Coney sees fresh start for Huskies

0
79
Bryan Coney

For some college football players, it can be a difficult transition when the coach that recruited them is fired and replaced. Former Naugatuck High football star and current University of Connecticut wide receiver Bryan Coney, however, sees a fresh start.

Coney was recruited by former UConn head coach Bob Diaco and signed with the Huskies as a preferred walk-on in 2015 before receiving a scholarship last year. Now, Diaco is gone and Randy Edsall, a familiar face at Storrs, is back leading UConn.

Edsall’s resume has Coney and much of the UConn football team excited. Edsall previously coached at UConn from 1998 to 2011. He led the Huskies from Division I-AA to Division I-A, now FBS, and to five bowl appearances, including a BCS bowl, the Fiesta Bowl after the 2010 season.

Edsall is the winningest coach in UConn history and led the Huskies to their highest national ranking ever in 2007, when they were ranked 13th.

Edsall left the program for the University of Maryland after guiding UConn to the Fiesta Bowl. He coached four-plus seasons at Maryland and spent 2016 as director of football research-special projects for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League.

“I am definitely excited about the new season under coach Edsall,” Coney said. “The history of success he brings back with him to Storrs is going to help us so much. His knowledge of the ins and outs of the game of football is going to help us, and I believe we will be successful because of it.”

While Coney has reason to be excited about the future, he is grateful for the opportunity granted him by Diaco, who led the Huskies to a bowl berth in 2016 but followed that with a 3-9 record this past season.

“I will always be appreciative for everything that coach Diaco and his staff did for me,” Coney said. “I understand that at the end of the day it’s a business and coaches and players come and go, so you have to be ready for whatever comes next.”

The Huskies begin their camp this week. Coney said that the status of his role on the team is uncertain since all spots are basically up for grabs with the new coaching staff. It does help that UConn’s wide receiver coach, Aaron Smith, recruited the two-time All-State selection from Naugy when he was a coach at Albany.

“Nobody knows their role really until it’s all said and done at the end of camp,” Coney said.  “We have a new staff, so this camp is really going to decide who is going to play and who isn’t. Time will tell. I had a pretty good spring, and I just have to build on it and make plays during camp and carry that into the season. It’s a competition every day.”

While Coney will have to work for a role on the team, Edsall had good things to say about the redshirt sophomore receiver.

“Bryan is a hard worker and a good teammate,” Edsall said. “He is the type of player every team needs to be successful, willing to do all of the little things that no one notices.”

Coney said the new coaching staff presents a fresh start for a team that wants to win now.

“Everyone in the program wants to win,” Coney said. “That’s all we are focused on. A lot of new things give us a refreshing feeling, and I believe that with the new coaching staff we are in a position to do great things as a program this season and in the future.”