‘He makes it feel special’
What recruits are hearing from coach Jim Mora
Jackson Harper, a wide receiver about to enter his final year at Avon Old Farms, visited UConn for the first time in March with more than a tour and scholarship in mind. He had an important question for Jim Mora.
“What is the plan?” Harper remembers asking the Huskies’ coach. “How is he going to take a run-down program and turn it upside down?”
With UConn football having cascaded to laughingstock status in recent years, that is a fair and healthy discussion for any prospect to introduce.
Recruiting isn’t much different than sales. And from the transfer portal to high school and prep school pools, there are players buying what Mora is selling, which is to say he is effectively articulating a vision for the future of the program.
“First of all, he explained that he has a goal of joining the ACC within the next few years,” said Harper, who committed to UConn in late June. “Obviously, they have to have a few respectable seasons for the ACC to really take them seriously. But he also talked about how there are no professional teams in Connecticut, so if you can just get the attention and respect of everyone in Connecticut, we will have a good fan base.”
Mora has been on the job for about eight months. His sideline debut is less than two months away, on Aug. 27 at Utah State. The only places he can win, for now, are in the minds of recruits and players he inherited and in public perception of the product.
The Huskies have posted a 10-50 record since 2016 while losing the interest of much of the state.
Continued unpredictability, it seems, is all that is truly predictable in the musical chairs of conference realignment. It is impossible to gauge when, or how, UConn might actually again affiliate with a conference. The Huskies are entering their second season as an independent program and have schedules built out years in advance.
What Mora is continually citing as sources of optimism, according to several recently committed Class of 2023 recruits, is what’s in front of him every day: the Huskies’ facilities, a rejuvenated group of returning players and the general everyday approach to the program’s latest reboot.
A career coach and the son of a coach, Mora, 60, is polished, having spent a lifetime on sidelines, in meetings and in front of TV cameras. He’s also, in players’ eyes, approachable and conversational, embracing every day in a job some might consider the most difficult in major college football.
“We had a two-hour conversation during my visit and it was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had,” said Cam Chadwick, a defensive back from Somerville, New Jersey. “Most of it wasn’t about football. It was just about life. That’s what got me shown that he has an open-door policy and that, whenever I need to, I can just go in and talk to him and just bond.”
Chadwick is a cousin of former Huskies point guard R.J. Cole, who is playing for the Lakers in the NBA Summer League. So he has
had not spoken to them yet.
“Probably,” she said, her eyes welling with tears, her face reddening, her hand placed over her mouth, “they’re going to be super proud.”
And then, after a pause, Rybakina joked: “You wanted to see emotion!”
This was the first Wimbledon women’s final since 1962 between a pair of players both making a debut in a Grand Slam title match, and Rybakina acknowledged being nervous at the start. When she stepped into the sunshine filling the 100-year-old stadium, she did not wave to the spectators, the way Jabeur did. Instead, Rybakina kept a firm double-grip on the black-and-red straps of the racket bag slung over her shoulders.
And it was Jabeur who played better in the early going, handling Rybakina’s strong serve and groundstrokes to break for a 2-1 edge.
Rybakina’s miscues mounted. A volley into the net tape with the full court wide open. A netted forehand after Jabeur barely got a short return in. When another forehand off Rybakina’s red racket went awry, Jabeur broke at love to take the opening set, yelled “Yalla!” — Arabic for “Let’s go!” — and threw an uppercut as she walked to the sideline.
Jabeur, a 27-year-old from Tunisia, entered on a 12match winning streak, all on grass courts, and was trying to become the first Arab or African woman to win a Slam singles title in the professional era, which dates to 1968.
“I just try to inspire as many generations as I can,” said Jabeur, who had stored a photo of the Wimbledon women’s singles trophy on her phone for inspiration. “I hope they’re not really disappointed, but I’ll try my best next time.”
Rybakina was born in
Moscow and has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, when that country offered her funding to support her tennis career. The switch has been a topic of conversation during Wimbledon, because the All England Club barred athletes who represent Russia or Belarus from entering the tournament due to the war in Ukraine.
The women’s and men’s tennis tours responded to that by withholding all
ranking points from Wimbledon, meaning Rybakina will not get the bump up she would have in any other year.
“I didn’t choose where I was born,” Rybakina said. “People believed in me. Kazakhstan supported me so much.”
Since the WTA computer rankings began in 1975, just one woman ranked lower than Rybakina has won Wimbledon — Venus Williams in 2007 at No. 31, although she had been No. 1 and already won three of her five career Wimbledon trophies.
Be the second set, Rybakina, who beat Serena Williams at last year’s French Open, began showing why she leads the tour in aces in 2022, why, as she put it, “It’s effortless, the power I have.”
Her first break chance finally arrived more than an hour in, and Rybakina converted it to go up 1-0 when Jabeur missed a forehand. After saving four break points over her next two service games, Rybakina broke again and soon led 5-1.
“I didn’t play my best tennis, let’s say, second and third set,” said Jabeur, who leads the women’s tour with 13 victories in threesetters this year. “She started to be more aggressive. I think she stepped in the court much more and put a lot of pressure on me.”
Hitting her flat forehands deep into the court, never quite allowing Jabeur to regain her rhythm, Rybakina broke to begin the third. There was one last crucial moment: Jabeur, who uses as many spins and slices and variety as anyone in the game, parlayed a drop shot and a lob into love-40 on Rybakina’s serve.
But Rybakina took the next five points, aided by a couple of 119 mph serves, to go up 4-2, then quickly broke again.
“Frustrating,” Jabeur said.
Not much later, it was over.
“I didn’t know what to do. It was shocking,” Rybakina said, explaining that she was so “in shock” she didn’t hear half of what the Duchess of Cambridge told her during the trophy ceremony.
“Maybe one day you will see huge reaction from me,” she said with a smile, “but unfortunately not today.”
Rybakina acknowledged afterward she didn’t expect to get to the fortnight’s second week, let alone the final weekend.