Dom Amore: Nick Evers has the keys, now he must lead UConn football somewhere

STORRS — The drive to UConn is always worth the trip on the Tuesday before the season opener . Odds are, the identity of the Huskies’ starting quarterback will be revealed and getting there is half the fun, even if Coach Prime isn’t at the podium.

All football coaches tenaciously guard information ranging from trick plays to what day of the week it is, and UConn’s Jim Mora, with all that NFL experience, is no different. He began his press briefing Tuesday with the idea that he wouldn’t name his starter until Maryland, the Huskies’ opponent Saturday at noon, named one. So state reporters asked about contenders Nick Evers , about Joe Fagnano , parsing for clues.

Then NBC-TV’s Gabrielle Lucivero, er, Gabby again now that she is home from the Paris Olympics , cracked the code. She asked, how does a coach balance the tasks of mobilizing the team behind a starting quarterback while keeping it close to the vest?

“Oh, they know who the starter is,” Mora said. “They know. They’ve been talked to. … Listen, you want to know the starter? Nick’s the starter. There you go. You drew it out of me.”

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A year ago, a mix-up in communications brought media to practice after Mora intended to cancel availability, then no starter was announced. Then it came out a couple of hours later via press release . It took just a few questions, about 16 1/2 minutes this time.

So be it. Maryland coach Mike Locksley hasn’t named his QB1 , says “there’s no competitive advantage” to doing so. A coach has a right to give out information however he chooses. Let me add, all kidding aside and not to get deep into insidery sports media stuff, that most college coaches nowadays wait until a few minutes before the first game, then greenlight someone in the national media to post the starter on the platform formally known as Twitter.

That’s how we learned Ta’Quan Roberson was the starter before Mora’s first game at Utah State in 2022, but Mora kept a promise he made a year ago not to do it that way again and was fair enough to announce the news, albeit in his roundabout way, to assembled Connecticut media — respecting the ones who cover UConn all year. This is much appreciated.

Now, on to the more serious business at hand. Will Nick Evers, a highly touted prospect out of high school, transfer from Wisconsin, be the one to assure that the Tuesday before the first game will not be the most fun day of UConn’s 2024 football season?

“The speed of the ball when he throws it is a different speed, it comes in hot,” running back Victor Rosa said. “And he’s an athlete, he runs all over the place. He makes plays on his own, when the plays not there, he creates something.”

There’s no discernable disadvantage to revealing Evers, rather than Fagnano, more a pro-style drop-back passer, will start. Maryland hasn’t seen Evers; no one has seen him since he played high school ball in the Dallas area. He took a few snaps, threw one pass at Oklahoma, his first college stop in 2022. He’s been in the wrong places at the wrong times to play at Oklahoma and Wisconsin, now he gets his chance. UConn got him a significant piece of available name-image-likeness money to get him to Storrs for this purpose.

“In this day and age you don’t bring a guy in and help him get NIL opportunities unless you’re pretty convinced he’s going to be the guy,” Mora said. “That’s the way this thing works nowadays.”

Evers hasn’t been available to reporters, except for a random student-on-the-street interview as he passed a TV crew on stakeout duty outside Gampel Pavilion the day Dan Hurley spurned the Lakers. He was unrecognized then, but because of the position he plays Evers is the most exciting of the 27 transfers UConn acquired in the portal since finishing last season at 3-9. Also from Wisconsin is receiver Skyler Bell , who helped convince Evers to follow him.

And right from Day One, this could be a consequential season as UConn tries to convince Big 12 Conference presidents, meeting this week, or perhaps ACC presidents who may be shopping in the near future, that its independent football program is worth taking along with all the other things this athletics program can offer.

This is a long-term decision, but there is always recency bias, so this is a good week to begin showing signs of movement in the right direction. A good week for Evers to clear a relatively low bar and show he can be the best, most entertaining quarterback at UConn since Dan Orlovsky .

“He can roll, he can throw the ball, I think he’ll be great for us all-around,” said Dal’Mont Gourdine , one of the defensive linemen who has been chasing him all summer.

“He’s a great competitor and we know what he can do,” said Valentine Senn, one of the offensive linemen who will have to protect Evers. “It definitely add a whole ‘nother feeling to it, you’ve just got to be aware of what he’s cooking up back there. He might take off and make something good out of something that might be trouble. That’s exciting for sure.”

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Two years ago, Roberson won the job, then went down early in the first game, lost for the season with a knee injury. (He’s now at Kansas State ). Last season, Fagnano won it, but went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in the second game.

“It would be great to be able to settle into a quarterback and play,” Mora said. “I’ve always felt that the best thing to do is pick a guy, then support the heck out of him. Support him, support him, support him, support him, give him confidence, give him all your energy, your attention, try to put him in great position to have success.”

Evers is an “X Factor,” Mora said. After a disappointing season, a program should explore the unknown. Known: Nick Evers is a talented athlete with a strong arm and excellent speed. Unknown: Will FBS-level football move too fast for him? Can he play fast, make the right decisions quickly?

Learning UConn’s quarterback has been half the fun. Finding out what Nick Evers is all about should be more fun than that.

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