We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Thanks Trevor. Still 2 days to submit CAC's!

Noteworthy Scores:

Fresno St. 45, Wyoming 24
UCLA 33, Cal 17
Stanford 49, Oregon St. 44
Utah 27, Washington 3
Oregon 38, Arizona St. 19
Florida 49, LSU 9
Arkansas 45, South Carolina 28
Missouri 38, Georgia 26
Alabama 41, Texas A&M 31
Auburn 39, Tennessee 35
Louisville 41, Clemson 38
Virginia 28, Boston College 25
Maryland 16, Michigan 6
Iowa 45, Wisconsin 24
Texas 41, Oklahoma 31
Houston 45, Kansas 7
West Virginia 49, TCU 16
Notre Dame 24, Georgia Tech 3
Mississippi St. 17, Kansas St. 10

NCAA Players of the Week

How the hell did I miss Atkins in the recap?

UConn ST coordinator/assistant offensive and defensive coordinator Bob Trebell (DrGravyBoat) and his Huskies won 35-17 over Baylor to move to 6-0 and #4 in the nation. Jeff McNeal brought back a kickoff return for a touchdown in the win. UConn travels to face West Virginia in Morgantown next week.

Other CAC Results

Brian Grant (OC, New Mexico St., LadiesAndEdelman)

L (1-4, 0-1), 28-31 (2OT) vs. Georgia St. (4-0, 1-0)

N. Jeanty: 27-43, 320 pass yds, 4 TD, 25 rush, 93 yds
T. Potts: 11 rec, 128 yds, 3 TD
S. Davis: 8 rec, 81 yds, TD

Week 8: vs. UL Monroe (2-2, 0-1)


Brennan Smith (DC, Purdue, (bryan3169)

BYE (4-1, 3-0)

Week 8: vs. Ohio St. (2-3, 1-2)


Kaelyn Willingham (OC, Washington St., kswgrad2012)

BYE (2-3, 1-1)

Week 8: @ Oregon St. (3-2, 0-2)


Tyrell Coley (OC, Rutgers, Knickerbocker91)

BYE (3-2, 0-2)

Week 8: vs. Michigan (2-2, 0-2)


J.J. Mac (OC, UTEP, RedRaider10)

BYE (1-4, 1-1)

Week 8: vs. Rice (2-3, 0-2)


Dale Miller (OC, UL-Lafayette, glunsford)

BYE (0-4)

Week 8: @ Kentucky (2-4)

[bryan3169]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Let's see if that Boilermaker defense can stop OSU!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RoundingThird]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Finally, BG is going somewhere. As much as I love BG, I want a HC job.

[whughes]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Finally, BG is going somewhere. As much as I love BG, I want a HC job.

Just do me a favor and lose next week. I need the win more than you do haha

[RoundingThird]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Just do me a favor and lose next week. I need the win more than you do haha

One can never need a win more than someone else. However, one can want a win more than anyone else.

[HARLEE23]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

These past two weeks have killed me! At least this week we scored over 40 points, I can't help the defense gave up 50!

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Bill Legg's odd Mountaineer marriage

by J.D.
October 8, 2018
Sports Illustrated


Bill Legg isn't one to be intimidated by those of higher authority. He doesn't need to be. Looking out onto Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, watching his West Virginia Mountaineers practice, he knows he's in the right place. "I'm back at my alma mater, what more could a coach ask for?" he explains. "I want to make the program proud once more, as we were under Nehlen and Rodriguez."

Having played under Nehlen as a center, accepting the head coaching job at your alma mater, with the blessing of your college coach, mind you, is a no-brainer. But Legg didn't exactly think so.

His ascent to the job at West Virginia culminated quickly, swiftly, and apparently without regard to his previous employers' history with his alma mater.

5 years ago an assistant at Marshall, Huntington, WVa, Legg had no idea that he was generating any interest as a head coach from anywhere else. Fact of the matter is, he wasn't interested in leaving Huntington at the time. Following a 12-2 season in 2014 which ended with a Liberty Bowl victory over Tennessee, then head-coach Doc Holliday swiftly left for the opening at Utah after Kyle Whittingham resigned after 10 seasons.

Legg concedes he thought he was the front-runner for the now vacant Marshall head coaching job, but the Herd caught him off guard and hired Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson, thinking that Legg would be a better coordinator than head coach. Miffed, Legg requested to explore his options -- "Truth is, after that I wanted to get out," he says -- and Southern Mississippi contacted him not even 24 hours after they got word of his intentions. USM had just fired their head coach, Todd Monken, after just two seasons, and Legg was in the next day.

"Once I got to the office and realized that this was all mine, that I was in charge, I was wrong for thinking I wanted to stay. I had done a lot of the work on offense at Marshall, and I think it showed at USM."

Legg is correct there. After a 5-7 finish in his first year -- going 4-4 and finishing third in the C-USA West -- his confidence was rising, as he knew he had a strong young future core almost ready to contribute and that USM had lost 2 games by under 3 points. Meanwhile, West Virginia went 6-7 and Marshall went 7-5, being inexplicably left out of a bowl game. "I was happy to see that I wasn't much worse than my home schools," Legg commented at the end of 2015. But that kept me going, to try to be better than my schools.

However, Legg didn't fare much better in 2016, finishing an identical 5-7, 4-4 and third in the C-USA West.

Meanwhile, Marshall, led by a hot young coordinator who took Legg's spot -- now USC head coach Quinn Shea -- stunned the nation and went 13-0, clinching the #1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Kevin Olsen at Marshall in 2016. He won the Heisman and most major awards that year.

"Yeah, that stung a bit," Legg says while grimacing. "Knowing that was my team two years ago...that made my stomach turn." Marshall did get blown out in the National Title Game to UCLA after defeating Wisconsin in the semis, but Legg knew he had to clear some hurdles in 2017.

And that he did. The key to success? Legg tried something he didn't think he'd need to do: Be diverse. "Thing is, in a conference such as the C-USA, passing alone won't always do the trick. After the success I had with Doc's at Marshall with Rakeem [Cato], I came into USM and basically ran an air raid those first two years."

"Running is more important than you think in the C-USA," Shea says from his USC office. We were lucky to have a good QB in 2016 [Heisman winner Kevin Olsen], but our run game was a necessity to get to where we were."

Legg luckily didn't need to look too far. He had junior speedster Ito Smith and sophomore Kareem McGee at his disposal, along with a budding star QB in junior Gunner Roach, Legg's Eagles went 8-5, finishing third in the C-USA West and beating Navy in a thrilling Tropicana St. Petersburg Bowl.

And West Virginia came calling.

Shea's Trojans wrapped up a 10-3 season by beating Dana Holgersen's Mountaineers in the Chevron Holiday Bowl, and Legg was in Holgersen's spot not even 48 hours after the Holiday Bowl.

Dana Holgorsen at Oklahoma St.

"It was a no brainer for us hiring Bill," comments West Virginia A.D. Shane Lyons, making his first football head coaching hire on the job. "He's from here, he's got a mind for the game, and he coached at Marshall. What they didn't want to give him, we can. And we did."

"I took about 20 minutes to think it over and accept the offer," recalls Legg. My wife [Kelly] was all for it. And through those 20 minutes, the only thing I could think about was how Marshall snubbed me during that head coaching hire in 2015. I've definitely had a chip on my shoulder since then, and I think it's showed."

West Virginia QB William Crest agrees with that last statement. "Coach Bill is tough on us in practice, but he knows what it takes to get to the top, and expects that to rub off on us. For now, we're having a good season."

West Virginia currently sits at 4-1, 20th in the nation after a rout of #3 TCU last week, while Marshall is hovering .500 under new head coach Mike Locksley (Anderson left for Alabama in December) and is set to begin play in the American Athletic Conference soon. Legg's success echoes that of Holliday, who did the opposite of Legg, coming from assistant at West Virginia to Marshall.

"I feel better now that I'm doing better than Marshall. It's been a weird way to the top, but I'm glad to be here and I'm doing my best. We're starting off well, and I hope to be here many years."

An odd marriage it has been, but an effective one too.

Let's see if that Boilermaker defense can stop OSU!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You guys have been playing really, really well. The offense has done more than enough (QB David Blough is in the top 5 nationally passing), and guys like Weaver and Cason have been playing well for you. I actually think you guys are leading your division at the moment.....

Finally, BG is going somewhere. As much as I love BG, I want a HC job.

I think everyone wants that, but you guys are definitely much improved over the last two fated seasons. Lots of folks are off to a good start this year and some will do better as the season progresses (I'm already at the end of the season :P)

Just do me a favor and lose next week. I need the win more than you do haha

One can never need a win more than someone else. However, one can want a win more than anyone else.

This is a true statement. RT needs a win to appeal to higher ups in the snobby SEC or the a-holes in the ACC, while whughes needs this to save his job (potentially).

Who comes out on top in this death match? Haha.

These past two weeks have killed me! At least this week we scored over 40 points, I can't help the defense gave up 50!

ODU has been a perplexing team to this point. They lost to a terrible UTEP defense, yet beat you guys and beat Virginia Tech on the road. Not sure what's up there, but they do have Kentucky transfer QB Drew Barker and it's about this time he starts lighting up the conference (again, I'm already at the end of the season, I think ODU has played all three of our C-USA CAC's.)

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Back to Reality

Crest, Mountaineers thrash Huskies 45-17, end 21 game win streak

*AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been using a version of the OS community sliders since Washington State that has given me fantastic challenges and overall great games in the next 5 you'll see. Big thanks to Matt10 for sending those my way. Now into the recap.*

'Twas a good run. A historic one at that. But as expected, UConn's win streak would come to an end at some point. I just had no idea it would be such a doozy.

UConn was able to stay in it for a half even with a struggling offense and a defense that was desperately in search of a way to stop William Crest. The Mountaineers though, flying high on their home turf, pounced in the second half. The result was a 45-17 beatdown, which I'm led to believe is the second or third worst loss in the Diaco era at UConn.

UConn was seemingly behind from the get-go in this one. After their first drive fizzled out after a sack on third and short from Johnny Jackson, Crest drove the Mountaineers down 78 yards to the end zone, leading the charge with a scramble of 16, a 33 yard pass to Gray Williams and another 15 yard scramble. Donte Thomas-Williams' 4 yard TD put WVA up 7-0.

Ron Johnson was knocked back 4 yards on the first play of UConn's next drive, which ended in another Jackson sack and punt. The Huskies were able to hold off Crest and went into the second quarter only trailing 7-0 with no major reason to panic other than the fact that UConn had only 45 yards of offense and 2 first downs.

After another West Virginia punt, freshman sensation Tanner Dean-Lowry tried his best to tie up the game, scrambling for 16 yards to the right and hitting Jeff Matthews for 7 more before Arkeel Newsome's gains of 17, 7 and 8. TDL trucked a lineman on the next play for a gain of 5, but drops from Matthews and Steve Hashemi doomed the Huskies to settle for a field goal.

Consecutive three and outs set up West Virginia with the ball again at their 16, and the Mountaineers began to charge. Crest found tight end Vinson Triplett, who broke half of the state of Connecticut's tackles, for 25. A huge scramble from Crest set up West Virginia in the red zone (!) and he finished, hitting Cal'Tray Mitchell in the corner of the end zone to place WVA up 14-3.

TDL responded with a TD drive of his own, fostered by a 39 yard PA Wheel play to Matthews, and after an 18 yard Johnson carry, he finished with a 2 yard toss to the left. 14-10.

WVA would have the last laugh in the first half, however, as Ricky Rogers torched Travis Lumpkin for a 52 yard gain. Crest was in the end zone two plays later for a 21-10 halftime lead.

The Mountaineers quickly started putting the game away out of the half. Crest ran for 19, hit a wide-open Mitchell for 25, and Williams-Thomas ran for 15. Helton Tollora was in the end zone three plays later for a 28-10 lead.

Another three and out was the result of UConn's next drive after a tipped pass from Kelsey Ham, and West Virginia naturally scored again to push the game to 35-10.

Crest racked up 48 yards rushing and Thomas-Williams' 2 yard TD up the gut (we blitzed on the outside to counter Crest) put pressure on UConn to get to work.

UConn did score with 1:51 left in the third (30 yard pass TD from TDL to Matthews, who beat a linebacker in coverage), but the game was slipping out of reach after Crest's 10 yard TD run made it 42-17 after three quarters.

Ham picked off TDL on the first play of the Huskies' next drive, Joey Saffler tacked on a field goal to make it 45-17 and wrap up any hope of UConn extending their win streak.

Some reserves got in for UConn, and didn't do much of anything. West VA left in all of their starters until very late, drawing some ire from Coach Diaco.

I mean...you're up 45-17. You know as soon as we get out backups in to get yours in too. What was Bill trying to accomplish, being an ***? Showing off? If that's it, they succeeded in being classless morons.

Then again, UConn really didn't deserve to extend the streak. The offense (especially the run game) was mostly flat again, and though TDL had a decent day, he couldn't get UConn to score nearly often enough.

Whereas, Crest was trucking over UConn all day, beating spies and thoroughly outworking the Huskies D, which exposed major flaws all around. The secondary, especially Lumpkin and Anthony Watkins, struggled, our run D was non-existent, and West Virginia went 6-for-6 scoring in the red zone. It's clear Coach Diaco has lots of problems to address next week.

But until then, 'twas a good run. Turns out, we've reached the crest of the hill. Literally.

See ya back at the Rent for 1-6 Kansas next week.

Connecticut Huskies at West Virginia Mountaineers
Oct 13, 2018	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#4 Connecticut Huskies (6-1, 2-1)	0	10	7	0	17
#20 West Virginia Mountaineers (5-1, 2-0)	7	14	21	3	45

Team Stats Comparison
	CONN	WVU
Total Offense	391	580
Rushing Yards	160	291
Passing Yards	231	289
First Downs	18	25
Punt Return Yards	5	9
Kick Return Yards	92	84
Total Yards	488	673
Turnovers	2	0
3rd Down Converstion	5-13 (38%)	6-11 (54%)
4th Down Conversion	1-2 (50%)	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	3-1-1 (66%)	6-5-1 (100%)
Penalties	2-29	0-0
Posession Time	15:24	16:36

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	WVU
3:36	(WVU) Thomas-Williams 4 run (Saffler kick)	0	7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	WVU
4:51	(CONN) Miller 35 FG	3	7
2:16	(WVU) Crest 37 pass Mitchell	3	14
1:19	(CONN) Johnson 2 run (Miller kick)	10	14
:51	(WVU) Crest 6 run (Saffler kick)	10	21
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	WVU
6:31	(WVU) Tollora 4 run (Saffler kick)	10	28
3:23	(WVU) Thomas-Williams 2 run (Saffler kick)	10	35
1:51	(CONN) Dean-Lowry 30 pass Matthews (Miller kick)	17	35
:50	(WVU) Crest 10 run (Saffler kick)	17	42
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	WVU
6:18	(WVU) Saffler 34 FG	17	45

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tanner Dean-Lowry 15-29 231 1 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Ron Johnson 11 58 5.2 1 Tanner Dean-Lowry 11 47 4.2 0 Arkeel Newsome 8 55 6.8 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jeff Matthews 4 82 20.5 1 Rodney Reid 3 18 6.0 0 Alec Bloom 2 31 15.5 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Sam Rourke 6 (2 TFL) 1 0 0 Anthony Watkins 5 0 0 0 Vontae Diggs 5 (2 TFL) 1 0 0

West Virginia Mountaineers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT William Crest 22-32 269 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD William Crest 20 195 9.7 2 Donte Thomas-Williams 16 92 5.7 2 Helton Tollora 1 4 4.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Cal'Tray Mitchell 6 78 13.0 1 Ricky Rogers 4 68 17.0 0 Vinson Triplett 3 42 14.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Kelsey Ham 8 0 1 0 Ryson Blanks 6 (2 TFL) 0 0 0 Xavier Preston 4 (TFL) 0 0 0

[HARLEE23]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Ouch! That certainly hurts. Sad to see the streak end! Hopefully UConn can still make the playoff though!

[Cheese2121]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

That one definitely stings but it is always good to get a more challenging slider set especially one providing good games. Crest was a one man wrecking crew out there. I loved the coaching article before the game preview. What a great way to add immersion to your project. Great work.

[whughes]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Tough loss for your Huskies. But we were expecting some growing pains from your first year in the Big 12, well at least I was. At least you've got a really good chance to bounce back next week against hapless Kansas

Nothing you can do when the AI qb cheeses you with read option plays for almost 200 yards.

[bryan3169]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Hell of a streak, a tough way for it to end. Time to start another one!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Ouch! That certainly hurts. Sad to see the streak end! Hopefully UConn can still make the playoff though!

Yeah it does hurt, but as you'll see in a minute, we definitely are not out of the playoff race just yet. As long as we can stay clear of any danger up ahead, we could be in good shape.

That one definitely stings but it is always good to get a more challenging slider set especially one providing good games. Crest was a one man wrecking crew out there. I loved the coaching article before the game preview. What a great way to add immersion to your project. Great work.

Without a doubt, cheese. You'll see some more good games in the last 5 (plus bowl game), and the results of the season really have me excited to keep going now that I know I won't go out and win every game from here out.

Thanks for the love on Legg's article. I've done stuff like this in past projects, but I don't do it as often as I should. I just found it interesting that Legg followed an opposite path as Doc Holliday, coming from assistant at one West Virginia school to head coach at the other.

Thanks for the support, cheese!

Tough loss for your Huskies. But we were expecting some growing pains from your first year in the Big 12, well at least I was. At least you've got a really good chance to bounce back next week against hapless Kansas

Nothing you can do when the AI qb cheeses you with read option plays for almost 200 yards.

I could've ran more spies, but Crest broke a lot of tackles and would've made us look bad even if we contained him. There were lots of things I could've done to adjust as necessary.

Hell of a streak, a tough way for it to end. Time to start another one!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Indeed. Keep in mind, though, we do still have the win streak at the Property we'll look to extend against Kansas.


Thanks for the continued support and kind comments, everyone!

[thesportsguru11]

Re: We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

Other Noteworthy Scores:



Fresno St. 35, Nevada 23
San Diego St. 41, Hawai'i 35
Arizona 34, Utah 28
UCLA 48, Oregon 28
Washington 35, Cal 14
Colorado 28, Arizona St. 13
Alabama 51, Arkansas 28
Georgia 31, Vanderbilt 10
Tennessee 28, South Carolina 21
Florida 49, Missouri 42
Boston College 24, Louisville 20
NC State 30, Florida St. 27
Virginia Tech 38, Duke 31
Georgia Tech 27, North Carolina 24
Miami 38, Virginia 28
Northwestern 41, Minnesota 28
Wisconsin 45, Illinois 31
Nebraska 38, Michigan St. 14
Kansas 27, Oklahoma 20
Iowa St. 35, Oklahoma St. 31
Texas Tech 37, Kansas St. 10
TCU 42, Houston 28
Tulane 30, Navy 21
South Alabama 49, BYU 28

NCAA Players of the Week

UConn ST coordinator/assistant offensive and defensive coordinator Bob Trebell (DrGravyBoat) and his Huskies lost 45-17 to West Virginia to move to 6-1. The Huskies return home to face Kansas next week.

Other CAC Results

Laurence Gilbert (OC, Syracuse, Mike7Vinas)

L (2-4), 28-34 vs. UMass (2-5)

A. Edouard: 19-35, 209 yds, 3 TD
M. Black: 12 rush, 51 yds
J. Custis: 9 rec, 118 yds, 2 TD

Week 9: vs. Pitt (4-2, 1-2)


Matthew King (OC, Memphis, (ThaBoss18)

L, (2-4, 1-2), 13-41 vs. UCF (4-1, 2-1)

E. Harvey: 12-26, 74 yds, TD
E. Harris: 21 rush, 66 yds
K. Anderson: 6 rec, 41 yds

Week 9: vs. Temple (5-1, 2-1)


Kaelyn Willingham (OC, Washington St., kswgrad2012)

L, (2-4, 1-2) 27-52 vs. Oregon St. (4-2, 1-2)

C. Hill: 16-32, 232 yds, 2 TD
D. DeLuca: 5 rush, 50 yds, TD
G. Hoyd: 9 tckl (TFL), FR

Week 9: @ #2 USC (7-0, 5-0)


Max Crenshaw (OC, Central Michigan, whughes)

L (2-4, 1-2), 27-31 vs. Bowling Green (5-1, 3-0)

P. Weaver: 12-23, 166 yds, TD
C. Stith: 19 rush, 70 yds, 2 TD
J. Carson: 5 rec, 66 yds, TD

Week 9: @ Akron (3-3, 2-1)


J.J. Mac (OC, UTEP, RedRaider10)

L, (1-5, 1-2) 35-38 vs. Rice (3-3, 1-2)

C. Samples: 16-29, 178 yds, 2 TD, 11 rush, 79 yds, TD
T. Irby: 9 rush, 120 yds, 2 TD
S. Napier: 5 rec, 50 yds, 2 TD

Week 9: vs. Texas St. (2-4, 0-3)


Dale Miller (OC, UL-Lafayette, glunsford)

L (0-5), 16-42 vs. Kentucky (3-4)

J. Davis: 8-27, 63 yds
A. Wilson: 14 rush, 48 yds, TD, 4 rec, 35 yds
B. Randle: 4 rec, 32 yds

Week 9: @ Idaho (1-6, 1-1)