker, No.44 (Perry McIntyre who had a game-high 12 tackles), had a phenomenal game; phenomenal game. Now, we’re going to see good linebackers as we go down the road here but he was exceptional. I mean he was extremely well-coached on our offense. I thought he diagnosed plays exceptionally well. I thought he had a very good game. So, I thought it was a combination of the three. No excuses. We have to do better.”

 

[Captaincoop]

Wow, nice first possession there.

 

[Captaincoop]

DeLeone has to go. This offense is a disgrace.

 

[bosox188]

You couldn't run an offense this poorly if you tried.

But the defense is just infallible.

 

[Captaincoop]

So frustrating to waste a defensive effort like this. NC State's soul would be crushed if UConn had even put up ten points this half. How long can they let DeLeone go on? This is the worst offense I've ever seen in Division I.

 

[bosox188]

McCombs hurt, that's bad.

Whitmer with a great throw to Williams, and then immediately pulled for the Wildcat instead of letting him get into a rhythm. I mean what the FUCK?

 

[Williams Head Case]

Jesus.

 

[bosox188]

Look, they found the promised land!

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

Moving on to this weekend's matchup:

Coach Blue vs. Coach Blew Out of Town Without Saying Goodbye

What say ye, Husky Nation? (This sounds 2x as painful if you say it with the voice of the horrible DJ above the student section that somehow got asked back for this season).

 

[BigMike]

Maryland is pretty awful, barely squeeked by a FCS team by a point, and then snuck past a MAC school last weekend. They were projected to be a 9 or 10 loss team coming into the season, and have won the 2 games they were expected to win now.

I have to think UConn wins that one; although, I suspect it will be one unwatchably ugly game

 

[Captaincoop]

Moving on to this weekend's matchup:

Coach Blue vs. Coach Blew Out of Town Without Saying Goodbye

What say ye, Husky Nation? (This sounds 2x as painful if you say it with the voice of the horrible DJ above the student section that somehow got asked back for this season).

There is nothing as frustrating in sports as watching a football team with a dominant defense get sabotaged by its own hapless offense. I know I'm a broken record, and have been since day one of the George Deleone error era, but the problem with this offense is not the personnel. One common thing that all good offenses have is excellent timing. Watch this offense play-to-play, and you see how imprecise the timing is on everything - it's a sign of lousy practice habits. The QB and HB can't coordinate handoffs smoothly, the offensive line doesn't work cohesively, the WR routes are off...in short, the offense is rotten to the core. I have no faith that it will improve. There will be a couple of games when UConn can physically outwork their opponent on the O-Line and steal a win - and this weekend may be one of those. But those games are going to be few and far between. And watching Syracuse this weekend, you can add one more BE team to the list of guaranteed losses.

So frustrating, because Don Brown's defense (and the kids that Edsall recruited to play in it) looks elite. Those guys must have been pulling their hair out when they went home and thought about how well they played and still had nothing to show for it.

Ugh.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

Woo. And suck it, Randy.

 

[Dan Murfman]

Woo. And suck it, Randy.

The offense still sucks

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

It does

 

[Clears Cleaver]

[sub]I really cannot envision a scenario where DeLeone is stil the OC after this season. I mean they gave Kevin Ollie one year. Remember, Warde Manual and Pres Herbst were not in control when this ridiculous hire of PP was made. I think if they feel they have a chance to move to the ACC or Big10 or Big12 and having success on the field matters in being chosen, these clowns will be fired.[/sub]

[sub]The best part of that awful game was the fact that Randy Edsall's idiotic decision to not take a holding penalty on Uconn when uconn failed to get a third down coversion deep in MD territory led to a FG, the difference in the game. I mean the Uconn kicker just missed a long FG and the penalty would have3 pushed it back to 40+ yards. uconn was just as likely to lose yards as gain them third and long in that situation. [/sub]

 

[StuckOnYouk]

Per Peter Abraham, the Sox ownership is looking into having UConn and Notre Dame play at Fenway Park in 2014.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

http://www.boston.com/sports/2012/09/17/uconn-notre-dame-possible-matchup-fenway/5ByBb2qMi808sJGHYNEYLP/story.html

 

[Wingack]

I just found out my neighbor has committed to UConn for 2013. Nice kid, I think he is a defensive back.

 

[bosox188]

Too bad we can't just hand a blank check to Clemson's OC.

 

[BigMike]

Too bad we can't just hand a blank check to Clemson's OC.

as I tell my BC bretheren who hoped for something similar. I am sure the guy is a good, maybe very good OC, but at the same there is a HUGE talent difference between what BC and UConn have for offensive skill position players, and what Clemson has

 

[bosox188]

as I tell my BC bretheren who hoped for something similar. I am sure the guy is a good, maybe very good OC, but at the same there is a HUGE talent difference between what BC and UConn have for offensive skill position players, and what Clemson has

Oh absolutely, but I'm sure DeLeone would find a way to fuck up with those players.

 

[Captaincoop]

Is there any scenario wherein they make a move on DeLeone midseason? I can't watch these games anymore.

 

[bosox188]

That was an extremely discouraging win.

 

[Skeesix]

So here's my suggestion: Fire Pasqualoni and hire Addazio

 

[BigMike]

So here's my suggestion: Fire Pasqualoni and hire Addazio

Would he take the job at this point? Not meant to be a knock on UConn, but they are in the same conference moving forward, so it would be pretty much a lateral move.

But I guess UConn has much better facilities and would probably be willing to pay him more, and it would be going home for him.