A pair of UConn offensive linemen have been signed an undrafted rookie free agents by NFL teams. Just think about that statement for a bit while pondering the well-documented offensive line struggles at UConn in recent years.

Andreas Knappe was signed by the Atlanta Falcons shortly after the NFL draft came to an end. Today came word that after bringing in more than 50 players for tryouts, Richard Levy was one of three tryout players signed as free agents by San Francisco.

Levy was the starting left tackle as a sophomore and junior but with the emergence of redshirt freshman Matthew Peart, he moved to guard as he started all 37 games between 2014-16. I haven't heard whether Levy was playing tackle or guard for the 49ers.

I took over the day to day coverage of UConn football in 2013 and don't recall a rookie offensive lineman being on the 90-man roster of an NFL team during that time. I did some checking and it looks like the last time that happened was in 2012 when Moe Petrus was signed by Tampa Bay and Mike Ryan by Cincinnati.

By my count, 11 players on UConn's 2014 team - a roster that former coach Bob Diaco managed to squeeze one whole win against a Football Bowl Subdivision team - have taken part or will take part in NFL training camps (not including tryouts at rookie camps).

S Andrew Adams: Started 13 games and had 46 tackles as a rookie with New York Giants
DT Kenton Adeyemi: Signed as free agent in 2016 by Chicago and then Cleveland
WR Geremy Davis: Former sixth-round pick by New York Giants had two catches in 10 games in 2016, now on Los Angeles Chargers' roster
WR Deshon Foxx: Current on New York Jets roster, previously with Seattle
CB John Green: Signed as free agent by Tennessee Titans
DB Byron Jones: Starting safety for Dallas Cowboys who had 88 tackles in second NFL season
OT Andreas Knappe: Currently on Atlanta's 90-man roster
OT Richard Levy: Currently on San Francisco's 90-man roster
DL B.J. McBryde: Spent team either on the roster or practice squad with Philadelphia, Green Bay and San Franisco
S Obi Melifonwu: Second-round pick of Oakland Raiders
WR Noel Thomas: Signed as a free agent by Detroit

Also, defensive lineman Mikal Myers (Baltimore), kicker Bobby Puyol (Baltimore) and cornerback Jhavon Williams (New Orleans) got looks in rookie camp as did Reuben Frank with Detroit in 2015 while a talented group of seniors, who were freshmen on the 2014 team, figure to add to that list in 2018.

Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Sio Moore lead list of members
of 2012 UConn defense who are playing pro football

The adage is that defense wins championships but during the 2012 season, a plethora of professional prospects on the defensive side of the ball wasn't enough to keep UConn from limping to a 5-7 final record.

When Byron Jones will be the seventh member of that defensive squad to be taken in the NFL Draft. B.J. McBryde has put himself in position to get into an NFL training camp as well. If that happens, 15 defensive players from that team would have had a taste of professional football. Perhaps safety Andrew Adams, defensive end Kenton Adeyemi and defensive tackle Julian Campenni, who will be seniors on the '15 UConn squad, can add to that list that is if Angelo Pruitt doesn't find his way into an NFL training camp this year.

It started in the 2013 NFL Draft when cornerbacks Dwayne Gratz and Blidi Wreh Wilson and linebacker Sio Moore were all taken in the third round. Defensive end Trevardo Williams went in the fourth round.

Here's a breakdown of the defensive players from the 2012 team

Player                        2012 statistics           Pro team
Yawin Smallwood    120 tackles, 15 TFL  7th round pick by Atlanta Falcons, on Tennessee roster
Jory Johnson             95 tackles                  Leads Bemidji of IFL in interceptions and tackles for loss
Sio Moore                 78 tackles, 8 sacks    140 tackles, 7.5 sacks in 26 games with Oakland Raiders
Dwayne Gratz           53 tackles, 3 INTs    3 interceptions in two seasons with Jacksonville Jaguars
Ryan Wirth               51 tackles, 10 TFL    Was in rookie camp with Baltimore Ravens
Blidi Wreh-Wilson   47 tackles                  11 passes defended in 24 games with Tennessee Titans
Trevardo Williams    11/5 sacks                 5 tackles and sack in 3 games with Washington Redskins
Taylor Mack              28 tackles                 Signed by CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats on April 14
Shamar Stephen        26 tackles                  23 tackles in 16 games as rookie for Minnesota Vikings
Tim Willman            18 tackles, 3 sacks    Was in rookie camp with Jacksonville Jaguars
Jesse Joseph              12 tackles                  Drafted by CFL's Montreal Alouettes, took part in Chicago Bears rookie camp
Ryan Donohue           5 tackles                  Was in rookie camp with Philadelphia Eagles
Teddy Jennings          1 tackle                    Set Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul record with 11 sacks during 2014 season

MUELLER NAMED TO HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY HONOR SOCIETY
Adam Mueller, a three-year starting long snapper, earned spots on the conference's all-academic teams in each of his four seasons at UConn. Now comes an even more impressive honor.

Mueller was the lone UConn player named to the National Football Foundation's Hampshire Honor Society which is limited to players who attained at least a 3.2 grade-point average throughout their college careers. Mueller was one of 817 players to be honored by the NFF.

There are also 11 players from Yale, seven from Wesleyan and three from Trinity College on the list including 2014 NFF National Scholar-Athletes Tyler Varga from Yale and Trinity's Mike Mancini from Rocky Hill. Looking very quickly at the list, I also saw Cheshire's Rob Bowman from UNH (the one in New Hampshire) and Wallingford's Brett Biestek from Fordham.

There was a time when the idea of a former UConn player being drafted was a big deal.

More than a decade passed after Paul Duckworth was taken with the 190th pick in the 1994 draft. When Alfred Fincher and Dan Orlovsky were taken in the third and fifth rounds in 2005, it started a remarkable run for the Huskies as UConn had more than one player selected seven times in the next 10 drafts. This will be the ninth straight season that at least one former Husky will hear their name called and if the speculation proves to be true, Byron Jones would join Donald Brown as the only UConn players to be selected in the first round.

While Jones won't need to wait long to hear his name called, it is going to a more of a wait and see process for Geremy Davis and B.J. McBryde.

Davis is the third-rated player with ties to Connecticut on the NFL Draft Scout database at No. 232, eight spots behind former Yale running back Tyler Varga.

There are so many sites out there listing top draft prospects but NFL Draft Scout was pretty close in projecting where the top two Connecticut natives (Khairi Fortt and Kevin Pierre-Louis) would go in last year's draft. Even more impressive was that they rated former UConn defensive lineman Shamar Stephen as the 222nd rated prospect and he went with the 220th pick. The site lists 14 players with ties to Connecticut with Jones (No. 21)., Davis and Varga (224) the only ones falling in the top 256 meaning that they are projected to be drafted. It should be noted that Ryan Griffin was prospect No. 341 when he was taken by Houston in the sixth round back in 2013 so the ratings should not be taken as gospel.

Here's the breakdown of players with Connecticut ties with their NFL Draft Scout rating

 20 Byron Jones UConn CB: Stole show at NFL Scouting Combine and could become first state native to go in first round since Dwight Freeney
224 Tyler Varga Yale RB: Bruising runner scored two touchdowns in Senior Bowl and could be first Yale player taken in top five rounds since 1982
232 Geremy Davis UConn WR: Helped his chances of being drafted by running in 4.5 range at UConn pro day
365 Ryan Delaire , Towson DE: Former Windsor High star had strong showing at Towson pro day and  local prospect days held by Ravens and Redskins.
398 Gordon Hill Sacred Heart S: Had solid showing at pro day held in Tolland and his agent Joe Linta believes he will go in sixth or seventh round.
558 Will Tye Stony Brook TE: Former Xavier High star ran 4.47 (at 257 pounds) at Stony Brook pro day
651 Lyle McCombs Rhode Island RB: Former UConn running back had 4.49 time in 40. went 11-3 in broad jump with 37 1/2 vertical jump at a regional combine
656 B.J. McBryde, UConn DT: Opened some eyes when 300 pounder had 10-3 broad jump and ran a sub 5.0 in the 40 at UConn pro day. Kansas City Chiefs had him in for workout.
670 Tebucky Jones, Fordham WR: Son of former first-round pick of the same name, the Farmington native and former UConn receiver Jones got invitations to local workouts with the Giants and Jets.
634 Tyler Murphy, Boston College QB: Former Wethersfield High star could be one of fastest quarterbacks in the draft,
709 Shakim Phillips, Boston College WR: Former UConn receiver ran in 4.3 range at BC pro day, took part in Giants local pro day and reportedly worked out with Patriots.
724 J.D. Roussel Sacred Heart CB: Set Pioneers' career record with 17 interceptions and is reported to have worked out with the Colts
752 Keshaudas Spence Sacred Heart RB: The 235 pounder ran for 780 yards as a senior after running for 1,669 yards during his junior season.
913 Rob Hollomon CCSU RB: Speedy back not only ran for 1,000 yards as a senior but also had 35 catches in addition to returning 20 kickoffs and six punts.

The appearance of Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly at UConn's pro day created quite a bit of buzz.

Well, it appears as if Kelly (or at least his staff) isn't done evaluating UConn prospects.

NFL draft analyst Tony Pauline tweeted earlier today that Kelly and other members of the Eagles coaching/scouting staff are up at UConn today to evaluate cornerback Byron Jones, receiver Geremy Davis and defensive lineman B.J. McBryde. Although he is now backing off the report of Kelly being in attendance although he is reporting that offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro, receivers coach Bob Bicknell and defensive backs coach Cory Undlin are up at UConn today.

Tony Pauline @TonyPauline

Philadelphia Eagles brain trust, including Chip Kelly, at UConn this morning to workout Byron Jones as well as Geremy Davis & B.J. McBryde

Tony Pauline @TonyPauline

Update:  Conflicting reports on Chip Kelly attendance at UConn today.  Shurmur, Azzinaro, Bicknell, Undlin there. Waiting for confirmation

There have been plenty of rumors about Jones being the Eagles' first-round choice. If he did go to the Eagles at No. 20, it would be the highest a UConn player has been drafted. Donald Brown is the only former Husky to be taken in the first round as he went 27th overall to Indianapolis in the 2009 draft.

Davis, who former Dallas Cowboys draft guru Gil Brandt reported was one of two receivers at the NFL Scouting Combine not to drop a catchable pass, and McBryde both helped their stocks during the UConn pro day. Davis ran sub 4.5 in the 40 which was the biggest question about him while McBryde went under 5.0 and his 10-3 broad jump certainly opened some eyes.

Geremy Davis makes one of his seven catches in 2012 loss to South Florida

There are so many numbers associated with the UConn/South Florida series that simply defy explanation including the fact that the team finishing with the most yards of total offense have LOST the last seven meetings between the teams.

There is another one which truly blows my mind and that is the fact just nine players on UConn's current roster played for the Huskies the last time UConn played at Raymond James Stadium.

Perhaps that wouldn't be so noteworthy if that most recent game at the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers occurred four or five years ago but it took place just 22 1/2 months ago.

Five players started for UConn in the 13-6 loss as quarterback Chandler Whitmer threw for 284 yards, receiver Geremy Davis led the Huskies with seven receptions and 98 yards, Gus Cruz started at right guard, Reuben Frank (now a starting linebacker/defensive end) got the start at fullback while cornerback Byron Jones led the Huskies with nine tackles.

Jefferson Ashiru, Brandon Steg (one of 10 Florida natives on this year's UConn team), Julian Campenni and B.J. McBryde also saw time in the game. Six players who saw action in the game could have been members of this year's team but aren't for one reason or another. Defensive end Angelo Pruitt made the difficult decision to give up football due to injury, Shakim Phillips and Ty-Meer Brown are playing their final season of eligibility at Boston College, Lyle McCombs is at Rhode Island, Tebucky Jones plays at Fordham while Scott McCummings isn't playing. Other than Jones' departure, the rest of the moves came after Bob Diaco was hired at UConn.

By comparison, there are 21 players who took part in the game for South Florida who are still on the Bulls' roster (although standout receiver Andre Davis is not expected to play). USF's entire starting offensive line in the 2012 game could all start tonight.

Among the other USF players who played notable roles in the game two years ago are receiver Deonte Welch (team-high five catches in '12 game), tight end Sean Price (three catches for 45 yards), linebackers Tashon Whitehust (eight tackles, sack and fumble recovery), Reshard Cliett (six tackles) and Elkino Watson (interception).

It should be pointed out that South Florida played 52 people in the 2012 game compared to 35 by the Huskies. I don't expect that to be the case tonight. In UConn's most recent game the participation report listed 56 players and that did not include Steve Hashemi, who has been seeing time on the field goal unit while USF also played 56 players per the Bulls' participation report.

Diaco alluded to the fact that he was using the first three games as a developmental period resulting in a large number of players getting into the game. When I asked Diaco whether the playing rotation would be streamlined now that UConn has hit the conference portion of the schedule, he didn't exactly provide too much clarity on his plans.

"This whole year is built like that," Diaco said. "We can't do anything to compromise our development, we can't do anything to compromise our ability to get better. We need to get better as a team, we get better as a team every week, we get better as a team at the end of the season and that has to happen, that will happen but I also don't just want to hit you with coach speak, this is a very important game. This is a conference game and the energy needs to be different today than it has been and that is my expectation that the team is going to grow into that mode to understand they better turn the screw another half crank because four you, for your seniors this is an important moment, your personal goals are out in front of us and what you want to achieve out of the season is still all present so let's see that extra heartbeat."

UCONN RECRUITS SET TO SQUARE OFF
A pair of future Huskies will be going head to head while UConn is playing South Florida.

 John Robinson's Dwight Morrow will travel to meet Ben Hartwick's Mahwah squad.

Dwight Morrow opened the season with a 32-6 win over Cliffside Park while Mahwah's season began with a 48-0 win over Fort Lee.

The schools have enjoyed some barn burners in recent years as Mahwah won 34-28 two years ago and  Mahwah won 21-14 in overtime last season.

FORMER HUSKIES DELIVER
It wasn't too long ago when there was speculation that former UConn defensive back Robert McClain's role as the Atlanta Falcons' nickel corner was in peril. Well, that seems like ancient history now especially after he had a team-high seven tackles in Atlanta's 56-14 win over Tampa Bay.

There weren't many highlights for the Buccaneers but Danny Lansanah not only recorded four solo tackles including one tackle for loss but also returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown.

It took all of one defensive play for it to become apparent that UConn's front four was going to have a more impactful role against Stony Brook than in the season-opening loss to Brigham Young.

In that 35-10 loss UConn's defensive linemen combined for five solo tackles but in a 19-16 victory over Stony Brook the same group had five tackles behind the line of scrimmage even though a leg injury kept Angelo Pruitt, the Huskies' most experienced defensive end, out of the game.

It started right away as nose tackle Julian Campenni, with help from Jefferson Ashiru, held Stacey Bedell to a 1-yard gain on the Seawolves' first offensive play.

The nose tackle duo of Campenni and top reserve Mikal Myers combined for four solo tackles, six assisted stop, 3.5 of UConn's nine tackles for loss and Myers had the team's lone sack. Even more important than any individual statistics was the way the interior of UConn's defensive line pushed the Stony Brook offensive line back at the point of attack, especially in the first half.

"We just did what the coaches teach us to do every day, they do a great job of putting up in position to make plays, we took full advantage of it," Myers said.

"We complement each other. I am going to do as good as he does and he is going to do as good as I do. We try to work together and play well as a collective unit.

Kenton Adeyemi, who got the start in place of Pruitt, B.J. McBryde and Reuben Frank also got into the backfield.

"It always feels good to get a little love, make a couple of plays when we had to,: Myers said.."We did a way better job tackling this week and kudos to a great week of practice."

On his day after the game conference call UConn coach Bob Diaco had some good things to say about the play of the nose tackles.

"I thought they played excellent," Diaco said. "I thought those two players had a major impact on the game and they made it hard for the offense to run the ball and even pressed the pocket back on passes and a lot of first and second down runs. They really had nice great games, great effort both guys and Sean (Marinan) had a great week of practice and I was very pleased with his work all week."

TV DETAILS FOR BOISE GAME
It was announced that Saturday's noon game against Boise will air regionally on ABC and be seen on ESPN2 by the rest of the country. Beth Mowins, Joey Galloway and Paul Carcaterra will call the game.

I caught some of Boise's game against Colorado State and they looked unstoppable on offense piling up 656 yards of total offense led by running back Jay Ajavi's 219 rushing yards and 280 yards of total offense. Ajavi is listed at 216 pounds but looked so much bigger the way he ran through would-be tacklers.

Boise may utilize its running backs in the passing game as well as any team in the country so that will be a test for UConn's linebackers and while he is not Taysom Hill, quarterback Grant Hedrick showed the ability to make plays with his legs.

It should be noted that Boise also gave up 462 yards (434 through the air) and had just two sacks on 58 Colorado State passing attempts.

The offensive coordinator is former Yale assistant coach Mike Sanford, who got plenty of air time on the ESPN2 broadcast due to his wife setting up a separate area in the house for him to sleep following the birth of the couple's second child Gunnar a few days ago.

NCAA STATS UPDATE
The NCAA updated its stats through last night's games and let's start with the good news as the Huskies rank 22nd among 124 FBS team in 3rd down defense, allowing opponents to convert just 26.7 percent of the time. However, there's some scary numbers as well as UConn is 118th in rushing offense (76 yards per game) and 121st with an average of 9.5 tackles for loss surrendered.

Individually Geremy Davis ranks 23rd nationally with an average of 104.5 receiving yards per game. Boise's Matt Miller is among the receivers ahead of him as he ranks 13th with an average of 117.5 yards in the two games. Marquise Vann is 42nd with an average of 10 tackles per game. Deshon Foxx is 14th with an average of 21 yards per punt return (of course 72 of his 84 yards came on one return).

BIG GAME FOR FORMER UCONN RB
While Lyle McCombs debuted with Rhode Island, he was not the former UConn tailback making the biggest splash as Joe Williams ran 10 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns, caught two passes for 26 yards and another score and had a 12-yard punt return in ASA College's 48-21 win over Erie Community College on Saturday.

As for McCombs, he ran 17 times for 39 yards, caught three passes for 31 yards, had 57 yards on three kickoff returns and lost one yard on one punt return in Rhode Island's 48-7 loss to Marshall.

Now that the drama surrounding the naming of a starting quarterback is out of the way, it is a perfect time to focus on some other hotly-contested battles for starting positions at UConn.

TAILBACK: Max DeLorenzo is the returnee with the most experience but I will go on the record as saying that I expect Josh Marriner to be UConn's leading rusher this season. I am very interested to see how true freshmen Arkeel Newsome and Ron Johnson are utilized. Springing a game-breaking player like Newsome on teams for 6-10 snaps a game could add some much-needed juice to the offense.

Brian Lemelle (84) and Dhameer Bradley (1) are in the mix
to be the No. 3 wide receiver for UConn during 2014 season

NO. 3 WIDE RECEIVER: I do not expect UConn to use the three-receiver sets as much this year as a season ago simply because UConn coach Bob Diaco is going to use more multiple tight end formations. Geremy Davis and Deshon Foxx are unquestionably the top two receivers. Thomas Lucas has been getting plenty of love in the preseason. Brian Lemelle, Dhameer Bradley and Noel Thomas, who had 16, 13 and five catches respectively as true freshmen, will be in the mix. I haven't heard much about Kamal Abrams but wouldn't be surprised to see him in the rotation.
DEFENSIVE END: There's been plenty of buzz surrounding Reuben Frank, whether he lines up as a defensive end or outside linebacker on the right side, but no position appears to be more competitive than the defensive end on the other side of the ball as B.J. McBryde and Kenton Adeyemi appear to be running neck and neck. Adeyemi has run out with the first unit in the last two practices the media was able to attend but Diaco raved about McBryde when I asked about the competition between the two of them after a recent practice.

Both Adeyemi and McBride had sacks during the spring game and figure prominently in UConn's defensive line rotation regardless of which one ends up drawing the starting position.

NO. 2 CORNERBACK: Byron Jones is unquestionably UConn's top corner. Jhavon Williams received plenty of work as a nickel corner a season ago and he figured to be a starting CB this year. However, true freshman Jamar Summers has been opening eyes since he arrived on campus in January. He finished tied for third on the team with five tackles in the spring game and with Williams less than 100 percent early in camp, Summers was seeing plenty of first-team work. Javon Hadley is another talented youngster with the capability to push for playing time.

KICK RETURNER: Diaco said that Foxx will be the primary punt returner and will be handling kickoffs as well. Now the question is who will go back with Foxx on kickoff returns. Diaco said that Bradley, Lemelle and all the tailbacks are in the mix for that position. Unfortunately, I did not see UConn work on shagging kickoffs during the media access portion of practice so can't offer too much insight into who has been getting most of the work back there.

ANOTHER MAJOR AWARD FOR JENNINGS?
The Arena Football League will hand out its individual awards tomorrow in Cleveland and among the candidates for the Rookie of the Year has to be former UConn star Teddy Jennings.

Jennings led all rookies with 11 sacks during his rookie season with the Philadelphia Soul as he was a first team AFL pick at defensive end. I can't say I follow the Arena Football League enough to come up with a complete list of the top candidates but the only other player to earn first team honors was Portland defensive back Varmah Sonie, who had nine interceptions and led all first-year players with 86 tackles. Orlando receiver Greg Carr was a second team selection and he finished sixth in the league with 113 catches and 1,435 yards. Another player to consider is A.J. Cruz as the former Brown star led the league in kickoff return average, was sixth in punt returns and also returned a missed field goal 58 yards for a score.

Reuben Frank, with UConn coach Bob Diaco at Saturday's practice, is one
of players who could be asked to play either defensive end or linebacker

Let's make no mistake, it was the creative defensive mind of Bob Diaco that earned him national recognition as one of the nation's top assistant coaches and rising stars. Diaco walked away from a successful situation as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame to try to reinvigorate a program at UConn coming off three straight losing seasons.

The feeling was that after years playing a 4-3 defense that Diaco's Huskies would play primarily a 3-4. Those thoughts were seemingly confirmed when UConn posted a roster with 18 linebackers and nine defensive linemen. Then at American Athletic Conference football media day Diaco stated that he was planning to use four down linemen about 50 percent of the time and would go with a 3-4 alignment the rest of the time. Most of the teams I have covered have played either a 3-4 or 4-3 so I was very intrigued by how this was going to work so after yesterday's practice I asked Diaco if the same players who line up in a three-point stance as a 4-3 defensive end and shift to a stand-up 3-4 outside linebacker in the same series or would he need to change personnel to make the move from a 3-4 to a 4-3 or vice versa.

"That facilitates one of those players being that guy who can do both jobs that is why we don't have to sub to get in and out of defenses that look like sub defenses," Diaco said. "Graham (Stewart) will afford even more opportunity because for us, (he is not) the prototypical outside backer, he plays longer and bigger because he is strong, powerful, tough and rugged but he moves as quick and changes direction like a safety."

I asked Diaco if it was a fair assessment that players like Stewart and Reuben Frank will be required to learn more one position. At first he hesitated before responding with "I an going to say yes. For me to minimize the fact that you need to be able to see, move and fundamentally do your work from the two-point (stance) and also the three-point (stance) and that is like nothing, no that is definitely something."

One thing of note is that I count 18 players who have either gained or lost at least six pounds since the end of last season (based on weights on the UConn roster in the 2013 season finale against Memphis and the one currently on the UConn site) and nine of those are either defensive linemen or linebackers. The top guy is redshirt freshman linebacker Junior Joseph who dropped 20 pounds to get down to 242. Offensive guard Zach Rugg and defensive lineman B.J. McBryde are next up having lost 16 and 14 pounds. The top guys in the weight game department are linebacker Cameron Stapleton and receiver Blake Feagles. Stewart is also in that select group as he was listed at 236 pounds last season to his current weight of 227.

Alignment was a major issue for Diaco on the first day of practice. During the spring he was none too pleased watching players line up offsides, not lining up properly and not knowing where they should be lining up. While it wasn't perfect in the first day of preseason camp, he saw tremendous progress.

"I don't mind saying that the program was a long way away, we are closer now," Diaco said. "Practice one fall camp was in sharp contrast to practice one in spring football so it shows the amount of investment made during the spring and specifically post-spring to come back to the summer conditioning program and be able to move forward. I remember saying let's not worry about fall camp, let's see how they come back after three weeks away. Have we made a dent culturally to see how they live. They came back and they were ready to move forward from a training standpoint.

"Everybody participated today, everybody was ready. Twelve men on the field, 10 men on the field, ball security errors, penalties, offsides, things that lack discipline, lining up offsides, not getting aligned, not being in your stance before the ball is snapped, those are all things that we did not want to see at practice today. It wasn't necessarily what we want to see, we have things that we don't want to see so we are still at the point but they have made a lot of ground up in that area."

Just where the upset of nationally-ranked Louisville will go down in UConn folklore figures to be determined by just what happens in Saturday's regular-season finale.

If UConn wraps up the regular season with a win over Cincinnati, the Huskies will have secured a bowl bid which is something that seemed like a virtual impossibility following a loss at South Florida on Nov. 3 and that will make what transpired in Louisville all the more important. A loss to the Bearcats, especially a lopsided one, and it will be merely a footnote in a second-straight losing season.

“What it did for us is it makes this one (against Cincinnati) the most meaningful game we’ve played,” UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni said. “The next game you play is always the most important one because it is the next game but obviously it is a game where we could become bowl eligible. It is the last game the seniors will play here at the Rent (Rentschler Field) so that Louisville game put us in position to have a pretty exciting game.”

Pasqualoni said that Christen was given the special teams’ game ball while the offensive game ball went to sophomore tailback Lyle McCombs, who ran for 133 yards. In a rare gesture, Pasqualoni said that the entire defensive unit was awarded the defensive game ball.

“It was very clear on the film how many guys (on defense) contributed to the win,” Pasqualoni said. “It started with doing a very good job on run defense, constantly putting them in second down and third down and longs where you kind of knew it was going to be a drop back type of thing instead of a play-action type of pass. They threw the ball 65 times in the game and that required us to use a lot of people. Guys like Julian Campenni came in and got a sack. B.J. McBryde came in and did a good job in the pass rush. Tim Willman came in and did a good job with the pass rush and Kenton Adeyemi came in and gave us a couple of rushes. I thought the guys inside did a good job of trying to keep (Louisville quarterback) Teddy Bridgewater in the pocket. It was an overall good team win. Obviously Blidi (Wreh-Wilson’s) play at the end was just a huge play to make that interception in the end zone.”