Storrs– Borderline giddy UConn fans took to social media to express their feelings of hope and optimism about the football program following Saturday’s respectable loss at Utah State.

Who can blame them after suffering through 10 straight losing seasons?

First-year coach Jim Mora, who received his share of positive text messages after the 31-20 loss to Utah State in the season opener, understands the fans’ reaction.

But his standards are higher than being competitive in a loss. So, he can do without the good jobs, pats-on-the-back and attaboys.

“When I came here, one of the things I said is I want the people that support this program to be proud of their team on Saturdays,” Mora said Tuesday during his weekly media availability inside the Burton Family Football Complex. “So, if they were proud of their team on Saturday, that’s great.

“But, if we start accepting internally that coming close and losing is okay, then we will never get anywhere. Never. It just doesn’t happen that way. That’s not competitive athletics. So, we’re not going to accept that here.”

“... Man, we want people to be fired up in the direction we’re heading. That’s critical to us. We’re playing for each other, we’re playing for the school and we’re also playing for the people that support us. … I want to feel optimistic, but internally if we accept good enough, then we’ll never become great.”

The players have bought into Mora’s philosophy.

They, too, received praise for the team’s play from students, friends and family. But they’re far from satisfied.

“I think the UConn fans are awesome and very supportive of us and what we’re trying to accomplish,” said center Jack Guidone, a graduate transfer from Dartmouth. “Coach Mora hit on it, that the good job and attaboys, you have to brush those aside. We’ll say thank you for that. But we have a much higher vision of what this team can be and what we can accomplish this season.”

Sophomore defensive back Kaleb Anthony added: “This is a new era. We want to win games, that’s the number one goal.”

UConn (0-1) can equal last year’s win total in Saturday’s home opener by beating Central Connecticut State University, a Football Championship Subdivision program. Kickoff is noon at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.

The season-opening game proved costly as starting quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson suffered a season-ending torn ACL injury and starting wide receiver Keelan Marion broke his collarbone.

Roberson will have surgery later this week and Marion had surgery on Monday. Mora is unsure of the time frame for Marion’s return but hopes the sophomore will be back sometime this season.

“Seeing him go down is terrible,” Guidone said of Roberson. “You never want to see that happen to anybody, especially a quarterback that you’ve been working with. But I have confidence in the quarterbacks that we have. … In this kind of game, it’s next man up.”

Next man up is freshman Zion Turner, who filled in when Roberson went down on UConn’s second drive against Utah State. Turner will start against the Blue Devils.

Mora comes from the School of No Excuses, so he won’t use that as a reason for anything that happens on the field, or talk to his team about questionable officiating calls, like the pass interference flag in the fourth quarter against Anthony.

Anthony called it “a bad call” while Mora was more diplomatic.

“It’s a judgment call, it’s a tough call,” Mora said. “I don’t think it was the correct call but I understand why they made the call. We really didn’t even address that with the team. This is the first time I’ve addressed it. I hesitated to even answer your question because that shouldn’t matter to us. We still have to find a way to win. We can’t use penalties as excuses.”

Mora has already shifted his focus to preparing the Huskies for their next game and what he can do better to help his team win.

Perhaps the most encouraging sign from Saturday’s performance was the offensive line’s performance.

Guidone, redshirt sophomore Valentine Senn, redshirt junior Noel Ofori-Nyadu, redshirt junior Christian Haynes and redshirt sophomore Chase Lundt didn’t allow a sack – first time that’s happened since 2019, a span covering 16 games – and helped the Huskies rush for 245 yards.

“It’s a really great group to be around,” Mora said. “They’re just workers. They don’t say much and they’re a very intelligent group. Coach (Gordon) Sammis has done an amazing job with those guys. They understand the schemes and play well together. I thought they had a good performance on Saturday. We ran the ball well and protected well.”

The Huskies will have to make some adjustments with a young quarterback at the helm and two top receivers in Marion and Cam Ross sidelined with injuries.

They could receive some help this week. Graduate wide receiver Nigel Fitzgerald, who’s recovering from a hamstring injury, looked good in practice on Tuesday.

“There’s an excellent chance that he will be available for us on Saturday,” Mora said.

News and notes

Guidone is finding playing football at UConn different from at Dartmouth, which resides in the Ivy League. For one, his family could watch him play on television. “For them to see me on TV is really cool,” Guidone said. “I’m not sending out a link anymore. So that was really awesome.”

The Huskies practiced Tuesday morning on the outdoor field. “I was impressed with the way they rebounded from a bitter, tough, disappointing loss,” Mora said.

g.keefe@theday.com