Peart Ready for NFL Draft
The Story: UConn will look to have another player move on to the pros this weekend as right tackle Matt Peart gets ready for the NFL Draft.
WHERE WILL HE GO? Peart, who was born in Jamaica, started all 48 games in which he played for the Huskies over his four seasons. That experience, plus his 6-foot-6, 318-pound frame, puts him among the top dozen or so offensive tackles expected to be selected. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has him ranked as the No. 100 prospect and the No. 11 offensive tackle and Todd McShay has him at No. 130 and the No. 16 offensive tackle. NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah lists him as the No. 97 prospect and the No. 12 offensive tackle. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler doesn’t have him among the top 100 players, but he considers him the No. 11 offensive tackle. All that adds up to Peart being selected in the third or fourth rounds.
WHAT DID PEART SAY? “From time to time I reminisce when I was a freshman on JV playing tight end, and now, I’m an offensive tackle looking to play in the NFL. It’s kind of crazy.”
WHAT DID KIPER SAY? “Peart is a guy who is still developing. A developing talent, still a little inexperienced in terms of football, but 6-[foot]6 1/2, almost 320 pounds, he’s got phenomenally long arms. He’s a gifted athlete, and the arm length that he has, the way he moves, the potential he has, if he’s coached up, with the computer numbers he had, Peart could be a good, really good third-round pick for somebody.”
DRAFT HISTORY: UConn’s NFL Draft history has (understandably) tapered off in the last few years. No player was taken a year ago; Foley Fatukasi was the most recent UConn player drafted when he went to the Jets in the sixth round in 2018. Peart will be the 28th player drafted since the move to the FBS in 1999 and the 42nd overall.
UConn to Sit Out Big East-Big 12 Battle
The Story: Call it a little bit of rookie hazing: The Huskies’ first season back in the Big East will proceed without them taking part in the Big East-Big 12 Battle, according to CBS Sports.
WHY NO HUSKIES? Well, the simple answer: Math. There are 10 teams in the Big 12 and now 11 teams in the Big East, so someone has to sit out. One guess is that it was easy enough for the Huskies to be the odd team out simply because it will be their first season in the new conference. The other answer, of course, could have to deal with nonconference scheduling: The Huskies may just not have had room.
WHAT ABOUT THE BIG TEN? The matchups haven’t yet been announced for the Gavitt Tipoff Games, in which eight Big East and Big Ten teams meet, but UConn’s participation in that series is unclear. The contract, which began in 2015, called for each Big East team to play six times and each Big Ten team to play four times; UConn joining the Big East could throw that alignment out of whack and it may be easiest to simply not include the Huskies in that series, either.
