Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as the other sports the student-athletes engage in. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a DAILY basis.

Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

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UConn Football links

Video: UConn Football Coach Bob Diaco On Next Phase of Season [sox & dawgs]

Breaking Bread With Bob – 11/18/14 [sox & dawgs]

UConn Huskies Depth Chart For Cincinnati Bearcats [sox & dawgs]

UConn in the NFL: Week 11 [jim fuller – new haven register]

Tuesday presser: Diaco talks future [john silver – sny uconn]

Tim Boyle Makes It Clear: He’s UConn’s QB Of The Future [hartford courant]

Think Diaco Inherited A Mess? Just Ask, He’ll Go On And On [hartford courant]

Diaco sticking with Whitmer [the day]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Stewart: Huskies need to change, get better [carl adamec – sny uconn]

A Forgettable Night For Mosqueda-Lewis [rich elliott – ct post]

Chong Stepped Up Offensively For Huskies [rich elliott – ct post]

Stewart Sees The Need For Change [rich elliott – ct post]

After Meltdown, UConn Women Realize They Have Work To Do [hartford courant]

Five Things We Learned From UConn’s Loss To Stanford [hartford courant]

UConn women need supporting cast to step up [new haven register]

It’s time for certain Huskies to step up and lead [the hour]

Five things we learned about UConn [espnW]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

No. 17 UConn Opens Play In Puerto Rico Tip-Off Thursday Against CofC [uconn huskies]

Huskies Arrive For 2014 Puerto Rico Tip-Off [uconn huskies youtube]

Hamilton should warm up nicely playing for UConn [ct post]

Other UConn related links

M. Ice Hockey. Photos: UConn Huskies vs RPI Engineers – 11/18/14 [sox & dawgs]

M. Ice Hockey. UConn and Rensselaer Skate to 1-1 Tie [uconn huskies]

M. Ice Hockey. Hard-Charging Huskies Settle For Tie [uconn huskies]

M. Ice Hockey. UConn fans are embracing these ice capades [the day]

Field Hockey. No. 3 UConn Returns to NCAA National Semifinals on Friday [uconn huskies]

Field Hockey. Upton Honored as the NFHCA Mideast Region Player of the Year [uconn huskies]

W. Volleyball. Volleyball Heads Out on Final Road Trip of 2014 [uconn huskies]

W. Cross Country. Durgin, Sara Prepare for 2014 NCAA Championships [uconn huskies]

M. Cross Country. Men’s Cross Country/Track and Field Inks Two Student-Athletes [uconn huskies]

The UConn Huskies will embark on a trip to San Juan to compete in the Puerto Rico tip-off beginning on Thursday. Their first opponent will be the Charleston Cougars of the Colonial Athletic Association. Also competing in the Puerto Rico tipoff include the Boston College Eagles, Dayton Flyers, George Mason Patriots, New Mexico Lobos, Texas A&M Aggies, and West Virginia Mountaineers.

The Huskies are the favorite to take home the title in Puerto Rico, though they will have to play much better than their showing on Friday evening against Bryant. The Huskies won 66-53, but trailed by six – 34-28 – at the half and needed a big run midway through the second to ultimately win. Ryan Boatright led the team with 24 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, filling up the score sheet for UConn. Center Amida Brimah looked good at times, chipping 12 points, 5 rebounds, as well as 5 blocks.

Missing was Rodney Purvis who was suspended for the first game of the year due to his participation in a summer basketball league. It was yet another sign of the NCAA’s decaying ability to do anything correct, but the transfer had to sit out a game and wait a few more days for his Huskies debut.

Following Puerto Rico, things don’t get much easier for UConn as they will host the 10^th ranked Texas Longhorns at Gampel Pavilion. According to Easy Seat, UConn Huskies men’s basketball tickets for the Texas game have an average ticket price of $139 with a get-in price of $59. It’s the most expensive game of the season at Gampel and arguably the biggest non-conference game of the year for UConn. They’ll have very difficult matchups with Duke (neutral site) and Florida (in Gainesville) so this could ultimately be their biggest win on the resume entering conference play. With a conference expected to have very few Final Four contenders, the Huskies will need to do as well as possible in non-conference play to get recognized by the committee this year.

UConn Huskies head football coach Bob Diaco held his weekly pregame press conference on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bearcats and talked about a myriad of things.

With there being a bye week, Diaco opened things right up to questions. I got things started by asking him about what phase were they in as far as the season goes.

If you remember back to earlier in the season, Diaco had broken down the season into different parts, the future and the present. Now it’s all about the past as in the previous players there. He talked about it being a family and the legacy.

He said they are focused on getting better.

He talked about how the team has a much deeper understanding of what they want to get to, a better understanding how far they’ve come and how far they’ve got to go.

WR Geremy Davis has been fully cleared to participate as has QB Chandler Whitmer.

He said the Cincinnati defense should look familiar as former UConn defensive coordinator Hank Hughes is the DC at Cincy. He said they use four down lineman, lot of quarters coverage and are very attacking group.

They run a spread offense and have heavily featured wide receivers. When they can run, it opens up their passing game.

He said Cincy has a consistent sound special teams. Overall, they are very explosive.

I asked him about Cincy QB Gunner Kiel in regards to Notre Dame. He said he’s not all familiar with him on the field. Kiel got injured and was out for the year. He did say from what he remembers that Kiel has great tangible skills.

He said that there is no grand plan for using Tim Boyle at QB. Boyle will get at least one series and the game flow will dictate the rest.

He stated the final three games aren’t as important as far as winning and losing. It’s important to keep using the opportunities of games and practices to get better.

He said it was a monumental undertaking of rebuilding. It was a tear down and rebuild and they are still in the beginning phase. He reiterated that the team understands where they are at.

He said the team needs, experience, maturity, culture and the lifestyle to be a champion. He said they lack mature intelligence in football situations.

He has no concern about the lack of motivation from seniors. If they aren’t performing like they should as far as effort, he will clean out their lockers himself and throw them off the team.

He said it’s been a very rewarding 11 months on the job. He said it’s been great to watch these guys grow physically, mentally and emotionally. He also said it’s been very educational for the day to day things on what to do, what to not do.

He said his network of coaches has helped him in his first year as a head coach. He said he speaks with Hayden Fry, Gary Darnell and Brian Kelly. He also has a slew of people inside the building he can talk with as well.

He said the most surprising thing about being a head coach is that everyone has a story. He said there’s a 140 in the organization and all of their stories are important. And if they have 5-12 people they care about then there are that many more stories that are important as well.

Diaco was asked about saying there was nothing there when he got to the school. He stated he never said there was nothing, he said it was a giant mess and now it’s a smaller one. He said the players were physically weak and fat, there blood work and nutrient levels were bad.

He said they had the culture of accepting losing. When they first got there it was an us against them mentality.

As far as recruiting goes, he’s interested in getting players that want to go to UConn. He wants individuals that achievement oriented. Then he wants guys who have a love for football. Otherwise it won’t work. After that, they have tangible traits they are looking for. He wants to have a big athletic team to be a good team. To be a great team, they need to get one or two exceptional players.

He said their expectations are to get to the top of the league. He said there should be 25 or less players who that fit the model.

He stated the AAC is an awesome league. He said that Casey Cochran is working with the tight ends now. He said Cochran may want to get into broadcasting now.

He said he felt terrible for Whitmer. He said Whitmer is a great teammate and that the team doesn’t see him as responsible for the loss to Army.

He said he went through the chronology of losing from the end of the game. Then they went through the chronology of every losing moment from the beginning of the game to the end. He said Chandler is resolute in being the best teammate he can be.

We’ll have more on what Diaco said as well some words from Whitmer, Boyle, Ron Johnson, Marquise Vann and Deshon Foxx as the week goes on.

Prior to Tuesday’s press conference for Saturday’s game at Rentschler Field against the Cincinnati Bearcats, UConn Huskies head coach Bob Diaco released his depth chart for the game and there are no changes to it from their last game against Army two weeks ago.

Obviously things can change throughout the week.

We should have a better idea of where WR Geremy Davis (lower leg), QB Chandler Whitmer (hand) and S Ellis Marder stand after today’s press conference as far as their injuries are concerned.

Offense

LT: 71 Richard Levy (RSo., 6-6, 305)
74 Paul Nwokeji (RJr., 6-6, 287)

LG: 65 Gus Cruz (RSr., 6-4, 296)
77 Trey Rutherford (Fr., 6-5, 289)

C: 73 Alex Mateas (RSr., 6-4, 309)
70 Kyle Bockeloh (RSo., 6-3, 284)

RG: 60 Tyler Samra (Jr., 6-2, 288)
63 Ryan Crozier (Fr., 6-4, 297)

RT: 53 Andreas Knappe (RSo., 6-8, 300)
62 Thomas Hopkins (RFr., 6-6, 298)

TE: 49 Sean McQuillan (RJr., 6-3, 239)
80 Tommy Myers (RFr., 6-5, 238)

WR: 85 Geremy Davis (RSr., 6-3, 216)
8 Thomas Lucas (RFr., 6-2, 198) OR
5 Noel Thomas (So., 6-1, 187)

QB: 10 Chandler Whitmer (RSr., 6-0, 192)
14 Tim Boyle (So., 6-3, 216)

FB: 34 Jazzmar Clax (RFr., 5-11, 241)
36 Matt Walsh (So., 6-1, 227)

TB: 22 Arkeel Newsome (Fr., 5-7, 180) OR
3 Ron Johnson (Fr., 6-0, 217)
44 Max DeLorenzo (RJr., 5-11, 210) OR
26 Joshua Marriner (RFr., 5-9, 193)

WR: 4 Deshon Foxx (Sr., 5-10, 172)
1 Dhameer Bradley (So., 5-9, 166)

Defense

DE: 95 Kenton Adeyemi (RJr., 6-4, 268)
57 Cole Ormsby (RFr., 6-3, 248)

NG: 90 Julian Campenni (RJr., 6-0, 299)
92 Mikal Myers (RSo., 6-1, 312)

DT: 97 B.J. McBryde (RSr., 6-5, 304) OR
93 Folorunso Fatukasi (RFr., 6-4, 307)

DE: 47 Reuben Frank (RSr., 6-4, 246)
10 Cameron Stapleton (RFr., 6-4, 226)

LB: 46 Marquise Vann (RJr., 6-0, 226)
55 Jon Hicks (RSo., 6-2, 236)

LB: 32 Jefferson Ashiru (RSo., 6-2, 233)
39 Junior Joseph (RFr., 6-1, 242)

LB: 2 Graham Stewart (RJr., 6-1, 227)
59 Vontae Diggs (Fr., 6-4, 207)

CB: 21 Jamar Summers (Fr., 6-0, 180)
7 John Green (RSo., 5-10, 179) OR
11 Javon Hadley (So., 5-10, 164)

S: 22 Andrew Adams (RJr., 6-0, 197)
28 Jordan Floyd (RSo., 6-0, 206)

S: 20 Obi Melifonwu (RSo., 6-3, 210)
23 Junior Lee (RJr., 6-0, 214)

CB: 6 Jhavon Williams (RSo., 5-10, 190)
33 Brice McAllister (Fr., 5-11, 191)

Special Teams

K: 17 Bobby Puyol (RSo., 5-10, 174)
94 Chase Briley (Fr., 5-11, 165)

P: 42 Justin Wain (RSo., 6-3, 204)
94 Chase Briley (Fr., 5-11, 165)

HL: 82 Blake Feagles (RFr., 5-10, 205)
42 Justin Wain (RSo., 6-3, 204)

KR: 22 Arkeel Newsome (Fr., 5-7, 180)
26 Joshua Marriner (RFr., 5-9, 193)

PR: 4 Deshon Foxx (Sr., 5-10, 172)
18 Brian Lemelle (So., 5-10, 165)

LS: 66 Dominick Manco (RJr., 6-0, 213)
67 Adam Mueller (RSr., 6-1, 212)

Paw Prints is our daily look at the happenings for the UConn Huskies football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams as well as the other sports the student-athletes engage in. We will do our best to bring you the links from all of the media that covers the Huskies on a DAILY basis.

Thank you for stopping by and making SOX & Dawgs your home for UConn Huskies news.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

UConn Football links

UConn-Memphis Kickoff Time Set for November 29 [sox & dawgs]

UConn’s Diaco reflects on memorable season at Cincinnati [jim fuller – new haven register]

After Another Bye, UConn’s Diaco Welcomes Challenge Of Cincinnati [hartford courant]

Former UConn CB Arrested, Tried To Use Bubble Gum As Money [hartford courant]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Video: Stanford Upsets #1 UConn Women 88-86 In OT [sox & dawgs]

Stanford snaps UConn’s 47-game win streak [carl adamec – sny uconn]

What We Learned From The End Of A Winning Streak [john altavilla – hartford courant]

Not Your Typical UConn Performance [john altavilla – hartford courant]

Guard Play The Difference As UConn Falls To Stanford [rich elliott – ct post]

To Foul Or Not To Foul … That Was The Question [rich elliott – ct post]

Huskies Looking For More Contributions [rich elliott – ct post]

Thoughts after UConn’s loss to Stanford [jim fuller – new haven register]

UConn women badly outplayed in the backcourt [ct post]

Stanford Shocks Huskies In OT, Ending Their 47-Game Streak [hartford courant]

UConn Women Hope Stanford Rivalry Will Last Indefinitely [hartford courant]

Top-ranked Huskies stunned by Stanford in overtime [new haven register]

Stanford knocks off No. 1 UConn [espnW]

Stanford women top UConn in overtime thriller [san francisco chronicle]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Video: UConn Men’s Basketball 2014-15 Intro [sox & dawgs]

Adams, Enoch Sign UConn Letters Of Intent [sox & dawgs]

UConn’s Ryan Boatright Among John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 [sox & dawgs]

Other UConn related links

M. Ice Hockey. Huskies Host RPI Tuesday at XL Center to Open Homestand [uconn huskies]

UConn Hockey: Center Ice, Episode 2 [uconn huskies youtube]

M. Ice Hockey. UConn Hockey: Limiting Mistakes Is Focus For RPI [hartford courant]

M. Ice Hockey. RPI will be short-handed for road trip to UConn [troy record]

UConn Club. Impacting Champions: November [uconn huskies]