As the most experienced player on a struggling offensive line, it has not been the best of senior seasons for Alex Mateas.

He was whistled for costly penalties on more than one occasion in Saturday's loss to Temple and when I asked UConn coach Bob Diaco how Mateas, a team captain, has been handling his leadership role on a conference call this morning he basically said that he'd like for Mateas to merely focus on his responsibilities and leave the job of working with the other linemen to the coaching staff.

With all that being said, Mateas' journey to becoming a team captain at UConn is a rather unique one.

His father is a former professional soccer player and well-respected soccer coach in Canada, his former AAU basketball coach spent a few years as an assistant with the Canadian national team and yet Mateas has made his mark on the football field. I spoke to Mateas during media day about his soccer background and finally got around to writing the story on how he landed at UConn.