The season might officially end this weekend when the two-win Huskies host the oh-for-2014 SMU Mustangs, but coach Bob Diaco knows that the real work begins after the final whistle.
That's where rosters are built -- on the recruiting trail. The plan is to add five more players to a class that already numbers 20.
"There's a lot of issues, manpower is one of them," Diaco said, via the Hartford Courant. "We should be at 85 [players]. We're at 60, 65, five of them are redshirting, but that number will be bolstered in February and we'll get back to a functional level of manpower that will still be on the younger side.
"We're going to put this next coat of paint on; it's going to be conversations about 'okay, so you're a second-year player, I got that, but you played a thousand plays. You're ready. You're not a rookie anymore. You played 850 plays. Here we go.' As we turn the page, that's where we're going."
Back in June, Diaco explained his recruiting game plan.
“We are going to recruit our footprint like it’s our home state,” he said at the time. “New York, all five boroughs. Massachusetts completely, Eastern Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia — a round semi-circle, portion of Virginia, D.C. and up to Baltimore then Delaware and straight up the coast, which is whole state of New Jersey.”
