University of Connecticut Athletics
UCONNHUSKIES.COM 2016 UConn Football Signing Day Central
Head Coach Bob Diaco
Noel Brouse, 6-5, 265, DE, Slatington, Pa./Parkland HS
"He's another guy that fits right in the line-up with Alec Bloom and Luke Carrezola. It was like their long lost little brother showed up when he came for the weekend. He's just a great guy, a worker, a grinder, achiever in other areas because he loves football. He'll play defensive end. He's 6'5'' 270 pounds. He's athletic. He plays basketball. He's going to be another great program guy for us."
Tyler Coyle, 6-2, 195, S, Windsor, CT/Windsor HS
"Tyler is an athlete. So unlike Keyion Dixon, Tyler is a little different in that he could play wide receiver for us, but he could also play safety. We're almost at the flip of a coin ourselves as to what he can be. He's such a great athlete. He's a dynamic track athlete. He has a chance this spring to maybe go over seven feet on the high jump and that's world class. He has a legitimate chance to do it. He's that explosive and athletic. He has a great attitude, a great demeanor, strong family. He's a local guy and we're excited to see where he's going to fit."
Cameron DeGeorge, 6-5, 260, OL, Lynnfield, Mass./Lynnfield HS
"He's a Massachusetts guy, the number three rated player in the state. He's a big, aggressive guy, again offensive lineman. He could play defensive line for us. He's excited to play offensive line and we're excited to have him there. He also had a massive amount of opportunities with all of these local, eastern seaboard teams, all of them and I mean all of them. I'm not going to name them, but you know who they are. So for him to choose the University of Connecticut is just a great thing, a feather in his cap and in our cap. He's going to be great. He also, sidebar, has the largest dog I've ever seen in my life. It is unbelievable this thing. It has to be like 250 pounds. It is huge."
Keyion Dixon, 6-1, 176, WR, Glastonbury, Conn./GIastonbury HS
"Keyion Dixon is an interesting athlete at Glastonbury. He did a lot of things for the team. One thing he did, as the best player on the team, was play quarterback. He is not a quarterback. He's not a college quarterback. He knows that. He will play wide receiver for us. He's going to be a great one. He can really fly. He's quick, athletic, accepts the ball, in and out of his breaks. Wherever he went, he'd be rated as the top player. It's a huge opportunity for us, a real producer at 6'1'' plus and fast."
AJ Garson, 6-6, 235, OLB, West Palm Beach, Fla./Oxbridge Academy
"He'll be an outside linebacker for us. When we have our outside linebackers lined up in the tunnel, you know what we want them to look like, and we want them all to look the same and he is no different. He is between 6'5'' and 6'6'' and 235 pounds. He's athletic. He'll be able to be a guy that can grow into a Luke Carrezola kind of guy or a do the field jobs like Vontae Diggs or some of the other guys who are going to develop this spring and summer and prepare for next fall. He's athletic from West Palm Beach. There's been a lot of productivity with our team in that area, which pre-dates me, and it's no different now. These guys are football savvy and highly competitive. They understand the work that needs to go into to maintaining your focus on football."
Ryan Gilmartin, 6-1, 230, ILB, Weddington, N.C./CharIotte Christian
"It's good to get a real, non-projected inside linebacker in the class. We have other guys that we've projected from defensive end or outside linebacker or fullbacks that we have playing the position now, but Ryan is a trained, quintessential inside linebacker. That's all he's done. That's what he is going to do for us. He's a driver. He has the intangible pieces that you think about with your inside linebacker. He sees the game in pictures and it makes sense to him. He's a high achiever in the classroom, a high achiever in the community, a strong family unit, a great brother. We're inspecting all these different areas. I watch him talk about his brother with such affinity and affection and you can't help but think what he is going to be like in the locker room. He's a tough guy and he loves football."
Brett Graham, 6-3, 220, P, State College, Pa./State College Area HS
"Brett Graham is an all-area performer at tight end. He has a legitimate football IQ. He plays multiple positions and excels at them. He will be the punter in the future. We love the timing of it. The ability for this player to follow Justin Wain, spend a year developing and then, after a years worth of experiences, be punting in 2017 is very exciting for Brett. If he happens to be better than Justin then fine, so be it. When he is ready, we're ready. I don't anticipate that. When your culture is strong and you are moving at a particular rate, it's very hard for a young person to come in and supplant someone who has all of these experiences. He's a strong performer and a great guy and I'm excited to coach him."
Eddie Hahn, 6-3, 190, S, Port Monmouth, N.J./Red Bank Catholic
"Eddie is a winner. Eddie quarterbacked his team to state title a year ago. They were back in the playoffs again this year. He's a multi-position player who plays in all three phases. He plays quarterback. He plays safety. He returns kicks and punts. He's the punter. He's just one of these guys. I think he's the point guard of the basketball team or one of the shooting guards. He's a highly competitive guy, a great guy and a high achiever in all areas."
Tahj Herring, 6-1, 188, CB, Hartford, Conn./SuffieId Academy
"Tahj, at 6'1'' and 190 pounds, as youngster, to be a corner, that's really something. When you have tough guys that love football and they're big, it's hard to be bad. You're going to be good. It's just a question of how good?"
Nate Hopkins, 6-0, 212, RB, Flower Mound, Texas/Marcus HS
"We have an opportunity here. We've been working in the Dallas area. To get an RKG from the greater Dallas metro area where we can go in, drop in, it's American Conference cache, it's not like you're talking to people who don't understand and aren't getting that information based on the local teams in that area from our league. So to go in there and get a player from that area, a top rated player in the Dallas metro, in all the state of Texas, is a great thing at running back and he will be a running back for us. That's exciting."
Nino Leone, 6-5, 335, OL, South Hamilton, Mass./Pingree
"He is a big, physical, rugged player. He'll be an interior offensive lineman for us. He's a guy that is mature. He is tough. He is active on the field. He's an aggressive player. He really took a lot of time and care in vetting out the process and inspecting where he wanted to go, and he had a lot of opportunities."
Jay Rose, 6-4, 225, F, Southington, Conn./Southington
"You think of Jay and you think of like a flagship guy. You have a brand of cars and the cars have a flagship. This guy here was one of the highest rated players in the state. He could have went, in our area and beyond, anywhere he wanted to go. He can play a lot of different positions and he chose the University of Connecticut. He distinctly made the choice to serve the state, to serve the University and to serve our football team. He could have went almost anywhere he wanted to go. I can't say we're going to build it on his back. He's another layer. We're not at that point, we're much stronger than that as a program, but he's a huge piece. He's a huge piece to that bleed blue mentality, which is growing. It'll multiply exponentially here as Jay joins the locker room and then for the future Huskies around the state. They will have an opportunity to see Jay Rose and to make this decision and to say absolutely."
Quayvon Skanes, 5-10, 175, WR, Chicago, Ill./WendaII Phillips Academy
"He is this toolbox guy. He's not outside what we'd normally do, but he's your inside slot punt/kick returner. Whether the team is void of that guy, I don't think you need a bunch of them, but you need one or a few. This is the difference making, hard to tackle jet. He'll be an impact player for our program. If nothing else, he'll be doing some special teams jobs just initially as a very hard guy to tackle. Again whether he was a national recruit or not, I'm not sure, but he was a high scholarship list guy, 20-50 and could have went anywhere he wanted. He had most or a lot of the Big Ten and decided to come serve the University of Connecticut and be a Husky."
Ja'Kevious Vickers, 5-11, 198, RB, Belle Glade, Fla./Gales Central HS
"He is a very talented player. He is athletic, hard to tackle, strong family unit, in a league where football is king. He played at Glade Central and that is, nationally, one of the premier football programs and he was an exceptional player in that league and for that team. He definitely has a high level of understanding of competition, competitiveness, competitive greatness and winning. We're very excited about him."
Donovan Williams, 6-4, 205, QB, Woodbridge, Va./Hylton HS
"There's other guys who have played quarterback and there may be other guys that could quarterback our team, but Donovan is the quarterback. He was brought in for that purpose. It could be argued as to whether he was a national recruit, but it was pretty darn close. You're talking about a 20-40 offer player. He's a spectacular young man, a high achiever in all areas, strong family unit. All of these guys have a strong understanding of brotherhood. Donovan is just a spectacular player, no limitations, makes all the throws, athletic, fast, big, every time I see him he looks bigger. He's just a great great player."
Nick Zecchino, 6-1, 205, LS-ATH, Cedar Grove, NJ/Cedar Grove HS
"He is a multi-sport athlete, multi-sport letter-winner, multi-sport conference performer in three sports. All he has ever done is won. He quarterbacked his team a year ago to a state title or a runner up state title, again deep into the playoffs. He played in the state championship game, quarterback, safety, specialist. He never comes off the field. He's a tough guy, a good achiever, prideful. He has a great, great family and he understands the brotherhood. If there is guy that has to be ready to roll right out of the chute, it's really Nick. If I had to pick one that needs to be ready to do his craft right out of the chute, it's probably Nick. He has the mindset to do it, unflappable, tough, gutsy, gritty. Part of that is his dad, his dad is a great guy, a hard worker, built a business, just a very successful guy, but he was the long snapper at Tennessee. So he's been training his son for some time to do this craft and he's excellent. He'll be very very positive doing those jobs."
