UConn football not satisfied with strong start

Oct. 1—STORRS — Owning a winning record through five games is hardly cause for celebration.

Even for a UConn football program that’s suffered its share of losing seasons.

The Huskies are taking what coach Jim Mora calls their “limited success” in stride.

“We haven’t earned anything yet,” senior linebacker Jelani Stafford said Tuesday. “Everyone is excited. The media is excited. The fans are excited. But at the same time, we’re only 3-2. So we’ve got a lot of work to do moving forward and we’re just going to keep pushing and keep working every day.”

UConn can surpass last year’s victory total with a win over Temple (1-4) on Saturday afternoon (3:30) at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. It will be third in a stretch of six straight home games.

Winners of three of their last four games, the Huskies have built up some momentum. Their average margin of victory is a convincing 41.3 points.

The UConn players remain focused on the task at hand. They’re blocking out any positive buzz around the program, just like they did with the negative noise.

“Something that we’ve been focused on this week is don’t listen to the noise,” senior defensive back Rante Jones said. “Guys who have been here, we know not to listen to the noise because the noise was like trash talk before and now it’s a pat on the butt.

“We can’t listen to that noise. … It might seem positive, but those are the same people who were talking bad about us, so we can’t buy into the noise.”

There are encouraging signs on both sides of the football.

A potent offense is averaging 465.4 yards and 37.2 points per game compared to 326.8 yards and 19.08 points last season.

Defensively, they’re allowing 298.6 yards and 22 points per game compared to 408.5 yards and 29.87 points last season.

Mora has been in the coaching business far too long to be satisfied with their impressive…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/uconn-football-not-satisfied-strong-003500742.html

Author : The Day, New London, Conn.

Publish date : 2024-10-02 00:35:00

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