tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69 2008-10-11T02:54:51Z Movable Type 3.32 tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5369 2008-10-11T02:47:50Z 2008-10-11T02:54:51Z

Nate Miles has filed an appeal with UConn, attempting to reverse a hearing officer's decision to expel him from the school. The 6-foot-7 swingman was expelled last Thursday. Miles' advisor and former coach, Sean Patterson, said the appeal was delivered...

Neill Nate Miles has filed an appeal with UConn, attempting to reverse a hearing officer's decision to expel him from the school. The 6-foot-7 swingman was expelled last Thursday. Miles' advisor and former coach, Sean Patterson, said the appeal was delivered in time to meet the five-business day deadline. "It's been filed," Patterson said Friday. "We've just done what's required of us, to make sure the appeal is done in a timely fashion." Miles was arrested Sept. 22 on charges he violated a restraining order. He is due back in court Nov. 25. - Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5340 2008-10-06T18:10:31Z 2008-10-06T18:11:54Z

Stop me if you've heard this one before. The UConn football team's Oct. 18 game will kickoff at noon and be seen on ESPNU, the Big East announced Monday. - Neill...

Neill Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5335 2008-10-05T17:03:24Z 2008-10-05T17:17:53Z

Remember all the praise I had for American Airlines the other day? Well, I take it all back. I now officially hate them. (I'm a fickle guy, though, so we'll probably make up next week). With that rant out of...

Neill Desi Cullen was a little slow. But apparently the Tar Heels saw something they could exploit. Linebacker Bruce Carter was the star, getting a piece of three punts. “UConn had a brand new personal protector...We felt like if we could kind of confuse him a bit with some of the alignments we could get some pressure off the edge,” Carolina coach Butch Davis said. “And it just worked. There wasn't anything spectacular by scheme other than guys giving great effort and being at the right edges and getting off the ball.” I'm planning to ask UConn coach Randy Edsall about this later in the day, but I assume the missing man on the punt team was tight end Steve Brouse. We'll see. -- Tackle Dan Ryan wore a new number Saturday and played a new position. The Huskies used the 6-foot-8, 312-pound junior as a tight end and gave him No. 88 to wear. In addition to adding another lineman, the Huskies used an unbalanced offensive line (moving linemen from side-to-side of the formation) a number of times against Carolina. It produced mixed results. Ryan certainly blocked much better than the Huskies' new starting tight end, Martin Bedard, but it's unlikely he'll get a pass thrown his way. -- Edsall on quarterback Zach Frazer's first start: “I think he did some good things,” Edsall said. “But you can’t throw three interceptions.” Frazer on Frazer: “We play as a team, win as a team and lose as a team,” Frazer said. “But I definitely could have done a lot better to help my team out.” -- One of the Huskies' biggest problems was the penchant for penalties. They had only committed 20 penalties through their first five games but had 11 against Carolina. “Eleven penalties, 97 yards? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Edsall said. “I think we had more penalties (Saturday) then we did the first five games.” -- Edsall apparently knew the Heels were good. “This a top 25 team in my opinion," Edsall said. “I ranked them in last week." More coming after the coach's Sunday teleconference. - Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5332 2008-10-05T02:21:11Z 2008-10-05T16:28:30Z

The lights are out at Kenan Stadium. They have been for about 12 minutes now. Now comes word that the game will restart in another 15 or 20 minutes. I can see. The players can see. Let them play. Oh,...

Neill Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5331 2008-10-05T01:52:57Z 2008-10-05T01:56:07Z

Some observations from the first half: -- Dan Ryan is a tight end? He is tonight as the Huskies throw a No. 88 jersey on him and tell him to do some blocking. -- Someone may want to block North...

Neill Dan Ryan is a tight end? He is tonight as the Huskies throw a No. 88 jersey on him and tell him to do some blocking. -- Someone may want to block North Carolina's Bruce Carter on the next punt. Just an idea. Actually, Carolina ran a pretty good stunt on that THIRD punt block. Not sure what happened on the first two. -- Donald Brown's streak of gaining 100 yards in the first half of every game this season has ended. He's got 63 yards on 15 carries at the break here. - Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5329 2008-10-04T23:19:32Z 2008-10-04T23:22:01Z

This just in: UConn-North Carolina, originally scheduled to begin promptly at 7:06 p.m. has been pushed back to 7:11 p.m. Please reset your kegs, err clocks, to the proper time. - Neill...

Neill Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5328 2008-10-04T21:38:07Z 2008-10-04T21:44:59Z

In Living Color fans, you can stop laughing. The rest of you, stop staring at me with that blank look in your eyes. Anyway, a couple of quick-hitters before the UConn-North Carolina game gets underway. -- DT Kendall Reyes didn't...

Neill Kendall Reyes didn't make the trip to Chapel Hill. He's back home with an ankle injury. Both of the Huskies' starters, Rob Lunn and Alex Polito, are going to play despite having slightly less than 100 percent healthy ankles of their own. Expect to see plenty of Twyon Martin and maybe some more Brandon Dillon. -- QB Tyler Lorenzen, crutches and all, has made the trip down here with his teammates. He'll provide some moral support and probably plenty of tips for young Mr. Frazer as he goes through his first collegiate start. More to come... - Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5316 2008-10-03T15:38:32Z 2008-10-03T16:20:57Z

Fact: The only thing better than the Star Wars trilogy are tributes to the Star Wars trilogy (yes, including Spaceballs). After watching the Blue Harvest episode of Family Guy late Thursday night, I was in a Lucas-film kind of mood...

Neill Blue Harvest episode of Family Guy late Thursday night, I was in a Lucas-film kind of mood when I went to the airport at the crack of dawn Friday for my flight to Raleigh/Durham. Could have really gone for some "Tatooine, Wind and Fire" on the drive. Normally I dread flying American Airlines, only because the B Terminal in Hartford is a barren wasteland. Those of you who fly out of Bradley in Windsor Locks know what I'm talking about. But Friday morning the Something mAAgic Foundation (a cohort of the Make-A-Wish Foundation) was welcoming a special guest for one of its WishFlights. American Airlines helps send children with life-threatening medical conditions and their families on vacation to Orlando for a week of fun. The send-off party at Bradley included free coffee, juice and bagels for the passengers, but the real treat were the Star Wars-themed decorations and music (Yeah, I strutted down to Gate B6 with John Williams providing my traveling theme son). Apparently the young man being honored is a big Star Wars fan (atta boy!). Anyway, the whole experience made my day a little more enjoyable. It made the flight in the Millennium Falcon (an Embraer 135, actually) and the drive in my X-34 landspeeder rental (a Hyundai Sante Fe, actually) quite fun. More actual news later in the day perhaps. - Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5312 2008-10-03T00:25:08Z 2008-10-03T00:39:12Z

Nate Miles, the UConn freshman basketball player who a fellow student accused of assaulting her physically and sexually, has been expelled by a university hearing body. Miles has five business days to appeal the decision if he wants. More info...

Neill Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5307 2008-10-02T18:13:06Z 2008-10-02T18:30:34Z

UConn football coach Randy Edsall gave his usual Thursday update to the local media, and as usual was a little vague when it comes to injuries: -- DT Rob Lunn, DT Kendall Reyes and DT Alex Polito have all sprained...

Neill Randy Edsall gave his usual Thursday update to the local media, and as usual was a little vague when it comes to injuries: -- DT Rob Lunn, DT Kendall Reyes and DT Alex Polito have all sprained ankles recently. Polito late against Baylor, while Lunn and Reyes went down against Louisville. Edsall said it looks "pretty good" for them to play Saturday against North Carolina. “We’ll make final determinations after practice today (Thursday),” Edsall said. The coach did hint, however, that one of that trio might be left out of the rotation. “I feel pretty good about those guys,” Edsall said. “One of them we’ll just wait and see on.” It's a wild guess, but I'd expect Reyes to miss the game. When asked if there were any other injuries this week the coach said “No.” I'll take that as a maybe. -- Because he spent much of his Tuesday meeting with the media discussing why quarterback Zach Frazer was unavailable to speak for himself, Edsall felt he didn't spend enough time explaining how good he thought the Tar Heels were. He corrected that oversight (if it really was one) on Thursday. “This is an outstanding football team. This team is very, very good. And they’re very, very good in all phases,” Edsall said. “This team is just a couple plays away from being an undefeated football team,” the coach continiued said. “They have a lot of skill, a lot of athleticism and very good talent.” -- On the Frazer front, Edsall didn't appear to want to talk about his first-time starter on Thursday. When asked if FRAZER had performed well this week in practice, Edsall replied: “Yeah, he’s…I think we’ve had a good week of practice." -- After practicing outside on Tuesday, the Huskies headed inside to the Shenkman Training Center for Wednesday's and Thursday's workouts. The outdoor grass fields were getting a little slick and Edsall was worried about additional injuries. -- They are facing one of the nation's best kick and punt returners in UNC's Brandon Tate, but Edsall said his team hasn't spent any extra time on special teams prep this week. “We’ve spent the same ammount of time on our punt and kickoff coverage units as we do every week,” Edsall said. To be fair, the Huskies spend a lot of time on that during practice to begin with. Edsall seems to know how tough it will be to contain Tate. “He’s very good. The numbers bear that out,” Edsall said. “Guys have a knack for that stuff, and you can see on film that he’s got tremendous knack for returning punts and kickoffs.” -- Edsall was asked if RB Andre Dixon might get a few more carries this week. “I don’t know. We have a plan that we’ll go in with,” Edsall said. “We’ve got Donald (Brown), we’ve got Jordan (Todman), we’ve got Andre.” I'll take that as a maybe. - Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5302 2008-10-01T23:50:29Z 2008-10-04T23:51:27Z

A few items from another day of double duty (Dooty!): -- UConn's home games against Cincinnati and West Virginia are now sold out. The only home game left with any empty seats (unless you're a corporate big wig and want...

Neill Butch Davis had some high praise for the Huskies Wednesday, including a comparison to one of his former players, now an NFL star. "This week, as much as in any game this season, that's an enormous challenge," Davis said of stopping the run. "Donald Brown, he is really good. He reminds be a great deal of Clinton Portis. He's got great jump-cut ability, he's got excellent vision, he's got speed. And if he can get to the second level and get in the secondary, he can score." Davis said shutting down Brown isn't exactly the plan. "I don't know if you ever stop anybody that is that good," Davis said. "You just try to do the best you can, try to gang tackle him and minimized a lot of the big plays." -- I received a release Wednesday afternoon from the Big East stating that UConn quarterback Tyler Lorenzen was one of the semifinalists for the Draddy Trophy, a rather prestigous national award. Defensive tackle Rhema Fuller was a finalist for the award a couple years ago and received a post-graduate scholarship. I started to sit down to write a story about it and even made a call to UConn wondering why folks like me weren't informed of such news earlier. Then I read the release a little closer. Lorenzen is one of 164 semifinalists. 1-6-4 Now, I don't mean to diminish the accomplishments of any of those 164 talented and bright individuals. After all, you need to be a senior with a GPA of at least 3.2, demonstrate outstanding athletic ability, leadership and citizenship. But 164 semifinalists? The National Football Foundation (who gives out the award) has to either narrow it down a little more when it comes to the semis or wait a little longer to release that info, please. For what it's worth, Lorenzen, Pitt kicker Conor Lee, Rutgers cornerback Jason McCourty, Syracuse guard Ryan Durand and West Virginia linebacker Reed Williams all made the list. Rutgers fullback Brian Leonard won the award in 2006. - Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5290 2008-09-30T22:10:21Z 2008-09-30T22:46:13Z

Most of you know that I spend 99 percent of my working days covering UConn athletics in some capacity. A lot of time covering the men's basketball team. A lot of time covering the football team. During the offseason I...

Neill Nate Miles experience and an afternoon in Storrs trying to gather stories and information for the UConn-North Carolina football game, I'm beat. I just finished writing my two stories and planning my week, so sorry for the delay in updating the blog today. Anyway, here's some quick hitters before I drift off and dream of pole vaults, shot puts and 4x400 relays: -- On the Miles situation, little has change legally. He appeared Tuesday morning in court with his attorney (the always affable Rob Britt) and briefly before Judge Kenneth Shluger. The judge imposed an order of protection to bar Miles from having any contact with the victim in the case, a 19-year-old UConn student from Manchester. It's similar to the restraining order he's already accused of violating. Anyway, the case was continued until Nov. 25 and Miles was instructed to undergo counseling. No word from UConn athletic folks yet. Miles still has to face a university review board Thursday and could face some non-legal but basketball or academic-related sanctions. On to the football news: -- As promised, Randy Edsall did not allow quarterback Zach Frazer to speak to the media. This kind of restriction bothers me as a journalist but I understand where Edsall is coming from. He thinks it will help Frazer concentrate. OK, I get that. Do I think he could have concentrated just fine for the entire week after spending 15 minutes Tuesday afternoon with idiots like me? Yes, but I digress. "The young man is making his first start this week," Edsall said. "The only thing he needs to focus on is getting himself prepared for the game, to play the best game he possibly can. "It's my prerogative as a head coach to protect my players and to allow them to prepare the best way I feel possible," Edsall said. "That's what I'm doing, and I told him that, and he appreciated that." I really wanted to break into Bobby Brown's greatest hits and start dancing around the room but it's doubtful that anyone would have appreciated it. A few of the state's columnists pressed Edsall for an explanation (that's their prerogative, of course) on the Frazer situation. The coach appeared to answer rather truthfully, saying he doesn't mind getting ripped by the media if it means his QB plays better. "This will get all blown out all over the newspapers and the blogs, all that stuff," Edsall said. "So good, I can take some of the attention off him being the starter this week. Good, I like that." No hard feelings from me. That's just Randy being Randy. It's kind of like Manny except without the dreadlocks, baggy clothes, attitude and everything else. -- The coach does expect all of his injured defensive tackles _ Rob Lunn, Alex Polito and Kendall Reyes _ to play against North Carolina. Each has sprained ankles in the last two weeks. -- Somewhat lost in the loss of QB Tyler Lorenzen is the fact that the Huskies will be without TE Steve Brouse for perhaps the rest of the season. Martin Bedard is a capable backup but Edsall was asked if his skills are similar to Brouse's. "He can do SOME things that Steve can do," Edsall said. -- Edsall was asked, since cornerback/wide receiver Darius Butler appeared to play even more offense against Louisville than in previous games, if he might get even more snaps and become almost like a full-time offensive player. "To be determined," the coach replied. -- To the average viewer and the only slightly above-average sportswriters like me it seemed that UConn's biggest area of injury concern last Friday was defensive tackle. The Huskies were without three of them for a time against Louisville. Edsall, however, said there was a bigger concern. Long snappers. "The thing that was scarier for me was the fact that Steve had gotten hurt and Martin went in," Edsall said. "If Martin would have gotten hurt then who was going to snap?" Lunn was about to get undressed and return to the field in the second half in street clothes. But he was stopped by linebackers coach/special teams coordinator Lyndon Johnson. "Alex (Polito) is a snapper for us and he wasn't on the trip," Edsall said. "And then Nate Sherr is a snapper for us and we didn't travel him. Now, Nate Shearer is going to be on every trip." -- Edsall on what it means to be ranked: "Got to keep winning...It's good for the fans but it's not going to help us go to North Carolina and get a win." On what it's like to play at 1 o'clock on a Saturday: "I don't know if we're ever going to find that out this year." -- In the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated, UConn running back Donald Brown is said to have a run a 4.29 in the 40-yard dash. Like many speed numbers, this one appears rather inflated. "There's not a lot of sub-4.3 guys," Edsall said. "If they are, then they better be running track and trying to get a gold medal." Edsall didn't say how fast he thought his back was. "All I know is he can run," Edsall said. "Very fast." Brown said later that it was a hand-held timing device that clocked him in 4.29 as a high school junior. The +/- on hand-timed sprints means Brown probably ran in the 4.4 range. - Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5284 2008-09-29T18:56:09Z 2008-09-29T19:01:52Z

Well, maybe I'm not a quarterback but... A few notes from Huskyland today: -- LB Lawrence Wilson is the Big East's defensive player of the week. This after his interception and 45-yard return for a score secured the Huskies' 26-21...

Neill Lawrence Wilson is the Big East's defensive player of the week. This after his interception and 45-yard return for a score secured the Huskies' 26-21 win over Louisville Friday. RB Donald Brown, who remains the nation's leading rusher, also made the league's weekly honor roll. -- UConn coach Randy Edsall, for the first time, put a timetable on the return of QB Tyler Lorenzen and TE Steve Brouse. It was vague, but Edsall said that both would be out for 6-8 weeks. -- Got the word this morning (late last night) that Zach Frazer, now the starting QB, will not be allowed to speak to the media this week. It's typical of Edsall's style and I guess I should be used to it by now....but it's still frustrating. - Neill]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5280 2008-09-28T22:47:35Z 2008-09-28T22:50:48Z

UConn says quarterback Tyler Lorenzen and tight end Steve Brouse had succesful surgeries Sunday morning. No complications. Also, the Huskies are in the polls this week. They're No. 24 in the AP and No. 23 in the coaches poll. -...

Neill Tyler Lorenzen and tight end Steve Brouse had succesful surgeries Sunday morning. No complications. Also, the Huskies are in the polls this week. They're No. 24 in the AP and No. 23 in the coaches poll. - Neill ]]> tag:forum.connpost.com,2008:/uconn//69.5275 2008-09-28T16:53:49Z 2008-09-28T16:57:03Z

UConn fans in Connecticut catch a break. Saturday's UConn-North Carolina game will be seen on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. The Huskies dramatic win over Louisville and the Tar Heels' dramatic win over Miami sealed the station choice and left ESPNU...

Neill Joe D'Ambrosio and Wayne Norman paint a pretty picture on the radio, I'm sure) get to watch this week. More to come, including an update on Tyler Lorenzen's surgery this afternoon. - Neill ]]>