STORRS — In 2022, at the end of a dismal, desolate decade, the kind of numbers quarterback Joe Fagnano was ticking off this week would have sounded like sheer fantasy at UConn, well beyond the wildest dream stage.
“Nine wins is good,” Fagnano said. “That’s kind of the floor now, something that hasn’t been done around here in a long time, but for the guys in the locker room, ‘nine is nine, why not 10? Why not 11? Why not 12? We want to win every game.”
This is how far UConn football has come since that November day when Jim Mora came in to survey the ruins of the 1-11 team and prepare to coach it. After the 2021 season, the questions might’ve been, “Why not two? Why not three?” Not even FCS opponents were fodder for decisive wins. For some, the question was, “why not give up altogether?”
‘A tremendous honor’: Seventh-year QB Joe Fagnano earns UConn’s starting job
The change in culture has not come easily, has not come without setbacks, but it has come. One win became six, then a fall back to three in 2023. But UConn has developed a scheduling formula that works for the time being as an FBS independent, Mora found the right approach for the new business model, and last season went 8-4, then knocked off North Carolina in the Fenway Bowl, helping draw 27,000 people and reasonably good TV ratings. It was the best UConn football season, by far, since 2010.
Now Mora’s Huskies are about to embark on his fourth season, with Central Connecticut coming in to Rentschler Field on Saturday at 2 p.m. Where should the state set the bar now?
“Those are questions I just hate,” Mora said. “I have to force myself to stay right here. I know if I start to look too far down the line, I start the lose focus. The bar, for me, is to play really good football on Saturday.”
This has worked well for UConn. Take day, each game, each injury or departure, win or lose, as it comes, ignore the noise and keep trudging forward into the football landscape, with no specific destination — nor any self-imposed limitations.
“I mean, the bar is high,” said linebacker Donovan Branch, who committed when the Huskies were 1-11 and has stayed four years. “We just came from a 9-4 season. Me, personally, I don’t like to keep harping on last season. People can get stuck in that last season and think we’re something. Maybe we are. But in my eyes, we’re zero-zero. Sitting in these chairs being 1-11, the biggest thing was just holding faith in Coach Mora. A lot of guys here, we stayed and we saw the process.”
In the NIL/transfer portal/revenue sharing era, UConn football could easily have become an FBS Holiday Inn, where players check in, show enough on film to move to a power conference school, then check out, without even bothering to finish a season or play in a bowl game. There have been some of those, but for the most part Mora and his coaches have attracted and retained players for whom playing for UConn means something. Receiver Skyler Bell, who transferred here from Wisconsin to be closer to his New York roots and be a No.1 receiver, could have moved on to Michigan for more dough. But he returned to UConn for his last season.
UConn football coach Jim Mora hoists up the Fenway Bowl trophy last December. (UConn Athletics)
“Being able to finish what you started,” Bell said. “I came here wanting to help turn the program around, wanting to bring good things to Northeast football and Connecticut football specifically. Coming back here was the right step for me, for the program, coming out this year ready to prove something to the world.”
Fagnano, who transferred after four years at Maine, came back for a third season at UConn to be the undisputed starter from day one of training camp. “I think he’s going for a doctorate,” Mora said, somewhat facetiously. Fagnano, 25, by decision-making hone with vast game experience, figures to give the Huskies an advantage over many opponents.
“The work that’s been put in is what makes the change,” Fagnano said. “I’ve seen the way this team has decided to put its foot down and to work and just accept the results that come at the end. On outside it may look like a win here, stats there, but it’s really day in and day out, how we work. The only way you can do it. You get a bunch of new guys coming in, the don’t necessarily know how we operate here. They may not accept it right away. Everyone on this team has done a great job of accepting their role, of realizing how we work and even pushing that standard up to the next level.”
UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano (2) throws during an NCAA college football game against Merrimack at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (Jessica Hill/Special to the Courant)
UConn has most of its key skill-position players back on offense. They’ll be working with a lot of new players on the offensive line, and on the defensive side of the ball, but that’s no different than most opponents.
After Central Connecticut, UConn plays a series of games against so-categorized “group of five” conference opponents, from the MAC, the American etc. The Huskies went 7-0 vs. such schools last season. They lost competitive games to Duke, Syracuse and Wake Forest before getting over the ACC hump in the Fenway Bowl, though, being realistic, North Carolina was in its coaching transition and didn’t seem all that interested in that game. That was on the Tar Heels; it mattered to UConn’s players.
The key games for UConn to make a statement in 2025 are at Syracuse in Week 2, at Boston College Oct. 13 and vs. Duke at home Nov. 2. The oddsmakers place UConn’s over-under at 7 1/2 wins, more respect than the program has gotten in a while. If that’s the baseline, the chance to play in what would be considered a more prestigious bowl game is on the table, but a return to Fenway Park or, if the Yankees took note of the attendance and were able to finagle UConn and its fans into the Pinstripe Bowl, would be a good outcome.
Dom Amore: Bloomfield’s Dexter Lawson Jr. follows his football journey to Winnipeg, CFL
In past seasons, coming out of the pandemic, or Mora’s first years, the bar was set fairly low. UConn needed to be fun to watch, easy to root for, give Connecticut a reason to care. It’s time to raise the bar. Moral or modest victories are no longer enough, nor is a loss is cause for despair. Why not 10 wins? Why not 11? Twelve? Let’s not get carried away, but it’s no longer, “why football at UConn?” around here. The culture cobbled into place now hollers, “why not UConn football?
“It’s getting closer,” Mora said. “It’s an every year, every day proposition. You’ve got to address it, you’ve got to enforce it, you’ve got to demand it, you’ve got to have guys who take ownership for it. It can be really fragile, it could be really strong. I feel great about it right now, and I hope I can tell you after we hit a couple of bumps that I feel great about it then. My belief is, I will.”
