Image courtesy of UConn Athletics
It was a “game week Tuesday” on a Sunday according to UConn head coach Jim Mora when he met with the media for his first regular season presser.
The Huskies – coming off a stunning bowl season a year ago – are looking to show 2022 wasn’t a fluke. They’ll have a chance immediately this Thursday night when NC State comes to The Rent for both team’s season opener.
“Good work so far in preparation for Thursday night, which I think we’re all looking forward to,” Mora said to open things up. “I know the players are. They’ve worked very hard through the offseason and this summer to get ready for this. We’re hoping to go out and play well against a really good football team. Last year, that university had a lot of success against us, so we want to go out and we want to play to our potential. I’m sure there’ll be some nerves, there’ll be some anxiety, but that’s okay. I’m really proud of the way these guys have prepared and gotten themselves ready to get back to this point. It should be a fun night.”
Mora spoke about the QB decision and what went into the process after Zion Turner did everything he was asked and then some a year ago.
“A lot of metrics are measured,” he said. “We keep track of everything off of film. Sometimes, the way it looks in practice to the naked eye is not the reality of the situation. All four of those guys…let’s eliminate Tucker because he was hurt a lot of camp and it was really a three man race between Zion who was our starter for 12 games last year and Taquan who was the starter at the start of the season before he got hurt the second drive and then Joe who came in new. All three of those guys really competed hard. They competed well. They competed against each other, but they also supported each other along the way. At the end of the day in compiling all the statistical data, you know…you still trust your gut when you’ve been doing this a long time. I feel like as a staff, there was a consensus…I don’t feel like it, I know…that there was a consensus that we wanted to go with Joe. You know what? That says great things about Joe, but it also doesn’t say anything negative about Taquan or Zion. They’re both really good players.
“We have a situation here where we have three guys that have played in Division 1 games. We have three guys that can go in and get it done. That’s a luxury A lot of times, people say if you have more than one quarterback you don’t have any, but I’d say in this case we have three. We just decided as a staff that we were going to go with Joe.”
Mora believes that year two in his system will allow guys to play even more freely than they did a year ago. The Huskies believe they can score with anybody and that experience – especially in the QB room – is a big reason why.
“We hope we can be a little more diverse,” he said. “Every week is a little bit different. What you’re trying to emphasize, how teams are playing you, what you’re doing to try and attack that. I think the fact we’ve got healthy receivers right now and healthy tight ends and we’ve got more receivers and tight ends that we feel are productive players than maybe we’ve had in the past at this point is going to help us. We’ve got a quarterback – or quarterbacks – that have been in the system, so they have a better understanding of it. You’re able as a coach to feel more comfortable doing more things, game planning a little bit more specific.
“We always have a base package that’s kind of our foundation, but each week, being able to add things to try and take advantage of what a defensive scheme presents is really important. You can only do that when you have a group that understands the foundation of your offense, so it should be a positive.”
At one time about a decade ago, ‘The Rent” was arguably one of the toughest places to play in college football. Mora hopes that same electric energy returns on Thursday night and for the rest of the season.
“I don’t like putting expectations on our fan base because I feel like we have to earn everything,” he added. “I would love for them to come out and support these players that it’s so important to. They’ve worked so hard. They’re running on that field trying to represent our fans and this state with a lot of pride. Ultimately, if we can go out and play exciting football and bring fans into the stadium, that’s the thing. I’ve said it a lot of times…people spend a lot of money to come into the stadium and we’ve got to earn the right to have them want to open their wallet and spend the money or take the time on a Thursday night or a Saturday to come support us.
“We don’t want to be entitled and think ‘why are there no fans here?’ We respect the fans that are there. Man, we’d love it to be packed, but we’ve got to build that. We’ve got to build that and that’s one of our objectives. As we all know, winning is the No. 1 thing you can do to bring fans into your stadium. So, we’ve got to win. We were 5-1 at home last year, so that’s a decent start, but last year’s over. We’ve got to start over.”