STORRS, Conn. – Jonathan Wholley, a 2004 graduate of the University of Connecticut who earned a master’s degree from UConn in 2008, has been named an assistant football coach for the Huskies. Wholley will have position responsibility with the tight ends.

“We are very happy to welcome Jon back to the UConn football program,” says head coach Randy Edsall. “He was a tremendously hard worker for us as a student-athlete and graduate assistant coach. Jon is a Connecticut native who knows the state through-and-through and he is a great addition to our staff.”

Most recently, Wholley was an assistant football coach at Fordham for the 2009 season where he worked with the running backs and had recently added recruiting coordinator duties. The Rams led the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense at 488.82 yards per game.

A Southington, Conn., native, Wholley was a member of the UConn football team from 2001-04 as a running back and joined the team as a walk-on. He later earned a scholarship and was a member of the 2004 Motor City Bowl championship team.

He earned his undergraduate degree in political science from UConn in December of 2004.

Following graduation, he was an assistant coach at Central Connecticut for the 2005 season and worked with the tight ends. The Blue Devils had a 7-4 record and were Northeast Conference co-champions.

Wholley then returned to UConn as a graduate assistant coach for the 2006-08 seasons working on the offensive side of the bowl. He was part of the coaching staff that led the Huskies to a share of the 2007 BIG EAST Championship and an appearance in the 2007 Meineke Car Care Bowl.

He earned his master’s of education in kinesiology from UConn in December of 2008.

STORRS, Conn. – Darrell Perkins, who served as the defensive backs coach at Louisiana-Monroe for the past two seasons, has been named to the same position on the University of Connecticut football staff.

Perkins helped lead the Louisiana-Monroe defense to the top ranking in the Sun Belt Conference in 2009. Prior to his stint at Monroe, he was the defensive coordinator at Charleston Southern in 2007.

“We are very pleased to welcome Darrell to the Connecticut football program,” says UConn head coach Randy Edsall. “He brings a wide variety of coaching experience to our team – and all of it has been successful. Darrell has worked in nearly every region of the country and brings a strong reputation with him to UConn.”

He was the linebackers and special teams coach at Northern Colorado in 2006 and was the defensive backs/special teams coordinator at Charleston Southern from 2004-05. In 2004, Charleston Southern was ranked second in the Football Championship Subdivision in pass defense at 131 yards per game.

Perkins was the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Ferris State from 2002-03 as the Bulldogs finished first in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in pass defense at 161 yards per game.

He was a defensive graduate assistant at Purdue in 2000 and ’01.

Perkins began his football coaching career at Gateway High School in Aurora, Colo., where he was an assistant coach from 1997-99 at his alma mater. He was the head basketball coach at Legacy High School in Fort Collins, Colo., from 1993-96 and led the team to two state playoff appearances.

Perkins is a 1990 graduate of Wyoming and earned his degree in business marketing. He was a two-year starter at running back for the Cowboys and a three-year letter winner from 1985-89.

At Wyoming, Perkins played in the 1987 and ’88 Holiday Bowls and with Purdue coached in the 2001 Rose Bowl, following the Boilermakers’ 2000 Big Ten championship, and the 2001 Sun Bowl.

He is married the former Elena Zbitskaya and his 19-year-old son Jordan is a member of the men’s soccer team at Iona.

UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall isn’t a fan of the rankings that the various recruiting services uses. Take what he had to say before any listings were published yesterday.

“It’s all very stupid, in my opinion,” Edsall said. “For anyone to go out and rank classes, and to evaluate thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and think they’re going to watch all this film and put a ranking on them, it’s propaganda. And it’s one of the things that’s ruining the game, in my opinion. … It’s ruining kids, is what it’s doing. I just hope some people come to their senses soon and does something about the recruiting process because we’re in this to help young people and this process isn’t helping young people. It’s hurting them. Until that message gets across, it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse.”

Well according to those said pundits, the Huskies recruiting class didn’t rank highly.

Scouts Inc., Rivals.com and Scout.com all ranked the Huskies last in the Big East as far the new recruiting class goes. Scouts.Inc actually gave the Edsall’s recruits an overall grade of D-.

Here’s how the recruiting battle shaped up in the Big East according to those three services.

Here’s what they had to say about the UConn recruits:

The Huskies signed a fairly large class but it lacks any four-star prospects or significant signees. Randal Edsall has been winning in Storrs without them though by developing two- and three-star prospects. Their top prospect is outside linebacker Yawin Smallwood (Worcester, Mass./Doherty Memorial), who can run, has very good physical tools to develop on the perimeter and fits a defensive need. ILB Brandon Steg (Coral Springs, Fla./J.P. Taravella) also helps fill the need at the position.

Nationally, the Huskies ranked in a tie for 83rd with UTEP and Northern Illinois in the Rivals.com rankings. They came in 72nd in the Scout.com rankings.

Given Edsall’s success with his previous recruiting classes, I’m not worried about what the future holds and as a UConn football fan, you shouldn’t be either.

Sorry for the delay folks. I had to go to COX Cable to return my HD DVR after the first one didn’t work. Anyways, we are on to the links for the UConn Huskies. And then WordPress ate the post so it took me over an hour or so to recover it.

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STORRS, Conn. – University of Connecticut head football coach Randy Edsall announced on Wednesday that the Huskies have signed 20 student-athletes to a National Letter of Intent to join the UConn program.

Student-athletes in UConn’s 2010 signing class hail from 11 different states. In addition, two other student-athletes who signed a Letter of Intent with the Huskies in February of 2009 have enrolled in school for the Spring 2010 Semester.

Biographies of the players after the jump.

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It’s going to be a busy day for the UConn Huskies football program as it’s National Signing Day for high school recruits. Today we will learn who will be the newest members of the Huskies for the next 4-5 years.

I will do my best to provide updates from the local media but head coach Randy Edsall will be holding a 3 p.m. press conference to announce who has signed letters-of-intent.

UConn Football links

Big East mailbag: Pitt rumors and expansion talk [ESPN.com – Big East Blog]

Top remaining recruiting battles in Big East [ESPN.com – Big East Blog]

The Big East’s best: No. 23, Marcus Easley [ESPN.com – Big East Blog]

Former Husky Deon Anderson arrested [ESPN.com]

Steg Hopes To Make Quick Impact At UConn [Hartford Courant]

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For the first half, it looked as though the No. 11/8 West Virginia Mountaineers were going to battle the No. 1 UConn Huskies for the entire game trailing by just eight points at the half.

The Huskies quickly put that notion to rest though as 24-3 run in the early part of the second half gave them an 80-47 win over the Mountaineers in front of 9,745 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT on Tuesday night.

It’s the 61st straight win for the Huskies as they improve to 22-0 (9-0 Big East). The Mountaineers suffered just their third loss of the season as they fall to 20-3 (7-2).

Kalana Greene’s spectacular play continued as she led the Huskies with 18 points. Maya Moore had a monster game as she had 15 points and 14 rebounds. Tina Charles rounded out the Huskies in double figures with 14 points to go along with six rebounds and six blocked shots.

Freshman Kelly Faris had her best game since breaking her nose in practice as she finished with nine points and led the Huskies with four assists. She also had a key steal and subsequent three-point play with 15:54 to go in the game that helped key the big 24-3 run.

Sarah Miles paced the Mountaineers with 14 points and four rebounds whil Liz Repella added 13 points and four rebounds.

UConn got out of the gates quickly as they raced out to a quick 9-2 lead.  The lead would get as high as 13 points at 28-13 before West Virginia would score the next seven points to cut the lead down to six points. The Huskies would take an eight point lead at 32-24 at the half.

It could have been a lot worse for West Virginia in the first half but the Huskies looked like their male counterparts with ten first half turnovers. They also couldn’t make a layup off of some terrific backdoor cuts.

With a 36-29 lead in the early parts of the second half, the Huskies turned the jets on with a 24-3 run. Tiffany Hayes got it going with two free throws and then Faris made the steal, getting the three-point play. Charles followed that with a 7-0 run of her own while Moore and Greene helped out as well to put the game away.

Considering the Huskies didn’t play all that well in the first half and won by 33 points tells you something you already knew. This team is downright nasty good. Can you imagine if they had their “A” game in the first half. They could have easily won this game by 40-50 points.

But consider a lesson learned as I’m sure head coach Geno Auriemma will tell his charges while watching the film and during practice on Wednesday.

The Huskies are off until Sunday when they head to Freedom Hall to take on the Louisville Cardinals in a Big East matchup. Tip is scheduled for 12 p.m. and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.

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STORRS, Conn. – A total of 16 University of Connecticut football student-athletes were named to the 2009 BIG EAST All-Academic Football Team as announced on Tuesday. To be nominated and named to this team, a player must have a cumulative grade-point index of at least 3.0, have completed a minimum of two semesters of academic work.

“We are very proud of all 16 of our selections to the BIG EAST All-Academic Football Team,” said UConn head coach Randy Edsall. “Academic achievement, and ultimately graduation, is a key component to being a member of the Connecticut football program. I would like to pay special thanks to the Counseling Program for Intercollegiate Athletes (CPIA) for all the assistance that they provide the young men on our team.”

The following is a complete list of the UConn football student-athletes named to the 2009 BIG EAST All-Academic Football Team.

It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as the West Virginia Mountaineers come to the XL Center for a Big East matchup.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be televised locally on CPTV. The game is also available on the internet for a fee through Hoop Streams. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

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Even if they expanded to the NCAA Tournament to 96 teams this season, as it is rumored to do next year, I don’t think the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team would make it in.

The Louisville Cardinals started out hitting their first five 3-point field goals and never trailed as they went on to beat the Huskies 82-69 in front of 19,655 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY on Monday night.

It’s the third straight loss for the Huskies and sixth in their last eight games as they fall to 13-9 (3-6 Big East). The Cardinals improve to 14-8 (5-4).

Jerome Dyson led all scorers in the game with 18 points. Kemba Walker added 15 points, five rebounds, three assists but had four turnovers. Stanley Robinson had another double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Gavin Edwards had 13 points.

Edgar Sosa paced the Cardinals with 15 points and eight assists while Jerry Smith had 14 points and five rebounds. Samardo Samuels chipped in with 13 points while Reginald Delk had 10 points. Jared Swopshire led the Cardinals with nine rebounds to go along with his nine points.

The Huskies fell behind 5-0 in the first thirty seconds of the game behind a layup by Sosa and a three-pointer by Smith. UConn came back to tie the game at seven but the Cardinals followed with an 8-0 run that put them out front for good.

The Cardinals would continue to build their lead as a Peyton Siva three-pointer gave them a 13 point lead at 25-12. UConn would never get any closer than seven points at 27-20 as the Cardinals would build their lead up to 14 points at 48-34 at the half.

UConn would work the lead down to ten at 55-45 on two Robinson free throws. The Cardinals followed that up with a 12-2 run to push the lead to 19 points at 66-47 to force UConn associate head coach Dave Blaney to take a timeout.

The resilient Huskies didn’t quit as they went on a 17-5 run to cut the Cardinals lead to seven at 73-66 with 9:20 to go. But that’s as close as the Huskies would get as they scored just three points the rest of the game.

If it weren’t for making 19-of-23 free throws in the first half, the Huskies could have been trailing by at least 20 points. They shot just 25.9% (7-of-27) in the first half. They also failed to take care of the ball yet again as they had ten first half turnovers.

I’ll say it again, the Huskies miss Jim Calhoun but I’m not sure what he could have done or what he can do. Maybe move Gavin Edwards back into the starting lineup? Who knows?

Something needs to change for the Huskies but if they don’t learn to take care of the ball, they’ll just continue to beat themselves.

The Huskies will look to end their three-game losing streak on Saturday night when the DePaul Blue Demons come Gampel Pavilion for a Big East matchup. The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. and will be televised locally on My-TV9 and SNY.

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