Skanes could be impact player

STORRS » It was around this time last year when the buzz around game-breaking receiver Quayvon Skanes began to intensify.

When discussing the true freshmen most likely to get onto the field during the 2016 season, if Skanes’ name was not the first mentioned by former head coach Bob Diaco, it certainly didn’t take long to hear his name called.

It wasn’t a case of if Skanes would make his debut but more of a case of when. However, Skanes never did get that call to step onto the football field as a true freshman.

“I wasn’t hurt or anything but I had to get bigger, faster so red-

shirting was the opportunity to do that,” Skanes said. “I got the tempo of the offense. Coming from high school to college is so different so taking that year got me used to the tempo of college.”

At Monday’s practice, Skanes caught multiple touchdown passes from David Pindell during red zone drills including one highlight variety diving catch in the end zone as he was seeing first-team reps along with Tyraiq Beals and Hergy Mayala.

“I feel like I learning pretty quickly,” Skanes said. “It is a pretty explosive offense.”

It wasn’t a perfect day of practice for Skanes as he was still bothered by a dropped pass but he displayed the talent that figures to make him a key part of UConn’s offense.

Whether he played or not right away, Skanes’ approach was the same. He worked as hard as he could and spent as much time as he could around record-breaking senior Noel Thomas, who is currently making a bid to make the Detroit Lions as an undrafted rookie free agent, and Brian Lemelle.

“They led the offense, showed us what to do and in practice Noel did a great job getting the ball, setting a good example for the receivers,” Skanes said.

Skanes knows a thing or two about making an impact. Four years before his freshman season at Phillips Academy, the Chicagobased school went 0-9. By the time he was a senior, the Wildcats made history by becoming the first public school from Chicago to win a IHSA state title.

Phillips went from 5-3 to 8-4 to 12-2 and finally had a magical 14-0 season when Skanes was a senior.

Phillips was far from being the only undefeated state championship team in 2015 but few had a story to match the one Skanes and his teammates put together.

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, there were 12 players who came out for the Phillips squad in Troy McAllister’s first season at the helm in 2010. Skanes was one of 19 seniors on the 2015 squad and all of them graduated which was a noteworthy achievement considering the dropout rate at the school was severe enough that outside parties were brought in to offer assistance.

Skanes admits that he grew up in a rough and tumble section of Chicago and when youths from his neighborhood were making news, it was usually for all the wrong reasons.

“I came from a tough neighborhood, a neighborhood with a lot of crime, it was kind of tough,” Skanes said.

Football was a way out for Skanes so he boarded a train for the daily 30-minute commute to school.

“You have a lot of adversity,” Skanes said. “A lot of teammates from (tough) places, they travel to school. The practice facility is not so great, our weight room. ... We had to make due with what we had.”

The IHSA began sanctioning state football playoffs in 1974 and the only public school from Chicago to play for a state title came in 1982 when Robeson lost in the 5A final. In 2014 Phillips won four games, including a one-point affair against Lutheran in the quarterfinals to reach the 4A state championship game. The only history on that day was made by Rochester as the 49-28 victory marking the first time an Illinois public school won five straight football state championships.

The goal was rather simple for Skanes’ senior season — to close the deal.

Skanes, who moved to quarterback for his senior campaign, ran for 141 yards and four touchdowns as Phillips defeated Althoff 51-7 to win the 4A championship.

“It was pretty huge, the city had our back, the fans had our back too,” Skanes said. “When I got there as a freshman, that was the goal. The coach (Troy McAllister), he had players around me to make that happen.”

Now he has some new teammates looking to bring winning back to the UConn program. If a two-deep chart were to be released today, running backs Nate Hopkins and Ja’Kevious Vickers, offensive linemen Cam DeGeorge and Nino Leone in addition to Skanes and fellow receiver Keyion Dixon would be among the redshirt freshmen pushing hard for spots on either the first or second team,

“I knew we had a lot talent,” Hopkins said. “Some of us weren’t ready and maybe some of us were but a lot of us were on scout and we had to go against really good players. I know personally it helped me because I was going after Junior (Joseph), Obi (Melifonwu), NFL dudes and it really made me better.”

What about Skanes’ potential in coordinator’s Rhett Lashlee’s offense?

“Q is very quick,” Hopkins said. “I think he can be a real good weapon for us.”