[thesportsguru11]

Mandrell to take Rourke's starting spot at Right End

Coach Bob Diaco announced today a major change within his starting lineup moving forward.

After a four sack outburst in the fourth quarter of last Saturday's game against Kansas, redshirt sophomore James Mandrell will be taking the place of senior Sam Rourke in the UConn lineup when they travel to Manhattan, Kansas to take on the Kansas State Wildcats this Saturday. Mandrell has recorded five sacks in total this season along with three forced fumbles in limited playing time in 2020.

Quote: Originally Posted by Coach Diaco

Just like when we decide other position battles, we need to go with the hot hand. James has played very well off the bench and deserves his chance to make an impact on a more consistent basis. Altarri [Gardner, starting right end] has been playing well too and I didn't want to pull him out of our lineup. Though Sam has the most talent of the three, I'm not afraid to make decisions without regards to talent level. If circumstances dictate it, Sam could return to our lineup before the end of the year.

The former five-star prospect and four year starter, the California native Rourke (92 overall rating) has struggled in his junior and senior seasons. His sack total dropped from 11 in 2018 to 2 in 2019. Though he has recorded 12 tackles for loss and five sacks through the first eight games of 2020, Rourke has been held in check by lesser linemen for most of the year and his performance has been overall inconsistent.

Rourke holds the UConn record for career tackles for loss by a wide margin with 78 and currently ranks fourth in school history with 25 sacks. He also played an integral role in UConn's 2017 national championship as a true freshman, recording 20 TFL's and seven sacks. Two of those sacks came in his first ever college game against Virginia.

However, his college career will be marred by the pay-for-play allegations and suspension for the first two games of the 2019 season. Though we may never know the full story there, we do know that Rourke has not been the same player since, and now he has lost his job because of it.

Quote: Originally Posted by RoundingThird

On my phone, so I wasn't going to quote your whole post... Yeah, that's the problem. There's not much to do in Oxford except party. It's an hour away from Cincy and Dayton, almost two hours from Columbus, and while they make it easy for you to get there, it's still a hassle.

I did not know that actually.. interesting that they're in isolation from the other big cities.

Though it leaves all of Saturday open to watch every other game in the country, I just couldn't imagine going to a school where half the games play on Thursday.. that's just not cool haahah