Huskies Need That Veteran Presence
The Story: The football team has nine freshmen listed as starters and six others listed as the primary backup on the depth chart ahead of Saturday’s game against Wyoming. And while that may be all fine and well for the future, it raises the question — where are the vets?
INNOCENCE ISN’T BLISS: Seven freshmen are listed as starters on offense and two are expected to start on defense. That’s in addition to the five freshmen who are listed atop the depth chart for the six main special teams roles.
• UConn has 44 true freshmen and 14 redshirt freshmen. It has 10 seniors, the seventh fewest of any FBS team.
• The defense has a senior, six juniors and two sophomores listed as starters. Remember, it went through significant growing pains in 2018, also known as “the year we will not mention,” though this one is certainly giving it a run.
• The Huskies lost 24 players to transfers after the 2019 season. Had they stuck it out, how many of them would be in significant roles now — and how much would the team’s fortunes have changed?
GET OLDER … AND OLDER: Our pals at @NoEscalators posed a very interesting question the other day and one we have wondered as well: How active will the next coach be in scouring the transfer market?
• According to The Athletic, more than 2,500 FBS players entered the transfer portal between August 2020 and last month. Nearly 1,600 of them were on scholarship. With 130 FBS teams, that’s nearly 20 players per team looking to find a new home.
• It’s easier than ever for a college team in any sport to find transfers, but only nine of the 101 players listed on the roster this week have transferred to UConn, including four who were at a junior college.
• Given UConn’s academic requirements, it’s always going to be hard for the Huskies to find players who can transfer from junior colleges. (That’s not us being hoity-toity; after all, we didn’t go to school when a UConn degree meant anything.) That means UConn’s safest bet should be the grad transfer market, but only two players — inside linebacker D.J. Morgan from Notre Dame and running back Robert Burns from Miami — have done that.
• Grad transfers are also usually only eligible for one season. It wouldn’t be the worst if UConn had a grad transfer compete with a current true freshman who is playing (perhaps someone on the offensive line). That could give the true freshman a redshirt year he needs and the Huskies a player who can hold his own.
• Speaking of that scenario, remember Mike Beaudry, the quarterback who transferred to UConn from West Florida after winning a Division II national championship, then was injured in 2019 and disappeared? He’s been the starting quarterback at Idaho, where he’s in his seventh (!!!) year of college. Stop carving up defenses and go be a real surgeon!
• It’s not straightforward to say, “Well, if nine true freshmen are starting today, nine seniors will be starting in four years.” It doesn’t always work that way. A coaching change is coming and players have been empowered by the redshirting, transfer and marketing rules that have been changed in the past five years. Even on other teams, true freshmen don’t always end up starting all four seasons.
• We can’t forget player safety as part of this discussion. It’s one thing for the Huskies to be playing so many true freshman and letting them develop. It’s another thing for an 18-year-old to be catching a pass on a crossing route and getting decked by a 23-year-old middle linebacker.
OUR TAKE: Whoever the new coach ends up being will inherit a bunch of talented underclassmen (and that’s nothing to say of a recruiting class that looks to be pretty good). But he will also need to address problems at the top of the roster.
It shouldn’t be too hard to woo players who are not playing at their current schools. Target those who are from New England and who may want to return home for a year or two. Dangle the opportunity to play; we clearly know it’s there. Tout the academics, which were certainly not the reason why we ended up in Storrs. What’s clear is the Huskies can’t keep relying upon freshmen and sophomores when every other team is relying upon juniors and seniors. That’s how we’ve gotten into this position in the first place.
Morning Reads
• The women’s soccer team will try to rebound from a loss to Buffalo tonight when it hosts St. John’s in its Big East opener. (UConnHuskies.com)
• Casey Handrahan, who is entering his ninth season in Storrs, has been promoted to associate head coach of the women’s hockey team. Congrats, Casey! (UConnHuskies.com)
• George Springer may have been hampered by injuries this season, his first with the Blue Jays, but he seems like he’s having fun. (Sportsnet)
