Jones, Washington to focus on academics
UConn freshmen Kevon Jones and Marvin Washington won’t play the rest of the season as they focus more attention on academics, coach Randy Edsall announced Tuesday.
Jones, a true freshman, has been UConn’s starting middle linebacker this season, while Washington, a redshirt freshman, was the Huskies’ backup quarterback.
Edsall said he posed Washington a choice: either remain active and attempt to balance academics or practice with the scout team so he could prioritize school.
“I brought him in and I said, ‘Marvin, you’ve got to to learn to be a man. You’ve got to learn to make decisions about what is best for your interests going forward,’” Edsall said. “He came in this morning and said, ‘Coach, I want to be here, and I think the best opportunity for me to be here is to be a scout-team quarterback and focus on my academics for the rest of the semester.’ And I stood up and gave him a big hug because he’s starting to get it.”
Washington could compete for the starting quarterback job next season but only, Edsall said, if he gets his grade-point average above a certain number.
As for Jones, the Huskies’ leader in tackles for loss, Edsall said the freshman simply had too much to worry about at once.
“He’s a young man that had too much on his plate as a true freshman, and I saw that he was struggling a little bit, and I made the decision that he’s going to not play the last three games, and he’s going to concentrate on academics,” Edsall said. “He needs something off his plate, and football’s getting taken off his plate so he can spend more time in the classroom and get off to a good start.”
Edsall has spoken frequently in recent weeks about the importance of staying on top of players’ academic performance.
Asked Tuesday why he serves as the program’s academic liaison, as opposed to leaving that responsibility for an assistant coach, Edsall said that approach was part of his recruiting pitch.
“It’s what we sell,” the coach said. “That we care about you holistically, as a total person, not just as an athlete. If the head coach is involved, it puts a little bit more emphasis on it.”
As difficult as this season has been for everyone around the UConn program, it has been particularly challenging for the team’s key freshmen, who arrived on campus over the summer and found themselves thrown into the lineup immediately.
Now, with UConn 1-8 on the year, those freshmen say they’re trying to finish the season well to set up better results in 2019.
“We have to finish these games strong,” defensive end Lwal Uguak said Tuesday. “We have to play as hard as we can so that it builds momentum into next year and throughout the offseason.”
Added cornerback Jeremy Lucien: “Regardless of what happens, right now we know what needs to be done so that the way this season turned out, we can completely turn it on its head by next year. The goal is to win these next three games, but regardless of whether we win or lose, we know we need to put in a lot more work and change our mentality completely.”
Uguak said he’s motivated to play hard for the team’s seniors, who won’t reach a bowl game in their final season but could still go out with an extra win or two.
Freshman safety Oneil Robinson, meanwhile, pointed to another source of inspiration: linebacker Eli Thomas, whois recovering from a stroke he suffered last month.
“He can’t play, so we try to play for him,” Robinson said.
Ultimately, Lucien said, players — from freshmen to seniors — are simply tired of getting beaten.
“At this point it’s a pride thing,” Lucien said. “None of us like to go out and keep getting the result that we’re getting each week. So we just need to dig deeper into ourselves and develop an even stronger sense of pride so that we can go out and close the season off with a bang.”