UConn football notes: Huskies to ‘be careful’ with QB Nick Evers after another head injury; defense dominates

EAST HARTFORD – When Nick Evers went down in the second quarter of Saturday’s 47-3 win over Buffalo, it was intentional. When he stayed down, it was concerning.

It was a simple option play, one this year’s UConn team has run plenty, and Evers pulled the ball and ran on his own. After about a yard, Evers saw a swarm of potential tacklers and opted to slide. One linebacker coming from his left dove over Evers, avoiding helmet-to-helmet contact, but his knee came down on Evers’ helmet.

“I was a little nervous at first, because when I saw him on the ground he wasn’t really moving,” said receiver Skyler Bell, who is friends with Evers from their shared time at Wisconsin and helped walk him off the field after the play.

“I asked him, I was like, ‘Are you good?’ He started moving a little bit and then I saw him wobbling so I let him use me to walk off the field a little bit,” Bell said. “I’m happy he’s good, he was in good spirits as I was talking to him after the game. Hopefully he’s back soon.”

Coach Jim Mora didn’t have an update on Evers immediately after the game, but with a second head injury in five weeks he will likely miss some time. Cam Chadwick, a defensive back, also suffered a head injury on Saturday.

“We have to be careful,” Mora said of Evers’ tendency to run. “Sometimes a quarterback like that that has some speed, they rely on their speed too much and try to escape the pocket out and around rather than up and out. We’ll work on that and get him more comfortable and more confident.”

His replacement, Joe Fagnano, came into the game cold but connected with Bell on three touchdown passes to blow the game open. Bell finished with 153 yards on six catches.

“Impressed? Nah, that’s Joe, that’s who he is,” Bell said. “He’s a dog, when he came in nobody batted an eye. Business as usual.”

Third-down dominance

It was another dominant day for the UConn defense, which continues to make progress as it gets used to Matt Brock’s scheme. Buffalo managed just 198 yards and was 1-for-14 on third down conversion attempts.

“Coach Brock’s put in a lot of new simulated pressures and all different things like that, so we know when we get to third down, we’re pinning our ears back ready to go,” said linebacker Langston Hardy, who had two sacks on Saturday. “We were able to go out there and execute. People won their one-on-ones today, especially on third down, we were able to get off the field.”