STORRS – Jim Mora, as much as he’d like to, can’t simply wipe away the lingering disappointment from UConn football’s 3-9 season last year.
The Huskies, coming off a bowl appearance in Mora’s first year as head coach, drew an announced attendance of over 35,000 to Rentschler Field for their opener against NC State. That number shrunk significantly as the year went on and the 5-1 home record in 2022 flipped to just 1-5 last fall.
But there was plenty of excitement in Storrs on Tuesday as the team took its official photos and spoke to local media for the first time since spring practice ended.
“There’s a real sense of urgency amongst this team to win back, or at least start to regain some of the trust that we were building a couple years ago amongst our fanbase,” Mora said.
“That’s important to us. There is a lot to live up to when you’re at the University of Connecticut – not only basketball, but other sports as well. I know that I feel a responsibility to it and I think all of our players do as well. We have huge respect for what’s accomplished by the other sports here and don’t want to get left behind.
“I’d be lying to you if I said it didn’t matter to us to try to at least get on the path to obtaining some of the great things that some of our other sports have obtained. It’s all positive right now.”
In order to get back on that path, there were some changes that needed to be made.
UConn enters the 2024 season with a number of new faces both in pads, either as experienced transfers or incoming freshmen, and in headsets. Gordon Sammis is taking on a new role as offensive coordinator after spending the last two years as the offensive line coach. Matt Brock, previously at Mississippi State, was brought in to relieve Mora of his dual defensive coordinator duties.
The respect both new coordinators have earned from some of the more experienced players on the roster was clear on Tuesday, just before the start of preseason camp which comes a month before the Aug. 31 opener at Maryland.
“The transition is really seamless,” said Jelani Stafford, the senior defensive lineman who has become a bit of a cult hero for his contributions carrying the ball in short-yardage situations on offense. “We know Coach Mora is a defensive guy, but Coach Brock, he’s come in and he’s basically just delivering the same message that Coach Mora always did to us: That our defense is based off of effort and physicality and discipline. Everything’s going good so far, so we’re gonna see in camp the next couple days how everything stacks up.”
On offense, where UConn ranked 104th in the FBS in yards per game (326.9) and 118th in scoring (19.1 points per game), the Huskies will have a new, presumably more exciting, look under Sammis.
And, just because he specializes in the offensive line, and the running back room that doesn’t only mean in the run game. The Huskies also brought in Brad Robbins, a former offensive coordinator himself at North Greenville University, to be the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach with five transfers coming in at the receiver position to work with.
“Now that (Sammis) is the OC, we get to use everybody’s skillset in the way that we want to,” said Chase Lundt, a three-year starter at right tackle who’s been with the program since 2019. “We have all these dynamic playmakers now and we can find ways to use them in our offense – I won’t go into detail about it because I don’t want to give away too many hints. But I think it’s important to realize now that there’s gonna be a lot of changes made within our offense and I think there’s gonna be a lot of good things that come out of it at the end of the day.”
Lundt and Stafford, as well as offensive lineman Valentin Senn, were named to the watch list for the 2025 Shrine Bowl 1000 last week, an annual senior all-star game that is held in January.
At this point, with student-athletes still able to walk on, there are a total of 49 new players on the roster since the end of last season – 27 transfers and 22 freshmen and walk-ons. One of the risks that comes with bringing in so many transfers is the potential negative effect on team culture given the limited time coaches are able to spend getting to know them in the fast-moving recruiting process.
Part of what drove Mora to hire a defensive coordinator was so that he could focus more on that area, which he considers his strength as head coach, building the culture and being “tuned in to the pulse of the team,” which he said he did a “poor job” with last season.
“My gut feeling right now after being around these guys is that it’s a good match. That we’ve got a bunch of guys that care about this football team, they certainly care about their career, but I’ve seen guys putting this team first,” Mora said. “They have a great work ethic, they have a great attitude, I feel like a lot of them have a sense that they have something to prove and they feel like this is a really good place for them to do that and to contribute and have an impact, so that’s exciting.”
Hartford Courant
