The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
JEFF JACOBS
Huskies players aim high and believe
EAST HARTFORD — One went to his coaches for a change. The other went inside his head.
Aaron McLean wanted to be a tight end. Michael Tarbutt did not want to be tight in the end of games.
Coming off back-to-back 3-9 seasons, the status quo isn’t nearly good enough for UConn football. Improvements will be needed here, there and just about everywhere. Adjustments are mandatory.
The annual Blue-White scrimmage, a glorified final spring practice filled with game situations, is a nice measuring stick to see where progress has and hasn’t been made. Progress isn’t always measured in the same way.
Take McLean, the 6-5 senior who caught two touchdowns passes Saturday, one an especially impressive catch of 42 yards.
Take Tarbutt, the junior kicker who nailed field goals of 54, 43 and 51 yards at Rentschler Field.
With Rhett Lashlee bolting UConn after only one year for SMU, McLean began to examine new offensive coordinator John Dunn’s playbook.
“Once I looked at the new offense, I felt I could be more helpful to the team and more effective as a tight end,” said McLean, who had 31 catches for 472 yards as a wide receiver in 2017. “Last year, at my position, I was doing a lot of slot work. This year, receivers aren’t really doing much slot work.
“I looked at the tight ends and they were doing a lot of that.”
So McLean went to the bosses.
“We were thinking about it,” coach Randy Edsall said. “He came to us a little bit quicker than we were going to him. Give him credit for seeing that opportunity, because you know what? When they do that, you know they’re invested in terms of making the move.
“You can create mis-
matches with guys like him and Tyler Davis. We’re going to make sure we get the best people on the field. When you get into what we call ‘12 personnel’ with two tight ends, two receivers and a back, it can give you advantages on a defense.”
Alec Bloom and Tommy Myers are graduating. Davis, who once upon a time entered UConn as a quarterback, is an athletic tight end, too. So is another former high school star quarterback from Southington, Jay Rose. Zordan Holman adds to the pot of tight ends.
“Aaron has got to end up putting on a little bit more weight and get a little bit stronger,” Edsall said. “Tight ends are going to have to block. He has come a long way … but the more leg strength he has, a little more added weight, will help him be a multi-down player.”
McLean said recently that because he’s the skinniest guy in the room Holman calls him Skeletor, the Masters of the Universe character. McLean weighed in at 228 recently. His goal is 240 by the start of the season.
“It’s definitely doable,” McLean said. “Honestly, it’s living in the weight room. But the biggest thing for me is to get bigger while not losing my speed. I’ve got to do it the right way. Put on muscle, not fat. All summer, that’ll be my focus.”
His speed is there. His route running is there. He’ll be a nightmare for linebackers. On this day — when he read the safety, saw him pop up and simply ran past him to pull in a long touchdown pass from David Pindell — McLean showed he can be a nightmare for defensive backs, too.
McLean showed last year he was a willing downfield blocker for guys like Arkeel Newsome. He also knows it is a different animal working out of a three-point stance, learning the nuances of gap blocking and banging with the big boys.
“I’m gaining more confidence every practice with the run game,” McLean said. “Once I learn what I’m doing, I can do it faster and better. Yeah, I’m smaller than most of the big guys, but I think it’s more of a ‘want to.’ I always want to see my teammates shine, so I have the ‘want to’ to block for them.”
Asked who he’d like to pattern his game after, McLean smiled and said, “I love the way (Rob Gronkowski) plays, but I’m not going to get as big as Gronk. I’m going to have to look more into that.”
Tarbutt had some good moments last year, connecting on 12 of 18 field goal attempts, He also had some especially painful moments, cruel moments. He missed a 33-yard field goal as the clock ran out in a 41-38 loss to East Carolina. He missed a 35-yard PAT after Hergy Mayala was given a 15-yard penalty for taunting following a touchdown with no time remaining. Final: Cincinnati 22, UConn 21.
See you in 2018.
It’s 2018.
“A lot of it was mental,” Tarbutt said. “I knew I had the leg. I read a lot of books. I listened to a lot of people talk. It was pick and find what I liked in what people’s beliefs are and their mottos. I’ve slowly made kind of my own.” And it is?
“Bet on yourself,” he said.
Edsall did something interesting in workouts in Storrs this past week. He iced Tarbutt on field goal attempts. He did it again Saturday, calling timeout twice at the last moment in the first half. The third snap, Tarbutt calmly split the uprights from 54 yards.
“He didn’t pass that test during a couple other scrimmages we had,” Edsall said. “To put him in that situation again with fans out here on this field, it shows me he did something to block things out to go out and execute.
“He passed the exam today. Now he has to do that all the time.”
Tarbutt said Edsall icing him was “fun.”
“I’m way more mature than before,” Tarbutt said. “None of that really bothers me anymore.”
Bet on yourself. It turns out to be Fred VanVleet-inspired.
“The Toronto Raptors, my home NBA team, it’s their motto this year,” said Tarbutt, who’s from Grimsby, Ontario. “I love the idea (that) regardless whether people believe a kick is going to go in or not, no matter what I’m going to bet on myself putting that thing through the uprights.
“I kind of got beat down and I had to figure out who the real me was, especially after the Cincinnati game.”
Once you find out who you are, Tarbutt said, you restart everything from the base up and build the pyramid higher.
“Moving last year, you have to put everything in the dust. But at the same time you have to use it for motivation for training. I’m using last year as a huge learning experience. It’s a brand-new me, but at the same time still the same leg.”