Five big questions facing UConn’s defense ahead of fall football camp

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There isn’t a fanbase that knows bad defense like the UConn football crowd.

Surely fans won’t forget 2018, when the Huskies were offering less resistance than their opponents saw in practice.

It was a record-breaking year for the program; The season ended with a 57-7 loss to Temple, which pushed the Huskies up to 50.41 points allowed per game, just barely surpassing the previous record of 50.27 set by Louisiana in 1997 (UMass would soon relieve UConn of the record by giving up 52.7 points per game the following year).

UConn could’ve completely shut down Temple’s offense in that game, not allowed a single yard of forward progress, and still would’ve set the national record for yards allowed per game. But the Huskies’ turnstile defense gave up 516 yards and finished the season with 7,409 allowed – or 617.4 yards per game, which blew the previous record of just over 560, set by Kansas in 2015, out of the water.

Those days, apparently, are over.

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After all, defense was Jim Mora’s specialty. And the former NFL defensive coordinator brought a legitimacy back to that side of the ball that was missing over a five-year period from 2017-21, the program’s darkest days in the second stint of former head coach Randy Edsall. UConn moved back into the top-100 of scoring defenses in Mora’s first year, up to No. 62 (26.2 allowed ppg) in 2022, and dropped to No. 100 (29.8 ppg) as the program took a step back in ’23. Once Mora relieved himself from double-duty as head coach and defensive coordinator, Matt Brock coached the Huskies to the No. 43 scoring defense in 2024 (23.1 ppg) and the No. 81 unit (27.0 ppg) last fall.

The reigns are now handed over to Ryan Manalac as the Jason Candle era begins. A first-time DC at the FBS level, Manalac has prior experience in the role, which he served in at Division II Ohio Dominican in 2017 and 2018, and then at FCS Bucknell the following season before a five-year stint as a highly-respected linebackers coach at Pittsburgh.

Manalac brings a new look with a four-down base defense, differing from Brock’s vaunted 3-3-5, but his fast and physical philosophy isn’t unique. His charge, however, of trying to turn an entirely new group into an effective unit, will be a relatively new experience during training camp this fall.

Here are five questions the Huskies face on the defensive side of the ball heading into camp:

Who will be tabbed leader of the defense?

There isn’t a player on UConn’s roster that has higher expectations on him at this point in the offseason than linebacker K’Von Sherman. A first team all-MAC selection at Toledo last fall, “Sherm” is expected to be the leader of the linebacker room and the leader of the defense after making 93 tackles and 4.5 sacks for the Rockets in 2025. He and running back Kenji Christian, a former Toledo teammate, were named to the East-West Shrine Bowl watch list on Thursday.

“He has a lot of eyes on him,” Candle said.

“He’s a man in the middle, he’s confident, he’s aggressive and he’s worked hard to pick up the nuance of the scheme to get us lined up up front, our blitz mechanics. He’s working to get better every day,” Manalac said. “Excited about K’Von, I think he’s a physical specimen and he’s also an intelligent football player.”

Former Big Ten defensive end will lead new-look, new-scheme UConn defense

How will the depth on the defensive line come together?

UConn has benefitted from continuity on its defensive line, especially in 2024 when players like Dal’Mont Gourdine, Jelani Stafford and Pryce Yates established themselves up front and helped the Huskies to the No. 43 scoring defense in the FBS – the program’s best since 2015, when the defense only gave up 19.5 points per game, good for 15th nationally.

There will be a bit of a mix on that front this season, with players like Avery Dunn and Esean Carter coming over together from Toledo. But others will have to work into the mix as well, and they have talent coming from schools like Ohio State, Texas, Duke and others.

“I hope it becomes a group that you can play seven or eight guys throughout the course of the game and you don’t miss a beat. You could really do a good job having a really solid rotation,” Candle said. “The more of those guys on the front you have ready to go, the better off you’re going to be.”

What’s happening in the secondary?

While UConn’s front seven boasts some experience, the 10 transfers brought into the secondary do not have so much.

But the Huskies have identified safety Braedyn Moore as a leader in the defensive backfield. He began his career at Wisconsin in 2023, on the same team as eventual Huskies Skyler Bell, Nick Evers and Kamo’i Latu, before transferring to Toledo last season, playing all 13 games and making six tackles. He claims he’d shut Bell down 60% of the time if they were to go up against each other.

That kind of coverage could be critical for the Huskies, who will see a number of defensive backs get their first real opportunity come training camp. Many of them also come from Toledo, which isn’t necessarily a downside. The Rockets had the second-best defense in the FBS in terms of yards allowed last season at just 254.3 per game, and were the fourth-best scoring defense at just 13.3 points allowed per game.

Candle has had six defensive backs drafted to the NFL since 2019, including safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren and corner Andre Fuller, who were selected in the second and seventh rounds, respectively, in April.

What is Ryan Manalac’s plan for bringing the group together?

A former Big East linebacker at Cincinnati, Manalac knows what kind of football he wants to see on the field come September. But that won’t happen until the players have some more time to figure out how to play alongside each other and get on the same page in a system they haven’t played in before.

“Think about all the champions in all the major sports, right? They all have unique defenses. We were talking about Spain, who just won the World Cup, or the Seahawks who won the Super Bowl, the Knicks who won the NBA Finals. I mean, these teams have great defenses who come together, they’re able to have tactical flexibility and players who want to be selfless to get the job done,” Manalac said. “So we bring in a lot of guys from a lot of different places, but we’ve met with each of them individually to make sure they’re good people first and foremost, they want to work hard, they want to work together and they want a collective outcome. They all want to win, and I think when we win, individuals will be recognized. But I think it’s a huge hurdle we have.”

Who are some non-Toledo transfers to watch?

Players like Sherman, Carter, Dunn and Moore will be critical to the Huskies as leaders and players on the defense. But there are some others who’ve come from elsewhere who will make an impact.

As far as returning Huskies, former receiver Kylish Hicks is back for his fifth season in Storrs and his third since switching from receiver to defensive back. He appeared in all 13 games last year, making most of his impact on special teams. Defensive lineman Matt Hoffman is another player who’s been with the Huskies his whole career and had 22 tackles last season. Players like Saxton Suchanic, Axavier Bridges-Brooks and Carter Boskovich also returned and could step into larger roles at DB.

Other players to watch include defensive linemen Andrew Laurich (Colorado State), Anas Luqman (Ohio), Shamar Riser-Pressly (Buffalo), Tahjae Mullix (Oregon State) and Joshua Mickens (Ohio State), linebackers Luke Murphy (Coastal Carolina) and John Lista (Penn), and defensive backs Renick Dorilas (Rutgers), CJ Bell (Iowa), Moussa Kane (Duke) and Tracy Revels (Michigan State).

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