CB Jamar Summers is just one of the many players taking on a leadership role during spring practice

The UConn football program held their annual pro day a few weeks back on March 8th, a day before spring practice opened. Taking part were a number of key members of the Huskies 2015 defense, including captain and DL Julian Campenni, two-time captain and LB Marquise Vann, DL Kenton Adeyemi, LB Graham Stewart and S Andrew Adams.

One would think that losing five starting seniors on the defensive side of the ball would leave a hole, specifically when it comes to leadership. However, if you ask head coach Bob Diaco, that won’t be a problem and there’s a reason for that.

“For our team, guys are emerging that have played a ton of reps,” Diaco said after the first practice of the spring back on March 9th. “Junior Joseph has played a ton of plays. Mikal Myers, Foley [Fatukasi], Obi [Melifonwu], J-Dub [Jhavon Williams] on the perimeter, Jamar Summers, these guys have played 2,000 plays. They should be seasoned veterans. There’s only one way to become a veteran player, by playing in the games.”

Diaco did not stop there.

“We’ve got veterans on offense and defense,” he continued. “Andreas [Knappe], Richard Levy, Bryant [Shirreffs], Arkeel [Newsome] and Ron [Johnson], Noel [Thomas]. These guys are veteran players. Tommy Meyers, Alec Bloom. These guys are veteran players that have played somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 plays, with us, so they should be leading the team and they are. They’re all doing a nice job.”

Diaco expanded upon those comments after the sixth practice of the spring, yesterday morning in Storrs.

“I think that we have the appropriate amount of leaders,” he said. “We have some natural born leaders and we’ve had natural born leaders, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. Just because you’re a natural born leader, doesn’t mean that you’re a great leader.”

“You could be a bad leader,” Diaco continued. “If you’re a magnetic personality, but you’re not leading the right way, you’re going to lead and people are still going to follow you down the wrong path. We have a nice blend right now of natural born leaders who also happen to be our hardest workers and some of our most productive players. That’s a good blend.”

That leadership has been evident throughout the spring, thus far, and it should be expected to continue as we creep closer to the spring game on April 16th.