When the season began there may not have been a position with more veteran playmakers on the UConn team than defensive end with the return of seniors Trevardo Williams, Jesse Joseph and Teddy Jennings.

Well, after three games Williams is the only one left standing.

Less than a week after the news that Jennings underwent season-ending knee surgery comes another major blow for the UConn defense as Joseph tore his Achilles tendon in Saturday's win over Maryland and he will also miss the rest of the season.

"Jesse is out for the season," UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni said on a conference call on Sunday. "We will try to appeal because it happened in the first three games and did not redshirt so we will try to make an appeal for the redshirt season and apply it to this year. E.J. (Norris) is in the mix, Tim Willman has been playing there, Kenton Adeyemi has been working and was on the trip (to Maryland) so we are putting the next guy in and moving on. We are going to get the surgery done as soon as we can. It i clearly a torn Achilles tendon so there is no messing around. We are going to get it done quickly. I don't think we will have him back for spring practice, it will be spring practice and the goal is to get hi back for the start of the summer."

Pasqualoni also said that not playing senior cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson in the Maryland game because of a tender hamstring was the right decision and he is hoping that Wreh-Wilson will be able to play in Saturday's game at Western Michigan.

"I wasn't being overly cautious, believe me we did the right thing," Pasqualoni said. "We didn't go down there not to play with Blidi Wilson. Blidi did this last year and I think he was out five weeks. We are going to get a good look at him today and get a good look at him on Tuesday. If you have to put him in a category I would probably list him somewhere between questionable and probable so I think there is a chance (he will play)." 

Pasqualoni also said that the team is doing better dealing with the stomach bug today than they were at Saturday's game when senior offensive guard Adam Masters missed the game and other key players were playing at less than 100 percent.

Also, Pasqualoni said game balls were given to sophomore linebacker Yawin Smallwood (14 tackles, 3.5 tackles for losses, 2.5 sacks, a forced fumble), senior linebacker Sio Moore (2.5 sacks) and senior returner Nick Williams, who had a 58-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Finally, after the Maryland game Pasqualoni said that he wanted to get a closer look at the tipped ball play which resulted in a Stefon Diggs touchdown catch for Maryland believing there may have been offensive pass interference which was not called.

"It is a very hard thing to see on our film, we do not have great angles on it and I haven't gotten a TV copy yet but we are going to send it in to Terry McAulay (the Big East's coordinator of football officiating) and we are going to get his point of view on it."