Mora Has Ambitious Goals for Huskies
The Story: Jim Mora is at the helm of a football program that hasn’t had a win over an FBS team in three years. Just because the Huskies could have won on Saturday at Utah State gives him little solace.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: We admit it: We thought UConn could have gotten its doors blown off on Saturday. That UConn led 14-0 at one time and was within 24-20 late in the fourth quarter gave us a sigh of relief because we knew the Huskies weren’t going to embarrass us.
• That’s our bar, but that is not Mora’s. His initial goal is to make the Huskies competitive and respected. They did that on Saturday, but at the end of the day, what the football team needs to do is win games.
• UConn plays CCSU on Saturday in its home opener and a Labor Day weekend crowd in New England on a Saturday could be sparse. But wins are the only way to get the program back to where it needs to be.
WHAT DID MORA SAY? “When I came here, one of the things I said is I want the people that support this program to be proud of their team on Saturdays. So, if they were proud of their team on Saturday, that’s great. But, if we start accepting internally that coming close and losing is OK, then we will never get anywhere. Never. It just doesn’t happen that way. That’s not competitive athletics. So, we’re not going to accept that here. Man, we want people to be fired up about the direction we’re heading. That’s critical to us. We’re playing for each other, we’re playing for the school and we’re also playing for the people that support us. I’ve said it many times: We want people to come to The Rent and walk out of The Rent and say, ‘Man, I like the way my team’s playing.’ Yeah, we want to wear UConn basketball shirts around, but I’d like to see some UConn football shirts and talk about UConn football. But we have to win football games for that to happen.”
• (Use promo code UCONNDAILY for a discount on UConn shirts at Homefield Apparel. Tell ’em The Daily, and Mora, sent you.)
TURNER’S THE MAN: With Ta’Quan Roberson out for the season with a torn ACL — he’ll have surgery later this week — freshman Zion Turner will start against the Blue Devils. Cale Millen will serve as the backup and Tyler Phommachanh is the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency No. 3.
• Turner started three years at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and went against a defense in practice each day that has five players who are now seniors ranked as three-star prospects or better and two more who are in Turner’s class who were.
• “Now that we know Zion’s the starter this week, we’re going to do the things that he’s most comfortable doing, that he does the best, and the things that he struggled with, we’ll remove them from the game plan,” Mora said.
OL REBIRTH: UConn’s offensive line was big, and at least in the run game, explosive against Utah State. The Huskies racked up 245 rushing yards and for the first time in years blew the defense off the line of scrimmage.
• Jake Guidone, a graduate senior from Dartmouth, is one of the key additions on the line at center. The tackles are redshirt sophomores Valentin Senn (6-foot-7, 298 pounds) on the left and Chase Lundt (6-foot-5, 302 pounds) on the right, and the guards are Noel Ofori-Nyadu (6-foot-2, 295 pounds) on the left and Christian Hayes (6-foot-3, 295 pounds) on the right.
MARION EYES RETURN: The Huskies are hopeful wide receiver Keelan Marion, who broke a collarbone Saturday, can return this season. He underwent surgery Monday morning to have a plate inserted in his shoulder and will be able to play again when it heals. Tough kid. Tough break.
• Mora is hopeful Nigel Fitzgerald, the 6-foot-3 wide receiver who transferred from Old Dominion, will be able to play against CCSU as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Morning Reads
• Tage Thompson better get ready for the calls from the UConn Foundation as he signed a seven-year, $50 million deal to stay with the Buffalo Sabres. (CBS Sports)
• The men’s soccer team got off to a great start this weekend, including a terrific bending goal from Moussa Wade. (The UConn Blog
