Three picks were balls that went through the receivers hand and were tipped to the dback, two were end of half 70+ yard heaves, the remainder he owns trying to squeeze in a tight window. At a real 6'6" he sees everything, it is not an exaggerated. He was actually relieved after Uconn got the last commit because he felt loyalty in part because the coaches were calling and he would not talk. Now the coach that recruited him is gone, a new OC is in place, they have a QB that they obviously think can compete or they could have spent that money towards an OL position to protect the QB and perhaps not need as many, and if he wanted to he could think about other options and not feel bad if he moved on. He has an offer from Uconn, they did not tell him he could look around even when they new they had another recruit, he has not been told by other programs they did not have a place for him and so he chose Uconn by default, and he genuinely seemed relieved when he knew there was a new QB and said it made no impact on his decision towards Uconn. I told him he could hang up his cleats and not play and I would have fewer sleepless before night games and he made it very clear that was not an option. But the thing people do not realize is that for 90% of the time these rating companies were not allowed to talk to him and I screened everything and actually told one rating company to keep their reporter away from my son. He might be a little under rated, we will see. He does not need a scholarship to attend the college of his choice and now that Uconn has a QB and the dead time is here I think he is happier because, to put it in a gamblers way, he is the only one at the table who has not placed his cards on the table and he feels he is holding the winning hand.
I'm still looking forward to seeing the kid's footwork, but hey - since it's dead time, I'll share a story. There was a discussion a while back around here, about what program that us diehards would like to see UConn match up against, either the for the first, time, or for a rematch.....or maybe it was a discussion about our most memorable game? Yeah, I think that was it - what was the most memorable game I think was the discussion. Or maybe worst loss? Whatever - we were talkign about games......Wait...I remember now - it was a best win/worst loss discussion. My pick was SMU. Worst loss. This was before the whole conference started, and I remember thinking we'd never get a rematch. But that's changed.
As is often the case with me, I don't really remember the wins that much, but losses stick to me like glue. In 1989, we had SMU on the schedule, second week of the season in September. We had a really good team in the late 80's. We were 1-AA then, (having officially gone from small college division 1, to division 1-AA, when it was established in the late 1970s (long, long discussion there.......) but the choice was made, we went 1-AA, and we actually did pretty well under Tom Jackson in the 80s. (Joe Paterno guy).
Matchups with 1-A programs, were very much looked forward to, even if it was SMU, in the first year back after the death penalty. I won't rehash the game. Simple blurb. Up by 30-14 with five minutes to go in the game. Lose 31-30 on the XP with no time on the clock. Huge kick in the nuts. We went on to win our own conference that season, I believe set a record that still stands having played (and won) the longest OT game ever later in the year....yankee conference rules. You'd be surprised some of the football names come out of UConn in the 1980s, both coaches and players.
Now - so you know - this was the same year that UConn basketball rose on the national scene under Jim Calhoun. The Big EAst conference was dominating in basketball, and UConn was part of it. Tate George last second shot over Clemson...HUGE. (there was no Big East football conference yet). Husky Mania - ruled the 3+ million residents of Connecticut. 1-AA football, was important to oh....about 15,000 fans, the players families and girlfriends, the band, and the players themselves. (UConn Football was an afterthought in CT in 1989 - Yale v Harvard was the biggest draw. Times have changed in teh decades since)
So move on to the early 1990s. I'm in florida with my future wife and some of her friends from CT, in 1992 I believe, her friends had gone to small school in NY, other places, and she wanted me to make an impression - you know women. All were "Huskymaniacs". Loved UConn hoops. None of her friends knew me at all. We took in a spring training game in West Palm. Atlanta Braves - when Deion Sanders was playing. Met him - funny guy. Signed autograph with dollar sign for S in Sanders of course. So we're sitting out in the outfield, watching and talking and it turns out the group of people sitting next to us, were from Texas - SMU folks. We get to talking and they find out we're from Connecticut, and I'm from UConn.
They get all happy, and tell all of us how great our team was in 1989, and how psyched they were to beat us, and got all happy about it. THe hair was raising on my neck, but my wife either punched me, or was kicking me and squeezing my hand, and I said nothing. Her friends - now - remember - basketball nuts, not UConn people, were agreeing - happily - yeah it was a great year for US - we did great!! I left things unsaid.
later, after we had left, I think it was final four time, or something, we were watching college basketball at a resturant/bar, and my wife's friends all get to talking about the group we had met at the baseball game, and reminiscing the 1989 uconn b-ball season (it was called the "Dream Season" up here). None of them remembered losing to SMU, or could even remember playing them, and just kind of moved on in the discussion.
I wanted to kick everybody's ass, but my wife kept me quiet. I had to make impressions. To this day, I don't think any of them really know how pissed off I was at them that day.
In the past 24 years, football has changed dramatically at UConn. I don't know if you've personally visited campus yet, but I think, when I read that you say that your son fell in love with UConn, that it's very easy to believe. As for basketball, we've become a three time national champion. We've won multiple national titles in pretty much all the sports we compete. We are no where near, YET, discussions regarding winning national titles in Football, but we're a multiple conference title winner in the last two conferences we've been in, and I'm more than sure we'll be competiting for titles in this new conference that extends into Texas now. We've lined up against the best of the best, and competed, and won. We will continue to do so.
Welcome to UConn Country.
