A matter of trust for Dunn, Pindell

STORRS — Trust, John Dunn insists, is everything.

“David has to trust me,” UConn’s first-year offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach said Tuesday at media day. “I have to trust him. That goes hand in hand in calling a play. It’s not just me as a coach. Me as a person. Same back to him.”

Dunn, who worked for the Chicago Bears last season, met quarterback David Pindell in January. They started talking and haven’t stopped. Which is a rather humorous notion given how excruciatingly quiet Pindell was in 2017. The junior college transfer started the season and finished it, but sat and watched most of the games before Bryant Shirreffs’ body finally gave out.

“Coach came into the office in January, he told me about himself, I told him about myself,” Pindell said. “From there we just talk every day. We FaceTime a lot. We talk football, get to know each other. When you’ve got a relationship like that, it takes you a long way. You know you can trust each other.

“I know what he expects. He knows what I expect. Going into camp where we’ll have that chemistry.”

Dunn says he looked at video of last season for personnel assessment. He says he didn’t look at what

the offense did schematically.

What can he keep of Rhett Lashee’s offense? What can he change? Dunn insists he did none of that.

“To compare would not be fair,” Dunn said. “I’m not sure how it looked last year. I just know what I want it to look like this year.”

We will take the liberty to compare to 2016. Consider Bob Diaco’s relentless pursuit of zero and the most inept offense in the nation and say never again.

Lashlee arrived with considerable fanfare from Auburn. He left after only one year, to the consternation of UConn fans. Not for another Power 5 school or a head coaching job. For SMU, another AAC school.

Losing is bad, but losing and boring offense is attendance death. The Huskies were 3-9 again last season, but the offense that had scraped the bottom in nearly every national category jumped — thanks to Lashlee’s acumen and Shirreffs’ moxie — to 50th in total offense and 34th in passing offense.

In the Manchester Journal Inquirer last week, athletic director David Benedict put some attendance onus on and a level of ownership with the fans. Judging by my emails and the fan message board The Boneyard, not everybody was thrilled. Ultimately, wins with a healthy side dish of exciting offense is the antidote for averaging better than 20,000 a game. A good deal of both in 2018 football rests with the effectiveness of an offensive coordinator and his quarterback.

“The quarterback-play caller, quarterback-coach relationship is critical,” Dunn said. “Obviously.”

Dunn ran through the logistics: Multiple offense. No huddle. Multiple tempo. He loves tight ends; they’re an X-factor. Various personnel groupings will be determined by camp performance. Some plays may be similar to last year, but as Pindell pointed out, the terminology is different.

“The game is personnel,” Dunn said. “Not scheme.”

Dunn said he did some play-calling at Maryland for head coach Randy Edsall, and Edsall said Tuesday that Dunn will do all of it in his first go-around as an OC. He is young. He is smart. Edsall loves the way he attacks. Dunn smiles. He knows few in sports are second-guessed like offensive coordinators.

“Everyone’s got their opinion, everyone’s entitled to it,” Dunn said. “If things work, the opinions are less. If they don’t work, there are more.”

Edsall sees a much more confident Pindell, stronger in the weight room and stronger mentally at his position. He also sees an OC looking to tailor his schemes to the personnel.

“David’s comfortable in what we’re doing,” Edsall said. “That’s the big thing. He has got the ability to do all the things John wants to do with our offense. I’ve been very impressed. He’s not afraid of work.

“I think he feels very comfortable in terms of the progressions, how John is going to have David read things. It’s very similar to what David did at junior college. I think they have a really good relationship. David knows exactly what Coach expects out of him and what he wants done within our offense.”

Obviously, Edsall wants to see continued improvement in Pindell’s footwork, reads, etc.

“One thing John will do is play to the strengths of who we are and what our abilities are. There are some things David does really well and we think we’ll tailor things to that as opposed to doing things that doesn’t fit into his wheelhouse. That’s one of the things John has been really good at. Also from a personnel standpoint create some confusion yet keep it very simple. Different looks that isn’t going to affect (Pindell) in his reads.”

Dunn said he has seen a marked improvement in Pindell’s knowledge of the game and that he has worked hard to clean up a few fundamental flaws. He said Pindell must use camp to learn which receivers he can trust.

“The thing he has gotten remarkably better at since I’ve been here is his lowerbody mechanics,” Dunn said. “His footwork, dropping back. But I think his biggest improvement, honestly, is his mental maturation.”

As a quarterback, Dunn stressed, you can’t just understand your position. You’ve got to understand the game. Everything is situational. When to and when not to take a sack? When to throw the ball away in a two-minute drill? What’s the defense going to do on third-and-7?

“Knowing the offense, that process has already happened for him,” Dunn said. “Now it’s ‘How do I master it?’ He has gotten light-years better. He has a long way to go, but he is remarkably improved.” And one more thing. “Don’t mistake David’s quietness for a lack of confidence,” Dunn said. “He’s a very confident individual. He might not command the press conference, but when we talk one-on-one it’s very open.”

Dunn. Pindell. The relationship. The trust. It’s crucial.