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What?s goin on?
UConn head coach Paul Pasqualoni spoke to a ballroom-full at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast this morning.
Athletic Director Warde Manuel and athletic communications head Mike Enright were at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to support the second-year head coach Pasqualoni, the guest speaker, as was all-important fundriaser Paul Pendergast and Rachel Rubin, President Susan Herbt?s Chief of Staff.
High school coaches and teams from New Britain, Middletown and Xavier-Middletown High were in the house as well as several county dignitaries including Middletown mayor Dan Drew and city treasurer Quentin Phipps, who I shared a table with (Quentin and I are members of the same church in Middletown).
Pasqualoni was good today. He dropped some news including he thinks freshmen guard Tyler Samra and defensive end E.J. Norris are going to make the travel squad. That?s some accomplishment but when you consider Pasqualoni is just coming from the NFL, still has that mindset and is running concepts from the league throughout his own program now, it?s really accomplishment on both of those young men?s parts. Congratulations to them. I didn?t know about Samra but you may recall someone asked I think around recruiting time who I thought could play right away, make an impact or something like that and I said Norris. The kid is long, athletic, still growing and he had a ton of Division I-A offers. Of course, I didn?t know for sure but that kid?s vitals were impressive and I knew someone who saw him play and they said he was a monster so, we?ll see. And no one should be surprised about Samra, especially if you know anything about his high school, Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey.
Other news, not so surprising, junior defensive tackle Shamar Stephen (knee sprain) is out for the opener against UMass next week and junior kicker Chad Christen has solidified the job to replace Dave Teggart.
Pasqualoni said he?s having a hard time naming a captain outside of cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson. He said the 16 seniors and the leadership they?ve shown has made difficult the process of picking others.
?I?m having a hard job deciding, ok?? Pasqualoni told the crowd. ?These guys all deserve to be a captain, so we?ll probably go into the season honoring or recognizing, by the week, seniors in this program because they?ve given it to the University of Connecticut and they?re going to give it one more time this year. They really are. They want their legacy to be something special. These guys are all finished in January.?
Pasqualoni began to break down the schedule but eventually turned his head in the direction of the high school players and coaches.
?There?s going to be another Division I program in the Northeast [UMass] right in our region which I personally believe is a good region of football. I?ve always believed in Eastern Football, always, from the time I was in high school,? Pasqualoni, a Cheshire native said. ?You know the problem is people in the Southeast think they invented football. They did not. Football started with Rutgers-Princeton about 125 years ago. That?s where it started. So all you players in the East, all you high school guys, be proud that you play football in the East. Football in the East is as good as it is anywhere in the country I promise you and the players and coaches are just as committed and we feel that way.?
Breaking down opponents: ?UMass is going to be athletic, not going to have the depth, hopefully we have more depth and it?ll be a very, very competitive game. N.C. State is one heck of a football team in the ACC?we then go to Maryland, OK, enough said?that?s going to be an interesting game. It?s going to be an intense deal, be a lot of fun. We?ll be ready to play that one.
?We then go to Western Michigan, you know we lost a heart-breaker [38-31] last year in the fourth quarter. You know, the problem we had early on is that we didn?t have a lot of experience in the fourth quarter. The Vanderbilt game [Week 2, a 24-21 loss in Nashville], third-and-7, we lost it on an interception return for a touchdown. That was not Johnny McEntee?s fault that was my fault. We were going to run it, kick it and play defense and win the game and then we had one of those TV timeouts. All of a sudden ?Coach, there?s a TV timeout.?
?So then I have an extra minute to think?
(Pasqualoni pauses, the crowd erupts in laughter)
?So I brought Johnny over and I said ?Johnny we?re gonna run this [inaudible] route. In the second quarter he hit it for a first down. We got seven to go and it?s going to go right to the sticks, you throw it, we?re going to make this first down, we?re gonna run the clock out and we?re gonna get out of here with a win. Well, they bluffed the coverage. They fooled him. He threw it. It got picked. It went back for six. Johnny was just crushed. I tried to tell him after the game, ?John it wasn?t you. I promise you. It wasn?t you. It was that stupid TV timeout?.?
He went on to talk about the early season losses last year and what he?s told the team about them this year.
?We?ve got to collect these wins early, we gotta get started fast, we?re collecting wins early in the season because if you don?t they?ll come back in the end and they will get you. That?s what happened to us last year so we are coming out faster. We?re more experienced. We?ve got more athleticism and we?re going to be able to handle that.?
One more on the schedule?
??we go to Syracuse, that?s another storyline?then we got Pitt. The last time for Pitt and Syracuse in the Big East so we want to make sure we send them away, the right way?and hopefully we?re playing for something big the first Saturday in December [regular season finale at Cincinnati,? Pasqualoni said.
DC
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