Huskies, Process and All, Ready to Set Tone Out of Gates, Saturday

@MattSchonvisky

The first month of the season was just that, the first month, nothing more, nothing less. Thirty days, a blip on the radar in the process of building a program for head coach Bob Diaco. Does a 1-4 record hurt? Of course. Did four losses, all aided by self-inflicted wounds, give pause for a lot of thinking over a week with no game? You bet. Does a season that started as one of expectations and now sees the seniors on the brink of being out of bowl contention for the fourth consecutive year, make everyone’s hearts dip? No question.

A lot was made about the importance of the 2014 UConn football season, not just for the program and the following, but in terms of conference realignment, the future of the athletic department and the school as a whole. There was a whole lot riding on the first month in the minds of Husky Nation, particularly the first three games that included nationally televised match-ups with two schools who are also fighting for a spot at the big boy table, BYU and Boise State.

There was a time when UConn was a lock to join the ACC. Rumors swirled on Sunday, November 18th, 2012. Monday the 19th, the state awoke to headlines such as “UConn to ACC Could Happen as Early as Tuesday.” Speculation continued before athletic director Warde Manuel spoke with the Connecticut Post on the 20th and looking back, it should have triggered an alarm.

“It’s too soon for any comment from me,” Manuel said that day. “There are too many unknowns. We’re monitoring the situation and we’ll figure out what it means for us. What’s in my best interest is to make sure that UConn is in the best position to be successful. I anticipated more movement, not necessarily this soon, but, hey, that’s the world we find ourselves in.”

This is not a shot at the athletic director, who has done a superb job since the ACC snafu. He led the men’s hockey program into the strongest conference in the country, lured prominent hockey asssitant Mike Cavanaugh away from perennial power Boston College, hired Diaco from Notre Dame and eventually re-upped Kevin Ollie to a long-term deal.

Had UConn really been at the forefront of ACC expansion, however, Warde would undoubtedly been well aware ahead of time and he certainly would not have been taken off guard as he indicated, just nine days before the final vote occurred on the 29th. The rest is history.

Fans need to be patient with realignment as the school continues to make itself appealing towards prospective conferences and in the long run, wins and championships will lead to what UConn Country believes is only the inevitable. That same patience should be shown with the football program.

The process is underway. A lot was made of that process at the start of the year. Concerns were abundant that so many players were seeing action, a number of them young. Well, that game experience has been beneficial, especially for running backs Arkeel Newsome and Ron Johnson, who have jumped to the top of the depth chart alongside Max DeLorenzo and Josh Marriner. 

“You are going to see Arkeel and Ron Johnson a lot more,” Diaco said during yesterday’s media availability in preparation for Tulane. “I wasn’t interested in just pinning the team down to a release with just them [why all four are listed on the depth chart] because the other two are more than functional and doing a great job and have great attitudes.

“Arkeel and Ron still don’t know in great detail all the protections and the different things that come at them on any given down, that defenses give,” he added, “so there is still some growing that needs to happen with those guys. We can help manage that and they’ll continue to improve. With each new look they see, that’s one in the bank for them. Whether they did it well or not, if there was a mistake, hopefully it won’t persist.”

Diaco has stated time and again that this is the team fans will see over the next several years. The players will be here, along with more recruits and they are only going to get better. Yesterday, Diaco was giddy just thinking about what this team is going to look like two to three years down the road. 

“When you hear the names and see the players and we are so close, but so far and to me, the football gods are not going to allow us to win because there are too many plays being created that cause losing,” he said. “Whether that play is happening on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or that culture exists in the locker room or it’s a lifestyle or academic piece, it will be corrected. That’s why football is the greatest game in the world because the life of the people in the organization is going to be reflected in the production on the field.

“As we clean up those areas, in culture and lifestyle, you can see the system that we run, the program that we have, the lion share of our culture, in spite of incredibly damaging plays, still has given us a chance to win in each game. So, when we can eliminate the things that cause losing on our team, on a day-to-day basis and continue this culture and the care that we have for each other and the university community and our academics, execution will improve. It’s going to improve inherently anyway because the players that are executing right now or are working to execute, the lion share of them, are going to be here for the next three years, so there’s no reason to think that it’s not going to exponentially improve and sooner than later.

“So whatever we did yesterday, we want to do better today and whatever we do today, we are going to analyze the mistakes we made and everyone in the program is going to make mistakes, we are going to try to do better [the next day]. We are honest with that, the communication and trust, so you can have real conversations with the team and the coaches and we’ll just keep getting better and better and better.”

In a very revealing conversation, the head coach continued highlighting the players he has seen progress from this season, that will be here for the foreseeable future.

“As you read the names and watch Thomas Lucas catch passes and block at the point of attack, you’re watching Noel Thomas, you’re watching Dhameer Bradley and Brian Lemelle catch bubbles and punts, you’re watching Arkeel return kicks and catch screens and run out of the backfield with Ron Johnson. Our two fullbacks are not only here in ’15, but also ’16. All the tight ends, Sean’s [McQuillan] doing a wonderful job, but those other three, Tommy [Meyers] , Alec  [Bloom], Steve [Hashemi], they’re all back and for multiple years, they’re all freshmen. As you go through the offensive line, Andreas [Knappe], Richard Levy, [Trey] Rutherford, [Ryan] Crozier, [Daniel] Oak is coming on, he looks like a guy we could put in at center right now. That’s just on offense.

“So when you go to the defense and you think about Obi [Melifonwu] here in ’15 and ’16, [Jhavon] Williams, Jamar Summers and right down through the lion share of the backers with [Jon] Hicks and Omaine [Stephens] and Junior Joseph and most of the defensive line, Vontae Diggs, Luke Carrezola, Cam Stapleton, it’s very encouraging. And the team is encouraged, they’re not discouraged, everybody wishes our circumstances were different from a win-loss standpoint, but we’re hanging our hat on the fact that we’re improving as a team.”

That improvement will be on display Saturday night at Yulman Stadium. The players have regrouped, refocused and are ready to set the tone come the opening drive on Saturday.

“We did it in the Temple game, we possessed the ball well, drove down the field,” quarterback Chandler Whitmer said yesterday. “We just need to finish in all aspects of the game. As long as we set that tone early, it will keep us positive.” 

The performance in New Orleans will indicate if the Huskies are ready to do what it takes to get back to postseason play. From the sounds of it leading in, they are certainly ready.

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