Storrs — During his Southington High School glory days, Jay Rose looked and played the part of star quarterback.

Rose was Mr. All-Everything, being part of two Class LL state championship teams.

That all changed once he arrived in Storrs.

Rose's role is far less glamorous as tight end on the UConn football team.

"He was one of those blond hair, blue eyes pretty boys coming out of Southington," UConn coach Randy Edsall said. "Everybody telling him how good he is and all those sorts of things. Then when they come to this level, it's a little bit different."

Different, but good.

Rose, a 6-foot-3, 248-pound junior, has fully embraced his new position after enduring a challenging transition period. He looks and plays the part, too.

In UConn's 31-23 loss to Illinois on Sept. 7, Rose caught two passes — one more than his total for his career — for a career-best 31 yards.

He no longer thinks of himself as a quarterback playing tight end.

"I've moved on," Rose said. "I know I can throw the ball but I've moved on from that."

There was a significant adjustment period on so many levels for Rose.

While Rose had previously played tight end his first two years in high school, he was being asked to do it on the Division I level.

He had some physical and mental hurdles to clear after starring at Southington where the all-state quarterback passed for 5,826 yards and 86 touchdowns combined during his junior and senior seasons.

"You go from being the man to being a little fish in a big pond," said Rose, who grew up going to UConn football games at Rentschler Field

In August 2016, Rose, a cornerstone of the recruiting class, opted to leave UConn before eventually deciding to return the next spring.

As a freshman, he played on special teams. Then he progressed to seeing limited action at tight end last season. He made his first career reception against Memphis on Oct. 6, but that was it.

Rose is finally feeling comfortable this season.

"You come here and right off you get moved to tight end and you've got to start doing different things," Rose said. "You've got to start blocking and start catching balls. After about a year, you get used to it. You know it's your role and you just fall into it."

Freshman quarterback Jack Zergiotis, who'll make his second career start on Saturday at Indiana (noon), hopes to get Rose more involved with the offense.

"Jay Rose is solid," Zergiotis said. "He's a big target. I want to get him the ball some more. It's just big to have him out there. He's a cool guy."

The learning process is far from over for Rose.

Edsall is harping on Rose to be more physical and improve his blocking. But he's pleased with Rose's development.

Rose has gotten bigger, faster and stronger, according to Edsall, who added that his tight end is putting in the time and effort that it takes to make himself an above average player.

"Since I've been here, he's grown tremendously," Edsall said. "I think he's still got a lot of growth in front of him yet in terms of how good he can. You're starting to see him becoming more comfortable with the role as a tight end. ... He's still not physical enough for me. And he's made strides there but he's still got to get more physical. He's got good hands and runs good routes.

"Always when you make a transition from one position to another, it takes time. I think he's finally bought into the fact that he is a tight end/h-back. And that's his role. I think the quarterback days are all behind him."

News and notes

• UConn (1-1) had a productive bye week, the first of two weekends off this season. The break was particularly good for Zergiotis who has only one game under his belt. "It gave us a week to help Jack get better," Edsall said. "Plus, it gave us a chance to continue to work on fundamentals and technique but also to get better at the things that we know we can do well, offense, defense and on special teams." ... Indiana is 2-1, beating Ball State (34-24) and Eastern Illinois (52-0) and losing to No. 6 Ohio State (51-10) on Saturday. ... The Hoosiers may be without starting quarterback Michael Penix who's considered a game-time decision.

g.keefe@theday.com