Adam Masters (’08) is the starting right tackle for the University of Connecticut Huskies football team. He now starts on a team that earned in a bid in this year’s Fiesta Bowl by winning the Big East conference. Following a tough 2009 season marred by the death of starting cornerback Jasper Howard, the Huskies rebounded with an 8-5 record in their 2010 campaign. Masters sat down with The Spectator to share his experiences as Division I student-athlete.
SPEC: You guys have played in a bowl game every year you have been at UConn. Can you describe the bowl experience?
A.M: The bowl experience is definitely a lot of fun. It’s a mix between vacation and business. We have some free time to enjoy ourselves and hang out, but at the same time it’s a business trip, and we’re on a mission to make a name for ourselves and win the bowl game. The bowl committee will put together some fun events for us to leading up to the game, but other than that it’s just practice and preparing for game day.
SPEC: Coming out of Whitman, what made you ultimately decide on UConn?
A.M: I felt I had a better chance of getting on the field early, along with the academics being strong. The main thing was that the coaching staff was above and beyond any of the other coaches I talked to.
SPEC: What do you feel the main difference is between D-I football and high school football? What kind of things did you do to bring yourself to that next level?
A.M: The physicality, the toughness and more than anything, it’s the mentality that you have to learn to take on. You have to be extremely mentally tough, and it’s not easy to develop that. It took lots of hard work. I was always outworking my opponent, never took days off and never gave up on myself.
SPEC: What was your football career like in high school? Did you play before you got to Whitman?
A.M: I actually never put on a pair of shoulder pads until the 9th grade. I played JV that year because I had no idea how to play, and was completely lost out there. But by the 10th grade I made it to varsity and worked from there.
SPEC: Why did you choose to redshirt your freshman year at UConn?
A.M: It is something that 90% of freshmen do. As an offensive lineman, size is extremely important. Taking that extra year to get that size, learn the plays and gain that experience is extremely beneficial. My freshman year, we had two NFL draft picks who I was going up against every day, and that developed me as a player and got me to where I am today.
SPEC: This was Paul Pasqualoni’s first year as head coach of you guys. How did the team take to him after the departure of Randy Edsall? In what ways was he different from Edsall?
A.M: He is a little bit more of an old school coach. He is a tough guy, very serious, somewhat like Edsall, but definitely has his own style of coaching.
SPEC: Following college football, would you like to go pro, or do you have any other ambitions that you would like to follow?
A.M: I definitely want to take my career as far as it can go. My main concern is giving it everything I have, so even if I don’t make it I can go through the rest of life knowing that I left it all out there and I gave it my best shot.
