TE Jay Rose finishing his long journey at UConn
A few years ago, having resurrected his own UConn experience after straightening out his approach to college and football, Jay Rose saw a teammate coming out of a dorm elevator, bags packed, about to make the same mistake he had in the summer of 2016.
“I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been there, I’ve done that,’ ” Rose recalled recently. “And he ended up coming back and earning a scholarship. So that was pretty cool.”
Rose, a senior in his sixth year with the program, is about to wrap up a strange — ultimately pretty cool — chapter of change and adaptation.
Once a celebrated quarterback at Southington High while still going by Jasen, Rose committed to Bob Diaco’s UConn program in September 2015, enrolled in 2016 and announced he was leaving a week before the Huskies’ first game.
Months later, in April 2017, Rose re-enrolled at UConn and joined Randy Edsall’s program as a walk-on. He played entirely on special teams in 2017, was rewarded with a scholarship in the summer of 2018 and has since worked his way to the top of the depth chart as a tight end.
“I look back on it and don’t regret any of it,” Rose said. “It’s all part of the journey and you can’t undo it. Here I am, five years later, and I couldn’t be more excited to be here and be ready for the season.”
UConn, which opted out last year amid concerns over COVID-19 complications, opens the 2021 season Aug. 28 at Fresno State. The home opener at Rentschler Field, where Rose sat in the stands for many games as a kid, is Sept. 4 against Holy Cross.
Tight ends coach Corey Edsall and Rose recently had a conversation while looking at a picture taken during their first training camp together, in 2017.
“I said, man, that seems like 10 years ago,” Corey Edsall said.
“We talked about the journey and he and I being together now going on our fifth year, how much things have changed, how much he’s changed. He came in and couldn’t have been rawer as an athlete and a tight end. Now, he uses great technique and he’s a leader for us. He’s just grown a lot personally and a lot as a football player. That’s the coolest thing to say.”
Rose, listed at 6 feet 3½ inches, entered his junior season with just one career reception for 17 yards but added 27 catches for 261 yards and two touchdowns as the Huskies went 2-10 in 2019. He used the program’s year away to put on muscle — despite being limited, physically, for 10 months during the program’s 21month layoff.
In August 2020, Rose sustained a torn pectoral muscle while bench pressing. The injury required surgery. He missed spring practice and wasn’t cleared for full activity until around June 1. Still, his weight is up (about 255) while his body fat is down.
“He’s moving really well and our strength and conditioning people said, ‘Coach, he can handle this [extra weight],’ ” Randy Edsall said. “Jay is a good kid. He’s a hard worker. I just want him to be able to stay healthy and get through a whole season. The big thing we’ve challenged him on is to become a better blocker. We know he can catch the ball and do all those things, but we want him to take his game to another level. Hopefully all the injuries are behind him.”
Discomfort with the situation certainly is.
Rose wasn’t at UConn long the first time around, after winning a CIAC Class LL championship as a sophomore tight end and another as a junior quarterback, finishing his career with 5,796 passing yards and 86 touchdowns.
“You go from being the big fish in the little pond to the little fish in the big pond,” Rose said.
He packed his bags and left.
“It was more on me, just me adjusting,” Rose said. “It had nothing to do with Coach Diaco. I was young. I wasn’t really sure. I wasn’t really into it. I didn’t feel like it was fair to the guys. I kind of just did my own thing, which at the end of the day was not the best thing to do and not the greatest decision. But I wouldn’t change it. It worked out for me. I’m back and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.”
Rose’s ties to the program now run longer and deeper than all players — and all coaches other than Randy Edsall. He graduated last fall with a business degree and is now in grad school, studying leadership and public management.
“To earn that [scholarship] back, to earn Coach’s trust, it meant the world,” Rose said. “Look at where we are now. I knew it was part of the process and I know Coach, when we had that conversation, he trusted me and I trusted him. It was a good feeling.”
Corey Edsall considers this year’s tight end group to be the deepest since 2017, when Rose was beneath players such as Alec Bloom, Tommy Myers and Tyler Davis (now with the Jaguars) on the depth chart.
UConn hasn’t had a winning season since 2010. The Huskies were 3-9 in Diaco’s final season and are 6-30 since.
“The wins haven’t been there but Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Rose said. “That’s where we’re at now. I think this year is going to prove to people that the work has been put in. You can’t just come in and flip a program around in one or two years. You need the guys, and we’re at that point now. You’re going to see it on the field.”
“I look back on it and don’t regret any of it. It’s all part of the journey and you can’t undo it. Here I am, five years later, and I couldn’t be more excited to be here and be ready for the season.”
— Jay Rose, UConn tight end