It was a harsh reality for Wes Hoeh when Syracuse fired football coach Dino Babers last year and brought in Fran Brown, a former Georgia assistant known for being an excellent recruiter, nine days later. Brown brought players with him and about two weeks after he was hired, Hoeh was asked to enter the transfer portal.
“It’s the way the game is now,” said Hoeh, a junior, on Tuesday as he looks forward to returning to the dome as UConn’s center this weekend. “You gotta produce or get out. They asked me to leave and I left. It is what it is.”
Hoeh was only in the portal for about a week before he decided on coming to Storrs, where UConn had an opening at his position after Yakiri Walker transferred to Colorado. He started UConn’s first eight games before his ankle was rolled up on, putting redshirt freshman Carsten Casady in the starting lineup for the last two. Hoeh says he is healthy to play Saturday.
“Definitely gonna be a good game, it’s gonna be funny to be back in the dome. I’m excited,” Hoeh said. “Gotta treat it like it’s just another game after the bye week, but definitely it was in my mind for a little bit… (Being asked to leave) struck me a little, but you can’t sit down, can’t lay down for too long. You’ve got to get back up, pick yourself up and get going, so that’s what I did.”
UConn’s offensive line, with Hoeh in the middle, is ranked 15th in the FBS allowing an average of just 1.1 sacks per game. The O-line is also a major factor in UConn’s 21st-ranked rushing attack, which averages 200.3 yards per game.
“I love it here,” Hoeh said. “Definitely blessed to be here. It was a great decision.”
He has stayed in contact and is excited to see some of his former teammates on the Syracuse offensive line. Jayden Bass, a Springfield, Mass. native, also came over to UConn in the offseason after spending his freshman year in Syracuse’s offensive line group.
Both teams enter Saturday’s matchup with a 7-3 record, and UConn wants to get to eight wins first.
“You always have to believe in yourself, but it’s just that little extra motivation to kind of get you going,” Hoeh said. “When someone tells you you’re not good enough, you’ve got to say, ‘Alright, watch me.’”
UConn-Syracuse connections:
There are a number of connections between the regional rivals in addition to former Orangemen Hoeh and Bass. Syracuse has three players from Connecticut: DB Justin Barron (Rocky Hill), DB Davien Kerr (Bloomfield), and WR Nick Armentano (Westport).
Bloomfield’s Davien Kerr steps up to make big play for Syracuse; faces UConn next
Michael Johnson, Syracuse’s co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, was on Jim Mora’s staff with the Atlanta Falcons coaching receivers and quarterbacks. UConn linebacker coach Siriki Diabate played at Syracuse and worked as a graduate assistant for the Orange from 2013-15. And Syracuse’s defensive backs coach Joe Shaefer was coaching at Iowa State at the same time as UConn defensive line coach Kenny McClendon. The two later coached together again at Youngstown State in 2020 and 2021.
Coach firings are ‘very personal’ to Jim Mora
Seven years ago Tuesday, on Mora’s 56th birthday, he was fired by UCLA. Mora still carries the frustration of that day, the way things ended at UCLA, as a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
So the recent news of coaches being fired – Stan Drayton at Temple, Don Brown at UMass and Tom Herman at FAU this weekend – struck a personal note. Now four of UConn’s opponents this season (three the Huskies have beaten already and one, UMass, it has yet to play) have done away with their head coaches. Rice fired Mike Bloomgren on Oct. 29, less than a day after the Huskies beat his team for the second year in a row.
“We all understand the business part of it, but it’s also very, very personal. I was fired from UCLA seven years ago today, and that memory is very, very vivid with me,” he said. “We focus on the coach that got fired, but we forget about all the people that it affects as well, families, kids, wives that have to pack up and move their families. Kids have to go to new schools and make new friends, all of the players that it affects.
“So yeah, it’s very sobering. I hate it. I don’t like hearing about Herman, Biff (Poggi, former Charlotte HC)… They’re good men, they’re good football coaches, they’ve given their life to this profession. But we also understand it is a business, it’s the reality of the business, and if you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t be in the business. That’s just the way it goes. It’s no fun at all. Seven years ago, I can tell you every single second of that day. It sucks.”
‘I don’t think I could get enough Geno’
When Mora was hired to take over UConn’s football program in Nov. 2021, almost exactly three years ago, he and his wife, Kathy, went out to dinner with legendary Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma and his wife, also named Kathy, at Auriemma’s restaurant.
“Had a little wine, whatever he ordered for me was great,” Mora said. “I wished at that time that I had been smart enough to push record on my phone, but I wasn’t. And after we walked out I said to Kathy, ‘Why didn’t I just record all of that? I can’t remember it.’ It was just like, everything he said resonated with me. Everything he said about coaching, about dealing with players, about recruiting, about handling a staff, about just mindset – it was just amazing.”
Auriemma is currently tied with retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer for the most wins of any college basketball coach after reaching No. 1,216 against ranked North Carolina on Friday. The Hall of Famer could become the all-time leader as early as Wednesday, when the UConn women host Fairleigh Dickinson at Gampel Pavilion. Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey will be celebrating their 40th season in Storrs on the same day.
“Nothing specific stands out to me, but the feeling of the dinner stands out to me. I don’t think I could get enough Geno. I mean, I love listening to Geno. When I’m around Geno, the most important thing I can do is keep my mouth shut and listen.”
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