Making his name known

EAST HARTFORD - Wide receiver Marcus Easley had a monster game Saturday when the Blue Team (UConn's offense) torched the White Team (UConn's defense) 83-57. The game, played in front of 7,000 people at Rentschler Field, marked the conclusion of the spring practice schedule for the Huskies.

The game featured a return to coach Randy Edsall's modified scoring system, which awards points for various achievements by the offense and defense on top of regular scoring for touchdowns, field goals and PATs. In 2007, the last time Edsall used a modified scoring system, the defense won 80-46.

Edsall said he was very pleased with what the team has accomplished throughout the spring practices. He said he kept things deliberately basic, holding the defense to two coverage schemes and the offense to a limited play-set.

"I really wanted to see guys go out and just watch them perform and see who could make plays and see what guys could do," Edsall said. "But I've been pleased with our offense. I think the offense has come along nicely during the spring. I've been happy with the execution for the most part because we started to understand exactly what we were doing and getting all the things in that we wanted to do."

Easley, a walk-on senior, carried the offense through much of the match with a game-high 169 yards and two touchdowns

"Marcus has gotten progressively better this spring," Edsall said.

The team's front-runners for the quarterback position, redshirt junior Zach Frazer and redshirt sophomore Cody Endres, battled a strong wind all game - something Edsall said neither was used to after practicing indoors at the Shenkman Training Center - as each split time over the first half, alternating between the Blue team's possessions.

"We've been practicing in ideal conditions all spring, so it took some getting used to," Edsall said. "They did some good things and some not-so-good things. They've both have good springs and they both understand there's a few things they need to work on this summer."

Frazer finished the game with 115 yards and a touchdown, completing 13-of-23 passes. Midway through the second quarter, Frazer, who had trouble connecting on his deep passes up to that point, finally found Easley streaking down the right side on a 34-yarder, which ended in the game's first touchdown and gave the Blue team a 40-31 lead with 6:25 left before halftime.

Endres finished 9-for-19 for 68 yards, including a 25-yarder to Easley in the second quarter.

Edsall said the starting quarterback decision won't be based solely on the Blue-White game, but rather each quarterback's entire body of work this spring. He plans to review game and practice film from each of the quarterbacks with his coaching staff Monday to determine where the team is at regarding the position.

Sophomore running back Jordan Todman led all rushers with 65 yards on nine carries, while Meme Wylie racked up 64 yards and a touchdown on a game-high 18 carries. Redshirt-senior Andre Dixon added 42 yards on nine carries, and Nathan Sherr added 31 yards and the game's final touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Todman said that despite all the competition for carries in the backfield, he doesn't feel chemistry is going to be a problem.

"I'm comfortable with [the team's chemistry]," Todman said. "I realize, you know, competition's always gonna push you to be a better player and I feel like if we didn't have each other on each other's back, you might just go through the motions through practice, you wouldn't go as hard."

Halftime saw the Blue team holding a slim 42-41 lead, but a huge third quarter in which the Blue Team outscored the White Team 31-9 blew the game wide open.

In the second half, Edsall called on redshirt-freshman McEntee, who finished a perfect 9-for-9 on his passes for a game-high 143 passing yards. Among those was a 50-yard bomb over the middle to Gerard Sheppard in the third quarter, which helped set up a four-yard touchdown run by Wylie six plays later. That touchdown helped the Blue Team put the game well out of reach at 73-49.

McEntee also added a 30-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to none other than Easley, who roped in the ball as he was falling down in the right side of the end zone.

Redshirt-freshman linebacker Sio Moore led the defense with 16 tackles (six solo), which included three for loss. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Ryan Wirth forced a fumble on a run by Wylie in the second quarter, which led to the game's only turnover. The defense also recorded three sacks on the day, getting Frazer twice and Endres once in the first half.

Edsall noted that the defensive secondary remains thin after losing cornerback Darius Butler, who is a potential first-round pick in the upcoming NFL draft, and senior strong safety Dahna Deleston.

"We don't have a lot of depth in our secondary," Edsall said. "Dwayne Gratz and Blidi [Wreh-] Wilson are both freshmen. Blidi really needs to use his length to his advantage. Jerome Junior is another of the freshmen in our secondary, and they all have a lot of talent, they just need to get repetitions in before they can step it up."