STORRS – The UConn football team plays with an added sense of purpose whenever it changes helmet decals.
This weekend, when the Huskies host FIU at Rentschler Field, every player will wear colored awareness ribbons on the sides of their helmet representing the type of cancer that has affected their life for the program’s fourth-annual Crucial Catch game.
“I don’t know that there’s a player in our locker room or a person in our organization, or anyone on this campus, that has not been affected by cancer,” coach Jim Mora said. “It’s just an added motivation to go out and play with a certain spirit that honors those people that have had to go through the trials and tribulations in the fight against cancer. Our guys, it really means something. It’s not just, ‘Oh, hey, there’s a cool ribbon on our helmet.’ That ribbon represents someone in our life that we love, that we either lost, or is fighting or has fought and won. Our guys take it very seriously and they should, that’s why we do it.”
UConn won two of its first three Crucial Catch games, snapping a three-game losing streak with a win against Fresno State in 2022 and forcing a fumble for a late goal-line stand against Temple last year.
Norwalk’s Cam Edwards, the Huskies’ star running back, has worn a white ribbon over the years in honor of his grandmother, who he lost to lung cancer.
“That’s gonna mean a lot to me. I’ll probably have a moment to myself,” he said. “I look at every game like my grandmother’s watching over me, so I know she has my back and I always got her back. It doesn’t matter what type of month it is or what day it is, I’m always going to look to my grandmother.”
Vincent Carroll-Jackson, a defensive lineman who transferred in from Nebraska, has had several family members affected by the disease.
“I have a lot of family members who have dealt with that and sadly passed away with that, so I appreciate things like this that we do in this culture,” he said. “I appreciate how impactful they’re stressing on it, like we got a message at the end of the game at Buffalo, already going into the details of what we need to establish for this week in terms of that. I really appreciate that.”
Mora, who will wear ribbons on the sideline, is encouraging fans to take part in the initiative as well by wearing a shirt in the color representing whichever type of cancer they’ve been affected by.
“It just takes a strong community effort to defeat. I’ve had a lot of it in my family, so it’s really important to us to do this this week, really important for us,” he said. “Our guys take it very seriously, it matters to them.”
Defensive focus: Effort
UConn’s defense has shown improvement, but it will face a difficult task this week against a dual-threat quarterback in FIU’s Keyone Jenkins, who threw the ball pretty well (15-for-27, 284 yards, 2 TD) when the Panthers made their last trip to The Rent in 2023.
The focus in practice this week was on the group’s effort as a whole.
“Running to the ball. Everything else I think we put on tape ourselves, the physicality part, execution. We just need to be consistent with our running to the ball, so that’s our focus this week,” said Carroll-Jackson. “Mentality-wise, we just need to be able to attack the two-minute better. That’s something we’ve got to take pride in as a defense as a whole, we’ve just got to stick together as a unit. Sometimes in that two-minute we can unravel a bit, but we’ve got to come together so that’s part of the effort piece. We have to start finishing, it’s not an option.”
Keeping the focus narrow
Next week’s bye should go a long way for the Huskies as they’ve started to feel the wear and tear of the season. But the focus now is on making sure they go into that week with a 4-2 record.
“We don’t even talk about that stuff,” Mora said. “All they (players) know is that Saturday at 3:32 we kick it off versus FIU at The Rent. I don’t give them the bye-week schedule, I’ve hardly thought about it. We have to keep the focus right here. Keep the main thing the main thing. Keep the focus narrow. See what’s right in front of us and attack that. That’s what we’ll do.”