« Majok on board | Main | Mr. Robinson in the Neighborhood »
August 1, 2008
Long cold winter
Time to dust off the blogging shoes.
Sorry for the lackluster summer of updates but here begins a 10-month sojurn into UConn football and men's basketball coverage.
Let's start with Friday's first football practice.
* The position switches made this spring that were designed to make UConn's defense faster were switched back this week.
Scott Lutrus is moving back to Husky (the hybrid linebacker/safety) and is vacating the middle.
Dahna Deleston is moving back to strong safety and won't be the Husky anymore.
Greg Lloyd Jr. is taking over at middle linebacker.
The coaches had to put one new starter on the field, and they felt Lloyd was most ready to play, hence the moves.
Much more on this in Saturday's paper.
* It’s kind of odd not to have a quarterback question with the Huskies. This is the first August since Dan Orlovsky left town that the starter is a given.
That being said, incumbent Tyler Lorenzen had a pretty bad day throwing the ball on Friday. It’s no big deal, though, at least he was better than his other previous first days. Coach Randy Edsall said Lorenzen was much worse during Day 1 in the spring of 2007 and he was worse on the first day of practice last August.
"I hope he's a lot better than he was today," Edsall said with a laugh.
Lorenzen put some of the blame on the NCAA-mandated no pads practice. He was yearning for a little contact (just a little, mind you).
“I hate no pads. You'd think a QB wouldn't care," Lorenzen said, "but you get a better sense of things when the pads are on. It's more lifelike. It's real football."
* Edsall might have made a New Year’s Resolution to swear less. Although he raised his voice a number of times during Friday’s practice to motivate his team, there weren’t many vulgarities.
"A couple of times when I raised my voice I could tell the execution was a little better," Edsall said.
One of Edsall’s most heated rants? “God Bless America! I can’t believe we can’t complete a simple pass!”
* News flash: Jordan Todman is fast. Very fast.
The freshman running back/returner showed a number of shifty moves and pure speed.
"Yeah he is," Edsall said when a member of the media mentioned Todman’s wheels. "Pretty quick, pretty fast."
* New faces: There were nine walk-ons making their practice debut Friday.
Among them were the huge Zac Zielinski (a 6-foot-7, 354-pound offensive lineman), the local boys Beau Brunelli (Greenwich defensive end) and Clark Maturo (New Haven offensive lineman), and the quarterback Jon McEntee (freshman from Fullerton, Calif.)
- Neill
Posted by Neill on August 1, 2008 8:53 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://forum.connpost.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1621
