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Cochran just wins Mike DiMauro East Hartford Casey Cochran's ongoing education at UConn has fortified a vocabulary that already extended beyond the pedestrian, "can't," "doesn't" and "isn't." And yet the words, like the blanket behind Linus, are always there trailing him. And kind of a drag.

Can't run.

Doesn't have a big arm.

Isn't tall enough.

No word whether Cochran fails to brush between meals, mixes colors with whites in the laundry and drives 55 in a 45.

But this much we know: the son of Jack and Shannon, New London kid at heart, passes the most scientific test of all in sports: It. Casey's got it.

And we're seeing it on the field now, the 'it' nobody can describe, the great intangible. But you know it when you see it.

Cochran is the new quarterback at UConn, waiting his turn since what felt like the time Ford pardoned Nixon. And now the Huskies, once winless and hopeless, have a new life to the football season, winners of two straight with the captain of can't, doesn't and isn't.

Cochran threw in excess of 300 yards Saturday in the 28-17 over Rutgers, drawing hosannas from teammates and coaches who know the new sheriff in Storrs is the kid who does earnestness as a habit, not a reaction.

"Ever since he got the starting role, the approach to every practice has changed," receiver Geremy Davis said Saturday. "If we mess up, he wants to do it again. He takes the blame for any mistake we make. If we go three and out, he's picking us up. A leader on offense."

And this, really, is the primary path to "it." You are a uniter or you aren't. This is how you unite: By preaching accountability but assuming responsibility. Deflecting praise.

By being the guy who, even if unwittingly, removes the pressure from everyone else.

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This is where it begins with Cochran. The demeanor. Maybe we shouldn't be so stunned, at least not in this corner of the world. If you know Casey, you know he didn't merely grow up around sports, but perpetual success. Casey was there with Jack and his teams, all the winning teams. He grew up around Shannon, the rock of the family, the complement to Jack's occasional spasms.

What an education.

"Casey is the same guy today he's been every single day," interim coach T.J. Weist said.

"Through all the changes he has been Casey. It's not like all of a sudden he's some super quarterback now. He has the same mentality and demeanor. He doesn't panic. Up or down, he's the same guy. You need that from a quarterback."

And it's authentic leadership. Leaders, in spite of how narratives are spun, aren't the garish, demonstrative muggers for the camera. They are the preachers of positive, bearers of burdens.

"A lot of guys can chirp," Weist said. "but unless you can back it up, guys aren't going to trust what you say. He backs it up. He doesn't have a great arm. It's not like he's slinging all around the field, slinging it deep. He just makes good decisions."

Some of us questioned Cochran's ascent to the starting job, critical of burning freshman Tim Boyle's redshirt. But you can't ignore the results. The body language. They block harder for him. They catch the ball with more regularity. They believe.

Sure, Boyle was saddled with the defenses of Louisville, Cincinnati and Central Florida.

Cochran has benefitted from SMU, Temple and Rutgers, none of which might be able to stop Ansonia. But the players have spoken without speaking. Just look at them. Look at how they've rallied around the kid who can't, isn't and doesn't.

"Looks can be deceiving," Davis said. "You see he wants to be good."

And this is the story of the football season nobody saw coming a few weeks ago. Maybe they've found their quarterback.

There is a week remaining now, one more test for Cochran, before a new coach comes along. They kickoff at 1 next week at Rentschler. You'll find Shannon Russell pacing atop Section 118 with the other season ticket holders just like always. You'll find Casey in the huddle in complete command. And you just might forget everything else Casey Cochran isn't.

This is the opinion of Day assistant sports editor Mike DiMauro.

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Many Names To Consider For UConn Football Head Coaching Job -- Courant.com

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courant.com/sports/hc-jacobs-column-1128-20131127,0,6957019.column

Courant.com Many Names To Consider For UConn Football Head Coaching Job Jeff Jacobs 7:13 PM EST, November 27, 2013 STORRS — You want to know the name of the next UConn football coach. We want to know the name of the next UConn football coach. And because we are unable to deliver that name today, you may decide to stop reading right about ‌ here.

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Like a second helping of stuffing or a third slab of pumpkin pie, hey, that is your Thanksgiving prerogative.

The need to jet into the school's twin basketball successes and jet away from the stink bomb of a 2013 football season is to a large degree understandable. Yet while many UConn fans are jetting, the forgotten football team must continue to slog through the mud to the finish line and the UConn athletic hierarchy must continue to sift through a coaching search that undoubtedly will take twists and turns in the days ahead.

So while it is neither sexy nor cutting edge to argue for a little patience and some real attention to the last two games, both at home, one against a departing old football rival in Rutgers, another against a burgeoning basketball rival in Memphis, that's what I'm doing.

Folks, there is no ONE coaching name yet. I feel confident in writing that.

While arguing about potential candidates may serve as entertainment during a season of despair, there are two things UConn must get right: 1. The successful navigation to land the best coach available. 2.

Get a program back in touch with what it feels like not to lose every freaking week. The coaching process is vital. I also think a 3-9 finish instead of 0-12 has some lasting value.

"We plan on finishing 3-9," interim coach T.J. Weist said. "That would give us great momentum for everything we do."

Snooping around Wednesday brought virtually the same results that our Desmond Conner reported on Tuesday. There haven't been any coaching interviews yet, athletic director Warde Manuel evidently is being true to his word when he fired Paul Pasqualoni after four games that he wasn't going to disrupt other schools' seasons, because he'd hate for it to happen to him.

The rest? Well, let's call it informed speculation. Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, Ball State coach Pete Lembo, Bowling Green coach Dave Clawson and Towson coach Rob Ambrose (who had his team thoroughly better prepared than Pasqualoni in the season opener) are said to be on a targeted list of 10 to 12 candidates. Although he's a long shot, Weist would be included, too.

Clearly, we don't have all the targeted names yet.

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12/4/2013

Many Names To Consider For UConn Football Head Coaching Job -- Courant.com

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In a long conversation over coffee in August, Manuel, in discussing his general philosophy, expressed a hiring preference for a coordinator at a top school, a head coach at, say, a MAC or Conference USA school or maybe a hot I-AA head coach. Narduzzi, Lembo, Clawson and Ambrose, the former UConn offensive coordinator, fit that mold. I also left Starbucks in West Hartford with the distinct impression Manuel is less interested in name recognition or high-profile failures than what a coach can build at UConn today. As his patience in hiring basketball coach Kevin Ollie and hockey coach Mike Cavanaugh demonstrated, he's not a glory hound sniffing only for the glittery name.

Through outside reports, speculation, agents pushing their clients, etc., many names have been batted around. Lane Kiffin, Houston Nutt, Don Brown, Noel Mazzone, Ron Prince, Karl Dorell, Turner Gill, Jeff Tedford. All, we hear, are definitely no-go. I have my doubts, but don't know about Greg Schiano and Eric Mangini.

You've got to remember targeted names can disappear in a poof. Look, Narduzzi sounds good, really good. I love the idea of a defensive guru at the base of UConn success. I like the guy being born in New Haven, a coach's son. I love the Big Ten pedigree. I like the way he has East Coast recruiting among his responsibilities. None of us knows how he'd be as a head coach. And if, say, Illinois or Indiana were to make a change, Narduzzi and the two MAC coaches could easily be in the mix at those schools, too. Narduzzi could be chased by any number of schools. That's one reason I'm staying off promoting one name right now; we may only know 40 percent of the targeted names, don't know who exactly will interview or get other offers from other schools. There were 31 changes made during and after the 2012 season. While there figures to be fewer this time the unknown is a great mitigator here.

The bar obviously wasn't set high, but I do believe this search is establishing itself with a wider and stronger base than after Randy Edsall left UConn in a lurch after the Fiesta Bowl.

A guy like Dan Mullen from Mississippi State is a wild card, one who could change the dynamic in a heartbeat. His name has been floated out there as a possibility for UConn, although a report Tuesday in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger made it sound doubtful he'll be fired. Mullen is 6-11 in his past 17 games, yet as the Clarion-Ledger pointed out 10 of the 11 losses were to teams ranked among the top 21. The other was this year on the road to unranked Auburn, now No. 4 in the BCS poll. 'Bama, Auburn, A&M, the SEC West isn't exactly The American, folks, and a strong argument can be made Mullen has done more with less than others.

This could be a quick process after the finale against Memphis on Dec. 7, maybe a week, or it could go on for two, three more weeks heading through December. Weist is the long shot in all this, maybe the long, long, long shot. Yet say this much. Down 21-0 at halftime, night game, mostly empty stadium, freezing, on the road, if there was a time for an 0-9 team to pack it up, it was last weekend in Temple. The Huskies didn't. They won, 28-21. Bully for them.

In the midst of a cesspool season, Temple is a tiny jewel.

"Finally," Weist said, "we learned how to win."

Weist took us inside the locker room at halftime at Lincoln Financial Field. This is what he told his Huskies: "There is a time when you have to make a decision in your life that you've got to forget about everything that has happened and just give unbelievable effort and unbelievable focus. It's time."

He told them they had to change or the same result would happen over and over. He pointed to all the comebacks that happen every week in college and the NFL.

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12/4/2013

Many Names To Consider For UConn Football Head Coaching Job -- Courant.com

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"There wasn't much left for us to do but to go and win the game," Weist said. "The only thing at stake at that moment was our pride."

Yet in the larger picture, Weist insists there is much more at stake.

"Winning validates everything you do," he said. "It builds momentum for the next game. Builds momentum for the offseason. Builds momentum in our schemes and for our players. Builds momentum for recruiting. Builds momentum going into next season. Everything goes together.

"Win games, win the right way, win in the classroom. Everything we talk about is about having a winning mentality. You can never accept losing, never accept a losing mentality. Look, we were 0-9 and we expected to win."

So he expects to beat Big Ten-bound Rutgers Saturday and he expects to beat Memphis. Both are suddenly and eminently possible. Weist has kept the team together under the worst possible circumstances and it is entirely laudable. A new coach may well want his own offensive coordinator and Weist could soon be left looking for another job. Yet what he has done since Oct. 1 should not go unappreciated and what two more wins could do to put some pride and momentum back in program should not be dismissed.

Copyright Š 2013, The Hartford Courant

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12/4/2013

Cochran Gets It Done For UConn -- Courant.com

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courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-jacobs-column-1201-20131130,0,2966296.column

Courant.com Cochran Gets It Done For UConn Jeff Jacobs 7:52 PM EST, November 30, 2013 EAST HARTFORD — After he had popped Rutgers' bubble with bubble screens to Deshon Foxx, after he had hit Rutgers in the gut with passes up the gut to Geremy Davis, Casey Cochran smiled when asked what was his favorite play of this Saturday afternoon.

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"That late checkdown to Max DeLorenzo," Cochran said after he had put up Tom Brady-like numbers in UConn's 28-17 win over big — and, now, gone to B1G — rival Rutgers. "There was no one open deep, and if I had tried to force that ball, this game may have ended differently. Max got himself open, made a move, got the first down. He made that drive."

After completing 25 of 33 throws for 311 yards, two touchdown passes and no interceptions, Cochran could have said, "Didn't you see that rope I threw to Dhameer Bradley on the first touchdown?" Or, "How'd you like the way I dropped that one into Davis with three guys on him?" Or even, "How'd you like that last TD pass under duress to Brian Lemelle into the corner of the end zone?"

But, no, Casey Cochran liked the way he went through his progressions with four minutes remaining.

He liked the way he didn't try to take something that wasn't there and dropped the ball off to his running back on a third-and-4 play that went for 17 yards to the Rutgers 3. It set up the final score that sealed UConn's second victory in a row.

"The biggest thing today was we didn't try to shove a square peg in a round hole," Cochran said.

"They gave us some throws all day and we took it. We knew we weren't going to win the game on any one play. We knew it would take the whole game to win."

You know what was impressive about Cochran in his first home start at quarterback? Not his arm, although it was plenty precise. It was his poise. There wasn't an answer to any prayer, because there was no prayer needed. All afternoon, Cochran played like he meant it. He knew what he was doing.

He led. He commanded.

"The players trust him," interim coach T.J. Weist said. "And that's huge."

Shane Day's play calling was strong and so was Cochran's response to it. His teammates clearly have come to believe in Cochran and, after winning two of his three starts, he has given them every reason to keep doing so. He completed 75.7 percent of his passes for a team that insists, despite its 2-9 record, that it remains, "All in." Nobody could argue it wasn't UConn's best QB performance of the season.

"Casey did a great job handling the offense," Weist said. "Part of him making good, sound decisions is everything you want from a quarterback. It's all the film study. It's the looks he sees. It's those

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decisions that he makes, especially at critical times, in those four, five, six seconds that it takes to get in and out of a play."

Weist said that Rutgers did a good job of disguising defensive looks during the first half. Cochran came back to the sideline, talked about it and made adjustments. He led drives of 79 and 80 yards.

How many times have you seen that this season? Not many. By the end of the game, even Weist's jaw dropped with the touchdown that Cochran threw to Lemelle while being knocked to the ground.

"I asked [Cochran], 'What are you throwing that ball over there? You've got Geremy and Deshon over here,'" Weist said. "And you've got two freshmen on the other side. But he knew he was hot, had pressure coming from that side. Lemelle made a great catch. And that was Casey making the right decision."

Cochran thought he had thrown it out of bounds. He looked up. The official was signaling a touchdown.

Foxx, who had dropped a bunch against USF, caught nine balls for 117 yards. Davis caught five for 98 yards. Lemelle caught five, too. Weist says he knew that Rutgers would stop the run. Still, the Huskies ran the ball 29 times to open it up for the pass.

"They try to squeeze everything in and back their safeties up in different forms of cover-2," Weist said. "We knew the middle was open and designed in-cuts especially to Geremy. We practiced it. It becomes a trust factor that Geremy would be there."

Trust. Timing. Yes, it was there. And when Rutgers bunched for the run, UConn threw wide to Foxx.

"Coach Day always says if you prepare as hard as you can early, it will help you in the long run," Cochran said. "All year it has almost been there. Today it was there. Everything just clicked."

After Rutgers took a 17-14 lead, the game's turning point came on a bubble screen to Foxx that went for 40 yards. It led to UConn's go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

"We knew they were going to blitz us," Cochran said. "We knew they were going to play a 2-shell [coverage] and give us the inside basically. By running the ball, those linebackers weren't getting very deep. All those inside routes and bubbles were huge all day. It was wide open for me. All I had to do was throw it there."

Cochran was patient. He found round pegs for round holes.

"Even when we fell behind, we didn't feel like we were losing," Cochran said. "The sidelines last year and earlier this year, whenever something went bad, you could see guys' heads go down. You could see the air deflated out of us. We never had that. We stayed tough through the game. I'm proud of everyone not putting down their heads."

Weist insisted that he didn't regret starting Cochran sooner than the SMU game, replacing Chandler Whitmer with Tim Boyle first, burning his redshirt.

"We did what we did and we're sticking with it," Weist said. "What if Tim had done a great job? We threw him in tough position [especially against UCF, Louisville and Cincinnati]. He just needs more time to develop. I'm not going to look back."

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Weist said that Cochran pressed during camp, that he wasn't getting a lot of reps and was trying too hard to make something out of it. The result, Weist said, were some bad decisions. Through all the changes, Cochran's demeanor did not change.

"It was a slow progress," Weist said. "It's hard to show leadership when you're not in that position. As the season went along, after the coaching change and the change to Tim, he started getting reps. We opened it up more, to look at different quarterbacks, and that's when he really stepped up. When it came time, he was the best decision-maker and that's why we went with him and it's proven good for this offense."

"He always has been motivating even when he was third team. Quarterbacks at times can be emotional. Casey has handled it so well. Through all the changes he has been Casey. It's not like all of a sudden he's some super quarterback now. He has the same mentality and demeanor. He doesn't panic. Up or down, he's the same guy. You need that from a quarterback. A lot of guys can chirp, but unless you can back it up, guys aren't going to trust what you say. He backs it up. He doesn't have a great arm. It's not like he's slinging all around the field, slinging it deep. He just makes good decisions."

Quarterback is a complex, crazy position and, except for Dan Orlovsky, it has been even more complex, crazier in UConn's major college history. But, maybe, just maybe, UConn has found the round peg for its round hole.

Copyright Š 2013, The Hartford Courant

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In Trying Season, Smallwood Has Been UConn's Bright Spot - Courant.com

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courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-yawin-smallwood-1103-20131102,0,5781933.story

Courant.com In Trying Season, Smallwood Has Been UConn's Bright Spot

By DESMOND CONNER, dconner@courant.com The Hartford Courant 4:28 PM EDT, November 2, 2013 Yawin Smallwood was focused on a few things for this season, but they were big.

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First, the 6-foot-4, 236-pound junior linebacker from Worcester wanted to walk off the field after every game knowing he had given his all.

Second, as the middle linebacker and a UConn tri-captain, he makes calls on defense so he wanted to be sure he was putting his teammates in the best position to win.

Third, he wanted to be part of a successful season after the previous two resulted in 10 wins, 14 losses and no bowl appearances.

The Huskies secured a third consecutive season without a bowl when they were whipped 62-17 at Central Florida last week, when Smallwood turned in one of the worst statistical performances of his career.

"People will say I only had two tackles but it was more the type of offense [UCF] played," said Smallwood, a third-year starter who enters the bye weekend as the nation's sixth-leading tackler with 11.3 a game. "[UCF] held me in the middle with zone action and a lot of quick bubble [screens]. It's kind of tough to make plays when teams do that but I've just got to become a better player and make those plays."

Smallwood has walked off the field most games this season as the best player on defense, scoring double-digit tackles in five of seven games. He's been fine on the defensive calls but he can't make plays for everyone. He has 79 tackles, 4.5 for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.

"He worked so hard during the offseason," said linebackers coach Jon Wholley. "He's a talented player. I haven't had a kid who's easier to coach or more enjoyable to coach. He's extremely hardworking, tough and instinctive."

The Huskies are 0-7, 0-3 in The American. The best they can do is what they've done each of the past two seasons, 5-7, and to do that they must start a win streak against Louisville Friday (8:30 p.m.

ESPN2) at Rentschler Field.

If they don't, they'll be 0-8, the program's worst start since 1977.

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In Trying Season, Smallwood Has Been UConn's Bright Spot - Courant.com

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"It's definitely been a tough season," said Smallwood, who turns 22 on Christmas. "It's easy to motivate guys when you're winning games and stuff like that but it's tough when you come away with losing each week. It's hard to motivate players but you've just got to try to keep guys as focused as you can. We've got five more games left this season.

"We definitely do not want to be a part of one of those UConn teams that had the worst record ever so I feel like it's just playing for pride now."

This week, Smallwood was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, which goes to the nation's top linebacker.

Does the award nomination mean Smallwood's season has been flawless?

"I've made a lot of tackles and I've made a lot of key plays but I feel like I need to make more plays, get more takeaways, when the team really needs to get off the field. I feel like I need to become a player who's able to get that stop on defense, get that interception, to seal the game, force that fumble.

I feel like I need to work on that and hopefully it comes along."

Coach T.J. Weist spoke last week of the need for explosive players and those with play-making ability. Smallwood is one. With the Huskies having lost so many key players and with Smallwood being the best player on defense, it's a wonder he doesn't get more of the kind of attention UCF gave him. Some teams have tried but Smallwood has made plays.

The UCF performance was a rarity for Smallwood and the word is the NFL will be calling for him after this season — a year early. He's on pace to have his sociology degree by May. "It's definitely come to mind a few times," Smallwood said. "I hear reports and see things. People show me and I hear a lot but it's definitely a dream I want to accomplish one day, to play in the NFL, but right now I'm just focused on college football. I'm a college football player and I feel like I owe that respect to my teammates and my coaches."

That's not a surprising answer coming from Smallwood.

"He's a very respectful young man, of everything and everybody," said defensive coordinator Hank Hughes.

Still, one day, it's going to be all about Yawin Smallwood.

"Obviously, that's something I want for him and it's something he wants for himself," Wholley said.

"At the end of the season that will be something to look at, to see pros and cons because the two things he'll want to make sure is he gets his education and helps us . ... He's unique ... in that he can take the good out of any situation and be able to focus on what's important and have faith in his preparation."

Copyright Š 2013, The Hartford Courant

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Article published Oct 13, 2013

Boyle didn't get the storybook start, but he's the man at State U. Mike DiMauro East Hartford It was all there, more evidence that sports trumps 'em all for romance and myth making.

Local boy makes good. The state kid gets his turn at State U, the kid with the looks to be the face of the program and the polish to be its compass.

And so it was high noon Saturday at The Rent, the sun's beam illustrating that God was enjoying the moment, too. What, you needed a billboard? This was Tim Boyle's day. Tim Boyle, the Xavier kid, the symbol of change and hope and wonder. The day UConn's football's present, a barf-o-rama for the first month, would peek into the future and nod confidently, pointing at Tim Boyle, saying, "that's our guy."

And then it was a little before 4 in the afternoon, more clouds than sun now - how fitting and Boyle walked off the field with the rest of his teammates, lamenting lost opportunity.

Change didn't produce the desired result, the UConn Huskies still winless, Tim Boyle the conquering hero now Tim the disappointed freshman.

A day earlier, inside his old school, inside the locker room of Xavier High, high school coach Sean Marinan was unwittingly prescient, admitting to some nervousness.

"There's going to be some rocky times somewhere," Sean Marinan said. "I just hope it's not too bad and too long."

The rocky times of Saturday included some dropped passes, at least two that could have been touchdowns. They included some dropped passes from the South Florida defenders, too, two on the final drive alone, that would have made clock management issues moot.

They included 28 incompletions, insufficient pass protection, failure to capitalize on field position. But mostly, the rockiest time of all was the inability to write a happier unwritten script.

"I don't think I did too well," Boyle was saying after the game, calmly and coherently answering all the questions, with cameras and recorders close enough to his airspace to be flagged for face guarding. "I'll go back and watch the film and see what I can do better. I don't think I did too well compared to what my capability is."

Au contraire, says interim coach T.J. Weist.

"I think Tim played an exceptional game for a true freshman. If some of our skill guys make those catches, this is a different game," said Weist, whose postgame candor was as impressive as his quarterback's equanimity.

"I thought Tim showed maturity and poise. He handled the pressure and made some decisions on some of the different looks they gave us that were pretty good for a true freshman. We'll keep moving forward with him, we'll get him better."

Tim Boyle will never forget the 12th of October, 2013. It was the day UConn football changed. Because he's the guy. In every way.

You want the football side? Just look at the big arm, the confidence.

"He came off to the sideline and was stone cold with me," Weist said. "He's a quarterback.

He's got that presence."

You want more football? Back to Marinan:

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10/14/2013

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"We heard it from (now Oregon head coach) Mark Helfrich and (N.C. State offensive coordinator) Dana Bible last year," Marinan said. "Coach Helfrich flew out here to look at him and he was impressed. I said, 'I've watched your games and I know what you do. He's not a 4.6 (speed in the 40) guy. I don't think he fits what you do.' He said, 'Oh, he fits. We want more of a quarterback now who can throw the ball. And he can.'"

Boyle is more than that, though. This is central casting. C'mon. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, strong-armed quarterback with the gentlemanly tendencies?

"He's the kind of kid where if he sees you walking down the hall, he'll hold the door for you, even if he doesn't know you all that well," Xavier senior Sal Nesci said Friday.

"Tim has a value system, which is unusual for a teenager," said Brother Thomas Fahey, Boyle's Pastoral Advisor and also Xavier's Director of Admissions. "A very unique young man."

"You didn't have to be an athlete to be a friend of his," Xavier athletic director Tony Jaskot said. "Starting at UConn won't change him."

Soon, all of Connecticut will know Tim Boyle. He'll become The Face. He'll become the state's frame of reference to the football program.

Meantime, Tim Boyle retreats to the film room to get better. Maybe he writes a happier script next time. Or not till next year. But it's a happier time around the program now than at any other time this season. Your guy is here.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

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10/14/2013

Davis Doesn't Want Receivers To Have Another Game Like USF - Courant.com

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courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-football-1014-20131013,0,5859089.story

Courant.com Davis Doesn't Want Receivers To Have Another Game Like USF

By DESMOND CONNER, dconner@courant.com The Hartford Courant 7:00 PM EDT, October 13, 2013 EAST HARTFORD — Obviously the at least half-dozen dropped passes — including three potential touchdowns — didn't sit well with junior receiver Geremy Davis (six catches, 80 yards) who just about snared everything thrown his way.

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Davis, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder from Lawrenceville, Ga., is the Huskies' leading pass catcher with 25 receptions for 388 yards and he's also the Huskies' most consistent receiver. It wasn't always that way.

Davis came in highly lauded out of Norcross High but really came into his own last season when he caught 44 passes for 613 yards and a touchdown.

He is primed to have a bigger season than that and one reasons is that Davis is one of the hardest workers on the team. He has come an awfully long way in a year and it's a credit it to him. He has a thirst for knowledge and interim head coach T.J. Weist, being a receivers coach, naturally has really been a bonus to him.

Davis was as unhappy as he's ever been in a UConn uniform after the game Saturday and it wasn't because of anything he did; it was because of the unit he's a part of.

UConn has had its days of receivers' dropping balls and being incapable of making plays. There was plenty of that in the Randy Edsall era. Plenty.

This stuff can't creep back into this program and Davis vowed after the 13-10 loss to South Florida to do his part to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I think [Tim [did a great job," he said of freshman quarterback Tim Boyle, who was 15 of 43 for 149 yards in his first start. "A lot of those plays were on us as a receiving group. I think we have to go in the film room and up our play. That's not on Tim, and as a leader I have to put more emphasis on that; that we have to stay after practice because as a unit I don't want that game again. That was too many dropped passes and I wasn't happy about it."

Davis leads by example. He usually doesn't say much but Saturday's game had to be frustrating for him. On top of Shakim Phillips (15x255, three TDs) trying to go with the nagging hamstring injury before the game but unable to, junior slotback Deshon Foxx dropped two sure touchdowns and walkon Spencer Parker dropped one.

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Devastating — all of them. Outside of Davis and Phillips, there is Foxx (11x171), who is a junior, but this is first season as a starter and seeing any significant action on offense. Kamal Abrams is also a junior but he hadn't caught a pass before this season.

Abrams cracked the rotation this year but tore a meniscus during warm-ups in the season opener. He started Saturday and caught one pass for a yard. Weist has been high on the true freshmen Brian Lemelle and Dhameer Bradley, but they're freshmen.

Lemelle, 5 feet 10, 160 pounds, has been getting smashed on punt returns and was knocked out of Saturday's game early. He doesn't have a catch this season. Bradley has three for 22, including a 16yarder against USF. With a running game that so far has been inconsistent, the Huskies have to pass and the receivers have to make plays.

"Most of it's mentality," Weist said. "No. 1 is about making the play. You turn 'SportsCenter' on and you see guys making plays all the time, on good balls, bad balls, coming up with the catch. That's the first thing.

"If you want to be a good receiver, you want to help this team, you've got to come up with catches and that starts in practice, it starts with the jugs machine, you're always catching and you have to improve on that from a mentality standpoint.

"And the other thing is the details, the little things of getting open, how to get open in man and zone.

Understanding body position and running out of cuts and separating from defenders and looking the ball in. A lot of times it's bad route technique that puts [receivers] in bad position."

Boyle On Boyle Boyle, a Middlefield native who attended Xavier-Middletown and was a part of three state championships assessed his first start "I felt pretty comfortable. I wasn't really rattled that much. We didn't execute as we planned. It was a tough game. It was a good fight by USF but we just came up short," Boyle said.

He was rattled some. He had a number of high throws early suggesting as much.

"I was a little anxious. Obviously I'm capable of making the throws but once I got the jitters out I think I settled in a little. But that's past me now so I don't expect that in the future, but I think I'll be good from that standpoint."

He could have used some help from the receiving corps but he still has confidence in that group.

"It does not faze you at all," Boyle said. "You cannot let it faze you at all. A drop is a drop and we're on to the next play. If I can go back and change the future obviously I'd want them to catch it but that's not possible, so on to the next play and try to execute."

And here is his take on what happened in the final seconds when the Huskies let 10 seconds tick off the clock in the midst of a potential game-tying drive.

"We had a good play. I threw it to Dhameer Bradley, No. 1 on a deep in and I thought Coach Weist was going to call a timeout but I don't think we were on the same page. A couple of seconds ran off

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the clock. I called a timeout I think with seven seconds left, gave us time to run one more play; just a little miscommunication. We'll get it straightened out.

"Obviously it sucks. We're all football players. We all want to win. Coming up that close, losing by three points, obviously sucks but we have to turn the page onto Cincinnati."

Weist reiterated Sunday that the time management problem was on him.

Letdown How come the offensive line couldn't do in the second half what it did in the first?

Lyle McCombs rushed for a career-high 164 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries but just 29 yards on 10 in the second.

It was McCombs' first 100-yard rushing day since the triple overtime win at Louisville last year, in which he rushed for a season-high 133.

"We started out great, ran the ball for over 200 yards, best we've done all season," said Steve Greene, the Huskies senior guard and captain. "Came out in the second half, wasn't able to get the run game going like we were in the first half and it showed, hurt us. I think they were playing the run a little bit more. They came out in the first half, playing open defense, didn't have a lot of guys in the box because the last four games, no point really, but we came out and hit some big ones on them. We were running the ball well so they came out in second half and started plugging up."

McCombs, whose previous rushing high was 152 yards against Syracuse two years ago, had a 52-yard scoring run 12 seconds into the second quarter to give UConn a 10-7 lead.

McCombs appeared to zig and zag a couple of seasons' worth of frustrations out on that run and, at the same time, had fun doing it. In the end, UConn did not win. That's what mattered most to McCombs.

"Wins are most important, especially at the point we're at right now" McCombs said. "We don't even have one. I feel like whatever it takes me to do, personally, I'll do.

If I [have to move] to offensive guard in order for us to win, I'll do it. I just want to win at the end of the day."

Notes Phillips was in for a couple of plays before leaving the game for good with the nagging hamstring injury. Weist said he is day to day, but Phillips hasn't really played since the end of the Maryland game. ... Cornerback Taylor Mack was listed as starting against South Florida but re-aggravated the shoulder injury that kept him out of the Buffalo game. He's expected to be back this week. ...

Linebacker Ryan Donohue took a blow to the head during practice last week, sustained a concussion and did not play Saturday. Weist said he would be getting more information on Donohue but he said it's at least a week's worth of evaluation. ... Punt returner/wide receiver Brian Lemelle sustained a rib injury early and didn't return. Weist didn't have enough information on his status to comment Sunday. ... The Huskies have been outscored 72-26 in the second half this season. ... Sadness has befallen the Cincinnati football program: Freshman offensive lineman Ben Flick was killed in a car crash last month that also left three others injured, including freshman receivers Mark Barr and Javon Harrison.

Miami University freshman Sean Van Dyne also was hurt. Weist came to UConn from Cincinnati in December. "I knew Ben. I knew his family. We recruited him. It's about family. We all have families.

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It's devastating. You go home and hug your kids, hug your wife and pray." Weist has called back to Cincinnati to check with everyone. UConn, he said, will recognize Flick somehow "because they did that when our program here went through tragedy with Jasper Howard," Weist said. "Other teams reached out to us. I've already talked to the athletic director at Cincinnati [Whit Babcock] and we talked about some different things where we can memorialize him as a person, as a football player, as a guy in our football fraternity."

Copyright Š 2013, The Hartford Courant

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Weist Tries To Take All The Blame For The Latest Loss -- Courant.com

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Courant.com Weist Tries To Take All The Blame For The Latest Loss Jeff Jacobs October 13, 2013 EAST HARTFORD — In his first game as a head coach — after a quarter-century of stops from Alabama to Michigan to Southern Illinois to Tulsa to Indiana to Western Kentucky to Cincinnati to UConn — T.J. Weist tried to take all the blame.

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That's right. One-stop blame.

"When you lose as a team, I just told the team, it comes down to the head coach," Weist said after UConn fell 13-10 to USF Saturday at Rentschler Field. "This loss is on me. It's my responsibility to do whatever it takes to win this game. And we didn't."

It was a magnanimous gesture, of course, even partially true when you consider Weist's handy-dandy clock management machine broke in the closing seconds.

Still, there were other factors in a game — marked by both the spirit of starting over and the reality of 0-for-2013 — that left a homecoming crowd of 37,681 seeing what they wanted to see.

If you wanted to play it pithy, you could say simply Weist dropped the ball in taking the blame because it was the UConn receiving corps that dropped the ball too many times and cost the Huskies as many as three touchdowns.

If you wanted to play the State Boy Is A Lock card and immediately buy into the notion that freshman Tim Boyle is the next Dan Orlovsky, you can look past his 15-for-43 passing numbers and blame the drops, especially the two huge ones by Deshon Foxx and one by Spencer Parker.

If you wanted to run the glass half-full, you could point to the 135 yards, including an amazing 52yard touchdown run Lyle McCombs had the first 15 minutes, 12 seconds. You can rejoice in the fact that the offensive line, which had given a push adequate for an average of only 45.8 yards through four games, tripled those numbers in the first 15:12. Or, you could run that glass half-empty and point to the fact that McCombs ran for only 29 yards the final 44:48 and the Huskies had only 38 of their 207 yards on the ground during that time.

Or if you wanted to laud the defense for a job well done, just point to the fact that USF was held to zero offensive touchdowns for the second game in a row and somehow managed to win both of them.

Or if you wanted to blame the defense just point out that although it held USF to six drives under 10 yards and 9 of 13 total under 30, it allowed a sustained 13-play, 66-yard drive that led to the winning field goal when it mattered most.

Two things are non-negotiable. One, it was an extremely well-punted game, the punters combined for more than 700 yards. OK, I'm being a bit of a wiseguy. But USF did start six of its drives inside its 14

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and four inside its 10. Two, UConn is 0-5 — can't beat Towson, can't beat Buffalo or USF — and with games at Cincinnati and at UCF and against Louisville, the trap door could fly open to 0-8. You go 0-8 and, good grief, you just hope the Huskies don't run the table.

"We had every opportunity to win this game," Weist said. "The defense played a great game. They gave us every opportunity with field position and gave us a chance to make plays. It's disappointing we didn't.

"Tim Boyle, I think played an exceptional game for a true freshman. He made some throws early that could have been the difference. If some of our guys make those catches, this is a different game. …

Tim stepped up and showed maturity and poise. He put us in position to win."

I want to be cautious on Boyle. Yes, there were big drops. Yes, Boyle showed three times he is able to bring down the ball and run for first downs. He has a big arm. He throws the ball hard. He threw it over his receivers' heads at times. Weist said the Bulls played different variations on the cover-2 with defenders trailing receivers. You've got to fit the ball in and it's not easy. I'll give Boyle a C-plus. And as much as Chandler Whitmer has become a whipping boy, I could paint a picture how he could have won this one.

But I won't.

"We'll get better," Weist said. "The thing is we don't have a lot of time to get better. We're not patient.

We are going to be patient with the quarterback."

Weist said Boyle sure didn't look nervous. He looked "stone cold."

The drops, the drops, the drops …

"We put them in position in practice to make those plays under pressure as much as possible," Weist said. "They have to make plays. Some of those players have made those plays before.

"Deshon Foxx: Run out of the cut, you're wide open, run down the field and make the play. On that one play, he was looking early, the ball's in the air, now he's running and it's too late. As a young receiver he can't wait for the game to make that mistake and learn his lesson because it cost us a touchdown. He's got to learn it from other players making mistakes or in practice when we talk about it. He may never make that mistake again, but it's too late."

The Huskies ran the ball 17 times good for 172 yards in the first 15:12. Lyle McCombs ended with a career-best 164 yards. Weist said Mike Foley taking over the offensive line helped. It sure looked like UConn could have controlled the game better on the ground. Yet they only ran 20 times for 35 yards the final 44:18. Even if you don't count the three sacks, it was still only for 69 yards. It's not like the Huskies were forced to fire the ball around. The only trailed for 6:12 in this game, for 2:09 after Aaron Lynch scooped up a Boyle fumble for a 44-yard TD return forced by Ryne Giddins hitting his arm (Kevin Friend still should have fallen on the ball) and for the final 4:03 after Marvin Kloss' 44yard field goal.

"Coach [Chuck] Bresnahan is a smart defensive coordinator," Weist said. "He came up and stayed in some cover-2 coverages that still take away the pass and twisted some things up on the inside and put some pressure on the edges for us. Honestly, that's something we haven't handled in the past couple of games.

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"We didn't run the ball as well in the second half as we would have liked. I tried to mix it up inside and out. Tim was throwing the ball pretty well and I wanted to get the ball to Geremy Davis and our playmakers. Lyle played a heck of a game. Sure, I'd like to take some things back and make some better calls going in there on the run game."

Two good things about Weist, who replaced Paul Pasqualoni as interim coach on Sept. 30: He is forthcoming. He's also the play-calling offensive coordinator so he can stand in the pocket and explain matters afterward.

He said he thought the offensive line overall did "pretty good." He also said he'd love to have one or two of those sacks back.

"We had guys open down the field," Weist said. "I'm going to be sick watching the film. We had some double moves on them and just couldn't get the ball off."

He's certainly not going to like what he sees on the last series on film. The Huskies didn't call a timeout with 2:30 to go, blew 30 seconds and got bailed out when USF, in a lather itself, called a time out on third down with 2:02 left. Boyle could have been picked off three times on the last drive, but the Huskies incredibly still had a chance to tie it when Boyle found Dhameer Bradley for a 16-yard gain to the USF 49. There were 16 seconds left. There was time for a completion, a stopped clock and a field goal attempt. Boyle looked at Weist. Weist looked at Boyle. The clock got down to seven before Boyle called timeout. There was time only for a desperation throw in the end zone "I looked up and I thought the clock was stopping at 16, it didn't," Weist said. "I didn't make a playcall. I didn't call time out. I made a mistake in clock management. I cannot make that mistake in a game and learn from it. It cost us a game."

Copyright Š 2013, The Hartford Courant

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T.J. Weist brings Alabama way to UConn

By Tommy Deas Executive Sports Editor | The Tuscaloosa News Published: Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 10:00 p.m.

When the University of Connecticut decided to make a midseason football coaching change, the Huskies turned to an Alabama man.

T.J. Weist, who played at UA in the 1980s as a walk-on wide receiver under Ray Perkins and Bill Curry, was named interim head coach at UConn last week when the school fired Paul Pasqualoni after a 0-4 start that included losses to Buffalo and Towson. Weist’s first game as interim head coach will be Saturday against South Florida in East Hartford, Conn.

“I base a lot of things of how I coach from the history of Alabama football,” Weist said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “I have such a great respect and pride for playing at Alabama.”

Weist, from Bay City, Mich., grew up in the shadow of Michigan football. His parents are from South Bend, Ind., where his father attended Notre Dame and his grandfather served as an usher at Fighting Irish games.

As a 6-foot-1, 150-pound receiver coming out of high school with no college athletic scholarship offers, Weist decided he wanted to play at Alabama.

“I knew I wanted to play at the best school in the country,” he said. “Alabama and Coach (Paul W. ‘Bear’) Bryant had a great impact on me. Watching them on TV, the aura about Alabama — I don’t know what it was, but it had a great impact on me.”

Weist wrote a letter to Ray Perkins, the coach who succeeded Bryant, but didn’t get a reply. He enrolled anyway.

“Coming out of high school in ’83, I had never been to the state before I came to campus,” he said.

He arrived too late to join the team as a walk-on but moved into Crimson Towers, where he lived alongside a lot of other walk-ons and athletes from other sports. He went out for the football team in January 1985, joining nearly 40 other walk-ons.

“Three and a half years later, I was the only guy left,” he said. “I went through a lot of years of guys quitting, guys moving on and such. I got a letter in ’87 as a senior. I was very proud of that.”

Alabama played at Notre Dame when he was a senior, and he made the travel squad.

His last game at UA came against Michigan in the Hall of Fame Bowl in Tampa, Fla. After his playing career ended, he approached Curry about serving as a student coach.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you go down the hall and meet our new offensive coordinator?”

Weist said, “and I met Homer Smith. Coach Smith took me and taught me the techniques of wide receiver play that he wanted me to coach with Coach (Tommy) Bowden.”

Weist worked under Bowden, UA’s receivers coach, as a student assistant and then as a graduate assistant.

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“When spring ball came, Coach Smith would use me as a demonstrator of the certain techniques that he wanted. I learned so much from Coach Smith and Coach Bowden the next two years.

Copyright © 2013 TuscaloosaNews.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

“It was a special time being a graduate assistant there. At the end of my second year as a GA we went undefeated until we had to go to Auburn, won the SEC and went to the Sugar Bowl. From there I went right to Michigan.”

Weist worked with wideouts at Michigan, then had coaching stops at Southern Illinois, Tulsa, Indiana, Western Kentucky and Cincinnati before landing at UConn this season as offensive coordinator. When Pasqualoni was relieved of his duties last week, Weist was promoted to finish out the season as interim head coach.

“It’s not easy,” Weist said. “As a coach you always prepare yourself to be a head coach, you’re always looking at head coaches — what they do right and what they do wrong. I just pull from the best coaches I’ve been around and take them to this situation.

“There’s not a lot of time to think about it, not a lot of time to plan for it. I didn’t want to take this job under this circumstance because I think so much of Paul Pasqualoni, but it’s a challenge that’s hard to turn down from a team standpoint. I’ve got to stand up in front of my players and motivate them and get them ready to beat South Florida.”

Weist will take his Alabama background onto the sideline with him.

“I try to teach my players that, the pride and the responsibility they have to all the other players and coaches who have been here in the past,” he said. “That’s why Alabama is the great program that it is. That’s really why I have a great pride that is part of everything that I do.”

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Tim Boyle to take over as UConn quarterback

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The New Haven Register (http://edit.saxo.nhregister.com)

UConn’s Yawin Smallwood always had passion to play linebacker

Jim Fuller Monday, September 9,2013 STORRS >> There was an unmistakable gleam in Yawin Smallwood’s eye as he recently took a trip down memory lane.

Before Smallwood arrived at UConn, and well before he planted his first opposing running back into the turf, he was given the opportunity to see how the other half lives as an option quarterback at Doherty High in Worcester, Mass.

There are still YouTube clips of Smallwood running over overmatched defenders en route to recording three 150-yard rushing games as a senior, and others certainly could be located of him hurling touchdown passes of 54 and 67 yards during his junior season.

“It was definitely fun. I feel like that was where I got my leadership role from,” Smallwood said. “I think that has helped me out on the defensive side, and I would love to play it again if I have a chance.”

Chandler Whitmer can rest easy. If a challenge comes from another quarterback on UConn’s roster it won’t be from Smallwood, even if he could be one hellacious performer in the wildcat formation.

Even when Smallwood was running the offense at Doherty High, playing linebacker was his true passion. Whenever a football game came onto the screen when he was a youngster growing up, his eyes were always transfixed more on the players making the tackles than they were on the ones carrying the ball.

“I like making the big hits and stuff like that,” Smallwood said. “I think defense just fits me. Guys are intense, fired up and I just love that.

“I always knew I was going to play defense because of my size, and I was always ready for that role.”

When Smallwood arrived at UConn in 2010 he had to wait his turn.

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With Lawrence Wilson, Sio Moore and Scott Lutrus manning the linebacking positions, Smallwood redshirted. Following the graduation of Wilson and Lutrus, Smallwood worked his way into the starting lineup in 2011. Foreshadowing things to come, Smallwood made the tackle on the Huskies’ first defensive play. He finished second on the team with 94 tackles. During the 2012 season, despite playing on a team featuring three players who would be taken in the third round of the NFL draft, and another who went in the fourth round, Smallwood led the Huskies with 120 tackles. The impressive sophomore season was highlighted by back to back 14-tackle games against North Carolina State and Maryland. Perhaps even more noteworthy than making at least 10 tackles nine times in 25 career starts is that Smallwood has five tackles or more in every game he has played.

“Some people are just born to be a football player, and I really think Yawin was born to be a football player,” UConn sophomore linebacker Graham Stewart. “He has unreal instincts and he is always around the ball, and that is something you can’t always teach, and he has the intangibles that you just can’t teach.”

After being flanked by Moore and Jory Johnson for the last two seasons and protected by physical linemen like current San Diego Charger Kendall Reyes and Ryan Wirth, Smallwood is currently surrounded by a group of young but relatively unproven players. The departure of six senior starters on defense has forced Smallwood to take on more of a leadership role on and off the field.

“He is a tall, big, good-looking guy and a good athlete, but beyond that he is a really fun guy for guys to coach,” UConn defensive coordinator Hank Hughes said. “He is the kind of guy who is real coachable. He takes coaching well, he has a great mentality; he has a great way about himself and to me that is one of the things that separates him. He is an always upbeat guy.

“Being the Mike linebacker that is a big part of the defense, it is a big responsibility for a player whether it comes natural to him or not. He is a good leader for us because he is the kind of guy personality wise that people are going to rally around and people are going to feel good about being around. Being a Mike linebacker he is the quarterback of the defense.”

Smallwood, voted as one of three team captains by his teammates, began his junior season by making a team-high 16 tackles. However, considering how badly the Huskies were pushed around by Towson in a season-opening defeat, Smallwood wasn’t in the mood to pat himself on the back for any individual statistics.

“We have to pick our heads up and get ready to work and go into the film room and fix our mistakes,” Smallwood said.

Smallwood is determined to help the Huskies turn the corner. UConn was 5-7 in each of his first two seasons and have challenging non-conference games coming up against Maryland on Saturday and Michigan on Sept. 21.

“We definitely have been thinking about it a lot,” Smallwood said. “These last two seasons haven’t been our best seasons, but before that UConn football was doing really well. We were at the Fiesta Bowl, we went and beat Notre Dame so we are trying to get back to that level. We have great potential to beat those teams, so we need to do whatever we can to try to win those games and put UConn football back on the map.

Whether or not Smallwood can put UConn football back on the map is yet to be determined, but he is certainly on the NFL radar. Although he is a redshirt junior, he is showing up on 2014 NFL mock drafts and ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has Smallwood rated as the No. 3 inside linebacker for next year’s draft.

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If Smallwood opts to bypass his senior season and make himself available for the 2014 draft it could make the fourth straight year that a Connecticut linebacker was taken in the draft following in the footsteps of Wilson, a sixth-round pick of Carolina in 2011, Greg Lloyd (seventh-round pick by Philadelphia in 2012 and Moore (taken in the third round by Oakland in April’s draft).

“Those are great guys and I learned from them, Sio Moore, Scott Lutrus, Greg Lloyd, Jory Johnson I had a lot of those guys to look up to when I was a freshman,” Smallwood said. “I feel like that truly helped me out and hopefully I can do the same for those young guys now.”

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© 2013 The New Haven Register (http://edit.saxo.nhregister.com)

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Tim Boyle has Huskies’ support while preparing for first start

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The Register Citizen (http://www.registercitizen.com)

Interim UConn coach T.J. Weist has believers

By Jim Fuller jfuller@nhregister.com @NHRJimFuller on Twitter Saturday, October 5,2013 Bill Curry didn’t quite know what to make of the energetic walk-on from Bay City, Mich., when he assumed the reins of the Alabama football program in the late 1980s.

Invariably, the sure-handed overachiever would be among the first to hit the practice field and was almost always the last to leave, even though there was no guarantee he would ever suit up, nevermind catch on as a receiving option for the Crimson Tide.

“To walk on at Alabama and to come from Michigan, I think that makes a pretty bold statement,” Curry said. “I remember asking him, ‘What are you doing all the way down here?’ He said, ‘This is a place I wanted to play.’ He has very high ambition; very determined and very smart. He picked things up quickly and being around him in later years when I was at ESPN and he had been at Michigan ... I saw him and thought he was a very focused guy and very persistent.

“Nothing came easy to T.J. He wasn’t handed anything. He didn’t have a scholarship, but I liked him so I found him a job (as a graduate assistant). He has done everything to be ready for this kind of a challenge.”

‘This kind of a challenge’ is putting it mildly.

Less than nine months after arriving at UConn as the offensive coordinator, Weist finds himself running the program after head coach Paul Pasqualoni and offensive line coach George DeLeone were shown the door following an 0-4 start and 10-18 record since their arrival in Storrs.

Other than reading reports of Weist’s passionate manner and seeing clips from the press conference naming the 48-year-old the interim coach, even the most ardent UConn fan doesn’t know a heck of a lot about the football program’s new leader.

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Tim Boyle has Huskies’ support while preparing for first start

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His coaching career began with graduate assistant gigs at two of the most tradition-rich programs in college football history. A two-year stint at Alabama working with the receivers was followed by the same position at Michigan from 1990-93. After two seasons on the Southern Illinois staff and one at Tulsa, he headed to Indiana for five seasons before beginning an eight-year run at Western Kentucky.

Jack Harbaugh, the father of current NFL head coaches Jim and John, led the Hilltoppers to the 2002 Division I-AA national title in Weist’s first season on the WKU staff.

“It was one of the great coaching years of my life,” Weist said. “I was coaching the running backs and the receivers, the meeting room was in the weight room and we had nothing. We won the national championship that year, and I had great influence from coach Harbaugh.”

His successful run at Western Kentucky was not lost on a coaching rival. Although Central Michigan never played Western Kentucky in Butch Jones’ seven seasons as a CMU assistant or three seasons as the head coach, he was well aware of Weist’s potential. He didn’t hesitate in hiring Weist as the wide receivers coach when he took over at Cincinnati in 2010.

“I always followed him and I always had the utmost respect for him,” Jones said. “I was a receiver coach, he was a receiver coach and I followed his career from the University of Michigan to Indiana to Western Kentucky. So in our profession he was one of those individuals that I always respected. I respected the way his position group played. They played with great effort, they played with great energy, they have great technique and they always did the small details, the small things, exceptionally well.

“He is a great individual. He has a great family, he is a family man and an individual of the highest character. He is extremely competitive and very detailed. He is detail-orientated in everything that he does. The other thing is he genuinely cares about the kids. Academics are important; the way he charts their progress, holds them accountable.”

When Jones was hired away by Tennessee, Weist was given the play-calling responsibilities in the Belk Bowl. All the Bearcats did was pile up 554 yards in a 48-34 win over Duke.

“I think he handles it pretty well,” Cincinnati wide receiver Anthony McClung said of Weist’s playcalling ability. “I haven’t really watched any UConn games, but at the bowl game last year he was calling great plays. Whatever play he felt was going to work in certain situations, he called it. He is very confident and we came through for him.”

There is a significant difference between having three weeks to prepare before calling plays for an explosive Cincinnati offense and having two weeks before leading an 0-4 UConn team against South Florida. However, those who have hired him believe Weist has what it takes to make the best of a difficult situation.

“I think it is incredibly difficult,” said Curry, who won 93 games as a collegiate coach and was a three -time conference coach of the year. “I have seen a lot of good coaches go down the tubes because of a situation like that. I hope he gets a chance to prove what he can do.”

Weist’s initial inclination was to pass on becoming the interim coach out of respect for Pasqualoni, before agreeing to take over the program. Jones was not surprised that Weist thought long and hard before taking over.

“I know he has a tremendous amount of respect for coach Pasqualoni and what he has been able to do,” Jones said. “I know it has been extremely difficult for him, but if there is one person who can

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Tim Boyle has Huskies’ support while preparing for first start

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handle that situation, it is T.J. Weist. He was basically in that situation last year at Cincinnati, having to run the offense and not having an offensive staff.

“It is a difficult situation, but also it is a tremendous opportunity as well and it is a challenge. If you are a competitor, you love great challenges. I think the thing that T.J. brings is he will be able to connect with the players. I think they will buy into everything that is going on. I know he will embrace that challenge and I know he is looking forward to it. It is a great opportunity to take a football team over in a relatively early stage of the season. I think he will benefit from the bye week and be able to go, so I think he will add a lot to that football program.”

Weist doubled as the receivers coach in addition to being the offensive coordinator when he was hired

by Pasqualoni. Starting receivers Geremy Davis and Shakim Phillips rave about his teaching ability and his incredible passion for coaching.

“He brings fire to that position,” Davis said. “He played that position. He is a fundamental guy and he is going to bring that to a team as a whole. He brings fire and he is a player’s coach, so we are going to show his mentality.”

His passion is not limited to the football field. He was the recruiting coordinator at times during stops at Indiana and Cincinnati. Shortly after being hired at UConn he was able to secure a commitment from Brian Lemelle, the all-time leading receiver in Pennsylvania high school football history.

“He showed me what he can do when he was at Cincinnati, and with him at Connecticut, it made it a lot easier,” Lemelle said.

McClung, a native of Indianapolis, was considered to be one of the top 15 players in the state of Indiana, and Weist had a major role in luring him to Cincinnati.

“He came to my high school and he was kind of sizing me up,” McClung said. “He was a cool guy, but he was kind of more business-like, so he was kind of intimidating. But he is a great coach and I love him to death. He told me that he really liked my film and he really wanted me to be a Bearcat. ...

He is really one of the main reasons why I came (to Cincinnati). I believe he is a great recruiter because he recruited a lot of players in my class.”

Weist said UConn is honoring its verbal commitments and that he planned on using the bye week to get some additional recruiting work done so the program doesn’t suffer due to the coaching change.

“Right now we’re honoring the commits that we have,” Weist said. “We’re going to call them and talk to them to let them know that there is stability. We want our commits and the current players we’re recruiting to know that there is stability and know the direction of the program. That will be one of the first things we talk about as a staff. We need to understand how we’re going to handle the players and their questions. We’re not going to ignore it. We’re going to tell them what and how we’re doing it. We’re going to keep recruiting.”

As high as recruiting is on Weist’s priority list, it is not at the very top. That is reserved for trying to breathe some life into an offense that is last among 123 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in rushing offense and 119th in total offense.

“It breaks your heart because we put our heart and soul into this,” Weist said. “We put everything we have into this program. It’s not just a job or career to us. It’s our life. It’s a family. These players become our family. This is our family for us, for me. This football team is our family. I think that we will create a family situation and we will make it everything to us.”

http://www.registercitizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?avis=RC&date=20131005&category=... 10/9/2013

Chris Elsberry: UConn's mantra for remaining 8 games: 'All In' - Connecticut Post

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Chris Elsberry: UConn's mantra for remaining 8 games: 'All In' Updated 12:50Â am, Wednesday, October 9, 2013

STORRS -- They are everywhere, taped to just about every door in the Burton Family Football Complex and the Shenkman Training Center. It's a picture of Rentschler Field, packed to the rafters with two words printed on it: "All In." It is a simple mantra but one that interim head coach T.J. Weist wants to make sure that no one on his team forgets. And while no one was admitting it publicly, perhaps there were times when players weren't "all in" over the course of the Huskies' opening four games. And Weist is determined to change that.

Because the rest of UConn's season is riding on it.

"He wants us to realize that we're in this as a team, together," cornerback Byron Jones said. "He wants us to be the best that we can be. And the only way to achieve that goal is to be all in, sacrificing for the guys that are next to you and staying out of trouble on and off the field, stuff like that."

After a bye week during which athletic director Warde Manuel fired head coach Paul Pasqualoni, Weist became interim head coach, and true freshman Tim Boyle was elevated to starting quarterback, the Huskies have returned to the weekly football grind heading into Saturday's game at Rentschler Field against South Florida (noon, SNY). Needless to say, they want to put all those negative vibes from an 0-4 start behind them as they head into American Athletic Conference play with the long-term goal of becoming bowl eligible.

"Coach (Weist) explained to us last week when he came in that everything was starting over," receiver Kamal Abrams said. "He wanted to create competition among the players and basically the `all in' is everyone working together so we can achieve our goal and that's going to a bowl game. I believe that everyone is in and I can't wait to see what happens the rest of the season."

Weist spent his first week readjusting his coaching staff -- he gave tight ends coach Mike Foley his old job of coaching the offensive line -- while taking on additional duties as interim head coach. In addition to trying to bring passion and energy back to the field, he's also looking to bring some fun back, too. To that extent, he's piped in some pre-practice music as the players stretch to liven up the atmosphere.

"Me and Deshonn Foxx were walking up the hill and we heard the music and we thought it was coming from a car, so we ran up there and saw it was coming from the field. That got guys

http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/Chris-Elsberry-UConn-s-mantra-for-remaining-8-487... 10/9/2013

Chris Elsberry: UConn's mantra for remaining 8 games: 'All In' - Connecticut Post

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motivated," receiver Geremy Davis said. "He mixed it up. He had some of his time in there and some of today's time in there, he satisfied both age groups."

Â

Weist also threw out some challenges, such as making the players coach themselves. For example, if a player sees a teammate not giving 100 percent in practice, that teammate is supposed to be held accountable. That's also livened up the atmosphere.

"It's just collectively making sure that we're staying on top of ourselves and staying on each other," guard Steve Greene said. "That's what it's been and what it has to continue to be. We have a lot of seniors on the offensive line, so it's really not a big issue but it goes for the entire team.

"It's just kind of making sure that everybody's all on the same page. We're all committed, we're all in knowing that no matter what we're faced with, no matter what kind of adversity, we're all going to come together and get through it."

Knowing that his potential long-term future with the team depends on what happens over these final eight games, Weist is determined to keep his players focused and energized on making something special happen over the course of the AAC portion of the schedule.

"In our situation, we have to have everybody together," Weist said. "(`All in') fits us well right now.

We need everyone together, whether it's staff, players, everyone. I think they've responded well, they believe it. You don't want to come up with something that the players don't think means a lot.

This means something. It means that all of us have to come together for one purpose in everything that we do and that starts with making decisions that are best for the team.

"It could be easy for players in this situation to go another way, to be selfish and not focus on the team, so I think they needed to be refocused and needed to be on the same page to play for each other and work for each other and make decisions for the team and not for themselves." celsberry@ctpost.com; http://Twitter@elsctpost

http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/Chris-Elsberry-UConn-s-mantra-for-remaining-8-487... 10/9/2013

Weist Says He Has Confidence In Freshman QB -- Courant.com

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courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-jacobs-column-1009-20131008,0,6570786.column

Courant.com Weist Says He Has Confidence In Freshman QB Jeff Jacobs 9:13 PM EDT, October 8, 2013 STORRS — T.J. Weist did a fairly expansive job Tuesday explaining why he is casting UConn's football fortunes with Tim Boyle. The interim head coach did an even more honest job in explaining that he is not a fortune teller, interim or otherwise.

a d ve r t i s e m e n t

All it took was a question about how long a leash there is on a quarterback only months out of Xavier High in Middletown.

"There is no leash," Weist said. "There is no length to it. It's hard to quantify this long or that long.

How do you say it's X amount of this or that? I don't know if there's a coach who can answer that question. We'll see how things go. I don't have the answer. Yes, we have to have patience. Yes, we have to allow him to learn. We all have to see how well he'll handle this offense, make decisions and make plays — you and me together."

In his first assembled weekly meeting with the media, Weist joked that he'd have to start studying video of Patriots coach Bill Belichick's press conferences. For the love of God, T.J., please, nooooo!

We'll see how this goes long-term, but Weist only needed 32 minutes to demonstrate that he can be less paranoid than Randy Edsall and more vibrant and thorough in his message than Paul Pasqualoni.

If you could wade through all my emails and Twitter messages this past month demanding Pasqualoni's firing, you'd find a number insisting that Boyle should replace Chandler Whitmer. You'd also find a number insisting that Boyle's redshirt should not be burned during a lost year.

After an 0-4 start that cost Pasqualoni his job, do I believe it's time to try another quarterback?

Absolutely, 100 percent. Do I believe it's worth the risk, even if it means Boyle might not be ready?

That's where I'm 70-30.

On Tuesday, Boyle was talking about storming Rentschler Field with his dad after UConn beat South Florida in 2007 and how cool it is to get his first college start against USF. Boyle could be a great story. He could be the next Dan Orlovsky, and for Connecticut football that only means everything.

Hey, I'm dying to nickname him O2, the molecular oxygen that breathed new life into State U football. Could he be the state kid who de-commits from Boston College and Steve Addazio and steps into the UConn lineup midway through his freshman season and starts 44 straight season games and a bunch of bowl games?

But what if an offensive line that has allowed Whitmer to be sacked a horrifying 20 times doesn't respond? What if Boyle, who just turned 19, isn't ready to handle it all and Whitmer has to be reinserted? The reality is that there could be plenty of regrets when 2017 rolls around and Boyle has no more eligibility left. There are no guarantees.

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Weist Says He Has Confidence In Freshman QB -- Courant.com

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Weist says that he has thought long and hard about what's best No. 1 for the team and No. 2 for Boyle.

After a bye week of consideration, I'll agree, yes, it's worth the risk, but not for a minute am I going to pretend it's a no-brainer. Weist, whose mandate is to win now if he has any intentions of being head coach in 2014, has more riding on this decision than anybody and he isn't pretending that he can read the future. So why should anybody else?

"Tim is ready," Weist said, and listed three reasons. "One is maturity. You have to be mature to handle situations on and off the field. As a quarterback, it's twice as much. You've got handle the pressure, the media, expectations of leading the offense."

"Two, he shows a presence on the field in practice and scrimmage situations. He has a command of the offense, not just from an intelligence standpoint, but a mentality and decision-making standpoint.

That's probably the biggest thing for us. Third is his intelligence. It's not a simple game plan and we can't lighten the load so much because we've got to win a game."

In a fascinating admission during his adios teleconference, Pasqualoni said that he had intended to replace Whitmer with Boyle against USF. It was Pasqualoni's call, Weist said, but as offensive coordinator he was an active part of that decision.

"That was the direction before everything happened last week," Weist said. "I continued it on."

Boyle, for his part, minces no words.

"I want to play football. I'm a football player," Boyle said. "I didn't come to UConn to redshirt my freshman year. I came here to play. I'm happy where I am right now. I'm not really worried about the fifth year."

Boyle, who led Xavier to three state titles, has not talked to Orlovsky, but Boyle's dad showed him a story over the weekend in the Connecticut Post. In it, Orlovsky, now with the Tampa Bay Bucs, said he had been excited about the chance to play as a freshman but had no idea how much responsibility it was. His word of advice to Boyle? Don't try to be the savior. Orlovsky, who led Shelton to a state title, started six games toward the end of his freshman year. Yet eight games into his sophomore season, UConn and Orlovsky still were losing like crazy. Then it suddenly and dramatically turned around in the right direction. That's the dream, baby: Another Orlovsky. Yep, O2.

Weist gets high marks early for honesty. He said he'd like to believe that those Xavier state championships will help Boyle at the college level. He said that it helps his ego. It helps the coach's confidence. "But," Weist said, "it doesn't prove anything on the field. He's still untested."

He admitted that with three freshman quarterbacks, he didn't automatically see Boyle as a starter by Game 5. He needed to watch their progression carefully. From there, it was evaluating Whitmer's game performance.

"We made the decision [to go to Boyle] at the right time, we felt," Weist said. "I'm not going to look back and say we wish we had done it another way."

He will keep the pressure on Boyle this week at practice to feel the speed, feel the heat of the first defense. He wants Boyle thinking fast, going through his progressions on the move. Quarterbacks coach Shane Day has been moved up to the press box to help be Weist's eyes. Weist will continue to call plays from the sideline. When Boyle comes off the field, the first guy he'll see is Weist, more as offensive coordinator than head coach. After he makes his comments, Weist will have him talk to Day

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Weist Says He Has Confidence In Freshman QB -- Courant.com

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on the phone. Whitmer, as the backup, remains part of the sideline communications. Both Weist and Boyle had high praise for Whitmer.

"As a mentor, nothing but supportive," Boyle said. "He has been a great role model for me."

Weist is right. Boyle is mature for his age. He talks earnestly about wanting to gain the respect of his upperclassmen teammates. "They want me to be in control," he said. "That's my challenge. … I'm also not going to get too big for my britches." He talks earnestly about gaining the trust of his coaches, improving tempo and how they want him to play like a senior and not a freshman. He talks explicitly about keeping a mental clock ticking to know when to get rid of the ball. He says sage things, like, "Any quarterback who isn't confident in himself is doing himself an injustice."

You can forget how young these guys are.

He said he remembers hearing Orlovsky's name when he was young, but doesn't consciously recall following him. He talked about growing up and watching D.J. Hernandez of Bristol playing quarterback — that was yesterday, wasn't it? — and thinking how cool it would be to go to UConn.

But then he adds, "Now that I'm here and actually starting quarterback, it's not as exciting as I thought it would be." He talks about the respect he has for Pasqualoni, but says, "It was a little dull when coach P was here, very long days." He raves about Weist's energy and how likable he is: "I don't think there's too much to hate about him." And when asked about being too jacked up to sleep Friday night, he says NyQuil should help.

"I'm excited. I'm a 19-year-old kid starting for the UConn Huskies," Boyle exclaimed at one point.

That he is.

And it's pretty easy to root for O2.

Copyright © 2013, The Hartford Courant

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-jacobs-column-1009-20131008,0,22546... 10/9/2013

UConn Football: There's a sense of "urgency" surrounding UConn football - Hartford Co...

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There's A Sense Of 'Urgency' Around UConn Football These Days

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August 09, 2013 | By DESMOND CONNER, dconner@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

The UConn football team held preseason media day at the Burton Football Family Complex on Friday, and third-year coach Paul Pasqualoni offered initial impressions of the team.

"You know, every year is different," Pasqualoni said. "At this time of year you try to figure out what the personality of the team is. We've been at it a week now so it's still a little early, but I'm pleased with the effort and approach of this group.

"It appears to me after one week that they're really unselfish, working really, really well together. I think everybody has a mind-set that they're trying to work hard and contribute to the good of the team."

The Huskies are coming off consecutive 5-7 seasons and Pasqualoni used the word "urgency" a couple of times.

Related Articles Pasqualoni Says There Is 'Urgency' For UConn To Improve

That's the state of the program. There's no other way to slice it: this is a critical year for the program. Another sub-500 season and changes are likely.

July 30, 2013

To make sure that doesn't happen, the Huskies have to reduce turnovers. They had 26 last year (16 interceptions) and had way too many drives killed as a result. It's a concern because each of the quarterbacks has had issues with coverage.

Bio: Coach Paul Pasqualoni

The defense, however, looks pretty good so far.

March 12, 2011

Whitmer Cleared To Play Saturday

But that turnover issue stands out and the Huskies must address it. The season starts Aug. 29 at home against Towson, and the Huskies follow that with two tough opponents in Maryland and Michigan.

November 29, 2012

Scrimmage Goes Well

With Paul Pasqualoni February 22, 2011

The Huskies had their first scrimmage Thursday.

UConn WR Tebucky Jones Wants More Playing Time

Quarterback Chandler Whitmer said he thought it went pretty well.

September 26, 2012

"We did some good things on offense, scored some points, that's something we hadn't done in the past against that stout defense," Whitmer said. "We've always got good defense here so seeing some success there Thursday was a good thing.

Obviously there's things, little things here and there ... but really, it went well for the most part."

Line Pride

Find More Stories About

Senior left tackle Jimmy Bennett says he's is just sick of the criticism of the offensive line no matter where it comes from.

Paul Pasqualoni

Bennett (6 feet 9, 306), however, will be the first to say criticism was warranted. That's not his argument.

Bowl Game

His argument is that the 2013 offensive line, with three 23-year-old seniors (Bennett, Tyler Bullock and Kevin Friend) and left guard Steve Greene (who is 22) can restore the reputation UConn once had in producing solid offensive linemen.

The group has a lot of fighting to do against the school's toughest schedule. The Huskies are coming off a season in which they rushed for fewer than 90 yards a game.

"You don't want to go out flat like you did last year, 5-7," Bennett said. "You don't want to lose senior night, you don't want to lose your last game of the season. Bang, bang and bowl game, BCS, anything. We want to go to a bowl game. That's the big goal this year. Everyone would like to go to the BCS but just 5-7 sucks; 6-6 isn't much better but it is a whole lot better than 5-7. We want to go to a bowl game and we as an offensive line, want to show we're not what we showed last year. "

http://articles.courant.com/2013-08-09/sports/hc-uconn-football-media-day-0810-2013080... 10/9/2013

UConn Football: There's a sense of "urgency" surrounding UConn football - Hartford Co...

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Nice Catch Junior receiver Shakim Phillips said he and the rest of the unit are excited about the addition of offensive coordinator and receivers coach T.J. Weist. "I love Coach Weist, he brings a lot of intensity and fun to the game," said Phillips, the Huskies' second-leading receiver (32 catches, 399 yards one TD) last season. "He teaches a lot of technique. He's definitely been a good addition to the UConn Huskies this season." ... The Huskies will have another scrimmage Tuesday and Pasqualoni listed a number of true freshmen he will take a look at: Kyle Schafenacker on the offensive line, Sha-Ki Holines on the defensive line, Brian Lemelle at receiver, Matt Walsh at fullback, Javon Hadley at cornerback, Tommy Hopkins on the offensive line, Tommy Myers at tight end, Michael Boland at tight end and Junior Joseph at linebacker. There will be no shortage of kick returners. Special teams coach Kermit Buggs, who is also the running backs coach, said Phillips, sophomores Joe Williams and Deshon Foxx and junior Lyle McCombs and senior Taylor Mack are all options to return kickoffs. Mack, Lemelle and junior Kamal Abrams are the top candidates to return punts. ... Sophomore Bobby Puyol kicked off during the scrimmage and Buggs said two kickoffs went through the end zone. He and Pasqualoni are very pleased with Puyol, who came to UConn rated as one of the top high school kickers in the nation, out of Dwyer (Fla.) High. The coaches are being careful with senior Chad Christen, slowly recovering from offseason surgery (tear in his hip/quad area). Pasqualoni said he would like to redshirt Puyol but can't make that call just yet. ‌ Buggs also said no running back has separated himself for the No. 2 position behind McCombs. He and Pasqualoni said sophomore Max DeLorenzo has been solid and Joe Williams is coming around. "He's a home-run hitter," Buggs said.

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Bowden, Ray Perkins have faith in Weist Mike DiMauro A million little bits of distractive speculation will surround T.J. Weist in the coming months, none his creation. More speculation will follow. Then comes speculating on the speculation as if the speculation originated from fact and not, well, speculation.

This is how it works when you are an interim coach with somebody else's players charged with winning football games for a winless team. Immediately. All while your job status becomes fodder for water cooler chit chat, talk show blather, newspaper conjecture and message board clamor. Ah, the football life.

Indeed, maybe T.J. Weist, for whom life changes with an exclamation point come high noon Saturday at Rentschler Field, can hum a little "That's Life" for the next few months. Never a bad idea to channel you inner Sinatra for inspiration: "And as funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks stomping on a dream; but I don't let it get me down, 'cause this fine old world, it keeps spinnin' around."

Note Francis Albert's word choice: this fine old world. And it is college football's fine old world that knows T.J. Weist. College football's fine old world of names you know. Names you respect. All of which invites the question: Amid all the speculation, is the right guy for UConn football here already?

T.J. Weist, born in South Bend, Indiana, raised in Michigan, was a walk-on wide receiver at Alabama. He played there for Ray Perkins and Bill Curry. He coached at Michigan under Gary Moeller. He coached at Western Kentucky under Jack Harbaugh, father of John and Jim. He coached under (current Tennessee coach) Butch Jones at Cincinnati.

And now before Weist has coached a game here, hosannas from across the country are fighting for airspace around him, perhaps trying to supplant the speculation of who might be taking his job.

"I interviewed him one time for a job. It came down to him and (current Clemson coach) Dabo Swinney," former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said Monday in a phone interview.

"I had a hard time making the call. T.J. is a very, very detail-oriented guy. Thorough and disciplined. Able to teach the mechanics.

"I was a walk-on, too (at West Virginia)," Bowden said. "They're usually overachievers. I'm partial to guys like T.J. I like their toughness. When you're a head coach, your job is to win games. Guys like T.J. were the 'do the right thing' guys. Dabo was a walk-on, too. They usually make good coaches. Dabo has proven that. T.J. deserves this chance."

This from Perkins, once the coach of the football Giants, now coaching at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss: "I remember T.J. well. A hard working guy, a dedicated guy. There aren't many walk-ons who make it at Alabama. He's made up differently. When everyone else says you can't, he's one of the guy who figures out how you can."

Earlier this week, Curry and Jones used similar words, describing Weist to Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register: "Nothing came easy to T.J. He wasn't handed anything. He didn't have a scholarship, but I liked him so I found him a job (as a graduate assistant). He has done everything to be ready for this kind of a challenge," Curry said.

Jones: "He is a great individual. He has a great family, he is a family man and an individual of the highest character. He is extremely competitive and very detailed. He is detail-

http://www.theday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131008/SPORT01/310089949&tem... 10/9/2013

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orientated in everything that he does. The other thing is he genuinely cares about the kids.

Academics are important; the way he charts their progress, holds them accountable."

Once again: What if the right guy for UConn football is already here?

Athletic director Warde Manuel said last week he would not call potential candidates "behind the backs" of colleagues, meaning this process this won't crackle until the season is over.

That hasn't stopped fans and media alike from throwing around names like horseshoes at the family picnic.

Nobody knows how Manuel plays this. He probably has The List somewhere in his head, top drawer or secret file in the laptop. Here's what else nobody knows: How many coaches want to be part of a league without an automatic BCS berth, with a small home off-campus stadium that's not always filled and a not-so fertile recruiting base.

But for now, this is T.J. Weist's production. And a guy the old world likes gets his swing.

"In situations like this, there's doubt and indecision among the players. The biggest task for T.J. is to get their attention and get them not to quit," Bowden said. "Make sure they know there's a new sheriff in town. Nobody asked to be in this situation, but it's time to work."

Bowden and Perkins also offered some insight, somewhat scary, into what the old college football world thinks about football in the northeast.

"There aren't too many coaching staffs, when they have their first recruiting meeting, who say, 'let's go to Connecticut to recruit,'" Bowden said. "Not a lot of players up there.

Recruiting is secondary right now for T.J. because he's got to win right away and show improvement. But I coached 32 years and when it came time to recruit, I didn't pay attention to that part of the country."

Perkins said, "It's hard to find players up there in that weather, where no one wants to play football."

But that's the mission of their guy. Maybe the right guy. It begins Saturday.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

http://www.theday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131008/SPORT01/310089949&tem... 10/9/2013