I appreciate having a forum like this, where we can express our thoughts and opinions without fear of being censored as is often the case on the UMass Football FB page; that being said, we are not going to always agree or see eye to eye concerning various topics and games throughout the year. Some expressed optimism that the offense showed signs of life and improvement with Brady Olson under center…. I agree 100%; an area we perhaps don’t all agree is what the heck took them so long??? This is game 9, there are many of us that question why Olson wasn’t named the starter from day 1? Maybe I am clueless in the sense that Olson could have been injured, or held out for some other reason not publicly known …. Otherwise, everything he showed last night was on display last year as well, to the point that I remarked to my brother that “ at least we have a QB for the foreseeable future!” We still don’t know if Olson is number 1 for the long run ( in the eyes of Coach Brown), and by holding him and his receivers down for a major portion of this season, their growth and development has been hampered and delayed.
I also have to question, in a negative fashion, why Olson was taken out on a 3rd and 3 in favor of a running QB who stumbled his way to no gain…. Christian Fauria was dumbfounded by the move as well; and I also agreed with Fauria concerning the FG try from a wide angle, instead of giving the kids a chance to fight for the 1st down. Remember UMass’s 1st drive…. marching down the field with confidence and precision, only to be derailed by a play calling for a high risk backwards pass/ lateral, that resulted in a fumble…. once the ball hits the ground on that play, it’s a live ball…. Their players seemed to realize that, ours didn’t- huge play in the game ! There also seemed to be some kind of confusion or maybe some kind of scheme as players were shifting around on that 1st down 75 yd TD run for UConn…. WTF happened there? How about the 52 yd FG try…. was that a reasonable attempt, and did the players realize it could be run back? How much effective play action was used to compliment Olson’s passing ability, as opposed to just basic ineffective running plays? We could go back and forth all day…. There are many ways to skin a cat, and opposing ways to view a glass as half empty or half full
One thing that is not really subject to debate, is that both teams were in a similar state last year on the bottom of the national rankings, with UMass coming out on top in their head to head matchup. This year under new coach Jim Mora, and a team decimated by injuries necessitating inserting a true freshman 4th string QB into the lineup ( I think he threw for around 60 yds), UConn was favored by 15.5 pts and won by 17….I, for one, as clueless as I may be, don’t necessarily call that progress. Lastly, what is the current point differential for UMass in the 2nd half of games this year? Something like 110-6? Is that any reflection on the head coach and his staff? I guess that’s enough for now, it’s on to the next game!