Versatile Athlete Visits Storrs

Jared Rains made the trip from Aliquippa, Pa., to Storrs to take part in junior day activities over the weekend already holding an offer from Cincinnati. While he didn’t leave Connecticut with another offer in hand, he was impressed with much of what he saw, heard and felt on campus.

At this point it’s uncertain where Jared Rains will spend his collegiate career as his future could have him in the backfield on either offense or defense. This 5-foot-11, 185-pound athlete was a very productive player for Hopewell High School last season and was eventually honored by the Associated Press with second team All-State recognition at running back. Last weekend Rains made the trip to Connecticut for junior day and was able to take in a school that could eventually extend him an offer.

“I liked it a lot at Connecticut,” Rains said. “They had told me that the school had just put a lot of money into the program and it was pretty obvious when you saw their facilities and stadium up close. I was impressed with the facilities in general, whether it was the indoor practice field, high tech equipment in the weight room or beautiful stadium. There were a lot of things to like about Connecticut.”

“I think the other thing that I really liked about Storrs was how close together everything was on campus,” Rains explained. “You had everything you needed right there in a confined space, so it was easy to go from the dorms to the facilities and everywhere else you would need to go. I was really impressed with the new dorms and felt comfortable on campus. Connecticut is a place that I could definitely see myself going if I went that way.”

Rains has spent most of his high school days starring at running back for Hopewell High School and has played very little defense up until this point, however he did spend some time at both strong and weak side linebacker last season and is being recruited at safety by a number of schools, including Connecticut.

“The staff said they’d probably like me at safety and I played a bit of outside linebacker last season, so I’m comfortable making the transition to safety,” Rains stated. “I’m actually going to play both ways this year more then I have in the past at Hopewell. When I talked to the coaching staff at Connecticut they had expressed interest in me on defense mostly. I was really impressed with the coaches I met including Coach (Todd) Orlando who is a nice guy and has been to my school four times to meet with me and Head Coach (Randy) Edsall who was easy to talk to. Another thing I noticed about Coach Edsall was that he is very involved with his players not only on the field, but off the field when it comes to academics. He came off as a very genuine guy as did much of the staff.”

Rains has already visited Cincinnati who has offered him a scholarship and spent time on campus at Pittsburgh, Akron, West Virginia and Boston College as well. He said he would be considering making a return trip to Storrs for camp this summer and gave this visit an 8 out of 10 overall.

As a junior, Rains was named second-team Class AAA All-State by the Associated-Press and also was named first team All-Conference by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after rushing for 1,401 yards and 17 touchdowns.