Huskies miss chance, lose again
EAST HARTFORD — It was tantalizingly close, a bona fide winnable game for a group of players in dire need of something to celebrate.
Yet when the UConn football team was the cusp of something good, there was always a speed bump. An overthrown pass from the freshman quarterback, a missed field goal, a failure to score on four downs from within 4 yards, a missed tackle or illadvised penalty … one thing after another.
Facing a program garnering national attention for seemingly tanking its season, UConn had an opportunity Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field.
Alas, it ended like the 21 previous games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents — another loss.
UConn lost 2417 to Hous
ton, coming closer than it has in any loss this season. Yet the Huskies (16 overall, 04 in the American Athletic Conference) ultimately failed and extended their litany of streaks: six losses in a row, 15 straight in the conference, 22 consecutive against FBS opponents.
Houston (34, 12) has been a chaotic program under firstyear coach Dana Holgorsen. Starting quarterback D’Eriq King and receiver Keith Corbin were redshirted after a 13 start, even though both are healthy. Both will be available next season.
That led to charges of tanking, which was heightened by a series of tweets from former Cougars offensive lineman Justin Murphy.
An ESPN sideline microphone picked up Holgorsen screaming in the second quarter Saturday, “I can’t (expletive) coach this (expletive).”
UConn led 73 early in the second quarter — its first lead since taking a 30 lead on Indiana on Sept. 21 — but trailed 107 at halftime. It was 1010 in the third before Houston scored two unanswered touchdowns.
But there was a missedfield attempt. There was a loss on downs after Kevin Mensah ran 58 yards to set up a firstandgoal from the Houston 4.
“When you get opportunities, you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said. “We just didn’t do that today. And it was all three phases that we had the opportunities to make some things happen and we didn’t.”
Edsall said he was proud of his players, who “battled their tails off and competed for 60 minutes.” But he again talked about the program’s youth, the number of freshmen and sophomores logging significant playing time.
Freshman Jack Zergiotis started at quarterback and completed 27 of 44 passes for 270 yards. There were numerous overthrows on deep balls which Edsall attributed to inexperience.