There were no questions about who would be the starting field safety heading into preseason camp in Bob Diaco's first two seasons at the helm of the UConn football program.

However, with the graduation of Andrew Adams who could make his NFL debut tomorrow when the New York Giants play Miami, there is a major hole to be filled at one of the most important positions in the UConn defense.

Sophomore Tony Watkins, who made his one career tackle in last year's upset of Houston, was running with the first team throughout spring practice and continues to be the starter in the early part of camp.

"Him and Brice (McAllister) are in competition for the field safety position, they are both still in competition but Anthony had a great six practices," Diaco said after Wednesday's morning practice. "I'm very pleased and I can see him running the defense."

UConn knew that Adams and Junior Lee, the Huskies' top reserve safety, would be graduating but the Huskies also lost Ellis Marder and Jordan Floyd who did not return for their senior seasons. McAllister and Aaron Garland were moved from cornerback to safety while redshirt freshman Marshe' Terry was being viewed upon as another possibility to figure into rotation at safety.

Watkins is embracing his role whether it is as a starter or reserve.
"I am getting a better feeling, just seeing the game better and play faster," Watkins said. "I am just trying to help the team win. I want to me to be a positive for the team. Whatever role I have to play for us to win, that is all I want to do."

Watkins got to learn from Adams, Lee and Obi Melifonwu during his redshirt season as well as during his freshman campaign and he tried to use that time as best he could.

"I would stick around Andrew, Obi and even Junior Lee, they just took me under their win and I just stuck with them through film study," Watkins said. Coach Dex (defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter) really helped me out a lot during this  process.

"Being under the wing of Obi and Andrew, seeing how they run things, Coach has that confidence in me and I have that confidence in myself."

If there was a point of emphasis for Watkins to focus on to move into a key role for the Huskies it was to become a more physical player.

"We all have (things) we want to get better at so (during) the spring it was (Watkins bringing) more physicality so it was really an emphasis for me in the spring."

Fans can check out Watkins and the rest of the Huskies when UConn hosts an open practice on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Rentschler Field.

In our dealing with UConn football coach Bob Diaco he's been pretty positive when discussing individual players. If he is less than thrilled with what he's been seeing on the practice field those thoughts are usually not conveyed to the media. However, that was not the case when he recently discussed the play of the starting safeties.

Diaco couldn't say enough good things about Obi Melifonwu but when it came time to discuss the progress of Andrew Adams, Diaco said "he started in a very nondescript way." In Diaco's discussion of players to outsiders, that's about as damning as it gets.

Diaco did say that the safety and outside linebackers are the most complex in the defense they will be running at UConn. I've seen countless stories about this year's Notre Dame saying how the new regime is so much more open to playing younger players because the defensive scheme isn't quite so challenging to pick up.

Diaco admitted that some veteran players "have kind of been turned into freshmen."

Adams is a key member of the UConn defense. He has starting experience in each of the last two seasons and Diaco has been encouraged by what he has seen from him recently in practice.

Adams admitted that there have been some growing pains but he believes he is heading in the right direction.

"I am getting back into the swing of things," Adams said. "It is a process and it takes time so I keep working to get better every day on the field and eventually I will be there."

Adams finished seventh on the 2013 UConn squad with 42 tackles despite missing four games due to a shoulder injury suffered during preseason camp. Among returning players only fellow secondary stalwarts Byron Jones and Obi Melifonwu had more solo tackles than the 28 Adams recorded, He also had two of the team's 13 interceptions so he is being counted on for big things this season.

"We are going into the second week and everything is starting to get better," Adams said. "I am starting to see improvement. I just have to communicate into the right defense, try to be a leader on the defense, be vocal and safety is one of the cornerstone positions on the defense so I am trying to get everybody set and calm."

Diaco expressed concern about finding players to back up Adams and Melifonwu. Wilbert Lee is the most experienced of the reserve safeties. He had 10 solo tackles a season ago and along with Jordan Floyd, they are the ones who have gotten their feet wet. True freshman Anthony Watkins is listed as a cornerback but in the last practice the media was able to watch, he was working with the safeties but most of the other players I saw out there were walk-ons so that is something to keep in mind if something were to keep Adams or Melifonwu off the field.

"(There's a) collection of guys who are going to be able to do the jobs, it's almost like a Frankenstein. We have pieces, we have some tangibly gifted players who aren't necessarily the best football intelligent players at this point in their career or we have a player who has a high level of football intelligence and not have the tangible traits that the other guy has so it is like Frankenstein and we will sum it all up together and get the production we need."