Myers a familiar face for Edsall

STORRS >> When Randy Edsall returned to campus for his second stint at the helm of the UConn football team, introductions were necessary for nearly every player he would be coaching during the spring - with one rather noticeable exception.

It would not be a stretch to suggest senior tight end Tommy Myers was born to be a Husky. His mother Peggy Walsh is the leading scorer and rebounder on the first of Geno Auriemma’s women’s basketball teams at Connecticut. His father Norm recorded nearly 150 tackles while playing for the Huskies in the early 1980s.

Following the first spring practice on Tuesday morning, it proba-

bly should not be a surprise that the gregarious Myers was one of the four players selected to meet with the media.

It didn’t take much prodding for Myers to take a trip down memory lane to reflect on some of his earliest football memories, which all happen to center around the Edsall-coached UConn teams.

“I went to games at Memorial Stadium, watching games from the top of the car garage,” said Myers, who grew up in nearby Coventry. “I have seen everything from last-second field goals at USF to throwing snow balls at people at the USF game. It is just crazy what this program has gone through and I definitely want to get it back to where it was and just keep rolling.”

Myers doesn’t recall the exact year when he saw the Huskies play live for the first time, but it was early on during Edsall’s first run at UConn.

“I was young. I remember asking my mom, I was in the crowd and I think my dad was back for something because he played here,” Myers said. “I remember asking my mom, ‘why does the running back run into the big pile and not just around the pile?’ She had no idea and said, ‘ask your father.’ I was that young where I didn’t know, so I am going to guess I was 5 or 6 maybe. It is crazy to think about it. The field is not even there anymore, which is a crazy thing, but it is exciting to see where this place is going.

“I went to camp with Corey (Edsall, Randy’s son who just happens to be Myers’ position coach this season). He was older than me and it was cool to play with the coach’s son. I think he has a knowledge of it which is good.”

Edsall most certainly does have vivid recollections of the athletic son of two former UConn stars running around and making plays at Edsall’s football camp.

“I remember him coming to summer camps since about fourth grade,” Edsall said. “I feel good because he has lost his hair and I still have mine. He comes from a great family, but what you saw back then in fourth, fifth, sixth grade, when he came to all of those camps, you saw this guy who was a good athlete and just played hard, did all the things you wanted him to do. You see the same thing out here on the field now.

“I think a lot of that has to do not only with his makeup, but because of (his upbringing) that he has. He is one of those guys when you talk about leadership, he is one of those guys who is there, he is a worker, doesn’t say a whole lot, but he works. It is good because I can joke around with him a little bit because of those days way back when.”

If there is a position that was under-utilized when Bob Diaco was UConn’s coach, it probably was the tight ends.

Myers and fellow rising senior Alec Bloom have displayed the ability to make plays when thrown the ball, but too often were little more than an additional offensive lineman.

One day of spring practice with an entirely new coaching staff is not enough time to predict how the ball will be distributed in the passing game, but Myers believes the number of passes that get thrown to the tight ends could be determined by the quality of their work on the practice field.

“It really is an open book right now,” Myers said. “If the tight end corps comes out and performs like we can, they are going to use the tight ends and if they don’t, we won’t.”

EXTRA POINTS

One former tight end who won’t be involved is Chris Lee. Lee was recently moved to offensive tackle, but after heading home to Maryland for a few days and having a heart to heart talk with his parents, he returned to campus and informed Edsall that he has lost the desire to play football so he is planning to enroll at a school closer to home and pursue a life without football.

Linebacker Luke Carrezola as well as offensive linemen Ryan Crozier and Tommy Hopkins all had no-contact jerseys on at the practice.