STORRS – Last year’s UConn defense had to get used to a new coordinator and scheme when Matt Brock came over from Mississippi State, but the players, for the most part, had been together for years.
After significant turnover this offseason, the Huskies have to learn Brock’s defensive scheme and get to know each other at the same time.
“People say go take them out to dinner, take them to a pool party or paintball or whatever. Well I think the biggest way you bond is doing really hard things with them,” Brock said, covered in sweat after Tuesday’s practice on a hot day in Storrs. “Push them through adversity, because that’s one thing that’s guaranteed in football. That’s what we try to do.”
UConn’s defense saw significant improvement in year one under Brock, after head coach Jim Mora decided to “fire himself” from the additional coordinator responsibility. The Huskies ranked 46th in the FBS in total defense, allowing 347.3 yards per game, their scoring defense ranked 43rd (23.08 opponent points per game) and they only allowed opponents to convert on 29.7% of their third down opportunities, good for fourth-best in the nation.
But most of the players who made those stops – Jelani Stafford, Dal’Mont Gourdine, Jayden McDonald, Tui Faumuina-Brown, Langston Hardy, Malik Dixon-Williams, Rante Jones, Jordan Wright – have all graduated.
“You’ve got schematics and all that, that’s important, but if they don’t gel and work hard together and come together when they get punched in the mouth, so to speak, then to me, that’s the fear,” Brock said. “It’s a day-to-day, a play-to-play process. There’s guys all over flashing (talent), but who can be consistent on it and who can do it when it gets hard. Early in practice that’s one thing, early in camp that’s one thing, when you’re in helmets that’s one thing, it’s a whole ‘nother deal when it’s real football. I think we’re figuring that out.”
Brock credited Mora’s year-round schedule for helping accelerate the process of players getting to know each other before camp began. A lot of the newcomers bring experience from elsewhere, so they came in with a maturity and an understanding of how college football works.
The starting group when the season opens with Central Connecticut at Rentschler Field on August 30 will include a mix of veteran newcomers and players who’ve developed at UConn over the last few years.
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“We’ve pushed them harder schematically from a learning capacity standpoint than I did last year with last year’s group. Right, wrong or indifferent, time will tell, but that’s what we’ve done. And they’ve done a nice job of buying into that,” Brock said. “Some of that is, I think back and you’ve got to evaluate yourself too. You go into some of those games and I look back and I think, well, did we have everything we needed? Did I give them every bullet in the chamber to be successful? You never want to overload them, but you want to expose them to enough that you can adapt and be versatile enough to give offenses different looks. So that’s the plan we’ve taken.”
Brock said he left no stones unturned when evaluating last year’s defense. He looks at how teams attacked the Huskies, what vulnerabilities they’ve shown on film and how they might be exposed down the line.
“It’s all of it,” he said. “You look at us, third down defense was really good. First and second down defense actually wasn’t that good, we just got off the field on third down. Red zone defense as far as touchdown percentage was really good, but we didn’t take the ball away very well. There’s just so many things that you can improve upon, so I look at all of them.”
Preseason recognition continues to come in for UConn wide receiver Skyler Bell and running back Cam Edwards, who were each named to the HERO Sports preseason all-America second team on Wednesday. Bell and Edwards, who led the Huskies in receiving and rushing last season, respectively, will likely again be the team’s most dynamic offensive players.
Bell was recently named to the 2025 Biletnikoff Award watch list after making an immediate impact for the Huskies, bringing in 50 passes for 860 yards and five touchdowns. He averaged 17.2 yards per catch on the season, ranking 37th among the nation’s top-receivers.
A preseason candidate for the Doak Walker Award, Edwards totaled 146 carries for a team-best 830 yards, averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Both players were named to the Shrine Bowl 1000 watch list.
In addition to its all-America teams, HERO Sports released its Group of Five preseason media rankings on Wednesday and had the Huskies ranked No. 21.
