Today the team brought in officials and participated in a controlled scrimmage. We can start to see some separation at some positions, but it's still too early in the spring to name any winners or losers.
One player that has impressed me on the offense is Meme Wylie. Wylie is a big running back at 6-foot-0 225 pounds and he has kind of a one man audition this spring. Robbie Frey is out for the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, which he had a last procedure done this week, and should be ready to go this August. The staff already knows what Jordan Todman can do, and with Martin Hypolite out with mono and no more running backs coming until the summer, it's been pretty much Wylie and Jonathan Jean-Louis competing for a spot backing up Todman. Wylie has taken advantage of the opportunity.
Talking with Wylie last week he was pumped for practice to begin. He has had to sit behind a host of NFL caliber backs in his career in Donald Brown, Andre Dixon and now Jordan Todman (whose numbers certainly are eye-popping). Wylie is a big guy, but he is much quicker than you would think. He made a couple of bursts off tackle that I didn't think he was capable of doing. What Randy Edsall really wants Wylie to do is to use that speed and size. He can run and cut, but they already have Todman for that.
Wylie told me last week that he "loved contact." The other things I like about Wylie is he has done his work and been patient despite the fact he was buried on the bench. He knew when he came to Storrs that he wasn't going to play immediately. It would seem after three years he is going to have a chance to get on the field. The Huskies had two 1,000 yards backs last year and there are going to need a chance of pace. Wylie is looking like a pretty good second option.
"Meme has to cut down on dancing," Edsall said. "We want him to not be a dancer, but a power guy. He has the strength and the body structure where he can run through people. He isn't like he was in high school or when he first got here. That's the biggest thing I want to see out of him. Him to be a power guy and not dance so much. When he sees the hole he lowers his pads and runs harder."
As far as Jean-Louis, you can see what the staff is thinking moving to running back. He has good cutback ability and has some speed and is shifty. Good athlete.
I also looked hard at the husky linebacker position. Jory Johnson and Kijuan Dabney are in a dead heat. Johnson is a player that was pressed into action last year during Scott Lutrus' half season recovery from a stinger injury. UConn moved Lutrus from the outside to the middle this season. The reason is simple. Greg Lloyd was a terrific run stopper, but the Huskies really struggled when Lloyd had to drop back into pass coverage. With Lutrus in the middle flanked by Lawrence Wilson on the weakside and Johnson or Dabney outside, it's a much quicker defense.
Dabney is an interesting case. He missed most of last year with a shoulder injury and applied and granted a medical redshirt. He is a player the UConn staff has tried to get on the field for three years. He played special teams a true freshman and has been ping ponged from safety to linebacker over his career depending on depth.
Last year was frustrating for Dabney because if he never hurt his shoulder (he tore the labrum in his left shoulder after trying t make a tackle) he likely would have received major time at safety. Then, when Lutrus went down, Dabney would have seen time at linebacker. When he got hurt it scuttled a chance for the first significant time in his career. The move to linebacker appears permanent according to Edsall, but Dabney knows he has to have some upkeep on his safety knowledge.
"We have to have a guy who can execute the defense," Edsall said. "They have to play the run, the pass and in space. They have to be good tacklers in open field and be physical enough to take them on. And, also match up with receivers in the passing game."
Other notes:
UConn coach Randy Edsall has talked with Florida International coach Marco Cristobal about the stabbing death of FIU running back Kendall Berry. The stabbing is eerily similar to the stabbing death of UConn's Jasper Howard last October. Berry was killed after a verbal argument on the FIU campus.
"I put a call into Mario, and he called me last night and we spoke," Edsall said. "With Joanglia (Howard's mother) They are going to hook up and talk to the family of that young man. We are reaching out to them with support and understanding just to let them know we are thinking about thr, .We went through it and know how you feel.
"It's a fraternity. It was very very similar in terms of what happened."
* I asked Kashif Moore if anyone in the secondary has really stood out to him. Moore liked all the young guys, but he was sparkling in his praise of Tevrin Brandon. Brandon dropped a pick 6 during the scrimmage. He jumped a route perfectly and had the ball in his breadbasket. That's a position where the Huskies can use all the help they can get.
