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Connecticut held its media day on Monday, and as expected head coach Randy Edsall addressed the Marcus Campbell injury early in his news conference.

Edsall said Campbell tore his ACL on Saturday while chasing down quarterback Leon Kinnard. The small, shifty Kinnard "stopped on a dime" and Campbell stuck his left foot in the ground when the injury happened.

Not surprisingly, Edsall said sophomores Trevardo Williams and Jesse Joseph are now the starters at defensive end, with A.J. Portee and Ted Jennings backing them up. He said Greg Lloyd, who has been practicing at linebacker, won't play this season. Lloyd had originally been moved to defensive end, but he's not ready to return from last season's knee injury.

"When you lose a guy who has contributed and played in games, that's experience," Edsall said. "Any time you lose experience, that's tough. But now other guys will get opportunities."

Edsall also said there are new starters at safety, the position he has personally coached since the start of training camp. They are true sophomore Mike Lang, a converted wide receiver who's at the free safety spot, and junior Harris Agbor. Jerome Junior and Kijuan Dabney had been the starters but are both dealing with head injuries and have missed practice.

Edsall likes what he's seen from Lang, who played free safety in high school, and Agbor, who has appeared in only three games in his career. The Huskies are replacing both starting safeties from last year's secondary, which ranked last in the Big East in pass coverage.

"We have the talent and the ability I want in a free safety back there now," Edsall said. "Now I just have to make sure we get them coached up the right way. We have big guys who can move and who take to coaching."

Connecticut

Schedule: Practice starts at 4:10 p.m. Monday. First day in pads is Friday afternoon.

What’s new: Very little, which is a good thing for the Huskies. They return almost every major starter from a year ago.

Key battle: Safety. Senior Kijuan Dabney had the first-string spot opposite Jerome Junior following the spring. But he'll be pushed again this month as UConn searches for consistency at the position.

New on the scene: USC transfer D.J. Shoemate arrives and could become a valuable complement to Jordan Todman in the backfield, much the same way Andre Dixon was a year ago.

Breaking out: Kashif Moore made some big catches down the stretch last season, and with Marcus Easley gone there is need for someone to take over as the No. 1 receiver. If it's not this Moore, it could be another: redshirt junior Isiah Moore.

Don’t forget about: Scott Lutrus. Injured for large stretches of last season, the senior linebacker is still one of the best tacklers in the Big East, and could easily put up another 100-plus stops this year.

All eyes on: The secondary. The Huskies are deep and loaded at just about every position, but the defensive backs struggled last season and were wildly inconsistent in the spring. Getting cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson back from a shoulder injury should help, but UConn needs to get better in its back end in a hurry.

Quoting: "I see a much more mature team this year than what we had a year ago, and I see a team that's much closer together because of the experiences we had a year ago." -- UConn head coach Randy Edsall

It's time to get back to our post-spring rankings of each Big East position group. A lot of teams have question marks in their secondaries heading into this summer; let's look at how they stand in comparison to one another:

1. West Virginia: The Mountaineers play five defensive backs in their 3-3-5 alignment and should be well stocked for 2010. Safety Robert Sands should compete for league defensive player of the year honors if he continues his rapid development, while senior Sidney Glover is an experienced playmaker at one of the other safety spots. West Virginia needs Brandon Hogan to rediscover his form and for Keith Tandy to keep improving, and this could be one of the team's strongest units.

2. Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights lost the best cornerback in the Big East when Devin McCourty took his skills to the NFL, but I still like the group that's returning. Joe Lefeged should step up and assume McCourty's leadership role as a senior safety, while Khaseem Greene looks ready to become a front-line safety. David Rowe is a solid corner, and either Brandon Bing or Logan Ryan should fill the other spot. The Scarlet Knights have a lot of talented young players here to provide quality depth, as well.

3. Syracuse: The Orange officially have five returning starters in the secondary because of injuries last year, and several players gained valuable experience during 2009. There's a good mixture of veteran leadership with guys like seniors Mike Holmes, Da'Mon Merkerson and Max Suter as well as rising stars like Shamarko Thomas and Phillip Thomas.

4. Pittsburgh: Antwuan Reed helped answer a big question with a strong spring at cornerback. The other corner spot will likely be filled by either junior college transfer Saheed Imoru or Buddy Jackson, with Ricky Gary around to add depth. The safety position should be in good shape when Dom DeCicco and Andrew Taglianetti return from their injuries, while Jarred Holley established himself as a dependable safety last year.

5. South Florida: The Bulls lost a pair of draft picks in Nate Allen and Jerome Murphy and have some young players moving into key roles this season. The good news is those youngsters have talent. The key will be whether Quenton Washington and Kayvon Webster can hold down the cornerback spots.

6. Cincinnati: There's healthy competition in the secondary for the Bearcats, who increasingly gave up big plays in the passing game as the 2009 season wore on. Dominique Battle, Camerron Cheatham, Chris Williams and Reuben Johnson all vied for playing time at corner this spring. Drew Frey is a steady safety. The group needs to make more plays than it did a year ago but should embrace a more aggressive scheme this year.

7. Connecticut: The Huskies ranked last in pass defense last season and lost two senior stalwarts from the secondary. The defensive backfield was in disarray at times this spring. The return of Blidi Wreh-Wilson from his shoulder injury this summer should help out the cornerback spot with Dwayne Gratz. Jerome Junior should be solid at one safety spot, while Kijuan Dabney is trying to win the other job after moving from linebacker. The Huskies are counting on a lot of young players to improve quickly before the season begins.

8. Louisville: The Cardinals had so much trouble finding playmakers in the secondary this spring that running back Darius Ashley moved to corner to help out. Johnny Patrick is one of the league's better cornerbacks but needs help in the defensive backfield. The healthy return of safety Terence Simien would provide a boost, but this remains a trouble spot heading into the fall.

Both Connecticut and South Florida released their post-spring depth charts late Monday. Let's take a quick peek at both.

Not a lot of surprises on the new UConn two-deep. One change is that former receiver Mike Lang is now backing up Kijuan Dabney at one of the safety spots as the Huskies continue to look for depth in their secondary. Despite missing the spring with an injury, Jesse Joseph maintains his No. 1 status at one of the defensive end spots, with Trevardo Williams and A.J. Portee neck-and-neck to back him up.

Twyon Martin, a two-year starter who had his work ethic questioned by Randy Edsall this spring, is listed as the co-starter along with Ryan Wirth at one of the defensive tackle spots. Marcus Aiken, who spent time this spring in the secondary, is back at receiver and listed as tied with Gerrard Sheppard for second at one of the wideout spots. Former heralded recruit Dwayne Difton is stuck at third string.

The Bulls' depth chart shows that plenty of competition will remain in fall camp, especially at linebacker. Sam Barrington and Mike Lanaris are listed as co-starters in the middle, with Sabbath Joseph and DeDe Lattimore tied atop the two-deep at weakside linebacker.

Sterling Griffin is listed as the starter at A.J. Love's old receiving spot after Love suffered an ACL injury in the spring game. Jerrell Young has edged ahead of Jon Lejiste at strong safety. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman Ryne Giddins and juco import Claude Davis are each in a battle as backups at either defensive end spot.

Eric Schwartz is leading Maikon Bonani at kicker. Schwartz filled in ably last year as the team tried to replace Bonani, who injured his back in an amusement park accident.

Call it the first big news item out of Connecticut's spring practice.

Head coach Randy Edsall has decided to move senior Kijuan Dabney from strongside linebacker to free safety, with freshman Andrew Opoku going from safety to linebacker.

Dabney, a 6-foot, 214-pounder, has been dogged by injuries during his career but has talent. He'll now duke it out with Marcus Aiken for the free safety job as UConn looks to improve its leaky pass defense from a year ago.

Opoku, who enrolled in January, is 6-4 and 220 pounds so he has more of a linebacker's frame. Sophomore Jory Johnson now becomes the leader for that strongside linebacker job. He finished last year as the starter there.

• Skip Holtz is using volleyballs at South Florida practice on punt drills to reduce injuries, Greg Auman notes in the St. Petersburg Times.
• Rebuilding the offensive line is one of the top projects this spring at Pitt, Paul Zeise writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• Cincinnati players like new coach Butch Jones' open-door style, Bill Koch writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
• UConn linebacker Kijuan Dabney is eager to show what he can do after an injury-shortened 2009, Desmond Conner writes in the Hartford Courant.
• Former Rutgers tackle Anthony Davis, who did not attend his school's pro day last week, has rescheduled his workout for scouts, NFL.com reports.

Continuing our look at where each Big East team is strongest and weakest this spring with UConn, which conveniently opens spring practice today.

Strongest position: Linebacker

Key returnees: Lawrence Wilson (140 tackles, five sacks), Scott Lutrus (69 tackles and 3.5 sacks in eight games), Jory Johnson (28 tackles).

Key departures: Greg Lloyd is injured and has been moved to defensive line.

The skinny: Another Big East team would be hard pressed to match the experience and production that UConn has from its top two linebackers. Lutrus was a standout for two seasons before missing time with various injuries in '09. Wilson stepped forward in his place and led the Big East in tackles. Lutrus moves to the middle this year, with Wilson free to make plays on the outside. Johnson and Kijuan Dabney, who was limited to two games last season, will battle it out for the other spot. But based on the two senior stars alone, UConn is in great hands at linebacker.

Weakest position: Defensive back

Key returnees: CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson (40 tackles, six pass break-ups, one interception), S Jerome Junior (48 tackles, one interception), CB Dwayne Gratz (20 tackles).

Key departures: S Robert Vaughn and CB Robert McClain graduated.

The skinny: The Huskies ranked last in the Big East in pass defense and lost arguably their top two performers in seniors Vaughn and McClain. Wreh-Wilson and Gratz made strides late in the year as freshmen, but Wreh-Wilson will be sidelined much of the spring after offseason surgery. Junior showed promise at safety toward the end of the season, but there will be heavy competition for the other safety job.

Coach Randy Edsall says he has as much talent and athleticism at defensive back as he's ever had, but all the candidates for playing time are frightfully young and inexperienced. They'll have to grow up in a hurry this spring.

This is the second part of my interview with Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall. You can read part I here.

On the defensive line, you bring everybody back except Lindsey Witten, who led you in sacks last year. Do you see somebody stepping into his role as a pass-rusher?


Randy Edsall: We've got Marcus Campbell back, and Marcus is a guy who's played for us previously and he's bigger, faster and stronger than he was before. We've got him and Trevardo Williams, who played as a true freshman last year. And those two guys can really run, they're sub-4.5 guys. And I think both of them can be better because they'll have a little bit more experience under their belts. So between those two guys, we feel like we have a pretty good situation there at defensive end.

What is the status of Greg Lloyd, whom you're moving to defensive end? Will he be able to play this year after his knee injury?

RE: We're just going to have to wait and see. We'll make that determination when we get to August. The good thing is, if he isn't ready, we can redshirt him because he hasn't been redshirted. To me, it's going to be if he's 100 percent and ready to go in the fall, then he's ready to go. But if he's not going to be 100 percent, really by the time August rolls around, then it will be in our best interest to just go ahead and redshirt him and let him just continue to get healthy.

It's going to be what's best for Greg and his health. We have A.J. Portee and Teddy Jennings that we like and Jesse Joseph, who's not going through the spring. And then one of the young guys who came in at midyear, Jonathan Louis, we really like what we've see out of him so far. So we feel that without Greg right now we have six guys that are competing for those two spots.

At linebacker, you have two of the best and most experienced players in the league at that position in Lawrence Wilson and Scott Lutrus. I imagine you feel really good about that spot this spring, huh?


RE: We really do. Both of those guys are working and getting better. The big thing for those guys at that position is just to be more comfortable working side by side, and then developing backup situations for us if something did happen. Then at outside backer, Kijuan [Dabney] and Jory [Johnson], both of those guys played for us last year. Kijuan is lined up No. 1, Jory at No. 2 but it'll be a tremendous competition there this spring.

Your pass defense at the back end was a trouble spot at times last year, and you lost two senior defensive backs. How do you see the secondary shaping up?

RE: There's ability there; we've just got to get them to be a little more functional and a little bit more productive than what they were before. Blidi [Wreh-Wilson] won't be out there this spring because of his shoulder surgery, but he's progressing very, very well. I'm not worried about him. But at the corner position, we've got Tevrin Brandon, Markeith Cirinna, Dwayne [Gratz], Gary Wilburn, Chris Lopes and Gilbert Stlouis, who came in [midyear].

So we've got guys there, and what we'll do this spring is figure out who's the best two or three we have there and then who's the best nickel out of that bunch. We have Jerome Junior coming back at safety, and I thought he did better as the year went on last year. And then between Andrew Opoku, who came in at midyear, and Matt Edwards, Marcus Aiken and David Kenney, those guys are fighting it out to see who'll be opposite of Jerome.

The one thing I like about it is, overall, we have more speed and athleticism than we had previously in the secondary. It's just a matter of now, when you look at it, we don't even have any seniors back there. All we got is one junior; everybody else is a sophomore, a redshirt freshman or a [true] freshman. It's just a young group. But it's a young group that has speed and athleticism, so that's a good thing.

Because it's such a young group, will you try to do things this spring to really throw them into the fire and test them as much as possible?


RE: We just finished a defensive meeting this morning, and we were talking about what we're going to do, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to put a lot of pressure on them and get them to understand that, hey, in the spring we know there are going to be mistakes. We'd rather have them make mistakes in the spring and be more ready to go when the fall comes around. Again, I like that group in terms of their willingness and athleticism and their ability to learn. So now what we've got to do is make sure we get them in the right spots and get them to play with a lot of confidence.

Briefly on special teams: Desi Cullen did a lot of things for you, including punting and kickoffs. Where do those things stand this spring?


RE: David Teggart and Chad Christen will have a competition this spring and also in the fall to see who our kickoff guy will be. Christen and Cole Wagner are punting for us, and Chad's a guy who has a really strong leg. There are some things we have to work with him on, but the ball just pops off his foot. And then Derek Chard will be back as our long-snapper from a year ago, and David will handle PATs and field goals, while Chad is a guy who can punt and do field goals. So we feel we'll be in pretty good shape from a specialist standpoint in the kicking game.

You've redshirted a lot of guys the past few years. Do you feel like you've been building to this point where you have so much depth?


RE: I really feel like once we get to August and get some of these guys back who are on the shelf now, we'll have more depth here than we've had previously. We're continually getting better, having more depth and having more athletes, and that's the good thing. The big thing for us now is to have a productive spring and also be able to stay healthy so we can have all these guys going into the fall. And if we can do that, then we have a chance to be successful.

This may be impossible to judge right now, but do you sense confidence among the players from the way they finished 2009?


RE: I think our kids were in a good frame of mind as we got done with our winter program. They understand how close we were last year in terms of the games we won and then the games we lost, the five by 15 points. They understood how all those little things can make a difference, and I think that's the thing that they've concentrated on -- to really focus on all those little things all the time. That every play is an important play.

The little that I've been able to be around our guys because of the [NCAA] rules, I see a good focus. I see a good work ethic. And I see a team that understands that if we prepare the right way and put in the time that it takes to be good, then we have an opportunity to be a pretty darn good football team in 2010.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

A crowd of about 1,700 friends, family and teammates attended a nearly three-hour tribute to slain UConn cornerback Jasper Howard Monday.

The Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner has lots of details from the service. The one that stood out for me was the address by Jameel Moore, older brother of UConn receiver Kashif Moore. He told the crowd that he, his brother, and Huskies players Brian Parker and Michael Smith were with Howard when he was stabbed.

"We had a lot of fun until somebody pulled the fire alarm and everybody just... so many people out there... everybody just scattered," Moore said. " There was nothing more we could have did for Jazz that night. I'm sure we all would have laid down and died for Jazz. We loved Jazz; he was our brother. We told the authorities all we know and, God-willing, they're going to catch the cowards that did it to him. There's nothing more we could have did for him. He wasn't alone that night -- believe that."

Linebacker Kijuan Dabney also read a touching poem to Howard that you can read on Conner's blog.

Can the Huskies now move forward and get back to normalcy? We'll see. I can't imagine what this team has been through the last nine days. Hopefully today's ceremony provided at least a small measure of comfort and closure.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Good news for UConn and linebacker Scott Lutrus.

The junior has been cleared to resume playing and probably will return this week at Pittsburgh. Lutrus has been out since suffering a stinger in the opener at Ohio, and the team was being extremely cautious because of the risk of nerve damage.

But Lutrus underwent tests today that showed he was fine to resume competition. Lutrus led the Huskies in tackles the previous two years and is an all-conference linebacker. UConn's depth at that spot had already taken a hit with a season-ending injury to Kijuan Dabney.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

• West Virginia's Jarrett Brown is putting the Auburn mistakes behind him as he gets ready for Thursday's game against Colorado, Mike Casazza says in the Charleston Daily Mail.

• UConn had seven fumbles against Rhode Island, something that needs cleaning up, Desmond Conner writes in the Hartford Courant. Also, linebacker Kijuan Dabney, who had been filling in for Scott Lutrus, suffered a season-ending injury.

• Pitt's defense has been bad, but almost as disturbing is how the offense tends to stall in the second half, Paul Zeise writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• Yet another milestone for Brian Kelly's Bearcats, as Cincinnati reaches the Top 10, Bill Koch writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

• There was both good and bad in Syracuse's win over Maine, Dave Rahme writes in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

• Mistakes are haunting Louisville, C.L. Brown writes in The Courier-Journal.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Connecticut linebacker Kijuan Dabney has been arrested in connection with a fight on campus, Zac Boyer is reporting for the Hartford Courant.

Dabney, a 20-year-old junior, was charged with second-degree breach of peace early Sunday morning. According to the story, police had to physically remove him from the school's student union.

Dabney appeared in six games for the Huskies last season as a backup linebacker, making two tackles. He played in all 12 games as a true freshman, mostly on special teams.