Catching Up With UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni: Part Two

Continuing here with an interview with UConn Coach Paul Pasqualoni…

Any academic casualties?

“Not one. Everybody would have been eligible for a bowl game, everybody is eligible for next year so there’s no issues at all.”

What’s your position now on scholarship offers to walk-ons quarterback Johnny McEntee and running back Mark Hinkley?

“We’re very, very, based on the recruiting class and commitments we’ve received, we’re really right to the line so before you can do that you have to have something available to do it. At this point we’re not able to do it at this point and I’ll leave it like that.”
What’s going on with the quarterback coaching vacancy?

“As a matter of fact I’m involved in that right now, really pretty intense, really focused on a great effort for us to really get the best quarterback coach that we can possibly get in here so that we can get the semester started, get the offseason program with the quarterbacks going and spring practice and the development of the position because obviously we’re going to have two brand new kids on campus [JC transfer Chandler Whitmer and freshman Casey Cochran] and we’ve got three others [McEntee, Scott McCummings and Michael Nebrich] that will continue to develop, did a good job developing last year and I’m looking forward to seeing them grow even more so now that they have a year of the system under their belt. We have to find somebody who is compatible from a fundamental, technique standpoint, familiar with the concepts so we’re not starting all over with the quarterback coach. I want to bring somebody in here who has a background in this stuff who can add a little bit to the staff; and of course recruiting is important, where they’re familiar and what they’ve done in recruiting would also be of a consideration but I want to get a real quarterback guy in here who can really, really help us with the development of these quarterbacks…I’ve got a list of guys here some are NFL guys, some guys are not.”
When you get with the team for spring practice in March what are you hoping to see? In other words, what will you hope to see in terms of the progress the players have made on their own?

“We have the offseason conditioning work next week. I expect to see a sense of urgency and hunger in their approach to what they do. All the other things…guys will go into the weight room, work hard, do a good job in school, conduct themselves appropriately, I expect to see those things  – but I expect to see a hungry group that got sick of watching games over the holiday and not being in one having a lingering type of effect as they work through the offseason program, spring practice, preseason practice and I expect it through every phase of the offseason program right up to the UMass game and beyond.”
You like starting the spring with five quarterbacks to choose from?

“I love it. I love it.”

How are you going to figure that thing out?

“Don’t worry. There will be plenty of reps [repetitions]. We’re good at lots of reps.”