Diaco, who Huskies fans will remember for creating the ‘Civil ConFLiCT,‘ and for coming up with the idea for football games to be broadcast on Nickelodeon (which actually happened), spent last season as a defensive analyst at LSU.

The 51-year-old has bounced around since his time as head coach at UConn from 2014-16, working as defensive coordinator at Nebraska, Louisiana Tech and Purdue and as a defensive assistant at Oklahoma. He also spent the 2022 season as a defensive line coach with the New Jersey Generals in the USFL. Diaco went 11-26 at UConn and led the Huskies to the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015.

Though often thought of as eccentric, Diaco is well-respected as a defensive coach, having won the Broyles Award as the top assistant while at Notre Dame in 2012. He reunited with former Irish head coach Brian Kelly at LSU in 2023.

Diaco will work under Bill Belichick’s son Steve, a former assistant with the New England Patriots who was named the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator.

Earlier this month, UConn lineman Pryce Yates, who won Defensive MVP at the Fenway Bowl in the Huskies’ 27-14, announced he was transferring to North Carolina next season.

Coach K serves as a special advisor to the NBA, he’s still involved as an ambassador at Duke, and he hosts his own radio show on Sirius XM.

Krzyzewski knows better than anyone about the changes college sports have seen in recent years, and he’s got a few ideas for how his former conference, the ACC, can stay competitive.

“I’d like to see something innovative, like, I’d like to see the ACC and the Big East talk, and form a mega basketball conference,” Krzyzewski said on his radio show last week. “People are talking about a mega football conference eventually. Imagine if we had the Big East.

“And you know what? Connecticut would have the opportunity to play football in our league. We need to at least talk about stuff like that. Imagine our footprint? Come on. And the quality of basketball to go along with the tradition of basketball in our conference.”

The ACC currently has 18 member schools in basketball, with all but Notre Dame also playing football in the conference. The Irish are technically independent in football, but have a scheduling agreement with the ACC where the team plays five games against league opponents each season.

The Big East has 11 basketball-playing members, with UConn being the only one that plays FBS football. A merger would theoretically create a 29-team mega-basketball league, and add UConn to an 18-team football conference.

Krzyzewski didn’t go into detail about how scheduling would work in a mega-conference, but regardless, the idea is sure to make headlines.

UConn defeated North Carolina 27-14 in Boston that day, and defensive lineman Pryce Yates had a monster game, making six tackles, three for lost yardage and one sack.

Now, Yates is transferring to North Carolina, according to multiple reports, where Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl champ with the Patriots, will be taking over next year. (Unless he reconsiders with several NFL jobs now open.) Given recent developments, Yates’ route from Storrs to Chapel Hill is bound to raise eyebrows.

Yates entered the transfer portal on Dec. 13, but continued to practice and prepare for the Huskies’ bowl game. On Dec. 21, he withdrew from the portal and said he was coming back to UConn. Then he made a name for himself at Fenway Park.

Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Don’t mess with UConn; extraordinary Windsor High star honored and more

“It was a hard process, but I was talking to the coaches a lot, keeping them in the loop and just kind of weighing everything,” Yates told reporters after the game.

Two days later, Yates, who likely increased his name-image-likeness market value with his performance, re-entered the portal. In the meantime, UConn coach Jim Mora spoke out on social media, announcing he would expose programs for tampering with his players, as in contacting them before they entered the portal, which is against the rules. Later, he posted on social media about his belief that Washington State had done so, but hasn’t mentioned what player was involved.

It’s not known when North Carolina contacted Yates. If they did so after he re-entered the portal, then no tampering rules were broken. Mora has not commented on Yates/UNC.

The bottom line is UConn has lost one of its best defensive players. Yates missed much of the season with lingering concussion symptoms, but ended up with 21 tackles, nine solo, and 3 1/2 sacks in seven games. Across his career, he played in 32 games, making 50 tackles, 29 1/3 behind the line of scrimmage, including 12 1/2 sacks and three forced fumbles. Yates, 6 feet for and 265 pounds, from San Antonio, has one year of eligibility left.

UConn has also lost one of its top linebackers, Langston Hardy, who committed to Wake Forest on Jan. 5. Hardy, who was in on 44 tackles, including 3 1/2 sacks, the son of former NFL standout Kevin Hardy, will join his young brother. Camden, at Wake. Hardy scored a touchdown on defense against Duke during the season, and had five tackles in UConn’s loss to Wake Forest on Oct. 19.

Yates has yet to announce his commitment to UNC, but bid farewell to UConn on Tuesday night.

Dear Husky Nation, thank you for your unwavering support and belief in both myself and this team,” Yates posted on X. “This fanbase is loyal, resilient, and filled with love. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to not only play but get my degree from the University of Connecticut. Thank you!”

Dom Amore: Why not them? For UConn football, a coming out party at Fenway

So far UConn (9-4), which has its most successful season in more than a decade, has won and lost a few in the portal. Mora has landed more than a dozen transfers, and has kept several of his own top players, including receiver Skyler Bell, who was in the portal and courted by Michigan. But he has lost Yates, running back Durell Robinson (Auburn) and defensive back Malcolm Bell (Michigan State) to power conference programs.

In other portal news, UMass landed two grad transfers from Yale, linebacker Dean Schaeffer, who was captain, and quarterback Grant Jordan. Yale receiver David Pantelis is headed to Stanford to play out his extra eligibility. The Ivy League does not allow grad students to play.

After a year becoming just that, the Huskies’ star wide receiver tested the transfer portal waters and seemed to be taking the path of UConn’s other recent top receivers as schools like Michigan, the 2024 national champion, reportedly expressed interest.

But on Saturday, Bell decided he’d stay in Storrs.

“PACK THE RENT,” was the capitalized message he posted to social media, urging fans to fill up the Huskies’ home stadium in East Hartford next season as he captioned a blue graphic that read: “I’M BACK.”

Originally from the Bronx, Bell attended The Taft School in Waterbury and then Wisconsin, where he spent three years before transferring to UConn ahead of the 2024 season.

UConn football transfer portal updates: Jim Mora calls out Washington State for tampering

In his first year in Storrs, Bell led the 9-4 Huskies with 860 yards on 50 catches, hauling in a perfect 38-yard pass from Joe Fagnano to score the first touchdown of the Fenway Bowl, his fifth of the season. He had the most productive season for a UConn receiver since 2016, when Noel Thomas recorded 1,176 receiving yards on twice as many catches.

The announcement is significant for UConn as it makes its best effort to compete with power-conference programs despite being independent, without major revenue coming from a TV deal. Bell’s return means the Huskies will not lose their top receiver for the third year in a row after Aaron Turner left for Cincinnati in 2022, and Justin Joly went to NC State following his team-best 578-yard campaign in 2023.

The transfer portal window closed for UConn players on Thursday and will not open again until the 10-day spring window from April 16-25.

You may also see it through an eye roll, that the transfer portal swings two ways and Mora’s various social media posts about tampering are what used to be called “a grandstand play,” or sour grapes of a sort.

But you can’t deny there’s a crowd gathering here, popcorn in hand, and you should consider this for a moment: Here we are, right in the middle of the playoffs, and there is a segment of the national community talking about UConn, wait for it, football. You don’t build programs, you don’t overcome the obstacles that still exist here by staying silent and in the background. No noise is bad noise.

Class is in session: How Dan Hurley’s winning ways at UConn are impacting CT’s high school coaches

So there’s a lot to be said for a coach who is willing to pick a fight for his program and his players. When Jim Calhoun took over the men’s basketball program in 1986, he was ejected from a game at Pittsburgh and roared in defiance afterward, there would be “no more dumping on Connecticut.”

I tend to see Mora’s tampering posts in that same vein.

First, Mora said, tagging the NCAA: “A simple note to the schools and coaches that have blatantly broken NCAA rules by tampering with our players in the last 24 hours. We do know who you are, we will pursue all avenues to hold you accountable. We are excited that we’ve built a program where coaches have to cheat to beat us and we will protect that program. Think hard before you tamper with our players.”

A couple of days later, Mora crossed the next line, naming a name: “‘I was originally content with my decision with coming to UConn,'” he posted, apparently quoting a player, but not saying which one. “‘feel like I allowed Washington State to get into my head when I could have just ignored them I expressed to them that I was signed but I continued to conversate.’

“… Why do grown men continue to manipulate NCAA football tampering rules and put players in the uncomfortable position this young man was put in(?) I promised to call out those tampering with our players and threatening what our players are working so hard to build. I intend to continue to do so and hope more college coaches will join me in fighting the blatant tampering taking place.”

On Friday, I reached out and offered Mora a chance to conversate a little more, but he chose a pause. “I think I made my point,” he said.

The transfer portal has indeed become the Wild West, literally in this case. If there was ever an unwritten commandment, “Thou shalt not fink on a fellow coach” for it may come back to roost, Mora’s taking his chances. Washington State, which is fairly close to Mora’s place in Idaho, was looking for a new coach and there was speculation here and there connecting Mora with the job. There could not have been serious interest as Mora, 62, signed an extension with UConn on Dec. 28 for considerably more ($2.5 million average annual value) than Washington State paid to get Jimmy Rogers (reports say $1.7 million) from South Dakota State. Rogers, 37 and coming from an FCS powerhouse, had yet to be introduced as the new Cougars’ coach when Mora issued his first social media salvo.

Maybe the Huskies and Cougs are destined to meet next year in a bowl game, a Tampa bowl game. Get it?

UConn football transfer portal updates: Jim Mora calls out Washington State for tampering

The true bump the UConn program will get from its 9-4 season and victory over dispirited North Carolina will not be known for a while. But if we can’t yet tell how seriously UConn is being taken out there, by conferences or by players still in the portal, it’s obvious more people are paying attention.

The Fenway Bowl, in addition to the 27,900 in the stands, was watched by 2.11 million viewers, which seems like a ratings win for an 11 a.m. start on ESPN. That’s about middle of the pack for non-playoff bowl games, and a large increase over Fenway’s attendance (16,200) and ratings (1.48 million) in 2023, albeit a weekday vs. a Saturday. Among bowl games that didn’t have two power conference opponents, only Navy-Oklahoma (2.85 million at noon on Dec. 27) and Toledo-Pitt (2.56 million at noon on Dec. 26) did better than UConn vs. North Carolina.

A year ago, anecdotally, UConn lost its impact tight end, Justin Joly, through the portal to NC State, where he had 43 catches for 661 yards and four TDs. This week, UConn picked up a promising tight end, Juice Vereen (four catches, 65 yards as a sophomore) from NC State through the portal. He was a four-star prospect out of high school.

And what UConn has is a coach willing to make noise, step on toes, shake up the establishment. Mora’s not going anywhere right now, and his program hovers as an uninvited guest in the college football news — a long way from a national power, sure, but a few tweets from becoming a national nuisance. And in case they haven’t gotten the message loud and clear out there: No dumping allowed.

Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Ichiro Suzuki’s on easy box to check on this Hall list; Paige Bueckers -JuJu Watkins a ratings smash and more

More for your Sunday Read:

Honor for Windsor’s Alex Inyatkin

Windsor High senior Alex Inyatkin, who is on the cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams, was presented the Michael H. Savage Spirit in Sport Award, which is awarded annually to a student athlete who “examples the ideals of the positive spirit of sport that represent the core mission of education-based athletics.”

Inyatkin, the son of former UConn basketball player Ruslan Inyatkin, was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis, and experienced as many as 80 seizures a day. To alleviate the seizures, he would undergo two brain surgeries at 18 months old. “Alex has autism, and he is really good with numbers,” his mother, Kerri Scott, said. “He remembers the time for every single race he’s ever run. He knows how much time he’s taken off of each race, he has it all in his head.”

He ran in the Class L championships with his teammates this past season.  A talented musician, Alex also sang the national anthem at a recent Rangers game at Madison Square Garden and has also performed at Radio City. He has been free of seizures since his second surgery, but remains on anti-seizure medication.

He will be honored at the CIAC Scholar-Athlete banquet in May, and as Connecticut’s winner he is a candidate for the National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) Section and National Spirit of Sport Awards.

“What Alex has overcome physically, emotionally and, in some cases, cognitively defies all barriers,” said Nichole Donzella, Windsor’s cross country coach, via the CIAC’s announcement.

Sunday short takes

*UConn’s Scott Oberg, 34, whose promising major-league career was cut short by injury and illness, has rejoined the Rockies’ organization as pitching coordinator. Perhaps he’ll be around Dunkin’ Park this summer to work with Yard Goats prospects.

*The UConn Name-Image-Likeness collective, “Bleeding Blue for Good,” has stopped taking contributions and will wind down and end its NIL operations in June, as it is anticipated revenue-sharing for collegiate athletes will replace collectives’ revenue at UConn. The group, which has had a key role in UConn’s athletics success the last couple of years, will distribute left over money to charity. Executive director Jared Guy Thomas said, via social media, he will stay in place as the organization continues to produce content via Storrs Central and work with athletes on marketing and endorsement opportunities.

*The world premier screening of “The Whalers,” a 95-minute documentary marking the 50th anniversary of Hartford’s dearly departed hockey team, has already been sold out at Cinestudio in Hartford on Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. The Wolf Pack will be celebrating the Whalers at their home game later that day.

*Now that UConn is playing both Boston College and UMass next season in football, does that mean it can take home the “Southwick Jug” as New England champs if it wins both? Asking for myself.

*Connecticut American Legion Baseball gave out its awards on Friday at the Aqua Turf in Southington. West Hartford Post 96 coach Sean McCann, who won the state title, was the obvious choice for coach of the year in the under-19 division, with Waterford’s Chris Gonet (under-17), Milford’s John Wezenski (U-15) and South Windsor’s Travis Edwards (U-13) also winning coach of the year honors. Long-time major-leaguer Rajai Davis, who played for New London Post 9, was alumnus of the year.

College players Dan Driscoll and JT Gunzy, Sacred Heart coach Pat Egan, umpire Kevin Moreland of the Eastern Board, Stamford coach Kevin Murray and Windsor Locks’ Dave Farr were honored.

*UConn baseball has a hot stove event scheduled for the Aqua Turf in Southington on Feb. 6.

*Since 1961, the NFL regular-season has gone from 12 to 14 games, then 14 to 16 in 1977 and 16 to 17 in 2021, so it should be unreasonable or considered disrespectful for any official record book to note these changes in marking single-season records.

*It was odd to see the Pacers waive UConn two-time champ Tristen Newton after the numbers he was putting up in the G-League, but apparently they wanted to open up a two-way contract slot and he preferred a release to other contractual options. Newton was quickly claimed by Minnesota and offered a new two-way deal.

“(The T-Wolves) are the team that was most high on him going into the draft,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said, “so I think he landed in a good spot. I know they’re excited to have him in their organization.”

Last word

If an NFL team is supposed to lose on purpose in order to get a higher draft pick, why not let them forfeit any game they don’t want to win? Refund the ticket and TV revenue. Would that be any more ridiculous than expecting players to risk their necks while trying to lose?

Yates earned defensive MVP honors in the dominant victory over North Carolina, explaining afterward that his decision to remain a Husky was based on conversations he had with coaches that made him want to stay.

“I think it said a lot about the fact that he didn’t want to leave these guys that he’s grown so close to, and that money wasn’t enough to lure him away. It was the experience that he was able to have here,” head coach Jim Mora said in his postgame press conference. “It just tells me that we’re on the right track; that we’re doing things the right way.”

Yates’ decision was a positive sign for the state of the program, that it had enough momentum to be more than a steppingstone to a power conference in the new era of player compensation. So it seemed.

The reality – that college athletics is the wild west with money driving most decisions, and that UConn is in a disadvantageous position as an independent – didn’t take long to set in.

Mora went to social media threatening to call out opposing coaches for tampering with his roster on Monday, two days after the Fenway Bowl, claiming that the NCAA violations occurred in the 24 hours following the game.

Hours later, it was reported – perhaps coincidentally – that Yates reentered the portal.

Mora went back to X on Thursday evening, following through on his promise.

“‘I was originally content with my decision with coming to UConn I feel like I allowed Washington State to get into my head when I could have just ignored them I expressed to them that I was signed but I continued to conversate,”‘ Mora wrote, apparently reiterating something he heard from an unnamed player. As of Friday morning, none of UConn’s players have committed to Washington State.

“Why do grown men continue to manipulate (NCAA) tampering rules and put players in the uncomfortable position this young man was put in!” Mora continued on X. “I promised to call out those tampering with our players and threatening what our players are working so hard to build. I intend to continue to do so and hope more college coaches will join me in fighting the blatant tampering taking place.”

Washington State, which hired former South Dakota State coach Jimmy Rogers as its next head coach on Dec. 28, was the first program Mora openly took issue with.

The Huskies’ head coach, who signed to a two-year extension through 2028 just before the Fenway Bowl kicked off that same day, returned to his regular posting, highlighting other players on his roster who entered the portal. As he’s done since coming to Storrs, Mora wrote a positive message about his outgoing players and encouraged potential suitors to reach out to him for a recommendation.

The transfer portal window closed for UConn players on Thursday, five days after their final game.

So what has happened since the Fenway Bowl?

Top receiver Skyler Bell hasn’t made any announcements yet. Bell opted to play in the Fenway Bowl and scored the game’s first touchdown on a perfect 38-yard pass from Joe Fagnano. The performance tacked 77 receiving yards onto his season total, allowing him to finish the year with 860 – the most for a UConn receiver since Noel Thomas went for 1,176 in 2016.

It was reported that Bell visited Michigan prior to the bowl game, and the Wolverines – 2024 national champions – seem to still have Bell on their list of targets.

Outside of Bell, UConn’s list of unsigned outgoing transfers includes receiver Brock Montgomery, defensive backs Jarvarius Sims, Reggie Akles, Isiah Davis and Lee Molette, punter Nathaniel Wallace-Dilling and linebackers Julien Simon and Langston Hardy.

UConn added NC State tight end Juice Vereen – who saw action in 10 games in 2023 and caught four passes for 65 yards – on New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day, when Vereen signed, linebackers Kalen Villanueva and Kaleb Stewart entered the portal.

Defensive back Alfred Chea entered the portal on Thursday, with Mora reposting his announcement and calling him “one of my all-time favorites I was fortunate to coach.” Defensive lineman Timothy Passmore Jr. made his announcement the same day: “This is a great young man who has battled some tough luck,” Mora wrote. “We wish him the best in his journey and know he will add great value on and off the field to any program. Call me.”

As long as players entered the portal before the window closed, they can be contacted by coaches until they find their new home. The same goes for UConn’s staff, which is continuing to recruit unsigned transfers.

As for Mora calling out tampering from opposing programs, the former NFL coach says he will continue.

The sports calendar here in Connecticut begins building on day one, with a UConn men’s basketball game at DePaul on Wednesday, and gets louder with Providence coming to Gampel on Sunday. The UConn women, likewise on a quest to hang another banner, are also in the midst of conference play.

Year in CT Sports: Huskies repeat, Dan Hurley spurns Lakers, UConn women heartbreak. Moments of 2024

Sports in our state tends to revolve around the two marquee basketball programs and the new year will dawn with them in their usual places, in the top 10 in the AP rankings and well positioned for favorable seeds come March Madness. Usually, our year in sports goes as March goes, and the last couple have been exciting indeed.

As we’ve looked at the past year in review, let’s take a look to the year ahead in Connecticut sports, and what’s safe to anticipate, what’s realistic to hope for.

The UConn men are on a quest to make history in their sport. No men’s program has won three consecutive national championships since UCLA won the last of its seven in a row in 1975. Repeating in today’s very different world is hard. “Three-peating” is an exponentially bigger ask.

Dan Hurley has re-loaded the Huskies, but three losses at the Maui Invitational have shown it won’t be easy. UConn has bounced back nicely with six in a row, the conference games nail-biters so far. But it is safe to believe that in 75 days, they will be getting ready for the Round of 64, with or without a Big East trophy, with all eyes on their journey. If the Huskies can get back to the Final Four, it will be in San Antonio, where alum Stephon Castle is on a rookie-of-the-year trajectory with the Spurs.

The UConn women are chasing their own history. After winning their 11th championship, and fourth in a row, in 2016, the last eight years have been marked by excruciating losses in the Final Four and devastating injuries. But Geno Auriemma has the deepest team he has had in years, and there is every reason to believe the Huskies will be there deep in the tournament with a chance to win. Beware of Notre Dame, UCLA, Southern Cal and South Carolina.

Circle Feb. 16 on your calendar, the 47th day of the year. The UConn women travel to South Carolina, a big test to determine what could come in March.

Paige Bueckers’ star power draws fans from Stockholm to CT to watch UConn women’s basketball rout Providence

Will this be the year Bueckers finally gets what she came to Connecticut to get, a national championship?

Meanwhile, the state’s men’s and women’s hockey programs will be vying for their own March and April madness.

When the basketball seasons end, all eyes will remain on Bueckers, as most eyes in the state have been since 2020, for the WNBA Draft. The Dallas Wings have the first pick when that comes around in April, and it will be a major surprise if they do not take Bueckers.

The men will be sending more players to the NBA. Alex Karaban’s time will come. Will Liam McNeeley be the next one-and done from UConn? That will be an issue in June.

Before you know it, it will be baseball season. In 45 days the Huskies will be starting in Puerto Rico, and two weeks after that will play Vanderbilt at Dodger Stadium. Once the grind of the season moves home to Storrs, UConn will be trying to get back to the Super Regional, and another shot at the College World Series, the grand goal that has eluded the program since 1979.

Dom Amore: Getting her game back a joyful process for UConn women’s Azzi Fudd

On Day 138, the Connecticut Sun return to the court, opening at home against the Washington Mystics. You’ll only have to wait nine more days to see Dallas, presumably with Bueckers, back in the state. The Sun will be under new management and will probably have a lot of new players for its latest run at an elusive WNBA title.

As the year reaches the midway mark, Day 171 to be exact, the attention of the global golf community will be on Cromwell for the Travelers Championship June 19-22 at TPC River Highlands. A PGA “Signature Event,” it will have nearly all of the top 80 golfers in the world, and if there is a truce between the PGA and LIV Golf, it could be an even greater field. World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler won it last year, and will very likely be back for another try.

The Yard Goats begin their season April 1, Day 94, against the Yankees’ affiliate a Dunkin’ Park, right about the time the Wolf Pack will be drilling down on an AHL playoff spot, even if their parent Rangers are struggling. Hartford Athletic kicks off the pro soccer season in Connecticut on March 8, with a goal of reaching the playoffs.

Nestled between New York and Boston, there can’t help but be spillover into Connecticut from the pro teams there. The Mets lured Juan Soto from the AL champion Yankees for $760 million, so more focus than usual at the outset of the season will be on them. The Yankees rebounded and rebuilt their lineup around superstar Aaron Judge. The Red Sox have exciting prospects about ready to break in and could be much improved.

As for the region’s NFL teams, the year 2025 will bring some hope for the draft and then, well … let’s get back to basketball. The Knicks and Celtics figure to battle deep into the NBA Eastern Conference playoff bracket. That could rekindle a rivalry in Connecticut in the summer.

The Whalers will be celebrating their 50th anniversary, some 28 years after they left us with memories.

During the “Dog Days of August,” the eighth month of the year, the UConn football be in camp, fanning the flames that are still glowing in the wake of their victory over North Carolina at the Fenway Bowl. Coach Jim Mora is staying put, and he’ll have a busy six months re-assembling a roster to build on what just happened, UConn becoming relevant in football after many years.

Dom Amore: Why not them? For UConn football, a coming out party at Fenway

When the weather starts to get cool, we’ll have college football back, at UConn, Central and Yale — the Bulldogs will, for the first time, have a chance to compete in the FCS playoffs if they can capture the Ivy League.

That brings us back to the holiday season, when the UConn men and women will be starting anew, and with a new Big East TV deal. We don’t know where 2025 will take them, or where they will take us. As revenue sharing takes hold in the NCAA, the college athletic landscape is bound to shift some more. We can only make one prediction for Connecticut sports in the new year: It will be fun, just like it’s supposed to be.

As UConn smacked around ACC pillar North Carolina, thoroughly dominating Bill Belichick’s future squad in a 27-14 victory, a score line that flattered UNC, it felt like Connecticut had stamped itself a real place on the college football map.

It didn’t matter that North Carolina looked like it would rather be anywhere else on Saturday, that its star running back Omarion Hampton opted out, or that you could count each individual person wearing Carolina blue in the stands one by one.

This was a moment long overdue for UConn football– a validation, a re-introduction of the program to the rest of the country watching the beatdown on ESPN.

This was Fenway Park, late December, a legitimate, fun bowl game — and UConn was running it.

To be dominating a flagship ACC program in New England’s de facto capital, inside the region’s greatest sports cathedral, felt special. Like something no UConn fan in the stands will forget for a while.

Was this the best moment in UConn football history?

Probably not, when you step back and consider the win at Notre Dame, the win over formerly No. 2 South Florida at the Rent in ’07, the Big East title and Fiesta Bowl berth in ’09, the hammering of South Carolina in the Papa John’s Bowl in 2010.

There are plenty of other moments, too. This program has been ranked in the Top 25 before, something that feels like it would have been unfathomable when you speak to other college football fans, those AP rankings lost to history like the identities of the Pompeii victims.

How UConn processed Jasper Howard tragedy and pulled off greatest football triumph at Notre Dame. An oral history

But on Saturday, it felt like a page had been turned. The downtrodden, can’t-beat-anybody, independent-because-nobody-wants-them Huskies weren’t out there on that field. Instead, there was a fast, tough, physical team flying around and making big-time plays, bullying the big-boy Tar Heels.

The spirit of the program Randy Edsall built years ago has been resurrected. Edsall built the program from the ground up, and then it collapsed, but Jim Mora has rebuilt it again with the same DNA– that tough, hard-nosed determination serving as the foundation.

Mora was already the most accomplished football coach in UConn history when he accepted the job. But if he stays on through the duration of his contract, which now runs through 2028, and continues building on this, he could end up being thought of as the best coach in UConn football history, too. An invite back into a power conference might be all that’s needed to assure him of that status, given everything that’s happened. And if UConn keeps winning like this, it may be all but inevitable.

Dom Amore: Why not them? For UConn football, a coming out party at Fenway

Still, for one day at Fenway at least, Connecticut had its place on the college football landscape marked clear. College football doesn’t just belong to the South, or to the Big Ten, or to television executives.

It belongs here, too. And given a little time and support, UConn can play it just as well as anybody.

Two days after beating North Carolina in the Fenway Bowl, securing the program’s first nine-win season since 2007, Mora took to social media Monday morning to call out coaches trying to pluck players from the Huskies’ roster.

“A simple note to the schools and coaches that have blatantly broken (NCAA) rules by tampering with our players in the last 24 hours,” he wrote in a post on X. “We do know who you are, we will pursue all avenues to hold you accountable. We are excited that we’ve built a program where coaches have to cheat to beat us and we will protect that program. Think hard before you tamper with our players.”

By NCAA rule, opposing schools and coaches may not contact players before they’ve entered the transfer portal.

A simple note to the schools and coaches that have blatantly broken @NCAAFootball rules by tampering with our players in the last 24 hours. We do know who you are, we will pursue all avenues to hold you accountable. We are excited that we’ve built a program where coaches have to… pic.twitter.com/lnO7ITpkYQ

— Jim Mora (@CoachJimMoraFB) December 30, 2024

The portal window was open – for most programs – from Dec. 9 to Dec. 28. For teams participating in late bowl games, like the Huskies, players have an additional five days after their final game to decide to enter. In UConn’s case, the deadline for players is Thursday, Jan. 2.

Mora isn’t the first coach to call out tampering in the current landscape. Colorado coach Deion Sanders made similar comments recently about athletes receiving NIL offers before entering the portal. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman acknowledged the “crazy world out there” earlier this month, as did Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney spoke on the issue in September, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin made similar remarks in November.

And it isn’t just on the football side of college athletics. UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley has spoken about tampering that occurred with his players during the Huskies’ back-to-back national championship seasons as well.

“Not sure how we fix it, I do know we don’t ignore it,” Mora wrote in another post on X. “We will expose any program and coach that violates (NCAA) rules by Tampering with our players. It makes players anxious, it puts a dent in the lessons parents have taught them about honesty and integrity. I’m 100% for the Portal and NIL/Rev Share. I’m 100% against grown men cheating the rules and teaching players horrible Life lessons.”

UConn announced a two-year contract extension for Mora just minutes before kickoff in the Fenway Bowl – the program’s first bowl win since the 2009 season. The extension for the former NFL head coach runs through the 2028 season and is valued at $10 million over the remaining four years, with opportunities to earn more through incentives.

How Jim Mora and UConn football are navigating the transfer portal with Fenway Bowl on the horizon

UConn has signed 11 players out of the portal so far, with more expected to come.

Durell Robinson (Auburn) and Malcolm Bell (Michigan State) are the most notable names to have left the program since the portal opened Dec. 9, with a handful of others still looking for a new landing spot – including top receiver Skyler Bell, linebackers Langston Hardy and Julien Simon, defensive backs Reggie Akles, Jarvarius Sims, Lee Mollette, Isiah Davis and others.

Would Dan Hurley stay as men’s basketball coach? Or would he leave to coach the Lakers?

Finally on June 10, a little past 1 p.m., his wife, Andrea, pulled up and quickly entered the building, offering assistant coach Tom Moore a high five. Dan slipped in a different door, out of sight, to tell his team before telling the world.

He was staying. He was going to go for the threepeat.

“In my gut, I knew he would stay,” said Hassan Diarra, who has helped the Huskies win two championships. “He didn’t want to leave, he loves us too much.”

After leading the UConn men to their second straight national championship, after declaring on stage in Phoenix “We’ve been running college basketball for 25, 30 years,” Hurley spurned a $70 million offer from the Lakers to coach LeBron James (and his son) on the other coast. He got a new deal at UConn worth $50 million, and committed himself to chasing college basketball history, namely, trying to be the first coach since John Wooden to win more than two titles in a row.

Dom Amore: Lakers got in Dan Hurley’s head, but couldn’t wrest his heart from UConn

The Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley was international news, a drama that had all of Connecticut on edge for several days, everyone from the governor to the youngest fans weighing in. But a man who seems to have been born for his current job decided not to mess with happy, the biggest sports story in the state in 2024.

Here are moments and memories of this eventful year in Connecticut sports:

Estimated 60,000 fill Hartford for UConn men’s basketball championship parade

Back-to-back

The UConn men finished 37-3 and again won every postseason game by double digits, defeating Purdue in the championship game. Nothing was left on the table this time. The Huskies won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles before beating Stetson and Northwestern in Brooklyn, San Diego State and Illinois in Boston, and finally Alabama and Purdue in Arizona. The Illinois game featured a 30-0 run and a heckling Larry David in the front row. Who’d want to coach a team with him sitting courtside? Maybe that curbed any enthusiasm for the Lakers’ job.

Four Huskies moved on to the NBA: lottery picks Stephon Castle, a rookie of the year front runner with the Spurs, Donovan Clingan, Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton. The new cast stumbled in a November trip to Hawaii, but the year ends with the Huskies (10-3) on a six-game winning streak.

Late foul call costs UConn as Huskies fall to Iowa, 71-69, in national semifinals

Exhilaration and agony

The UConn women, for the third year in a row, suffered through a rash of injuries, but coach Geno Auriemma and star Paige Bueckers, in a new, frontcourt role, led the Huskies to another conference title and into the NCAA regionals. In a thrilling showdown, Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins dueled, but underdog UConn won to reach the Final Four for the 15th time in 16 years. Then, in a showdown with Caitlin Clark and Iowa, a last-second foul on Aaliyah Edwards cost Bueckers a chance to take a potential game-winning shot.

In the new season, Auriemma passed Tara VanDerveer to become the winningest college basketball coach in history. UConn is 10-2, but Watkins and the Trojans won a rematch in Hartford on Dec. 21.

Dom Amore: UConn’s Jim Mora sees ‘great joy’ for Bill Belichick in his new adventure at North Carolina

Fenway Bowl champs

After a dip in 2023, the UConn football program resumed its resurgence under Jim Mora, going 8-4 to reach a bowl game for the second time in three years. Effective use of the transfer portal brought 27 new players, and many proved to be difference makers.

The team put the cherry on the season on Saturday with a dominant 27-14 win over North Carolina in the Fenway Bowl. It was the Huskies’ first win over a power-four conference team after coming up three times during the regular season, and their first bowl victory since 2009. Just before kickoff in Boston Mora was given a two-year contract extension.

Final round at Travelers Championship disrupted by climate protesters on 18th green

Moment of chaos in Cromwell

Scottie Scheffler, No.1 golfer in the world, conquered Connecticut, defeating Tom Kim on the first playoff hole to win the Travelers Championship on June 23, a star-studded field as the tournament has earned “Signature Event” status on the PGA Tour. A group of climate protestors swarmed the green on the last hole, briefly disrupting the event, but things were quickly gotten under control.

Fever Pitch: Caitlin Clark has the chance to add her name to short list of sports’ game-changers

The Caitlin Effect

Clark brought new eyes to the WNBA. Some in the league appeared miffed by all the attention on Clark, the AP Female Athlete of the Year. There was a cry of protest when she was left off the Olympic team. Her pro debut, at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 14, was an international happening. After a sluggish start, Clark was by far the top rookie in the league and led Indiana to the playoffs. The Connecticut Sun defeated the Fever and reached the semifinals before losing to Minnesota. In the WNBA finals, former Huskies Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier staged epic battles before Stewart and the Liberty ended New York City’s long championship drought.

Since the end of the season, the Sun have been in transition. Former Husky Morgan Tuck is now the GM, and a new coach comes from Europe, Rachid Meziane, to replace Stephanie White.

Dom Amore: Meet Hartford Athletic’s Meteoric Mamadou Dieng, who has been lighting up the late summer nights

Athletic prowess

New coach Brendan Burke brought stability to Hartford Athletic and after a midseason slump, the state’s pro soccer franchise made a playoff push that came up just short. Mamadou Dieng, 20, from Senegal re-energized the franchise with a series of big scoring performances late in the season.

Dom Amore: Bobby Meacham’s long, strange trip from the Yankees’ Bronx Zoo to Hartford to manage the Yard Goats

Goat stuff

UConn angered PETA by bringing a live goat to celebrate Auriemma’s record breaking win, but it’s nothing new. Live goats have been part of the minor-league baseball experience in Hartford for years. Playoffs weren’t, until 2024, when the Hartford Yard Goats won the Eastern League’s first-half division title and earned a spot in the playoffs, losing in the first round. The success the box office finally was matched on the field, with former Yankee Bobby Meacham at the helm. GM Mike Abramson was named minor-league executive of the year by Baseball America.

Team USA escapes France to win 8th straight gold medal at Paris Olympics led by UConn legends

Olympian feats

Connecticut was well-represented at the Olympics in Paris. Alexis Holmes of Hamden won gold in the women’s 4X400 relay, and Old Lyme’s Liam Corrigan in men’s rowing. UConn’s Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi were on USA Basketball’s gold medal squad. which prevailed in a nail-biting finish against France, with UConn’s Gabby Williams.

Goalkeeper extraordinaire Alyssa Naeher, from Stratford, made a spectacular save to help the U.S. women’s soccer team take home the gold. Ridgefield’s Kieran Smith won a silver in swimming. Quinnipiac grad Ilona Maher helped the U.S. win its first medal in women’s rugby.

Dom Amore: Meet the sculptor who has cast Dwight Freeney’s legend in bronze

Around the state in 2024

Dwight Freeney represented his hometown, Bloomfield, in accepting pro football’s highest honor, induction into the Hall of Fame in Canton in August. Then he was honored at the State Capitol. … The Wolf Pack, after losing their coach, Kris Knoblauch, to the NHL’s Oilers, rallied and reached the AHL playoffs again, eliminated by Hershey.

The Pack is back in the thick of the playoff race this season. … The UConn baseball team reached the NCAA Super Regional for the third time, but the road to the College World Series was stopped by Florida State. The UConn women’s hockey team won its first ever conference title, but lost a heartbreaker to St. Cloud State in the NCAA Tournament. The women’s soccer team won the Big East Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA. … Yale struggled early in the football season, but got the win that matters most — over Harvard in The Game. … Central Connecticut football made it to the postseason, beating Duquesne to take the NEC automatic playoff berth before losing at Rhode Island. … New Haven reached the D-II football playoffs, losing to a close one to Slippery Rock. … Trinity reached the Division III Final Four in men’s basketball, falling to Trine in the semifinals, and hockey, losing to Hobart in the championship game. … Conn College made it to the D-III final in men’s soccer, losing to Amherst. … Ben Casparius, a righthander from Staples High and UConn, reached the major leagues and played a role in the Dodgers NLCS and World Series victories.

Windsor High’s football team was ranked No. 1 in the state most of the season, and unbeaten until losing on a last-second field goal to Masuk-Monroe in the Class MM final. Greenwich ended up No.1 … High school boys basketball brought a cool story from Old Lyme, where coach Brady Sheffield, 21, led the Wildcats to the school’s first ever state championship. … Two UConn basketball legends, Kemba Walker and Rudy Gay, retired after long, distinguished NBA careers.

Coming New Year’s Day: A look ahead to top Connecticut sports stories in 2025.