Spring football approaches

Dan Huang, Campus Correspondent

The hiring of Paul Pasqualoni as our new football coach was a letdown to many in Husky Nation.  Fans expected Jeff Hathaway to hire a bigger name, especially since we had just had the greatest season of our short history.  Word on the street was that ex-Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer was interested.  Hiring Fulmer, who won a national championship in 1998, would have been a great boon for the program, which had basically been dumped like an old girlfriend by Randy Edsall.  However, as spring ball approaches, I am not as pessimistic about the 2011 season as some others are.

On paper, the glaring hole for our 2011 squad is in the backfield, where we will be breaking in three new starters at QB, RB, and FB.  However, the success of a football team starts upfront, and we have three starters returning on the offensive line, and the whole defensive line is intact.  The competition at quarterback is wide open, but don’t be surprised if redshirt freshman Scott McCummings comes out the winner.  Teammates have been impressed with the Natick, Mass native, a mobile quarterback whose stature is eerily similar to Pasqualoni’s most successful disciple at Syracuse, Donovan McNabb.  While Edsall was the most successful coach in our program’s history, Pasqualoni’s track record in developing players is arguably better than Edsall’s.  McNabb, Dwight Freeney, Keith Bullock, Donovin Darius, and Tebucky Jones all came through Pasqualoni’s program at Syracuse.  If Pasqualoni can develop players at UConn into household names like those, we will continue to be competitors in the Big East for seasons to come.