On the day Bob Diaco was introduced as UConn's new football coach he vowed that he would be looking to engage the UConn fan base and in particular the UConn student population to make for a more festive game-day home-field advantage.

Well, he certain gets an A for effort in that department. Diaco estimated that he put more the 2,000 miles on his car going to various speaking engagements across the state. The majority of those happened between the end of spring practice and the beginning of fall camp.

Later on today there will be some initiatives in place to get the UConn students fired up for the season opener. The activities actually began last night with a pep rally on campus which reportedly drew more than 1,000 fans, That event goes hand in hand with one of Diaco's many changes as he is going to have the team remain on campus the night before home games rather than be sequestered in hotel rooms as in years past.

The route for the Husky Walk on game day has also been changed as it starts in the Gray Parking lots about 2 hours, 15 minutes before kickoff and proceeds towards the large tunnel near Gate B because that new route will pass by more fans than in the past.

UConn will also change the end of the field it warms up in before the game so they can do so in front of the UConn student section.

The video board will be used so fans can guess which of the four songs from Diaco's play list will be played between the third and fourth quarters and after the game the team will serenade the UConn student section with the UConn fight song.

So do the UConn players think that Diaco's barnstorming tour and flood of new ideas will translate into a more electric game-day environment at Rentschler Field?

"I would hope so," UConn senior cornerback Byron Jones said. "Most of that rides on us, we have to win some games and get these fans excited about the season."