UConn commit Logan Marchi is heading home to finish up his senior year.

After a prolific career as a quarterback at St. Paul in Bristol, the Winsted native is transferring to Gilbert and planning to play basketball. Due to CIAC rules, he has to sit out 10 games as an in-season transfer so his first game is set for Feb. 21 at Litchfield.

It would be pretty hard to find a player in the country who has the respect of admiration of his teammates more than UConn junior middle linebacker Yawin Smallwood.

So when it was Smallwood stepping in front of a P.J. Walker and racing 59 yards for the winning touchdown in Saturday's win at Temple, for his teammates it was the perfect way for the Huskies to end the season-long losing streak.

"That was perfect," said cornerback Tyree Clark, who saw action as the nickel corner due to injuries to David Stevenson and Jhavon Williams. "That is how the game should have ended. My man goes in motion and I see him breaking, I plant, look over and I can see Yawin coming and know we had this play. I had to make sure I blocked my man so he couldn’t catch him."

Senior defensive end Tim Willman, who had two sacks and two fumble recoveries, was not shocked to see Smallwood step into a starring role when the Huskies needed him the most.

"When the game is on the line, your best players have to make plays and he is clearly one of our best players," Willman said.

Smallwood had a chance to intercept a pass earlier in the game and showed some frustration when he couldn't hold onto the ball. Given a second chance, he made sure history did not repeat.

"We’ve been going over that route concept all week in practice," Smallwood said, "I was geared up for it and I was waiting for it. I dropped one earlier and I just missed it so the scoreboard was 21-21 and I knew a play had to be made. I am not the type of guy who is going to wait for somebody else to make it, I needed to make the play myself. I am the leader of this defense, leader of this team so I have no problem stepping up and doing it."

This has not been the easiest of seasons for Smallwood even if he has recorded his second straight 100-tackle campaign. A year ago he was flanked by veteran linebackers Sio Moore and Jory Johnson, senior playmakers Trevardo Williams and Ryan Wirth were up front with Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Dwyane Gratz at cornerback. Injuries and graduation led to Smallwood playing alongside a relatively inexperienced defensive unit. The losses ate away at Smallwood.

"It definitely has been rough for me," Smallwood said. "I am a competitive guy and I don’t like to lose and especially since we’ve been working really hard and putting in a lot of effort but there is nothing else I can do except keep grinding, keep pushing to get better and get this team better. That has been my focus all season."

The biggest question with Smallwood is whether he will be back for his senior season. There have been multiple reports from NFL draft insiders speculating that Smallwood is going to make himself available for the 2014 NFL draft and he has been rated among the top 50 players on multiple draft databases. He said he will put his focus on his pro future at the appropriate time.

"Right now I am a college football player. I owe my respect to my team, to my coaches to focus on college football right now so that is what I am going to do," Smallwood said.

ONE FINAL GAME FOR MARCHI
When I did a feature on UConn commit Logan Marchi in the preseason, he said his No. 1 goal was to lead his St. Paul team to the playoffs as a senior. That is not going to happen as St. Paul has been eliminated from postseason contention. So tonight's game against Xavier will be the final one of his remarkable high school career.

Marchi has had an outstanding season season. His 3,220 passing yards is the seventh highest total in state history. Marchi would need to throw for 489 yards to set the state single-season record set by Cromwell's Anthony Morales in 2011. It's more likely he moves into at least the No. 3 spot (currently held UConn starting quarterback Casey Cochran) or perhaps even into the second spot. Marchi does already hold one state record with 1,182 career passing attempts.

Speaking of records, Marchi is currently tied with Cochran for the state career record with 112 passing touchdowns and he needs nine completions to break Cochran's state career record in that category. Marchi also needs 298 yards to join Cochran as the only players with 10,000 career passing yards.

St. Paul senior quarterback and UConn commit Logan Marchi became the second Connecticut player to throw 100 career touchdowns and had his first 100-yard rushing game in last night's win over Sacred Heart.

According to the Bristol Press Marchi was 16 of 24 passing for 278 yards and five touchdowns and also ran for 108 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-41 win over Sacred Heart.

Marchi now has 103 career touchdown passes which leaves him nine shy of the state record set by current UConn redshirt freshman quarterback Casey Cochran. Marchi also joined Cochran as the only state players with 9,000 career passing yards.Of Cochran's records that Marchi is closing in on, the one he figures to get to first is for most career completions as he needs 46 to match Cochran's mark of 635.

Fellow UConn commit Arkeel Newsome saw limited action last night as he rushed three times for 103 yards and two touchdowns and returned a punt 79 yards for a score in a 41-7 win over Watertown.

Newsome went over the 2,000-yard mark during the game and led the Chargers to their 36th straight win which is tied for the second longest in state history.

Newsome extended his state records for career rushing yards (8,823) and touchdowns (153).

Newsome passed NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith in career rushing yards and according to national high school football record book he is 17th all-time nationally in career rushing yards, sixth in rushing touchdowns and fifth in total touchdowns.

With UConn making the move from Chandler Whitmer to Tim Boyle as its starting quarterback, the Huskies' quarterback of the future has been a popular story angle in the last couple of weeks.

So what better time to take a closer look at a player who could eventually challenge Boyle for playing time?

Since I was working on a story gauging the reaction from UConn commits to the firing of Paul Pasqualoni, I went to see Logan Marchi lead his St. Paul team to a 46-14 win over Kennedy.

What I missed during the game was the Marchi broke current UConn QB Casey Cochran's state high school record in career passing attempts. Marchi was 18 for 20 for 192 yards in the game giving him 992 career passing attempts breaking the mark of 986. According to the national high school football record book, just five players have attempted at least 1,000 career passes. In Connecticut Marchi ranks second, trailing only Cochran, in career passing yards (7,840), passing touchdowns (88) and completions (515).

More importantly to Marchi, the Falcons are 3-1 and if not for a miraculous comeback by Derby in the season opener, St. Paul would be sitting at 4-0.

"We are looking good right now," said Marchi, who is 79 for 127 passing for 1,358 yards with 14 touchdown passes and four interceptions to go with 152 rushing yards and two TDs. "We have continued to be successful, we continue to work hard going into practice that next day striving for that next week. We know we have opportunities now, we have chances to win games going in (they are) expected to win, we are expecting ourselves to win. We are hitting the tough part of our schedule and we are ready to hit that now."

Saturday's game against undefeated Woodland could answer some questions about how good this St. Paul team is.

The most memorable play for Marchi in the win over Kennedy was not any of his four touchdown passes or his five successful 2-point conversion passes but a two-yard loss than saw Marchi peel away from multiple Kennedy defenders in position to sack Marchi. In a play reminiscent of former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton, Marchi retreated on three separate occasions before reversing his field and nearly getting back to the line of scrimmage. He must have covered 50-60 yards just to lose two yards on the play.

"I got yelled at after that play," Marchi said, "I will just throw the ball away (next time). I like to do that, continue out the play I don’t usually like to throw it away and give up on my offense but continuing the play is fun, just being an athlete and just keep making plays."

One of the reasons why it is rare to see mid-season coaching changes or in UConn's case a third of season coaching changes is the trickle down impact on recruits - both committed and otherwise.

From now until UConn names a head coach rival teams can use the "you don't even know who is going to be coaching you" angle to try to either get UConn commits to flip or make it more difficult to secure pledges from the uncommitted players the Huskies are pursuing.

Interim head coach T.J. Weist addressed that issue during his conference call with the media on Friday.

"Our staff has talked to all of our commits," Weist said "I have talked to the majority of them and reassured them that the athletic department and (coaching staff) are behind them, that their scholarships are still good with us and that we want them. Those guys have been very responsive to us and they understand the situation but one of the first things that I had to do and we had to do was make sure our commits knew there was stability, that was important to us. That is important to us in recruiting, not just the commits, but anybody we are recruiting and any recruit that is out there that they understand right away we have stability. I sent a letter announcing myself as the head coach and we are behind the (Connecticut) schools and we appreciate their support, telling them the direction that we have in this program and how much every school in the state means from a recruiting standpoint whether they have players (UConn is recruiting) or not. I am going to make it an emphasis in the state of Connecticut that we get the best players."

I placed some calls this week, headed over to Ansonia's practice on Thursday to get Arkeel Newsome and to yesterday's St. Paul/Kennedy game to speak to Logan Marchi on this subject.

Not surprisingly, the two Connecticut natives currently on UConn's list of commitments said they are still committed to UConn. That is pretty much standard operating procedure as the only kids who would decommit within a week of a coaching shakeup are those whose pledge was on shaky ground to begin with. If all the players who are currently UConn commits sign with the Huskies in February that would be a remarkable achievement. Past history indicates that will not be the case.

Newsome and Marchi said all the things you would expect them to say

"It was a big surprise," Newsome said, "I didn’t think anything was going to happen because I was pretty cool with both of the coaches, Coach DeLeone and Coach Pasqualoni

"I am not too familiar with the offensive coordinator (Weist), I am still cool with (Kermit) Buggs the running backs coach and my recruiting coach (Jon) Wholley. I am still looking forward to being there

"My first reaction was ‘is this going to affect my scholarship?’"

When I spoke to Marchi following a preseason scrimmage for a feature did on the St. Paul senior quarterback, he took the "UConn is in my future and I am focused entirely on my senior season" approach. He didn't change his stance when I spoke to him yesterday.

"My reaction, I don’t really have a reaction," Marchi said. "It doesn’t really impact me too much. They made that decision as a program there. I just have to sit back, wait and do what I do and (do) what’s best for me, just to continue keep playing my senior year and just go what is in place what is (set in) stone. I still have a senior year to play and I still have a scholarship to UConn so I will continue to do what I do and hope for the best. I committed there, that is the commitment that I made. Things can change but right now that is where I want to be and where I want to stay."

One issue I want to raise is the way Paul Pasqualoni has been portrayed as being interested in recruiting only in Connecticut. There's no question that the support of the Connecticut high school coaches played a significant role in Pasqualoni's hiring and there has been some backlash from that group since UConn pulled the plug on the Pasqualoni/George DeLeone era at UConn. However, the idea that Pasqualoni had a one-track recruiting mind and it centered only on securing in-state commitments is simply not accurate.

While Newsome and Marchi are very talented players who will headline this current recruiting class if they sign with UConn in February. Pennsylvania High School stars Alec Bloom and Luke Carrezola and Leicester (Mass.) Tom Rodrick are enjoying spectacular senior seasons and figure to get plenty of interest from opposing recruiters in the coming months. Getting 2013 signee Chasz Wright to remain committed to UConn and bringing in fellow offensive line recruits Lamont Bradford and Trey Rutherford could be even more important for UConn's future.

Looking even deeper into this subject, by my count 16 players signed since Pasqualoni's arrival (not including transfers) have played for UConn this season and only two of them hail from Connecticut (starting fullback Matt Walsh and quarterback Casey Cochran, who mopped up at quarterback in fourth quarter of Buffalo game). There are more players from Florida (John Green, Ellis Marder and Jhavon Williams) and Pennsylvania (Jon Hicks, Brian Lemelle and Zach Rugg) who have played for UConn out of the Class of 2012 and 2013 recruiting classes than from Connecticut. Maryland (Jordan Floyd and E.J. Norris) and New Jersey (Richard Levy and Tyler Samra) matched the number of Connecticut natives to play for the Huskies this season.

With the high school football season fast approaching, I was assigned a story on UConn commit Logan Marchi which is scheduled to run in tomorrow's paper.

I attended St. Paul's scrimmage against Wolcott, Plainville and Canton late last month and spoke with Logan after the scrimmage was over on a variety of different topics including his leadership, growth as a quarterback and how he initially wanted to play running back when he started playing football.

Of course the subject of St. Paul's impressive performance in Northeast 7x7 regional tournaments and the aftermath of his commitment to UConn also came up. Here's what he had to say about those matters.

“That was awesome,” Marchi said. “It gave us some motivation and it gave us some confidence. Nobody believed in us but us. Our losing records haven’t shown our passing game but on 7 on 7 we got to show what we are about. We were an elite Connecticut team on 7 on 7 and the guys loved it and we are trying to carry it over to the season.

“We have every skill guy back from last year so we are trying to light it up through the air. We are getting better on the (offensive)-line and I am looking forward to slinging the ball around. They are going to make catches, they are going to make plays and they are going to help me out.”

One thing that Marchi is not focused on right now is his future at UConn. One of the reasons he committed so swiftly was so he could concentrate solely on trying to lead St. Paul to its first state tournament appearance since losing to New Canaan in the 2009 Class MM semifinals.

“I haven’t thought about it,” Marchi said. “I have been focused on my team and focused on what we are doing here and UConn is in the future. I am going to worry about that when it comes up, I am trying to get my team ready and I am trying to get them ready to make a run at this, make a run at the playoffs.

“The distractions, the calls, the recruiting, it is good to get it out of the way so I can focus 100 percent, It is nice to have the team know I am totally focused on them and not where you are going next year. It worked out perfect and I am glad the way it happened. I am looking forward to the season this year so we can move forward and not have to look back at anything.”

The New England 7x7 tournament wrapped up yesterday with UConn commit Logan Marchi helping his St. Paul's team finish second which is an impressive achievement for a Connecticut squad since the New England events tend to be dominated by Massachusetts teams.

ESPN Boston has a pretty nice recap of the event that I was originally planning to try to make it to before a little thing like covering the UConn women's basketball team's trip to the White House changed my travel plans.

St. John's Prep out of Boston won the title with a 16-14 win over Marchi and St. Paul in the championship game.

I thought I would pass on one quote from St. John's Prep's Jonathan Thomas and Maryland commit who was definitely impressed by Marchi.

“That was a good quarterback. He was one of the best athletes on the field,” said Thomas. “He throws some dimes.”

According to a report by ESPNBoston.com, UConn commit Logan Marchi led his St. Paul squad to the Northeast 7x7 South Regional title, becoming the first Connecticut team to win a regional title.

St. Paul emerged victorious from a 40-team field including 38 squads from Massachusetts in the event held yesterday at Ames High School in North Easton, Mass. St. Paul defeated Mansfield (Mass.) High 35-29 in the championship game. Both St. Paul and Mansfield advance to the New England Championship on July 30 at Bishop Fenwick High in Peabody, Mass.

ESPNBoston also had a post about the Super 7 Showcase which reported that UConn commit and Ansonia record-breaking running back Arkeel Newsome was one of the standouts.

Another link of note I figured I would pass on is one from the Reading (Pa.) Eagle which reported that 2013 UConn commit Jalan Branford will enroll at Fork Union

While former Xavier High quarterback Tim Boyle and Windsor defensive end Cole Ormsby took a break from getting acclimated to life up at UConn by taking part in the Hall of Fame Classic Military Bowl at Rentschler Field, the first player from the Class of 2014 to commit to UConn was also in attendance,

Logan Marchi was on the sidelines of the victorious National Guard squad along with a few of his St. Paul teammates and his high school coach (Jude Kelly).

"I want to play, it is exciting,": Marchi said. "It is fun to watch the competition and how they get fired up and seeing the passion for the game, it gives me goosebumps.

"I can't wait to get started. I am pushing the season right now trying to get my school ready for our season 

and being able to continue football onto the next level is pretty exciting."

Marchi was drawing interest from college recruiters after an outstanding junior season at St. Paul before ending the recruiting process earlier this month by committing to UConn. He admits that he feels like a load has been taken off his shoulders now that he no longer has to worry about impressing college coaches with the hopes of landing at their school.

"The calls, having to portray yourself to impress coaches, it takes a load off," Marchi said. "You know where you are playing, you know where you are going and you can focus on other things to get there, to get yourself better and it is definitely takes a load off.

"I always told my parents that I wanted to be as far away as possible but the fact that I have been here since I was about 7 at camps, I have seen the stadium a thousand times, I have seen the campus a thousand times, it was already kind of like home. I came here, I knew the coaches 'hey Logan what's up.' You just felt welcomed here and I grew up with it so I might as well continue to play with it.".

So where does he want to improve before he arrives at UConn?

"Definitely the mental part of the game because you can never stop learning, you can never perfect a drop back, there is always going to be a flaw in it but offensively if you now what the defense is doing there 

is no way they can stop you," Marchi said. "I want to improve mentally, disguises, coverages, my O-line assignments and everything."

Marchi was able to see one of the quarterbacks he will be competing against when he arrives in Storrs.

Boyle was 14 of 28 passing with 102 yards with one touchdown passes and two interceptions and also had a 14-yard scoring run in the game to earn offensive MVP honors for the National Guard squad. So what was Marchi's impressions of Boyle?

"I have seen him play and he has real strong arm, he can make some throws into spaces, he is a good kid, 

a good athlete, a smart kid too and I look forward to working with him," Marchi said.