@ADimeBack football team all time best starters offense, defense, and special teams.
— k fitz (@KyleAFitz) July 18, 2016
It’s #MailWeek at ADB. We’re giving long answers to your surprisingly not awful mailbag questions.
I’m presuming that since it’s really hard and unfair to list one player as the Best Player for each unit, and because you, the discerning A Dime Back Dot Com reader, love reading lots of my words, you’re asking for a position-by-position breakdown. And because ADB is known for giving readers what they want, that’s how we’ll break this down.
Before we dig in: I’m a huge history buff and UConn has a 120-year history of football with all kinds of interesting, but totally unremembered details (someone named Ed Enos had 28 tackles against Yale in 1956, because fuck Yale); however, it should kind of go without saying that almost all of the best UConn football players ever have played since 2000. The Huskies have had twice as many NFL Draft picks since 2005 (27) than in the 70 drafts prior to that (14), and just based on strength of schedule alone, the performances of the I-A Huskies are more impressive than their I-AA counterparts. (Also, my junior year in Storrs was 2007, the season that set the template for every weird, bad UConn win of the last decade, so I’m super-biased towards the Late Edsall teams. Sorry.)
With that being said, here are my picks for UConn’s best-ever player by position:
QUARTERBACK:
Dan Orlovsky (2001-04)
Duh. Orlovsky is the school’s all-time leader in passing yards, completions, attempts and touchdowns, and its only NFL starting quarterback (asterisk asterisk asterisk). But even forgetting about the eye-popping numbers, Orlovsky gave UConn football its first shred of legitimacy in the early years of the FBS era. Also, since he left, UConn hasn’t been able to string together more than three or four good passing games in a row. (He played his last game at UConn before YouTube was invented, and now I’m suddenly very sad after writing that.)
RUNNING BACK:
Donald Brown (2006-08)
The only correct answer is either D-Brown or Jordan Todman, UConn’s only two All-Americans at the FBS level. But the nod clearly should go to Brown, who boasts UConn’s only 2,000-yard season (accounting for approximately 150% of the team’s offensive yardage in 2008). He also was a steady contributor on three above-average UConn teams (7 TDs as a freshman, 8 as a sophomore and 18 as a junior before leaving for the NFL Draft) to Todman’s two. Todman was very consistently awesome in his two years as a regular ball-carrier, but not quite as explosive as the pride of Atlantic Highlands (Brown’s 5.4 yards per carry slightly edging Todman’s 5.1).
FULLBACK:
Anthony Sherman (2007-10)
Somehow not UConn’s leading receiver during the Tyler Lorenzen “Never Throw To Receivers” Era, but Sherman was a badass blocker, a good pass catcher, and arguably UConn’s most successful NFL player to date (earning a Second Team All-Pro nod in 2014).
WIDE RECEIVER:
Geremy Davis (2011-14)
The first UConn player in the FBS era to lead the Huskies in receiving more than once (he did so three years in a row, including the program’s only 1,000-yard receiving year of the modern era, in 2013). And despite playing on some of the worst offenses in school history, Davis caught a pass in every game he played in. Feel free to make the case for I-AA stars Mark Didio (class of ’92) or Carl Bond (’98), if you like.
TIGHT END:
Brian Kozlowski (1989-92)
My lone selection from the pre-FBS era is at tight end, as Kozlowski was a key part of a high-flying early ’90s UConn offense — when he graduated, he stood fifth on UConn’s all-time catches list with 159; almost 25 years later, he’s still seventh, and obviously first among tight ends. Bolstering his case over guys like Ryan Griffin are two key things: his 14-year NFL career that included an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIII, and his college romance with noted Best Human Rebecca Lobo [citation needed].
OFFENSIVE LINE:
Zach Hurd (2007-10)
Honestly, you could pick out any of the starting offensive lineman from UConn’s run of four straight bowls at the tail end of Edsall’s run. A three-year, every-down starter and a straight-up enormous dude, Hurd blocked for four different 1,000-yard rushers (Brown, Andre Dixon, and Todman twice) and was the only UConn O-lineman to earn two First Team All-Big East nods during the four-year bowl run. After a concussion ended his NFL hopes, he’s now financially planning the shit out of things.
DEFENSIVE LINE:
Trevardo Williams (2009-12)
One of the most productive players on those fun-as-hell Don Brown defenses in 2011 and 2012, Williams is UConn’s all-time sack leader (30.5). He had 24 in his final two seasons, when UConn had two of their better defenses ever. Also considered was early-2000s stalwart and possible spoonerism Uyi Osunde, the program leader in TFL.
LINEBACKER:
Lawrence Wilson (2007-10)
By far the hardest position to pick the #1 standout, as UConn’s been loaded here for most of the FBS era — I could’ve gone with recent awesome dudes Sio Moore (44 career TFL!) or Yawin Smallwood, or early/mid-2000s standouts like Alfred Fincher, Danny Lansanah or Scott Lutrus. UConn is the only school that can claim to be Linebacker U., is what I’m saying. Anyway, I’m picking Bama Wilson because he was a four-year starter, one of the soundest tacklers to ever wear a UConn uniform (449 for his career). He also was a playmaker, intercepting five passes and returning three of them for TDs. His most notable being a 45-yard pick-six in the waning minutes that gave the Huskies a 26-21 win over Louisville in 2008, seen above.
DEFENSIVE BACK:
Byron Jones (2011-14)
Similar to the linebacker position, UConn’s had a strong history of very good defensive backs (shouts to Darius Butler, Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Tyvon Branch), but in Jones they had very likely their most physically talented player ever. A first-round pick who seems to be on the verge of becoming a star with the Dallas Cowboys, Jones was a four-year starter who could do it all as a safety or lockdown corner. Football savant Bob Diaco immediately figured out that Jones was legit, and that’s good enough for me.
KICKER:
Dave Teggart (2008-11)
The most obvious pick on this All-Time Team, outside of maybe Orlovsky, Teggart stabilized a dreadful kicking game with a strong freshman year. Then he simply turned into the most reliable and prolific kicker UConn’s ever had. He has four of the eight best seasons in school history by field goals made; he kicked five 50-yard field goals, the only player in school history with more than two; and one of those 50-yarders just so happened to be the most important play of the FBS era, his 52-yarder to beat USF in 2010 and clinch a Fiesta Bowl berth. He’s cool.
PUNTER:
Cole Wagner (2010-13)
Wagner gets a bump over the clear No. 2 pick, all-time punt average leader Desi Cullen, because Wagner’s punting was very important during UConn’s BCS season (#B1G), and because the poor guy averaged about 15 punts a game following the changeover to the Voldemort Era in 2011. Hope your leg’s stopped being sore, Cole. 🙁
KICK RETURNER:
Nick Williams (2009-12)
Did we ever refer to Nick Williams as “White Lightning” way back when? Because Williams was, uh, deceptively quick, with sources also saying he was scrappy, and/or a gamer. Less problematically, Williams averaged just under 26 yards per kick return, best in the modern era, and ran back two kicks for touchdowns, tying him with Tyvon Branch and Robbie Frey (who legit might be the fastest UConn player ever?). Williams’ two TDs both came in 2010; he also had 4 punt return TDs, including one against Randy Edsall’s Maryland, so bonus points.
PUNT RETURNER:
LAR-RY TAY-LOR CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP (2004-07)
C’mon, like I’m not gonna celebrate a fast-as-fuck 5-foot-7 dude who lived up and added to UConn’s grand history of trolling opponents on a rainy night in 2007? Taylor averaged 12.7 yards per punt return for his career, 2.5 yards better than the next-best mark, and his four TDs are tied with Williams for the best all-time. The tiebreaker is “touchdowns that shouldn’t have counted, but lol, sorry not sorry.”
