OPINION
By Bob
Phillips
Photo by Bill Harper
 |
| Missouri players celebrate a touchdown. Opponents celebrating is something the Huskies have experienced too often this season. |
I waited until midweek, because I didn’t want to come down too
hard on the University of Connecticut football team—and the overall program.
This is a very hard thing to do. So I will start by pointing out some painfully
obvious facts:
Fact No.
1: The Huskies Aren’t Very Good
I’m being polite here. One might make an argument that, in fact,
the Huskies are a bad team. To begin with, the 52-12 shellacking they suffered
last week at the hands of the University of Missouri was an embarrassment. “Oh,
but Missouri is in the SEC,” say the Husky enablers. This is true. The Tigers
do play in the SEC, without question the No. 1 conference in college football,
and the home of a bevy of college football superpowers, including No. 1
Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 6/5 Clemson, No. 16/15 Auburn, and No. 19/20 LSU,
among others. It’s also true that the Tigers have a 3-5 record, with an 0-5
conference record. That’s right, Mizzou is 0-5 in the SEC, and 3-0 vs. “all
others.”
Fact. No.
2: No One Seems To Care
While the Huskies’ play has been embarrassing, the lack of
interest exhibited by consistently small crowds in a small stadium is palpable.
Capacity at Pratt & Whitney Field at Rentschler Field (sorry, P&W, but
the stadium will always be “The Rent” for me—and for many, if not most, college
football fans in the state) is 40,000. This year, the Huskies have averaged 20,715.
That’s barely half full. This is why the Huskies opted to play their upcoming
“home” game vs. Boston College at Fenway Park: To get fannies in the seats
(albeit mostly BC students and fans).
This is a team that supposedly aspires to join a Power 5 Conference?
Seriously?
The Huskies never have been, nor ever will be, much more than a
Division 1-AA program in Division 1 clothing. It has been invited to exactly
one major bowl in school history. That was in 2011, when they were embarrassed
by Oklahoma, 48-20, in the Fiesta Bowl. That game will best be remembered not
so much for what happened on the field, but rather what happened afterward,
when head coach Randy Edsall, unbeknownst to his team or anyone else, boarded a
plane and flew to Maryland where he was to be announced as the Terrapins’
coach. (Edsall is a Maryland alumnus.) Over the course of four-plus seasons,
Edsall had a 22-34 record at his alma mater and was shown the door in the
middle of the 2015 season with the Terps in a freefall—on a three-game losing
streak in which they were outscored a 122-34. (Sound familiar?) In all
fairness, however, it should be noted that Maryland had transitioned from the
ACC into the Big 10 the previous season, and lost what would be Edsall’s last
game in Maryland 49-28 to Ohio State—then ranked No. 1 in the country.
Soon thereafter, Edsall found himself back in Connecticut, a
program he once left in such a shameful manner, but one that was in shambles
after a three-year Reign of Error under Bob Diaco. (The Huskies were 11-26 overall,
6-18 in The Big East under the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator.)
Fact No.
3: Don’t Expect Things To Turn Around Anytime Soon
“But the Huskies are rebuilding,” say the enablers, to which my
answer is: “When are they not ‘rebuilding?’”
To call a team constructed around a senior quarterback—a fifth-year senior at
that—a senior tailback (Ansonia’s Arkeel Newsome who suffered a
sternum/clavicle injury in the Huskies’ 20-14 win over Tulsa two weeks ago and
was projected to miss “at least 3-4 weeks”—and possibly the remainder of the
season (and therefore his college career), is paradoxical at best. Consider
this: More than half of Connecticut’s Huskies’ 22 starters (not counting
Newsome, who would be counted in that total when and if he returns) are seniors
and juniors (eight and two, respectively). That leaves on 10 starting freshmen and
sophomores (eight and two, respectively). Rebuilding? Perhaps, but the key
positions on offense and defense are dominated by upperclassmen.
So in on Saturday comes 7-1 (4-1) USF. The Bulls are currently
ranked No. 23 in the USA Today/Coaches Poll, and are No. 2 in the American
Athletic Conference Eastern Conference, 1/2 game behind UCF. Kickoff at The
Rent is slated for 3:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPNU and can
be heard on the UConn IMG Sports Network.
2017 UConn
Football Season To Date:
Date Opponent H/A Score Attendance
(Home Only)
08/31 Holy Cross H 27-20 (+7) W 24,435
09/16 Virginia A 18-38
(-20)
09/24 ECU H 38-41 (-3) L 14,036
9/30 SMU A 28-49
(-21)
10/06 Memphis H 31-70 (-39) L 19,230
10/15 Temple A 28-24
(+4)
10/21 Tulsa H 20-14 (+7) W 24,814
10/28 Missouri H 12-52 (-40) L 21,062
Record: 3-5
Avg. Point Differential -13.1
Home Record: 2-3
Avg. Home Point Differential: -13.6
Avg. Home Attendance: 20,715
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