Sunday, October 19, 2008

Fuzzy Frazer, Annoyed Edsall

Some notes from Sunday's call with Randy Edsall.

  • Zach Frazer's condition is still unclear, though it seems he may be dealing with another concussion. That is not good news. Randy Edsall would only say that Frazer is still "a little fuzzy" and will be monitored over the next two days. Edsall did say that Frazer is better today than he was yesterday. It's definitely something that bears watching. His concussion in August took about a month for him to fully recover. If it's indeed another concussion, and it sounds as if it is, it could take more time.

  • No other injuries to report from the game.

  • Edsall wouldn't comment on the disputed offensive pass interference call, but he said he submitted the play for review to the league supervisor of officials.

  • Edsall said UConn needs to get Jordan Todman more involved with the offense.

  • Edsall fielded several questions about the play-calling from Saturday. He held firm that "every game is a game within itself", and that the Huskies play-calling is based on a number of different factors ranging from the opponent to the weather conditions. Asked about UConn's reluctance to throw on first down, Edsall said, "I thought we made some big plays in the passing game. We dropped some passes. We made progress, but we still have to get better in that aspect. We have to get better in some of the reads. We had the opportunity to make some big plays in the first half, and we didn't make the right reads. We could have had some big plays there on first and second down.

  • Pressed on the issue, Edsall got annoyed. When one reporter asked about the "conservative play calling", Edsall cut him off. "You call it conservative, I don't call it conservative. I call it trying to win games. I don't know if you've ever coached. The object for us is to try and win games. If we need to throw the ball, if we need to run the ball, we'll run the ball. Yesterday, we put ourselves in position to win a ballgame, but we just happened to not win the ballgame. We missed opportunities."

  • Asked if he could understand whether the uneducated fans and media don't always understand what he's trying to do, Edsall shot back, "Is it important they understand what we're trying to do? I didn't know it was important everyone had to understand what we were trying to do. The bottom line is, we're trying to win games. That's what we're trying to do. You can throw the ball 50 times a game and not win games."

  • Edsall summed up the offense from Saturday this way. "Did we have some success in the passing game? Yes. Did we have some success in the running game? Yes we did. We moved the ball pretty well in the first half running the football. The third quarter was very different because of field position."

  • It only got uglier. Let's just say that after 20 minutes, Edsall had enough of us for the day.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good grief, imagine Randy Edsall being upset about not getting a call. Last year he got a CO CHAMPIONSHIP RING off two brutally missed calls in games against Temple and Louisville. UConn is a total fraud and is going to get a handful of beatdowns earlier in the schedule this year than last. The first one will come on Saturday against Cincy.

October 19, 2008 6:12 PM 
Blogger Aficionado said...

Edsal can be as edgy as he want to be and talk down to us armchair coaches, but that doesn't absolve him from criticism about playing "not to lose" rather than his claim about trying to win. You don't have to be a coach to see the difference and this group will not threaten the BCS bowl berth with an offense that plays "not to lose".

October 19, 2008 7:59 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chip, I'm not asking you to rip one of your collegues there at the Register, but really, do we need a diatribe from Soloman crying about not having answers from Frazer immediately after the game? No offense, but nobody cares about the hurt feelings of the media.

Onto the game itself.....it is very frustrating watching this team as a fan. 5 throws in the first half is a disgrace. You have to have balance. And, if I see one more 3rd & 8 where the QB throws a 3 yard out the RB, I am going to turn off the TV. I've never had illusions about UConn competing on a national level, but I did think they had a shot at the Big East title this year. Unfortunately, I thought they had to win Sat and against Cincy in order to do so. Now, we're playing for the right to go to the PapaJohn.com bowl, which isn't horrible considering how young the program is. My point is....this was a reality check for us. Also, one spiral from Frazer would be nice. One of these games.

October 20, 2008 10:01 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For charles culp: Temple is not in the Big East. That game had no bearing on last season's Big East standings. Thank you for showing your ignorance. Oh, and the officials made the correct call on "that" play.

October 20, 2008 4:33 PM 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home