At today’s press conference leading into Saturday’s matchup with UCF, the first against a ranked team for the Huskies this season, head coach Randy Edsall was asked about the lack of production from the offensive line. The group, thought to be a strength of the team entering the 2019 season, has not performed up to expectations. The stats tell the story.

Ranked 122nd in the nation at just 98.3 yards per game, the UConn rushing offense has been non-existent, particularly against FBS opponents. Take away the 234-yard performance against FCS Wagner and that number drops to just 51-yards per contest (not counting sacks); registering just 41-yards against Illinois and 61-yards at Indiana. The 2.66 yards per carry is also one of the nation’s worst at 123rd nationally and drops to 2.55 YPC against FBS competition.

So what happened? After all, the line is talented. Pro scouts have been checking out RT Matt Peart for years, salivating at his potential. Ryan Van Demark possesses the athleticism to really be an effective player on the blindside. And the amount of experience with those two, plus Cam DeGeorge and Nino Leone, the Huskies new center, gave a promising outlook for the Huskies on the ground. According to Edsall, it’s a mentality.

“It’s not real hard,” he said this afternoon. “It’s called doing your job, coming off the ball, playing with good fundamentals and technique and having more of a will and want-to than the guy across from you. Then the backs have to read their keys and make the proper cuts. Running the football, to me, that’s all will and want-to. It’s like life, everything is want-to. How much want-to do you have to go out there and be the best you can be on each and every play.”

“We aren’t going to sit here and devise any supernatural plays that they haven’t seen,” Edsall continued. “It just comes down to blocking, driving people off the ball and backs making the right reads.”

In the second half on Saturday, the Huskies made a switch at left guard, with redshirt sophomore Robert Holmes coming on for DeGeorge. Edsall seemed to like the push he saw on the left side of the line at times after the switch, but it still needs to be more consistent if the run game is going to take some pressure off of true freshman quarterback Jack Zergiotis.

“There were guys that played well in spots,” Edsall acknowledged. “But we’re not consistent enough. Last week Rob Holmes gave us a little more push. When you watch the tape, you don’t see people at the line of scrimmage when him and Van Demark doubled, you see guys 2-to-3 yards off the ball. Now it’s a lot easier to run the ball, you get up there and press the blocks and make the cuts as a running back. Even the great backs, they need some push, they can’t get it all done by themselves, so that will help. We just need to continue to work on that and get better especially when you go against teams that are a little bigger than you are.”

Edsall pointed to some of his more experienced players as guys that need to improve in order for the run game to be successful.

“Nino [Leone] has to step it up and Matt [Peart] needs to step it up, they’ve both been around,” he said. “We made a change at left guard and Vandy [Van Demark] needs to continue to grow. Christian [Haynes] isn’t a freshman anymore, he’s played three games. As a group, we have three games under our belt, we’ve played at home and we’ve played on the road, so now they know what the expectations are when you have to go on the road and play. Nobody is young anymore.”

The loud environment that is expected on Saturday night in Orlando makes communication up front even more important, so cohesion as a unit will be of the utmost importance. The Huskies can’t get themselves off-schedule with procedure penalties either, so Zergiotis will need to be a strong communicator at the line. UCF presents a challenge, no doubt, but the UConn offense can be much better than it showed this past week in Bloomington.

If the line starts to get things together, running backs Kevin Mensah and Art Thompkins would be able to take some of that pressure off of the Huskies true freshman signal caller. Going against an offense like the Knights possess, controlling the clock will be a priority for UConn on Saturday. If they can put together some semblance of a rushing attack, that will allow the Huskies to eat up some clock and reduce the amount of possessions UCF is on the field. That’s the recipe for success in Orlando, but it all starts up front, which is why Edsall has issued yet another challenge to his offensive line.