The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Walk-on O’Reilly making most of his chance with Huskies
EAST HARTFORD — The story of Donevin O’Reilly earning a spot on the UConn football roster after taking part in an open tryout could be ripped from the pages of a Hollywood script.
However, the former Glastonbury High running back, who led all players with 130 rushing yards and 179 all-around yards in Saturday’s spring football game at Rentschler Field, isn’t quite ready to be classified at the UConn football program’s version of Notre Dame folk legend Rudy Ruettiger, who took a similar path on his way to ultimately seeing the field for the Fighting Irish.
“It wasn’t like I was some guy sitting in my dorm room and heard of a tryout and maybe I’ll go,” said O’Reilly after rushing for 130 yards and two touchdowns and had six receptions for 49 yards and another TD. “I’ve played football since I was 6, got recruited out of high school. I’ve always been around football, a lot of my friends have gone Division I, so for myself to play on this level is great. They don’t really think the walk-ons on the team are really good athletes. We don’t get looked at as walk-ons, we get treated as scholarship players.”
O’Reilly didn’t join UConn until the week after the Huskies’ 2017 season opener. He had his lone carry of the season less than two months after practicing with the Huskies for the first time. Two weeks later he returned two kickoffs for 31 yards.
“The first time I saw him, he was so nervous,” UConn right tackle Matt Peart said. “You see his growth and he is more comfortable with what he is doing. The confidence he has is a testament to the hard work and dedication he put into it.
“He basically came from the tryouts to running with the ones. It is a passion. He truly loves playing football, he loves playing with us,” Peart said. “It is amazing to see the drive he puts to get the extra yard. It is nice when you have a back like that who is willing to do that.”
O’Reilly ran 18 times and led all players with six receptions.
Coming out of Glastonbury, O’Reilly landed at Merrimack where his
brother played before he decided to return home.
“I had opportunity to choose where I wanted to be in college, so I thought there was no better place than UConn to be back home in Connecticut and follow my dreams of playing in the biggest state college in Connecticut,” O’Reilly said. “I had a lot of choices. I could have hung up the pads and hung up the cleats, called in a career, but I knew it I kept working, I would get my opportunity. When Coach (Randy) Edsall and his staff came in, it was really a blessing for me because it gave me the opportunity to play football again and show what I could do. For them to give me the opportunity is the best gift of my life.”
O’Reilly benefited from a lack of numbers at the running back position to see plenty of time working with
the starters during spring drills setting up his huge game to wrap up spring practice.
WILLIAMS STEPS UP
With concussion-like symptoms keeping starting cornerback Tahj Herring-Wilson out of the spring game, there were plenty of options for the coaches to pick from.
The job went to walk-on and former Hamden Hall star Kyle Williams who had a pair of solo tackles and helped jar the ball loose from Zavier Scott for the lone lost fumble in the game. “One of our players went down and they just threw me in there,” Williams said. “I’ve been repping both corner spots and the safety spot all spring so they told me to be ready when they call my name.”
WRAPPING UP
No final score was reported because of the game’s format. The firstteam offense squared off with the starting defense,
while the second team offenses and defenses also went head to head.
The lone defensive score came Quimonei Bell-Hunter’s 39-yard interception return for a touchdown. Nate Hopkins ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns, while Zavier Scott had a 61-yard scoring run and five receptions. Kyle Buss had 116 yards on five receptions. Aaron McLean had TD grabs of 42 and 27 yards both from David Pindell (15 of 27 for 268 yards, 2 TDs, 2 interceptions in addition to 56 rushing yards and another TD). Kicker Michael Tarbutt was successful on field goal attempts of 54, 43 and 51 yards.
Defensively, Darrian Beavers had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery, Eddie Hahn also had 10 tackles, 21⁄2 tackles for loss and a sack. Andrew Migliaccio had three tackles for loss.