holy cross

132-28 Just Three Games In

/ Brian Phair / 1 Comment

Going into the 2021 College Football season, I had reasonable expectations for the UConn Huskies football team. I expected to see some improvement after taking a season to rebuild during the COVID pandemic last year and begin to see signs of life going into the following season or two. My pre-season guess was 2-3 wins and more competency on both sides of the ball as the younger players matured throughout the year. Somehow, even with 2-3 win expectations for the season and just 3 games into a 12-game campaign, I’m already disappointed. It’s going to be a loooonnnggg fall and winter for the Huskies.

Through 3 games, my best guess was that the Huskies would be 1-2. I absolutely expected losses at Fresno State and at home against Purdue, because the UConn program doesn’t have the talent to compete with programs like that at this point, sadly. Getting shutout in both and having no run game was certainly a bit surprising, but definitely not shocking. The abysmal performance against FCS Holy Cross, however, was a gut-punch to the program that frankly doesn’t have much gut to punch.

Being outscored by 104 points in any 3-game stretch is just embarrassing and pathetic, especially when one of the teams is in a lower division, FCS. No offense to Holy Cross, but even a shitty UConn team should be able to beat them by 2 scores at a minimum and their flat performance perfectly describes the Randy Edsall era. During his 2nd stint with the program, Edsall ‘led’ the Huskies to a 6-32 record, continuing the spiral into oblivion rather than stabilizing and beginning the long rebuild. Of those 6 wins, 3 were against FCS opponents (Holy Cross in 2017, URI in 2018, and Wagner in 2019) and all three of those games were decided by 1 score.

What has this UConn Huskies program accomplished since the BCS Fiesta Bowl appearance in 2010? Have they done anything to earn a spot in FBS? I am in no way advocating for a drop to FCS, but it’s getting harder and harder to hold that line with each passing year. Since the 2012 season, UConn has won more than 3 games 1 time and that was the 2015 6-7 team that lost to Marshall in the St. Petersburg Bowl under Bob Diaco. Since 2015, the program hasn’t even sniffed a bowl game or a winning record (and even with 6 wins in 2015 they didn’t have a winning record).

There is at least some renewed hope with the “stepping down” of Randy Edsall, but there is a a solid chance this team pulls a completely defeated season like the 2008 Detroit Lions (led by former UConn QB Dan Orlovsky). I thought the program had already hit rock-bottom, but now am wondering if the worst is yet to come. The mammoth issue going forward, even if you bring in a top coach and recruiter, is how long will it take to truly rebuild and transform this roster. It’s not like the Huskies are one or two pieces away from being a contender, they need help at almost every position on the roster.

For anyone who has even casually watched a game or followed the team over the last decade, nothing I’m writing is even mildly surprising or even new. This team is bad and they have been for a long time under a series of bad coaches and limited talent. For more reasons than I can count, UConn will never be a national power program. All I’m asking for, and all most fans are asking for, is a competitive team that has a chance to make a low-level bowl most years. Those are pretty low expectations that aren’t even close to being met.

The Randy Edsall 2.0 Experiment is Finally Over

/ Brian Phair / 2 Comments

In what felt likely an oddly timed announcement, Randy Edsall declared to the world after losing to FCS Holy Cross that at the end of the 2021 season he would be retiring as the UConn Football coach. Then, just days later, it’s announced that Edsall is stepping down as the head coach effective immediately in a “mutual decision” between Athletic Director David Benedict and Edsall. Like his first tenure with the Huskies, the ending of UConn and Edsall 2.0 is messy and odd. There is one thing Edsall is consistently good at: leaving programs in unceremonious ways.

As a fan of the Huskies football program, I’m not unhappy with the turn of events the last few days. I was relieved when I heard the news that Edsall would retire at the end of the season because frankly he’s done absolutely nothing to turn this program around in his second stint as head coach. There was so much hype and hope after canceling last season and seemingly taking the surprise extra time to work on fundamentals and strengthening the players within the program. There was a buzz around recruiting within the new independent schedule and it appeared as if we might see an improved team in 2021, even if there was still plenty of room for growth. Unfortunately, the first two games proved that there has been very little, if any, progress to show for the year without games. In some ways, they took a massive step backward.

From my vantage point, it feels like Edsall realized his job was on the line after getting blown out by Fresno State and losing in embarrassing fashion to FCS Holy Cross, so in an effort to save face by putting an end date on his career and controlling the narrative, he made the retirement announcement. It wouldn’t shock me if David Benedict wasn’t pleased with that move and made it clear that the product on the field wasn’t acceptable. Benedict was probably planning, or at least considering, letting Edsall go in the short term and gave him the choice to step down and leave gracefully or be fired. If I’m the AD at UConn after Saturday’s performance, Edsall’s on the next bus out of town.

Ultimately, a change needed to happen and the quicker it happens, the quicker the program can begin to rebound and get a new head coach with a new direction, hopefully a successful one. For now, defensive coordinator Lou Spanos will lead the Huskies, presumably at least until the end of the season. Benedict now gets a chance to at least see what Lou can do as head coach to determine if he should be seriously considered for the permanent gig. Who knows what the future will hold, but the present is messy.

3 Takeaways from UConn Football’s Embarrassing Loss to Holy Cross

/ Brian Phair / Leave a comment

After beginning the season in difficult conditions against a very good Fresno State team and getting blown out, everyone was looking forward to facing a much easier FCS opponent in Holy Cross. The home opener was sure to be more interesting and maybe even get the Huskies into the W column, but Holy Cross had other plans. After a tightly contested first half, Holy Cross made a 3rd quarter statement and pulled away for the upset over the Huskies. Let’s look at 3 major takeaways from the game.

Jack Zergiotis Pocket Awareness and Mistakes

Overall, QB Jack Zergiotis made some better throws and showed off his talent more in this game after a weak performance at Fresno State. That being said, he again made some major mistakes leading to Holy Cross points and complete momentum shifts. For the 2nd straight week, Zergiotis was strip-sacked leading to a defensive fumble recovery. Last week the defense took the ball for a TD, this week their subsequent drive resulted in a TD. In both cases he was completely unaware of the pressure he was under and chose to leave the ball unprotected, which is just asking for trouble.

This week Zergiotis had a major problem with interceptions as well. He threw 3 INTs, including 2 in the 2nd half, and halted any chance of a comeback the Huskies had. He needs to clean up the mistakes if he wants to have any success at the collegiate level. If he turns the ball over 4 times against the Crusaders, how bad will it get against better FBS defenses?

While frustrating, he did throw for 174 yards and appeared to have some great chemistry with freshman Keelan Marion hitting him for 2 TDs including a 50-yard strike and a nice back of the end zone catch. This was a big step forward from game 1, but is overshadowed by the mistakes.

Disappointing Running Game

This one makes me scratch my head more than anything else with this team. The Huskies have one of the better RBs in recent history within a program that has produced some solid RBs and for some reason, can’t get any consistent running game going through 2 weeks. Kevin Mensah was poised to carry this offense in 2021 and to this point, he’s been a flop. In 2 games he has rushed for 109 yards on 32 attempts, a mediocre 3.4 yards per carry.

RB Nate Carter hasn’t exactly been lighting it up either backing up Mensah. He has gained just 38 yards on 13 attempts, an even worse 2.9 yards per carry. The issue seems to be with the offense line run blocking, which hasn’t been good. Against Fresno State, it makes sense why the line was outmatched, but to not be able to open holes against an FCS opponent is concerning. Usually one of the big differences between FCS and FBS teams are the offensive and defensive lines. It was clear on Saturday that UConn’s offensive line didn’t have a significant advantage over the Holy Cross defensive line and now 2 weeks in, run blocking is a clear weakness on this team.

If the running game continues to struggle, it will get harder for Zergiotis and the offense to have consistency and balance and we’ll see more single-digit scoring totals this year than we want.

Defense Giving Up the Big Play at the Wrong Time

For whatever reason, the Huskies defense continues to give up big plays to the opposing offense at the most inopportune times. The biggest in this game was the 76-yard scramble by Holy Cross QB Matthew Slutka. The Huskies defense missed several tackles on the 4th quarter run that led to a TD and a 10-pt lead for the Crusaders, putting the game away. Tackling fundamentals seemed to be missing and point to a lack of execution. I’m not sure if the coaching staff is not getting through to the players or the players are just making mental mistakes, but they will have a hard time winning anything if they continue to allow average quarterbacks free reign.

Even the best offenses can’t overcome continual scoring pressure from the opposing team and this is definitely not the best offense. The defense needs to contain the opposition and limit the quick-hitters to give themselves the best chance to hand the ball back to the offense without allowing points. If they held Sluka on that drive, they would have had a chance to give Zergiotis the ball back in a one score game with a chance to tie or win in the 4th quarter.

It was certainly not the result the Huskies wanted and it really puts the idea of a completely defeated season back on the table. Randy Edsall needs to get his team settled and prepped for a tough home matchup with Purdue on Saturday at 3pm.

Goose Eggs for UConn Football in their Return to Play

/ Brian Phair / Leave a comment

After a 637 day break since they played in a live football game, UConn began their season in the red hot sun of Bulldog Stadium. Unfortunately for UConn, the only thing that was red hot was the Fresno State offense and the game went as expected (or worse), ending in an absolute blowout 45-0. While it definitely feels like a continuation of the awful play in the 2-10 2019 season, there were reasons to be more optimistic about this season than in the past.

Let’s start by acknowledging that this Fresno State team is very talented and clearly better and deeper than UConn at almost every position. QB Jake Haener and RB Ronnie Rivers are both NFL prospects and they showed their talent once they settled in. This was never expected to be a close game, it was a 4 TD spread after all, but it’s still jarring and surprising to see a 0 on the scoreboard.

My biggest takeaway was the complete ineptitude of the offense. I was most excited to see what the offense could muster after the long layoff and they looked almost the same as when we saw them last: stagnant and unable to sustain drives. After the game Randy Edsall said “I’m not going to do what’s the most prettiest or the sexiest.” That’s fine, no one expects a high-flying, air-it-out passing attack, but you have to move the ball and score points. RB Kevin Mensah has had a great career, but if there is no chance a QB can complete a pass, there will be no holes to run through.

It felt as though QB Jack Zergiotis was struggling to place the ball with any accuracy. Twice in the game he had a WR breaking away from the defender and all he needed to do was put the ball in the vicinity and he missed both times. On one hand, he was pretty close to throwing for 2 TDs, but on the other hand, he couldn’t even hit an open receiver in space. I’m not sure if it was a timing issue, or just an issue of downfield accuracy for the QB, but both are potentially fixable issues with a little work. If he hits the first one of those plays, the momentum and feel of the game shifts dramatically. Momentum and confidence are huge on a young-ish football team.

The defense looked better than I expected despite allowing 45 points. The first quarter was a nice balance of stops and some pressure on Haener. They held the prolific Fresno State offense at bay for a while, which was somewhat of a surprise. However the inexperience shone brightly through once the scoring tidal wave began to hit. There was a clear shacking of confidence once the Fresno State offense began rolling and there were a ton if missed assignments and bad angles leading to big plays. That’s to be expected with such a young secondary. There will be mistakes, probably lots of them, but it won’t matter if the UConn half of the scoreboard still reads 0.

All-in-all it was good to see UConn back on the field in a real game that counts. No one with any sense thought UConn would win this game, so in that respect it went exactly as expected. Saturday against FCS opponent Holy Cross will be the real test of whether this team can put this game behind them and move forward. If the offense struggles against a weaker Holy Cross team, then the white flag begins it’s ascent up the flag pole and we’re in for a lot of pain this year.