University of Connecticut Athletics
In final season, Connecticut native Jackson Mitchell is committed to elevating UConn Football
8/29/2023 1:46:00 PM | Football
The fifth-year senior linebacker has played every season of his football career in Connecticut. He’s hoping Connecticut’s top recruits will too.
It is for no particular reason, but perhaps by no accident, that inside UConn's Mark R. Shenkman Training Center, the 2022 Myrtle Beach Bowl banner hangs at the same height as the 2011 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl banner.
The rest of the banners form an upwards arrow of sorts, the newest ones elevated both in height and importance as the UConn Football team continues its climb. But not last year's.
"When I was younger, it was a big program, and they got all the way up to a BCS game [against Oklahoma]," Jackson Mitchell, the fifth-year senior linebacker and Connecticut native, tells me.
Mitchell would be remiss if he didn't at least acknowledge last year's bowl game appearance. The team has come far from its 2-10 and 1-11 records in Mitchell's freshman and sophomore seasons to last year's 6-7 record.
But 6-7 isn't good enough. Mitchell has made that clear during this summer's fall camp.
"The standards are much higher," Mitchell tells me. "Last year, we were going in and just trying to make a bowl game and improve ourselves. This year, we expect to improve on six wins, which is average to us."
Hailing from Ridgefield, Connecticut, Mitchell plays not just for the pride of the Huskies. He's playing for his state.
Alongside the introduction of head coach Jim Mora and a reinvestment into in-state recruiting, Mitchell hopes to turn Connecticut Football back into a power.
"I think it's just huge for the state because there's obviously no pro teams," Mitchell says. "So if we can build our football team up like other big state schools, I think that's huge for the state. Obviously, it makes it exciting, and it gives people a lot more hope."
So far, the so-called Husky Revolution has been a massive success. Not only did the team's record improve dramatically last season, but UConn Football had the largest percent increase in social interactions on official team accounts from 2021 to 2022, according to skullsparks.com. Recruiting, especially of Connecticut talent, has also taken off.
In 2021, UConn won big in the recruiting race when it signed Victor Rosa and Camryn Edwards, Connecticut's Gatorade Player of the Year and the New Haven Register/Gametime CT State player of the year, respectively. Last year, they followed that up by signing John Neider, the 2022 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year. This summer, Mora helped land four-star quarterback Cole Welliver.
The impact of this recruiting is not lost on Mitchell, who watched a lot of talent from his 2018 Connecticut high school recruiting class commit elsewhere.
"It's huge," Mitchell says. "As more kids stay – like me, Vic, Cam – it shows people that this might be a place that you're willing to stay, especially as we start winning more games. And we know that for us to be successful, we have to keep those kids, because there's a lot of kids in my grades that had a lot of D1 offers and didn't come here."
And it's hard for Mitchell to blame them. Following the 2010 season and the Fiesta Bowl, the UConn team has not had a single winning season. But the evolution that Mitchell has seen during his time in Storrs is promising.
"It's been really good," Mitchell says. "I've been here for a long time and I've seen it at its lowest point. What Coach Mora was able to do in one year is really exciting, and I think that's why it should give people so much hope. Because that was only in one year, and now we're going into year two and beyond."
As excitement for UConn Football ramps up around the state, Mitchell credits one initiative with helping to foster continued support. From 2010 to 2012, the Connecticut high school football championship games were played at UConn's home stadium, Rentschler Field. In 2022, Mora helped restore that tradition.
"I made it to the state championship when I was a sophomore, and we played at a high school," Mitchell says, thinking back on his all-state career at Ridgefield High School. "In every other state, you see that the state championship is going to be at some big stadium. And so that's huge. Kids that dream of playing for a D1 team – they get to play at UConn's stadium, and maybe they can envision that's where they want to be when they're older."
This season, Mitchell is hoping that fans will fill most – if not all – of the 40,000 seats at Rentschler Field.
"We really want to win games to get it packed out," Mitchell says. "People want to wait to see if we win, but the wins are gonna come and I just hope to see it packed out because it'll be huge for this state."
What would also be huge for the state is if Mitchell, who led the nation among true freshmen with 6.5 tackles per game in 2019 and has led the team in tackles each of the last two seasons, gets drafted to the NFL next spring. He wants to prove to recruits that Huskies can both go to the NFL and have success there.
"My dad has always told me and every coach I've had has told me, they'll find you if you're good enough," Mitchell tells me. "This is obviously a D1 team, and we get to play a lot of big teams."
He rattles off Michigan last year, Clemson two years ago, and Tennessee this year.
"It's not like we're not playing good competition," he continues. "So you'll get your chance on the national stage, and if you can live up to it and compete, you'll get your chance to play at the next level."
As for the recruiting success, it hasn't come out of nowhere, Mitchell says.
"[The coaches] all have their own regions, but they'll spend a small period of time where they're all going across Connecticut," he says. "I know the coaches that recruit Connecticut, and even if there's no Division 1 prospects out of high school, they still keep connections with those coaches for when guys do come through."
So for Connecticut recruits that are recognized and for those still in the shadows, Mitchell's message is this:
"They want this to be – and this is – a top notch sports institution. But also, you get a chance to play in front of all your friends, all your family members, and make the state proud, which is something you can't really get at another place. It's a very rewarding feeling, especially helping build it up knowing this is where I grew up."
