Rhett Lashlee's Plan for UConn Offense

[aufan57 922]

Quote

EAST HARTFORD >> Rhett Lashlee realizes there were more than a few eyebrows being raised when he opted to leave his job as offensive coordinator at Auburn to take over the offensive play-calling duties for a UConn program that finished dead last among Football Bowl Subdivision teams in scoring offense.

Lashlee met with the media for the first time since his hiring was announced before a meet and greet with the fans at Rentschler Field. However, his real job will begin on March 21 when spring practice starts as the new coaching staff tries to breath life into an offensive that perennially has been among the nation’s worst in recent years.

“It is not a common thing you would see done,” Lashlee said. “You have to be comfortable in your own skin to do what you think is best for you and your family. You get to a point in your career where you have gone as far as you can go until you take another step. I get to grow under another head coach.”

Lashlee is promising to run an up tempo, no-huddle offense which should bear little resemblance to the way things have been done at UConn during Paul Pasqualoni’s and Bob Diaco’s time with the Huskies.

“We are going to play fast, we are going to try to dictate the tempo the best we can, play to the strengths of what we have until we recruit to the level to get where we want,” Lashlee said. “We are going to be exciting to watch and hopefully we can score some points. No huddle, we believe in tempo. I think it is exciting for the guys to play, exciting for fans. I believe in balance, being able to run and throw the football. I don’t mean 50-50 distribution, 40 runs and 40 passes. I believe balance is being able to take what the defense gives you. One game they may be defending the pass and you have to run the ball more. The next game they may be loading up to stop the run and we will throw it and we are able to do so.”

Lashlee compared the offense he will be running to what Chad Morris’ Southern Methodist team runs and what Memphis runs under the leadership of Mike Norvell.

Obviously a key will be at quarterback. Bryant Shirreffs and Donovan Williams both return and will see the bulk of time during spring practice before three other quarterbacks join the team in June.

“It is going to be an interesting spring,” Lashlee said. “It will be interesting to see what Bryant and Donovan can do, we have two or three new guys coming in, but they won’t be here until the summer.

“The best guy is going to play whether he is one of the four guys here currently competing or whether it is one of the three guys coming in new, it will probably will be one of those deals where we will be in fall camp before we figure it out this year.”

Another crucial position is the offensive line, where the Huskies have struggled mightily. Lashlee brought in veteran line coach J.B. Grimes, who he worked with at Auburn.

“(Grimes is) as good of an O-line coach as you are going to find anywhere in the country,” Lashlee said. “He knows what he is doing. I think we have to develop some depth up front, we have to find out who our starting five is going to be, we have to recruit some athleticism up front and we feel like we addressed that.”

Grimes realizes that there is plenty of work to do to shore up the offensive line, even with returning starters like Ryan Crozier, Tommy Hopkins and Matt Peart in the fold.

“There will be frustrating times, I can predict that it is going to be frustrating, but you don’t ever go negative on those kids,” Grimes said. “They are what we’ve got. We can’t go out on the waiver wire and get new players, We’ve got some new guys coming in and we will see what they can do when they get here, but they are not going to get here until June so the guys we have to win with are here right now pretty much. That may change over the course of fall camp, but you can’t go negative on these kids. You to have to coach them in a positive way, but deal in realities. Don’t try to tell something that isn’t true, always deal with realities.”

Spring practice begins on Mar. 21 and the Blue-White game is set for April 21 while fall camp begins on Aug. 4.

http://www.nhregister.com/sports/20170215/new-uconn-football-offensive-coordinator-rhett-lashlee-eager-to-get-started

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

I wish him much success.

[gravejd 3,270]

Hope Rhett rocks it hard at UCONN!

[shabby 1,956]

Doesn't this seem to indicate that Gus put the brakes on the offense as far as tempo goes?

[Mike4AU 1,739]

13 hours ago, aufan57 said:

Lashlee compared the offense he will be running to what Chad Morris’ Southern Methodist team runs and what Memphis runs under the leadership of Mike Norvell.

Interesting that he did not compare his offense to what AU was running.  Is that telling?

[AU64 10,122]

15 minutes ago, shabby said:

Doesn't this seem to indicate that Gus put the brakes on the offense as far as tempo goes?

Not necessarily....the HC has to look at the entire picture...not just what the OC or the DC want to do....Hoping that UConn has even a small bit of talent ....considering their performance last season, RL has a chance to jump them up in the rankings quite a bit.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

18 minutes ago, Mike4AU said:

Interesting that he did not compare his offense to what AU was running.  Is that telling?

Not really. This whole move is to distance himself from Gus, so he doesn't spend his whole career being considered a Gus clone. I would imagine he is going to avoid all talk of Auburn for quite some time.

[keesler 5,924]

18 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Not really. This whole move is to distance himself from Gus, so he doesn't spend his whole career being considered a Gus clone. I would imagine he is going to avoid all talk of Auburn for quite some time.

Considering what our offense has looked like the last few years, I don't blame him.  Play calling was pitiful at times, tempo has been nonexistent, red-zone production hovering around the bottom for about 2 1/2 seasons.  Tons of talent at AU, but the offense has sputtered around like a flooded carburetor.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, keesler said:

Considering what our offense has looked like the last few years, I don't blame him.  Play calling was pitiful at times, tempo has been nonexistent, red-zone production hovering around the bottom for about 2 1/2 seasons.  Tons of talent at AU, but the offense has sputtered around like a flooded carburetor.

I honestly don't think it has anything to do with that. I also think he has a far different perspective of the AU offense than the fans.  He just needs to get out of Gus's shadow, and that won't happen if he keeps talking about Auburn.

[meh130 1,043]

5 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

Not really. This whole move is to distance himself from Gus, so he doesn't spend his whole career being considered a Gus clone. I would imagine he is going to avoid all talk of Auburn for quite some time.

This. Chad Morris inherited Gus Malzahn's playbook when Morris went to Tulsa. Morris took this playbook with him to Clempson a year later. While Clempson evolved its offense some over the last three years, the playbook Morris took to SMU was the same one he ran at Clempson. When you look at a lot of those plays, they are very similar to the ones Auburn runs.

Mike Norvell also comes from Malzahn's coaching tree, so I assume he is similarly inspired by Malzahn's playbook.

I think CRL chose those to for a reason. They are both coaches who have worked with Malzahn's playbook and then been OC's elsewhere.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

If you have a good QB, the offense will work. Honestly if you have a good QB most offenses will work. 

[1auburn1 1,110]

"..,breath life into an offensive..."?    Who wrote this?  An English language learner?

[lionheartkc 6,150]

10 hours ago, 1auburn1 said:

"..,breath life into an offensive..."?    Who wrote this?  An English language learner?

Apparently the New Haven Register can't afford editors... or even proofreaders.

[alexava 6,973]

4 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Apparently the New Haven Register can't afford editors... or even proofreaders.

He just verbalized an adjective into a noun. No big deal. The subject is still predicated on the direction of the offense. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

7 minutes ago, alexava said:

He just verbalized an adjective into a noun. No big deal. The subject is still predicated on the direction of the offense. 

Or he intended to add the word "scheme" and then didn't.  None the less, a professional publication should catch these things. I make that mistake and my boss would be in my office pretty darn quickly.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

He didn't thank the Auburn fans during his 4 years at Auburn nor did he thank Malzahn for the 5 years he was with Gus.

[aufan57 922]

17 hours ago, meh130 said:

This. Chad Morris inherited Gus Malzahn's playbook when Morris went to Tulsa. Morris took this playbook with him to Clempson a year later. While Clempson evolved its offense some over the last three years, the playbook Morris took to SMU was the same one he ran at Clempson. When you look at a lot of those plays, they are very similar to the ones Auburn runs.

Mike Norvell also comes from Malzahn's coaching tree, so I assume he is similarly inspired by Malzahn's playbook.

I think CRL chose those to for a reason. They are both coaches who have worked with Malzahn's playbook and then been OC's elsewhere.

Norvell is from the Todd Graham coaching tree. 

[Tiger 8,818]

51 minutes ago, auburn4ever said:

He didn't thank the Auburn fans during his 4 years at Auburn nor did he thank Malzahn for the 5 years he was with Gus.

I can't believe I'm doing this but...

 

I'm pretty sure he did thank the fans and Gus in his statement to the press when it was announced he was leaving AU

[alexava 6,973]

I have read or heard it somewhere. He did thank him.