With a pair of established senior cornerbacks in Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Dwayne Gratz and UConn's front seven featuring veteran playmakers it is not a surprise that opponents have chosen to test the nationally-ranked UConn defense where the Huskies are the youngest.

Sophomore safeties Ty-Meer and Byron Jones have been isolated in pass coverage with more frequency as the season has moved forward and facing a Louisville team which likes to spread the wealth in the passing game. Ten different players have at least 10 catches (although one of them is injured tailback Senorise Perry) so even if Wreh-Wilson and Gratz do their jobs, it will be imperative that Brown and Jones take care of business in pass coverage.


"It will be difficult but we are up for the challenge," Brown said. "We practice playing man to man on the slot (receivers) every day, we are up for the challenge.

"Teams have been doing a lot of under routes so we have been adjusting to it. It will be pretty difficult because that quarterback is pretty good and he knows where he wants to go even before the ball is snapped. We have to be on top of our game."

Wreh-Wilson believes Brown and Jones as well as the other defensive backs have made great strides this season.

"Ty-Meer, Byron , Andrew Adams, Taylor Mack and David Stevenson, they have been working really hard. The coaches have been on them. In our defense playing inside is a challenging position and they have done a nice job."

UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni raved about the intangibles that Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater brings to the Cardinals' offense.

"He doesn’t get rattled," Pasqualoni said. "He does a good job of sliding his feet into what I call soft spots of the pocket. He feels, he doesn’t necessarily have to see the space. He knows what the space is, he moves around, he is able to slide up and slide laterally equally to his right and to his left. Some guys only want to go one way but Teddy Bridgewater will slide equally to his right and to his left. When he is out of the pocket his eyes are still downfield which is really impressive. He will get (close) to the line of scrimmage, stop and throw the ball to a receiver down the field where most young players at that point are just happy they avoided the pass rush, they are looking to run the ball to get what they can get. He has very good instinctive ability to know when to stop and throw it and when he should run it and move the chains running. I think the game slows down for him which is an awfully good trait."