The first text message that UConn football head coach Jim Mora received in the locker room following his team’s one-point loss against the Utah State Aggies on Sept. 30 came from Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley. It read like this:
“Your team is really fighting and playing hard. Keep it going and it will turn.”
Going 1-4 through five games last year, that text could either serve as a turning point in the Huskies’ season or be a continuation of hard work not being enough. That theory will not get tested until Saturday, when Connecticut heads to Houston for their first-ever meeting against the Rice Owls. But beyond everything at stake on the field, the master faces one of his former apprentices.
Offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo served as the quarterbacks coach during Mora’s penultimate season as UCLA’s head coach in 2016. Tuiasosopo roamed the sidelines as quarterbacks coach of the Cal Golden Bears against the Bruins a year later, but Mora had been fired six days earlier. Seven years later, the two University of Washington alumni stand on opposite ends of the field.
“I have known him his whole life,” Mora said about Tuiasosopo. “This game is so intertwined.”
Such has been the career of quarterback JT Daniels, who went from USC’s next big star to a journeyman at his third school in three years. A preseason Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List selection, Daniels leads the American Athletic Conference with 1,469 passing yards and 13 touchdowns while crossing the 400-yard mark in two out of his last three starts.
If Mora considers the graduate student the most talented quarterback he saw in high school, then junior Dean Connors reminds him of NFL running back Christian McCaffrey. When the Owls’ leading rusher cannot get it done on the ground—he gained one net yard over the last two weeks—Connors prowls the sky just like the two-time Pro Bowler does with 122 yards on seven catches in that same span.
The Hawaii native’s 218 receiving yards place him second on the team behind Luke McCaffrey, Christian’s younger brother. Five years younger than his All-Pro sibling, Luke McCaffrey has been Daniels’ primary target with 414 yards and four touchdowns. When opposing secondaries lock the redshirt junior wideout down, the veteran quarterback has a variety of choices with five other receivers having at least 100 yards on the season.
Rice’s defense, meanwhile, will leave opposing offensive coordinators feeling hesitant about the plays they draw up. Safety Plae Wyatt and redshirt junior linebacker Myron Morrison provide the intimidation factor as the only players with 30 plus total tackles, but those two are not as frightening when compared with everyone else. Defensive linemen Coleman Coco and De’Braylon Carroll serve as a quarterback’s nightmare in the trenches with five combined sacks and seven tackles for a loss.
Safety Chike Anigbogu stands not far behind with two sacks, but while the redshirt senior focuses on the player, juniors Sean Fresch (four pass breakups) and safety Gabriel Taylor (five) keep their eye on the football. A preseason All-AAC selection, Taylor also comes up with big stops in the secondary as his 27 total tackles rank fourth on the team.
UConn’s run game, decimated via departures during the three-game homestand, barreled down the field without stopping behind sophomore Cam Edwards’ breakout performance. Collecting 13 carries for the second straight week, Edwards’ career-best 73 yards combined with fellow sophomore Victor Rosa’s veteran experience in the backfield give the Huskies one of the northeast’s most aggressive 1-2 punches. Including defensive lineman Jelani Stafford, who rushed for two scores, and opposing defenses find themselves in a lose-lose scenario on any run play.
No Connecticut quarterback had thrown for over 250 yards and completed at least 70% of their passes in a game since 2017, when Bryant Shirreffs went 23/29 with 372 yards and a touchdown against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Redshirt junior Ta’Quan Roberson achieved that feat last weekend, recovering from throwing an interception on his first drive and finishing with a career-high 255 passing yards and two touchdowns.
“He played right through it,” Mora commented about Roberson’s resilience. “He did not let that play get him down. He made plays when he had to make plays down the stretch, which is what good players do.”
Wideout Cameron Ross stood on the receiving end of most of those big plays with a career-high 70 yards, sharing the brunt of that effort with Rosa and graduate student Brett Buckman, who leads the team with 261 receiving yards. But while the offense had their best performance in 2023, UConn’s defense weakened as the game progressed. Allowing 22 total yards in the first 28 minutes, the Huskies surrendered 34 points on six straight Aggies’ drives that ultimately made the difference.
Despite the negatives in the second half, Connecticut initially gained momentum behind their first two interceptions of the season. Linebacker Jackson Mitchell, one of three players to have a game with 10 plus tackles, snared one of those picks while adding to his team-leading 47 total stops. Beyond their aggressive tackling, UConn’s defense thrives in the trenches as Stafford and defensive lineman Pryce Yates have 38 combined tackles and 12.5 for negative yards.
That leaves the secondary as Connecticut’s biggest weakness. Although defensive back Chris Shearin snagged an interception, the Huskies surrendered 315 passing yards and four touchdowns last week, which included five passing plays of 30 plus yards. Even with the odds against them, Mora holds faith that another second-half turnaround can still happen.
“I still see guys that believe in what we are doing, believe in each other, believe in themselves,” Mora stated. “If you do not have that, you have no chance.”
The battle between a former AAC institution and a current one starts at 5 p.m. EDT. Fans who do not have ESPN+ can tune in to the UConn Sports Network on ESPN 97.9 FM.