Huskies Add 12 On Early Signing Day
The Story: UConn added 12 football players yesterday, the first day of the early signing period. It’s a very typical Randy Edsall class — a number of unheralded prospects from the northeast and the mid-Atlantic with a few Texas and Florida players sprinkled in. Of course, we won’t know whether that’s a good thing for a few years.
THE HEADLINER: The Huskies secured the commitment of 6-foot-1, 160-pound defensive back Myles Bell from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday night.
Bell, who made an official visit last weekend, chose UConn’s scholarship over offers from West Virginia, Nebraska, Penn State, Virginia Tech and others, and he was the first player to join the class who preferred a future in Storrs over other traditionally dominant programs.
How did he do it? Bell’s father, Grantis, a back judge in the SEC, is a former high school teammate of UConn running backs coach Terry Richardson, who has always been an underrated recruiter nationally. “This kid is a really good cover guy — smart, instinctive,” Edsall said. “[He] has all of the things that you’re looking for.”
MOST INTRIGUING: A graduate transfer from Columbia, defensive lineman Michael Hinton was a team captain last season and has played both tackle and end. He has started 28 games and was brought in, Edsall said, to provide leadership on defense.
UConn added another explosive running back in grad transfer Art Thompkins, who rushed for 563 yards and six touchdowns last season for Toledo. Because he graduated last week, he will not play for the Rockets against FIU in the Bahamas Bowl tomorrow.
The Huskies also snagged a quarterback, Jack Zergiotis, who was offered a scholarship on Saturday. Zergiotis, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound pocket passer from, of all places, Montreal, appears from his highlight tape to have worked extensively from a shotgun spread formation and has a big arm that can make a number of throws.
POSITIONS ADDRESSED: One of Edsall’s late-season rants concerned the fact that the Huskies had no natural linebackers. Dillon Harris, a Bloomfield native, will transfer from Lackawanna Community College — the same school that sent David Pindell to Storrs. Jackson Mitchell, from Ridgefield, also will begin his career at that position.
Seven of the 11 players are on defense, with Bell, Malik Dixon and Winston Jules in the backfield, and Hinton and Eric Watts, who will enroll for the spring, on the line. Zergiotis, H-back Jayce Medlock and two linemen who will redshirt, Chase Lundt and Rayonte Brown, round out the signings.
WHO GOT AWAY? Tight end Malik Jackson, who tweeted last month that he was “110 percent committed” to UConn, will stay home. “It’s been a dream since I was kid to play and win at Maryland,” Jackson said after flipping, something Edsall can undoubtedly understand. Otherwise, the Huskies are still waiting to hear from wide receiver Cameron Ross, who committed but has not sent in his paperwork.
Edsall said he can sign up to 25 players, and he went through a bizarre routine of saying that UConn has received letters of intent from other players he can’t talk about until February. Still, more will (assumedly) come — last year, UConn signed 19 players on the first day of the new signing period, with another seven eventually joining the class.
OUR TAKE: Edsall can say what he wants about evaluating players independently as a staff, but the Huskies still targeted too many who were choosing between their scholarship and offers from schools as Central Arkansas, Jackson State and Chattanooga. Not only is it an indicator of the players’ talent, it’s also an indictment of the school to be recruiting at that level. If the coaches were able to continually win battles for players such as Bell — who, we acknowledge, hasn’t done anything yet — there’s no doubt the wins would be easier to find.
Instead, Edsall seems to be betting heavily that his class is full of his typical “diamond in the rough,” but the position coaches who made that strategy work a decade ago are no longer around and the internet isn’t very good at keeping secrets.
“Those are the kinds of guys we have to have here, and those are the guys that we’ve had here before — the blue-collar guys, the guys with a chip on their shoulder, the guys who want to be developed,” Edsall said.
It also seemed odd that the Huskies, despite their woeful season, were not able to pick up more momentum on the recruiting trail in recent months. It wasn’t a beautiful product, for sure, but that UConn couldn’t entice more top-level players with the promise of immediate playing time seemed suspect.
HIGHLIGHTS: Want to see each underclassman’s highlight tapes? Take a look at each clip compiled by UConn:
| QB Jack Zergiotis | DB Myles Bell |
| DB Malik Dixon | HB Jayce Medlock |
| DL Eric Watts | DB Winston Jules |
| LB Jackson Mitchell | LB Dillon Harris |
| OL Chase Lundt | OL Rayonte Brown |
| RB Art Thompkins |
UConn Women Scare the State
The Story: The top-ranked UConn women were challenged for only the second time this season, needing a fourth-quarter run to beat Oklahoma 72-63. Naphessa Collier led the Huskies with 23 points and 17 rebounds and played all 40 minutes.
WHAT WE LEARNED: UConn (10-0) has an incredible ability not to panic. While their fanbase fretted after three quarters last night, the Huskies decided to grind. Oklahoma (3-7) led 57-50 in the fourth quarter and nearly spoiled a lot of Christmas parties around Connecticut.
Instead of folding on the road, the Huskies dug in and won their NCAA record 55th straight road game. UConn showed moxie, which is what we like to see in a team with this talent. The Huskies held Oklahoma without a field goal for the final five minutes and ended the game on a 14-1 run. They still have not lost a regular-season game since December 2014 at Stanford.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Collier picked up the slack for everyone else, scoring those 23 points on 10-of 15 shooting. She also had four assists and either scored or assisted on a whopping 14 of UConn’s 28 baskets.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Huskies’ shooting was non-existent on the road. UConn shot 40 percent from the floor (28-of-70) and was 2-of-17 (12 percent) from 3-point range — numbers that were a bit concerning because Oklahoma’s shooting defense is among the worst in the nation. Collier’s teammates shot only 33 percent (18-of-55), and Katie Lou Samuelson, one of UConn’s best shooters ever, went just 7-of-19 but still scored 20 points with 11 rebounds for her third career double-double. The Huskies did do work on the boards with 17 offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “I told them in the locker room they live in a fantasy world. ‘This is the way most of the world lives. Tough games, you have to suck it up. You have to make big plays towards the end. You guys just aren’t in that situation enough because you live in a make-believe world.’ Today they lived in the real world, and I was proud of them because they got tested and came out with flying colors.”
WHAT CONCERNS US: Depth. Depth! DEPTH! Geno Auriemma may have played eight players, but his bench combined to play only 10 minutes and did not score. Collier, Samuelson and Crystal Dangerfield played all 40 minutes, and Megan Walker, in her first game back from illness, and Christyn Williams each played 35 minutes.
Auriemma has, for years, preferred to work with a shorter rotation, but at this point, we start to wonder if it’s becoming a trust issue. Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Kyla Irwin have played well in a pinch earlier this season, but they couldn’t be permitted last night to give their teammates much more than a breather. What if someone misses a significant period of time? The American is going to be an easy road for the Huskies, but they could benefit from giving some of their other players a run in a crucial situation.
UP NEXT: The Huskies will continue a difficult road swing playing at No. 14 California (9-0) on Saturday afternoon.
Morning Read https://twitter.com/Talkin_Huskies/status/1075075353645846528
DID HUSKIES STRIKE GOLD AGAIN? UConn has two football players in the Pro Bowl, Byron Jones and Anthony Sherman. Both were two-star recruits out of New England. Will it happen again for a trio of home-state recruits for the Huskies? (Hearst Connecticut Media)
JONES HITS GOLD AT CB: After moving to cornerback from safety, Byron Jones has proven himself as an elite player for the Dallas Cowboys this season. (ProFootballTalk)
OLLIE CAN’T UNDO COMPLAINT: Jeff Jacobs argues Kevin Ollie went nuclear when he filed a dispute in court alleging UConn has prevented him from filing a discrimination suit. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
AT HOME ON THE ROAD: The UConn women have won an NCAA record 54 straight games on the road after beating Oklahoma on Wednesday. What’s the key to their success? (Journal Inquirer)
