-> “
I’m in (the locker room) and I’m talking to the players, we just won a game and everyone’s excited and I could hear the defensive guys. They were pissed,” Mora said. “They were pissed and they were embarrassed by that last play, where they just got bullied into the end zone. They got bullied into the end zone, there’s no other way of saying it. And we all take that very personally, starting with me and (defensive coordinator Matt Brock) and every coach and every player. At least they take it personal. If they didn’t take it personal, it’d be a real difficult time getting it fixed.” <-
-> UConn had to replace nine starters from a defense filled with veterans and long-time Huskies this offseason. They brought in talent, a number of older, experienced players, and didn’t anticipate there being a significant drop-off from last year’s nine-win team…
… “It’s really bothersome. It is. I thought that we’d play better on defense at this point in the season,” Mora said. “Thought there might be some growing pains as we assembled nine new starters, but I didn’t think that it would be like this, especially at critical moments. I think what’s really disappointing for me is that we work so hard on our two-minute stuff. So maybe we’re not doing the right things as a coaching staff, so we have to look at that. And I’m not second-guessing Matt, I’m saying us as a coaching staff, me – am I doing the right thing in our two-minute drills, putting our defense in the right situations to learn so they can go out there on Saturdays and perform the way they should perform? But it’s very disappointing.” <-