STORRS – UConn head coach Jim Mora feels that he and his staff have had the conversations that needed to be had, added the players they needed to add, and continued building on the culture of the program after last year’s 9-4 campaign.
Saturday’s season-opener against an FCS opponent in Central Connecticut State will be the first opportunity to confirm it.
“We made a lot of changes with transfers and freshmen coming in, losing guys, but I just love the way that everybody in this building and everybody in the athletic department responded. The support has been amazing, the focus of our players has been fantastic, our staff is coming together well. Now it’s time to prove it,” Mora said Tuesday. “It’s time that the rubber meets the road and you go out and compete on Saturdays.”
Of the 45 names on UConn’s first two-deep depth chart of the season, 17 of them were not with the program last season. A number of others, particularly on the defensive side, have never started and will be taking that next step in their development.
Mora said every player that would be on the depth chart is healthy aside from defensive lineman Trent Jones II, an Iowa State transfer who was one of the several experienced players brought in to fill out what will be almost a brand-new unit.
“We are in pretty darn good shape considering the physicality of our camp. We had a hard, long, physical three weeks before we scaled back the length of our practices and we are in pretty darn good health coming out of that,” Mora said. “If you’d asked me that two weeks ago I’d have been really, really worried, but everyone’s made their way back. They’ve worked really hard, our athletic trainers have done a great job, our doctors have done a great job, but mostly it’s the players just putting in the work to get back.”
The first test will be against a CCSU team that returns a number of players from a defense that ranked 23rd in the FCS last season allowing 321.7 yards per game, and an offense that ranked 91st (319.5 yards per game). Star running back Elijah Howard, the reigning NEC Player of the Year who had 934 rushing yards and eight touchdowns last season, will test the new UConn front.
CCSU, and its star running back, looking to make a mark vs. UConn
“The first thing I’m hoping to see is just a disciplined defense,” said linebacker Donovan Branch, a senior who has worked his way up through the ranks in Storrs. “We haven’t played yet in a real game so the emotions are going to be high, but the biggest thing I would love to see from our guys, which we’re gonna see, is just them treating this as just another Tuesday practice. Coach Brock always says it: big time players make the routine plays… You’re gonna see an ice cold defense, you’re gonna see a relentless defense, a violent defense.”
Two-deep takeaways
UConn’s two-deep depth chart is never perfect, especially going into the first week of the season. But there wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary on the list released Tuesday.
Joe Fagnano will start at quarterback with Cam Edwards and Mel Brown leading the rotation of running backs. Alex Honig and Lou Hansen headline a deep group of tight ends and compliment each other well with their different skill sets. On the offensive line, Ben Murawski will replace Valentin Senn at left tackle and Carsten Casady is set to replace Chase Lundt at right tackle. Wes Hoeh returns at center, flanked by Kyle Juergens at left guard and Brady Wayburn at right guard.
Returners Skyler Bell and Shamar Porter will start at receiver along with Arizona transfer Reymello Murphy. In another room full of depth, Central Michigan transfer Chris Parker, Simsbury native Jackson Harper and Rice transfer Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman will also be involved in the action.
The strength on defense will be in the secondary with returning starters D’Mon Brinson and Cam Chadwick, as well as redshirt-senior Devin Pringle at cornerback and both Malachi McLean and Lee Molette returning to play safety.
The linebacker corps looks to be effective with Branch, Temple transfer Tyquan King and third-year Husky Oumar Diomande starting. All three second-string linebackers are using their fifth year of eligibility, so experience and maturity should be on the Huskies’ side. It is a similar situation on the defensive line, where Ben Smiley, Vincent Carroll-Jackson and Stephon Wright have a tall order in replacing a front that helped the Huskies finish last season as the 39th-best defense in the FBS against the run.
“We built that brotherhood on the D-line to make it seem the same as last year, if not even better. Dal (Gourdine) and Jelani (Stafford), they left some shoes to fill,” Branch said. “The biggest thing I told the new guys that came in is, ‘They left some shoes to fill, but don’t ever feel the pressure that you have to fill those shoes. It’s your own legacy. You came here, they brought you here, so it’s your own shoes to fill.”‘
BREAKING: For the second year in a row, @StorrsCentral is the official on-field logo sponsor of @UConnFootball! pic.twitter.com/fJ5iB3sbXu
— Storrs Central (@StorrsCentral) August 26, 2025
Storrs Central logo stays
UConn was the first FBS program to display the logo of its NIL marketing arm on the field when it painted a Storrs Central logo on Rentschler Field last fall. The logo will return to the grass in East Hartford this season, likely in its same position on both 25-yard lines.
How will UConn fare at home in 2025?
Most of UConn’s success in its first year under Mora came in East Hartford, including his first win as Huskies’ head coach against Central Connecticut. The Huskies finished the 2022 season with a 5-1 record at home, but saw it flipped in 2023 as they lost in five of their six games as host.
Last year, with a six-game homestand in the middle of the season, the Huskies dominated at Rentschler Field. In addition to their 6-1 record, UConn’s offense averaged 36.9 points per game – the program’s second-highest total in its history at The Rent (2010, 38.5 points per game) – and outscored opponents 258-114.
