Former UConn defensive end Jesse Joseph recorded his first career sack in the Canadian Football League in Montreal's 22-14 win over Winnipeg on Friday night.

Montreal was leading 22-6 with 5:15 remaining when Joseph took down Drew Willy for a six-yard loss on third down to give the ball back to Montreal. It was one of five sacks for the Alouettes in the season opener.

Joseph is in his second season with Montreal as he made six tackles in 18 games during the 2015 season.

A couple of Joseph's former teammates could square off tonight when Alex Mateas's Ottawa team plays Edmonton featuring rookie Reuben Frank.

In Toronto's 42-20 loss to Hamilton on Thursday, Larry Taylor returned to the CFL as he returned five punts for 40 yards and had 68 yards on three kickoff returns. Taylor moved up a spot to eighth on CFL's career kickoff return list moving past Ron Hopkins.

Canadian Football League teams had to trim their rosters to 46 players today and among those players let go today was Trevardo Williams, UConn's all-time leader in sacks, who was waived by the Toronto Argonauts.

Williams played in both preseason games for Toronto, finishing with two tackles and one sack.

Former UConn receiver Terence Jeffers-Harris was cut by the BC Lions. While official rosters haven't been posted, former Huskies Martin Bedard (Montreal), Reuben Frank (Edmonton), Jesse Joseph (Montreal) and Alex Mateas (Ottawa) were not listed among the cuts. Bedard, Joseph and Mateas (a former No. 1 overall pick) are all from Canada so it's not a surprise to see them survive the cuts but it would be an impressive feat for Frank to be on the opening game roster for Edmonton. Frank was signed by Edmonton on May 28.

I'd expect official rosters to be on the official CFL site perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The regular season kicks off on Thursday when Hamilton plays Toronto.

Considering all the different position groups Reuben Frank was working with at yesterday's pro day at UConn, I was fully expecting Reuben Frank to be asked to attempt a 50-yard field goal or start taking five-step drops alongside Chandler Whitmer.

Frank, who started at 12 games as a senior at defensive end or outside linebacker as a senior, worked alongside fellow defensive linemen B.J. McBryde and Angelo Pruitt. However, a few NFL teams did their homework and realized that Frank began his career at UConn as a fullback, so they wanted to see him get some offensive work in. There was one problem, there were no running backs among the nine former Huskies working out for the pro scouts so Frank ended up doing drills along with receivers Geremy Davis and Deshon Foxx. Seeing Frank race 50 yards downfield to snare a pass from Whitmer with ease, it might have surprised some onlookers to hear that this was a starting collegiate defensive end and not a receiver or tight end catching pass after pass.

"They wanted me to play some offense because a couple of coaches wanted to see me play fullback, how I moved at fullback, how I could catch, if I could run," Frank said. "I played three different positions here so I am willing to do anything, I am not going to say 'no I don't want to do this.'

"I was willing to go straight from the offensive drills straight to the defensive drills without complaining or 'Coach, I don't know I can do it anymore.' The coaches said 'don't gas yourself, don't hurt yourself' but I am willing to do anything. I will die out here before I would walk away from somebody who wants to talk to me. I just want an opportunity."

Frank had strong showings in the workouts as well. He had 24 reps at 225 pounds in the bench press. As a point of reference, of the 30 running backs who did the bench at the NFL combine, only five topped that number. His 33 1/2 vertical leap matches what Miami's Duke Johnson did at the combine and was equal or better than 13 of the 32 players at the combine even though he is 20, 30 and perhaps 40 pounds heavier than some of those players.

Frank's upbeat approach to pro day is hardly a surprise to anybody who knows him.

"He doesn't look at anything negatively," said McBryde, Frank's former roommate. "He might say something . I may walk into the room and say 'workouts were crazy.' But no. Pretty soon the closer we got to pro day, it is not when I run this, when I bench this, when I finish with this time. It is 'I ran this time. I benched this many. I jumped this. I sprinted this.' It wasn't that we got through the drills, we finished the drills. We worked hard, we pushed ourselves. Reuben helped me a lot."

Frank was just grateful for the opportunity to work out in front of scouts and coaches from 29 NFL teams.

"You only have one shot at it and doing your best is all you can really do," Frank said. "I have been here for five years and played a lot of different positions so I just showcased that. I am willing to do anything in order to get the chance.

"It felt good. I dropped two balls but once I got warmed up I was good. It felt good to be out here with the teammates supporting me, everybody watching me so I could showcase to everybody. It is a dream of a lifetime and I really appreciate the opportunity I got today."

Perhaps nothing made Frank happier than to see Anthony Sherman, the starting fullback of the Kansas City Chiefs in attendance. Sherman was UConn's starting fullback when Frank was redshirting back during the 2010 season. He learned so much about playing the position as well as the work ethic it takes to succeed from Sherman.

"It was good to see him and have his support," Frank said.

Sherman is going into his fifth season in the NFL. The Pro Football Focus site, which breaks down every play in every game to rate players, said Sherman was the best blocking fullback in the NFL last season so who better to give an opinion on how Frank looked during offensive drills than Sherman?
"I always watch (UConn games) when I can on TV and he did great," Sherman said. "He did both defense and offense. I joked with him that you could do (both). The more you can do in the NFL the better chance you can keep a job or get a job. You see him out here and doing his thing."

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.

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."

Angelo Pruitt has been able to contribute while playing nearly
every spot on the defensive line over the last two seasons

One advantage of having UConn's game against Michigan televised on ABC is it gave me a chance to look back at what transpired.

At the top of the list of the things I was eager to get a closer look at was how the playing time at defensive end was doled out.

By my unofficial tally, the snap count was divided almost equally among Tim Willman (46 snaps), Jesse Joseph (42) and Angelo Pruitt (41) while Reuben Frank was used almost exclusively on obvious passing downs.

When Joseph was in the game he was usually lined up at the left defensive end while Willman was used to the right DE. However, Angelo Pruitt was moved all over the place. Not only did he play both defensive end spots but every once in a while he would be used inside when the Huskies lined up defensive ends side by side in an attempt to breath some life into what was a struggling pass rush.

By game's end I thought that other than defensive tackle Shamar Strephen (who drew praise all night long from analyst and former NFL linebacker Chris Spielman) no defensive lineman was more impressive than Pruitt.

I asked UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni about Stephen's performance on Saturday which went under the radar not only by us media folks but also the stat keepers. The tape shows that Stephen threw the Michigan offensive lineman into quarterback Devin Gardner which resulted in Gardner's fumble. Ty-Meer Brown scooped up the ball and ran it in to put UConn up 21-7.

"I think he is playing really consistent," Pasqualoni said. "He is probably our most consistent, steady player on defense. He is not going to get a lot of the fanfare not going to get a lot of accolades but he is a guy who gives you everything he's got with effort, fundamentals and dependability. Shamar is very smart, he wants to be a great player and he is playing very consistently."

In one sequence Pruitt drew a hold on Michigan's all-everything left tackle Taylor Lewan wiping out a long run by Devin Gardner and then dropped tailback Fitz Toussaint in the backfield. Pruitt finished with six tackles including two tackles for loss.

"Although I am moving around on the field, fundamentals and techniques stay the same," Pruitt said. "When I am on the outside, I am setting the edge on the inside and taking on a double team, being in great position to take on the block."

Pruitt usually split time with Joseph at the left DE spot in the first two games but he saw more time on the right side against Michigan. Considering that meant a matchup with Lewan, who is projected to be a top five pick in April's NFL draft it is an indication of how much confidence the UConn coaches have in Pruitt. Pruitt said the approach doesn't change regardless of which side he lines up on.

"Teams are changing their tight ends so any moment each side can be the strong side," Pruitt said. "I think both sides are the same with technique and responsibilities and setting the edge. It works hand and hand."

Pruitt said while his teammates never lost faith in their ability to be a top-flight defense after rough games against Towson and Maryland, it did feel good to show the nation that the Huskies can still be an elite defensive unit.

"This game didn’t really prove anything to us because we knew who we are and our record doesn’t reflect us as a team or reflect our work ethic but I think it just proved to the world that we are the UConn defense that has been pretty good for the last couple of years," Pruitt said. "We have the potential to do something great."

Since Pruitt hails from Cincinnati I was curious if he had any reaction to the tragedy suffered by his hometown school as Cincinnati freshman offensive lineman Ben Flick died in a car accident and two other Bearcat football players were hospitalized after the Saturday night crash.

"For my teammates and teammates across the nation, that is a very unfortunate event," Pruitt said. "You never want someone to get hurt on the field or off the field so me hearing about that, I am saddened about it and I wish that program the best of luck so they can recover from this."

Perhaps no position change caught me more by surprise than when starting fullback Reuben Frank was shifted over the play defensive end.

With No. 2 fullback Mike Osiecki retiring due to multiple concussions and Martin Hyppolite,  who is the tailback the most likely to be able to see snaps at fullback, involved in a serious automobile accident, there seemed to be a lack of depth at the fullback position. On the other end of things, it seemed as if defensive end was one of the deeper spots on the roster.

However, the UConn coaches proceeded with the move and it seems to be paying off.

True freshman Matt Walsh and redshirt freshman Jazzmar Clax have looked pretty solid at fullback during the preseason camp and Frank has wasted little time carving out a spot in the defensive end position.

When I spoke with star linebacker Yawin Smallwood at media day and he was asked which defensive players have stepped up the most to date, Frank was the first player he mentioned. The coaches obviously agreed since he was listed as a second-team DE on the depth chart for the Towson game.

Frank has shown an ability to provide pressure off the edge during camp which probably shouldn't be a huge shocker considering that he had a pair of four-sack games as a high school senior.

"I try to learn as much as possible and pay attention at meetings," Frank said. "I played defensive end in high school and it has been really good Coach (Hank) Hughes is a very good coach, I have very good leaders in front of me like Tim Willman, Shamar Stephen and Jesse Joseph to help me stay focused.

"I think it was a decision the coaches made to move me to defensive end. It is a good spot for me, a good fit and I feel pretty comfortable over there. I just have to keep working and do what coach is telling me."

As a fullback Frank often was asked to help out blocking opposing defensive ends so being on the other side of things has helped him.

"I feel like from playing defensive end in high school some of those techniques carried over and I have to keep working to get better," Frank said.

"I feel that is one good thing and another good thing is I can look at some of the formations, I’ll know what the play might be because I used to play fullback."

COUPLE OF NEW NAMES ON ROSTER
I just took a quick peek at the UConn roster and saw the addition of a couple of walkons.

The first one is Robert Decker, a long snapper from Greenwich who has been assigned by No. 64 and Alex Haendler, a linebacker out of King who is wearing No. 48. The only player no longer on the roster is freshman linebacker Peter Hubbard.