The UConn linebackers

[noeynox]

IMO this group collectively has been the most pleasant surprise. Faumina-Brown was kind if unimpressive last year and now makes his presence felt. McDonald has been nothing short of outstanding. The emergence of Hardy though has been the most impressive. Branch appears to by in a hybrid role where sometimes he has his hand on the ground and sometimes he is in 2pt stance on the edge (or do i have this wrong). Who are the others in the rotation? I don't remember seeing much of the LB Simon.

This unit has been instrumental in stopping the run and providing a pass rush.

 

[Tdaley]

IMO this group collectively has been the most pleasant surprise. Faumina-Brown was kind if unimpressive last year and now makes his presence felt. McDonald has been nothing short of outstanding. The emergence of Hardy though has been the most impressive. Branch appears to by in a hybrid role where sometimes he has his hand on the ground and sometimes he is in 2pt stance on the edge (or do i have this wrong). Who are the others in the rotation? I don't remember seeing much of the LB Simon.

This unit has been instrumental in stopping the run and providing a pass rush.

The improvement of this unit is a major reason for the outstanding play of our defense!

 

[Nostical]

FYI—Langston Hardy’s dad Kevin was in our tailgate at Duke. He’s a great guy. Most of the crowd wasn’t aware that Kevin Hardy was an All-Pro NFL linebacker for the Jaguars and the Cowboys. (In fact he was the # 2 overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft just behind #1 Keyshawn Johnson.) And there’s a reason folks didn’t know. Kevin never mentioned it. He was just one of us. He has another son playing for —wait for it—Wake Forest! Kevin and Kayla will be tailgating with us for that game. He loves the UConn experience his son is having. He told me he was blown away by the facilities and the coaching staff. In fact he just may spread the word.

 

[noeynox]

Him and Simeon Rice were quite the duo for Illinois.

 

[Chin Diesel]

FYI—Langston Hardy’s dad Kevin was in our tailgate at Duke. He’s a great guy. Most of the crowd wasn’t aware that Kevin Hardy was an All-Pro NFL linebacker for the Jaguars and the Cowboys. (In fact he was the # 2 overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft just behind #1 Keyshawn Johnson.) And there’s a reason folks didn’t know. Kevin never mentioned it. He was just one of us. He has another son playing for —wait for it—Wake Forest! Kevin and Kayla will be tailgating with us for that game. He loves the UConn experience his son is having. He told me he was blown away by the facilities and the coaching staff. In fact he just may spread the word.

Most of the crowd didn't recognize him as Kevin Hardy or most of the crowd didn't know his accomplishments once he introduced himself?

I would have about a 0% chance of just seeing him and putting a name to the face, but if he shook my hand and said his name was Kevin Hardy, I'd have a very good idea he was a helluva football player.

 

[gioff2323]

A lot of credit goes to the big boys up front, who are not getting pushed back or gashed regularly, allowing the LBs good lanes to attack. But I agree, they’ve been fun to watch.

 

[huskymedic]

IMO this group collectively has been the most pleasant surprise. Faumina-Brown was kind if unimpressive last year and now makes his presence felt. McDonald has been nothing short of outstanding. The emergence of Hardy though has been the most impressive. Branch appears to by in a hybrid role where sometimes he has his hand on the ground and sometimes he is in 2pt stance on the edge (or do i have this wrong). Who are the others in the rotation? I don't remember seeing much of the LB Simon.

This unit has been instrumental in stopping the run and providing a pass rush.

There was an interesting comment in an article the other day:

->Linebackers Tui Faumuina-Brown and Langston Hardy – who combined to create a pick-six in Week Three at Duke – continued to prove the strength of their tag team as they twisted past the Buffalo line and combined for three sacks of quarterback CJ Ogbonna. Defensive linemen Jelani Stafford, Dal’Mont Gourdine and Jack Barton had a field day with the Bulls as they contributed to UConn’s six tackles for loss, eight pass breakups and eight quarterback hurries.

“All the guys who rotate in (at linebacker), everybody who’s in there, we all have the same mindset. All 11 to the ball, and we want to have knock-back tackles, that was a big thing for this week,” Hardy said after the game. “Jayden (McDonald), he’s flying around out there, Tui, Julien (Simon), Amir (Renwick), all of them, Donovan (Branch), really just that’s our motto as a linebacking corps and we wanted to get after them today.” <-

 

[huskymedic]

 

[ktuck911]

We should keep using NIL to find gems like these (McDonald) at the LB position.. until we can churn that spot via development, we gotta do this... Need that experience there. to avoid a significant drop off..

Think back to when we brought in a similar player a few years back in Brandon Bouyer-Randle... That guy was all over the place... Helped get us into a bowl game... only 2 years ago... Seems like a similar situation IMO...