What’s next for Uconn football?
Through 2 weeks, Huskies have had season’s worth of issues
In a span of 67 hours, stretching from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday morning, the Uconn football team lost to Holy Cross, an FCS program, learned that head coach Randy Edsall would retire at season’s end, found out a day later that he’d be retiring immediately and named redshirt sophomore Steven Krajewski its starting quarterback for this week’s game against Purdue.
A turbulent holiday weekend for the winless Huskies now leaves a singular question. What now?
“It’s a little crazy how fast things are going,” senior offensive lineman Ryan Van Demark said. “But we’re just focused on Purdue.”
Fast may be an understatement, even in the often-tumultuous world of college football. Uconn will prepare for Purdue with Lou Spanos, formerly the defensive coordinator, serving as interim head coach. The Huskies struggled mightily on both sides of the ball against Fresno State and Holy Cross, and it only gets harder from here. The Boilermakers are currently 33 ½-point favorites over Uconn, and for what it’s worth, the Huskies have yet to cover a spread through two games.
Spanos, 50, was hired ahead
of the 2019 season and has a wealth of experience at the college and NFL level. Uconn’s defense, which posted historically poor numbers in 2018, improved slightly under Spanos in Year 1. Year 2 has seen more of the same, as the Huskies have allowed an average of 41.5 points and 450.5 total offensive yards per game.
But the players have shown support for Spanos. Junior defensive back Jeremy Lucien tweeted his praise on Monday night and reaffirmed those thoughts Tuesday morning.
“Ever since he got here back in the spring of 2019, we all think that he’s done a really good job connecting with us,” Lucien said. “Walking us through the new plays we’ve been learning and constantly being there for us. He’s a funny guy, and he’s definitely knowledgeable about the sport. He explains things well. So, for the last two years, we’ve been able to really take his coaching well and completely absorb all the coaching he’s been giving us.”
Said freshman wide receiver Keelan Marion, who Spanos recruited to Uconn: “He’s a real person, he’s a real guy, he’s a great coach . ... He’s not just a coach to me.”
“Everybody on the team loves Coach Spanos,” Van Demark added.
It’s undeniable that the sequence of events this weekend was an awful lot to process. Edsall told his players Sunday that he planned to retire at the end of the season, then returned Monday with news of his immediate departure. Spanos was put in place, and game planning began for Purdue.
How did the team respond?
“I’ve got no comment on that,” Van Demark said. “We’re on to Purdue.”
“It’s definitely been a little bit of a roller coaster,” Lucien said. “Change doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, we’re all open to it. We all trust Coach Spanos a lot.”
Sophomore linebacker Jackson Mitchell said shortly after Saturday’s loss to Holy Cross that the Huskies needed to “change some stuff up.” It’s unclear what the Ridgefield native wanted to see different — coaching staff, scheme, roles — but Spanos said Tuesday that he plans to heed advice and insight from his players.
“Players do have an input and do have a say,” Spanos said. “But obviously, the head coach has the ultimate decision. But, how the sport is, you’ve got to interact and listen. Some stuff you try to do the best of your ability. Other stuff, you’ve got to do what’s best for the team and best for the university. But I value players’ input. I want the input, and I enjoy talking to them. Surprising, they’re a lot more smarter and mature than me.”
Lucien said that he hasn’t seen any players quit on the team. Both he and Spanos said that Tuesday morning’s practice was energetic and upbeat, but players were noticeably dejected after Saturday’s loss. A video went viral of athletes looking uninterested and unresponsive when Spanos raised his fist to break a defensive huddle.
When asked about the video, Spanos said his wife and kids sent it to him and that he laughed it off.
“That was awesome,” Spanos said. “We were talking, there’s a wide circle because of what’s going on with everything in the world and the view from afar. If you see there’s layers, layers, layers, because I don’t want tight. ‘Break it down, let’s go to work.’ The guys love it, we always break down. You see sometimes this and sometimes that, they all got the message, and you saw that we’re all in this together. You’ve got to laugh, it’s fun. It’s football, it’s entertainment.”
He believes the players’ heads are in the right spot, even with the coaching upheaval and losses.
“We talk, what they want for the season,” Spanos said. “And I’ll have an open-door policy. The players were very spirited in meetings this morning and very spirited in practice after. They’re all excited, they’re focused.”
Player support and buy-in will be imperative, especially considering the fact that Uconn isn’t favored in any remaining games this season, per ESPN’S SP+ ratings. The Crusaders were the only team the metric expected the Huskies to beat, giving them a 60% shot at a win, with Umass (50% odds) and Yale (39% odds) being the next closest.
Spanos said on the ESPN 97.3 coach’s show Monday that he wants to make the rest of this season special for the players, especially the seniors. That missions starts Saturday at Rentschler Field against a Big Ten team, a conference the Huskies have lost to four straight times since 2013.
The new man in charge is up for the challenge, so it seems. On Tuesday morning, he tweeted, ‘Day 1. Let’s Work and Have Fun.”
It may take quite a bit of work to salvage a season that is quickly racing off the rails.
“We’re excited,” Spanos said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead.”