STORRS – Inconsistency hurt the UConn football team on Saturday.
The Huskies didn’t finish the way they started in their overtime loss at Syracuse and have had to come to grips with that fact as they turn the page to another road matchup against Delaware in Week 3.
“We’ve had about 64 hours, we’ve had four meetings, a walkthrough and a practice to learn the lessons in a really tough loss on Saturday and now we’re in the process of applying those lessons and moving forward,” coach Jim Mora said on Tuesday. “We’ve got good players and they take it very seriously. From what I’ve seen, it was a very difficult loss and it lingered and then they flushed it. They didn’t flush it without learning the lessons and then working to apply them, because that’s the only way you can get better.”
UConn’s week-to-week improvement on defense was evident through three and a half quarters as the Huskies pressured the quarterback, held their own in short yardage situations and made timely takeaways. Mora said he saw more physicality and aggressiveness, that the unit “flew to the football” similar to the way it did last season.
“That has to be a 60-minute thing, it can’t be hit-and-miss,” he said. “It can’t be here and there. So it was much, much better, but there is a lot of room for improvement.”
Offensively, the Huskies moved the ball well in the first half but could hardly get anything going in the second. Mora did find a positive in the way the unit responded to Syracuse coming back to tie the game in the final minute.
“We were able to hold our composure offensively and move the ball and score points and respond. That, to me, is a sign of maturity and confidence and guys believing in each other and trusting what we’re doing,” he said. “The atmosphere on the sideline is so different than it is even in row one up in the stands or up in the press box or on TV. The intensity of those moments is incredible and it’s easy for immature or younger players that haven’t been in those environments to kind of implode. And there was some implosion by certain members of our program last week, but I’m proud of the way our players have been able to maintain their composure and focus and go out and make plays.”
Skyler Bell continues making next-level plays
In the desperate moments, quarterback Joe Fagnano found his favorite target. And Skyler Bell didn’t let him down.
Bell had three catches during UConn’s final drive of regulation – the only three completed passes in 12 fourth-quarter attempts – and single-handedly helped the Huskies into field goal range for Chris Freeman to tie the game.
There were less than 30 seconds on the clock when Fagnano found Bell down the seam on 4th-and-10. The ball was placed a bit high so Bell leapt, used his left hand to hold off one defender and reached up with his right to haul it in between tacklers. It was his second one-handed catch in as many games and it couldn’t have come at a more critical time.
UConn wide receiver Skyler Bell (1) celebrates hist touchdown during an NCAA college football game against Central Connecticut at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (Jessica Hill/Special to the Courant)
Those types of plays, Mora says, have to be considered when Bell is evaluated by NFL scouts.
“He’s got a winner’s mentality. One of the most impressive things that none of us ever notice because he’s a wide receiver is Skyler Bell’s willingness to block. He’s a very good and willing blocker. If you go back to the first play of our season, he went and put his body on somebody hard,” Mora said. “That, along with his ability to make the clutch catches in the key moments – that was a one-handed catch on 4th-and-10… That says a lot about his competitive makeup, about who he is, how important it is for him to be an all-around good player, the blocking and the clutch plays.
“And he doesn’t have bad measurables. He’s 198 pounds right now, I believe, he’s done a really good job of increasing his body mass and he hasn’t lost speed as we saw when he broke it down the sideline against CCSU. But you want your team to be filled with guys that are like Skyler Bell, that have that mental makeup and that competitive makeup.”
John Neider’s TD pass was years in the making
Milford native John Neider walked onto the UConn football team as a quarterback after he was named Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year at Jonathan Law HS in 2022. The Huskies moved him to receiver and “nobody could cover him on the scout team,” according to Mora, so he ultimately earned a scholarship.
Neider got his first chance to throw the ball at the college level when UConn called for trickery near the goal line on Saturday. On a double pass, Neider made a perfect throw to Alex Honig to score the first points of the game.
“You’re always looking for ways to creatively put points on the board, force your opponent to prepare for things that they see on film, involve players. You see us using Terrence (Smith) a lot, using John a lot, rotating our receivers and our backs through and our tight ends, figuring out what guys do well and putting them in position to do what they do well,” Mora said. “And John, it was good to get him in there and get him that shot. I went and looked at his high school stats, they were pretty darn impressive… You talk about a success story, still developing success story… Guys like that, they make it fun to coach.”
Mora hasn’t lost confidence in long snapper after another mistake
UConn has had issues on special teams in each of its first two games. Long snapper Zach Christinat, a Norwalk native, has snapped the ball over the head of punter Connor Stutz twice and put the Huskies’ defense in difficult field position.
“We have a ton of confidence in Zach. I think he’s a very, very good snapper and he understands how serious those mistakes have been and what they’ve cost us. He takes it very seriously and he works very hard at it. It’s just being consistent in his approach every day and the routine in going out on the field every day,” Mora said.
“Kickers and snappers and punters, they’re much like golfers. You only get so many swings in a tournament or snaps in a game and every single one is so important. It’s different than playing other positions where you might get 60 snaps and if you have a couple bad snaps you can make up for it. So it takes a really mentally strong, mentally tough person to do those things and I believe Zach is very mentally strong and he’s a mentally tough kid and he will be really good going forward. Because he owns it. He doesn’t rationalize it, he owns it. That’s how you get better.”
