It was a bit of a mad scramble last January and February when newly hired UConn recruiting coordinator Kevin Wolthausen and his fellow coaches did the best to add quality players to the prospects recruited by Paul Pasqualoni and his staff.

The results were pretty impressive as the eight players signed after Diaco's hiring included Ron Johnson, who finished as the Huskies' leading rusher, and Ryan Crozier, who started the final three game at left guard.

This time around Wolthausen spearheaded a recruiting process where there was an entire year to pinpoint the prospects they wanted to bring into the program.

When we met with the UConn assistant coaches yesterday, it was the first chance since signing day that I got to ask Wolthausen about his thoughts of the 22 incoming freshmen.

"We knew what we were looking for and even though it was a short time, when you look back some of those guys were really able to come in and do a nice job from day one," Wolthausen said of last year's recruiting class."

There weren't any surprises on signing day as most of the work was already done by the UConn coaches.

"It was a full on assault," Wolthausen said. "It was a different climate from the first time but what we were looking for was clear.

"We spent signing day making sure everything got done properly, everything was in and they were all accounted for. There is that night and a couple of days there but we dealing with 2016 on that day so it is ongoing. That is just the nature of how it is and how it should be."

Six of the 22 signees were receivers although Marshe Terry and Nazir Williams both project to play defense at UConn. The addition of Frank Battle, Tyraiq Beals, Hergy Mayala and Aaron McLean will join a young nucleus of receivers as the quartet of Dhameer Bradley, Brian Lemelle, Thomas Lucas and Noel Thomas are going into their third year in the program. Nobody was happier to see the addition of new receivers than new receivers coach David Corley, who worked with the running backs a season ago.

"They are talented kids, big, physically imposing guys," Corley said. "We are excited to get them in here, get them into our nutrition program, get them in the weight room and just continue to build upon what they already have and turn them loose out there, let them be matchup problems for defenses."