UConn game Saturday

[SANJAY]

Day before the game and no actual football talk?  I'll take a stab at this.

It appears UConn has a very accurate QB in Bryant Shirrefs. He's thrown a few interceptions but also 6 touchdowns. Their homerun threat is Arkeel Newsome who is also a dangerous kick returner.  Unlike in years past they have not run the ball well and are averaging less than 4 ypc.  They average 324 ypg and 19.8 ppg. Their opponents have been Villanova (20-15), Army (22-17), Missouri (6-9), Navy (18-28), BYU (13-30) and UCF (40-13).

Anyways, I was wondering how UConn all-of-a-sudden exploded for 40 points against UCF and if they found their offense.  

Safety on the dumb play by the UCF KR -2 points.

Touchdown on a 2 play 9 yard drive after UCF turnover - 7 points

Touchdown on a 2 play 34 yard drive after UCF turnover - 7 points

FG after an 8 play 25 yard drive after a 71 yard KR - 3 points

Touchdown on a 2 play 16 yard drive after UCF muffed a punt - 7 points

 

26 points on 84 yards of offense. Kudos to them for taking full advantage (something our teams have struggled to do the last few years) but they still only had 2 good drives of sustained offense all game.  

 

We don't turn the ball over and we play good coverage and stay away from Arkeel Newsome then we should have a better than 50% chance of winning this game.

Edited October 16, 2015 by SANJAY

[El_Toro_86]

Nice write up.  Something I noticed in the Cuse game.  Hill was doing the Kick Offs and not getting them very deep.  This could bite us in the butt with Newsome.

[Dogma]

Thanks for the analysis

I watched the UConn UCF game and I noticed the same thing.. most points came off UCF turnovers, and they didnt have many sustained drives
It was an ugly game with many mistakes on both sides (if people thought the USF/MD game was ugly... watch this one.)  Didnt UConn muff/fumble a kickoff return soon after UCF's saftey?

 

EL_TORO:

Completely agree.  What's with the kicker not being able to kick it to the end zone?  If I remember right, only the game's initial kick-off reached.  Then it seemed like each kick after that was shorter and shorter (3 yard line, then 5, then 10)

Edited October 16, 2015 by Dogma
spelling error

[SANJAY]

Nice write up.  Something I noticed in the Cuse game.  Hill was doing the Kick Offs and not getting them very deep.  This could bite us in the butt with Newsome.

I think Nadelman was struggling to get them deep against Memphis which is why Hill was kicking off. I agree that could be a huge problem for us because our coverage pre-Syracuse was not good.

[El_Toro_86]

Well Hill wasn't any better than Nadelman.  This is a cause for concern.  On the subject of special teams, I'm not sure how confident I am in Nadelman if we need a game winning kick.

Man I miss Kloss!

[flsportsfan83]

Just kick it out of bounds all day if you have too, don let the KR beat us.

[BullsFanInTX]

Just kick it out of bounds all day if you have too, don let the KR beat us.

+1.  I coach high school ball and I always have my kicker squib it or kick it out of bounds if they have a top returner.  I never put the ball in the hands of a dangerous returner.  Been burned too many times.  The deep man on kickoff return is virtually always the fastest guy or best athlete on their team.

[raptorcj]

 Safety on the dumb play by the UCF KR -2 points.

Touchdown on a 2 play 9 yard drive after UCF turnover - 7 points

Touchdown on a 2 play 34 yard drive after UCF turnover - 7 points

FG after an 8 play 25 yard drive after a 71 yard KR - 3 points

Touchdown on a 2 play 16 yard drive after UCF muffed a punt - 7 points

One translation of this is that they have a very solid and improving D. This is just more evidence to me that this should be another slug-fest defensive battle. Again, I think we have the edge there. But I really want to see our O continue to come out of its shell!

[edit] at least no rain tomorrow, weather should be decent football conditions but bring a hot chocolate if you're in the stands.

Edited October 16, 2015 by raptorcj

[SANJAY]

One translation of this is that they have a very solid and improving D. This is just more evidence to me that this should be another slug-fest defensive battle. Again, I think we have the edge there. But I really want to see our O continue to come out of its shell!

Absolutely right.  I looked at their stats against BYU and wondered how they kept it close into the 4th even though BYU had 200 yards more than them. BYU drove on 4 different occasions to within the UConn 30 and had 2 missed field goals and 2 interceptions.  Their defense will not be a cakewalk. Given Diaco's defensive background expect them to be very disciplined and ready for what they saw us do against Syracuse.

[BDYZR]

Thanks for the analysis

I watched the UConn UCF game and I noticed the same thing.. most points came off UCF turnovers, and they didnt have many sustained drives
It was an ugly game with many mistakes on both sides (if people thought the USF/MD game was ugly... watch this one.)  Didnt UConn muff/fumble a kickoff return soon after UCF's saftey?

 

EL_TORO:

Completely agree.  What's with the kicker not being able to kick it to the end zone?  If I remember right, only the game's initial kick-off reached.  Then it seemed like each kick after that was shorter and shorter (3 yard line, then 5, then 10)

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I mentioned this in the stands last week. We seem to lose 5yds per kick. The last kick vs Memphis barely reached the 20.