At long last, Yale and UConn will reunite on football field
The last time they played it was painful to watch. So thousands didn’t, that September afternoon in 1998. Whether they were revelers there only for the tailgate, Yale students and alumni who had given up on the scoreboard — whatever the reason, there were more fans in the parking lots surrounding the Yale Bowl than there were in the Yale Bowl.
The next time Yale and UConn play football it should be fascinating. The next time — Oct. 16, 2021 — at Rentschler Field, the score should be close. In truth, with neither school fielding a team this fall because of COVID, we have little more than a casual grasp of precisely how good either team will be in 2021. Yet given the rise of Yale and Ivy League football in the past decade and the steep decline of UConn football during that period, there are 13 words no one should be stupid enough to say.
“UConn has too much to lose and too little to gain playing Yale.”
The game is good for both schools. The game is good for state football.
“Huge test for us,” said Yale coach Tony Reno, who has said the past few years he’d love to play UConn. “Great day to celebrate football in Connecticut.”
The last time they played, the Huskies scored on their first five posses
sions. When the 63-21 rout had ended, the Bulldogs had surrendered the most points in program history — spanning back to 1882 and over 1,134 games. Hang down your head, Larry Kelley and Clint Frank.
The half-century series, which once ranked among the big state sporting events on the calendar, was over. No mas. As they would say in Latin behind the Ivy walls, “ultra,” no more beyond. The ultraspankings had become too much. UConn won 14 of 16 and 10 of the last 11 by a combined score, 404-156.
“The only thing positive is we’re not playing them again,” former Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said that afternoon 22 years ago. And now?
“I think it will be great,” Siedlecki said. “It’s a great thing for Connecticut.”
By 1998, UConn was looking at going I-A (now FBS), building a stadium (that became Rentschler Field) and setting its sights toward the big time (which culminated with the 2011 BCS Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma).
When it started in 1948, Yale was too good. When it ended in 1998, UConn was too good. Every year — save 1992 in Storrs — the game was played at Yale Bowl.
“In terms of the two schools involved in the game, it also had become a negative thing in that all the other colleges came and partied at that game,” Siedlecki said. “They had no interest in the game, whether it was competitive or not. They were just coming for the party.
“It was one of those things that had run its course. And now 20-something years later it is a completely different scenario.”
It sure is. UConn will play a schedule in its first year of independent football that has Yale at home, Clemson on the road and Wyoming stuck somewhere in the middle. It’s a wild ride. UConn athletic director David Benedict was trying the find the most sensical game remaining on the board.
“If it’s a good game, a good experience, there’s a big crowd and the state’s really excited about it, why wouldn’t we play?” Benedict said. “I’d love for us to sell it out.”
Benedict said there was some talk about future games, but haven’t moved forward at this point.
I was with The Hartford Courant when I sat with the late Carm Cozza, the legendary Yale coach from 1965-96, after that 1998 game. He said: “UConn used to come after us like we were the Yankees and it was the World Series. So I didn’t look at it like a lot of the Old Blues (football alumni) did. You know, let’s get it over with and get on to Princeton and Harvard. One of them wrote to me once and asked me how our ‘scrimmage’ went with UConn.”
Yale won the first 16 meetings. Cozza lost his first year, 13-6, to UConn.
“The powers that be were very supportive when I lost that first game,” Cozza said. “But a lot of folks were up in arms. I got some crazy letters about my religion and nationality. Someone even joked, ‘There’s a train leaving for New York at 4 o’clock. Be under it.’ ”
At least, Carm thought it was a joke. He played it safe and won 14 of the next 16 before the collegiate worm turned. UConn got better scholarship players. Ivy League football lost much of its luster. I went back to my laptop that day and wrote: “When the annual game becomes little more than a cobweb of fond memories, it’s time to end it. It’s time to quit pretending there’s an is and admit there’s only a was.”
The reality of college athletics had overtaken the series. Funny thing about the reality of college athletics. It can change over time. And it has.
Reno said he’d play UConn every year. Yet if the Huskies rebound as an FBS program, they’ll become too good again. Playing every year could become exhausting for Yale. And if UConn doesn’t rebound? Hell, the program could dissolve. I’d argue it’s best to fit the game in every three, four years. See how it goes. Have the next game at the Yale Bowl and make a big historic to-do about it.
There have been Saturdays since 2017 when Yale — disciplined, cohesive, athletic enough — would have beaten UConn. To show you how it can go, UConn was a 17.5-point favorite in its 2019 opener against Wagner. The Huskies won 24-21. With at least 25 players transferring out and a good recruiting class coming in, it’s hard to know where Randy Edsall’s team will be on Oct. 16.
“I went to the UConnWagner game,” said Siedlecki, who coached at Wagner and is friends with AD Walt Hameline. “That was not a really good Wagner team (1-11). Obviously, UConn has hit upon some hard times here the last few years and Yale has two Ivy League titles in three years and is probably as strong as the program has been in 20 years. There are years when you’re going to be competitive. I think Yale will have a really strong team next year.”
In a rousing overtime victory, Yale did beat FBS Army in 2014, the 100th anniversary of the Yale Bowl.
“I feel strongly that we should provide our players the opportunity to play the best that we can,” Reno said. “We’re in a unique situation in the Ivies where we’re not playing any FBS crossover games. We were fortunate to play Army in 2014, and that was such a special day.
“We sat down at a scheduling meeting a few years ago and (deputy athletic director) AnnMarie Guglieri asked me, ‘Who would you love to play that isn’t on the schedule?’ I said, ‘UConn, but I don’t know if it will ever work because of the scholarship situation.’ She worked at it. She does a phenomenal job. They were able to come with a plan.”
UConn already has FCS Holy Cross on its 2021 schedule. An FBS team can count one win per season toward bowl eligibility against an FCS team and only if it awards athletic aid equivalent to 56.7 scholarships (90 percent of the limit) over a period of a few years. It’s a stupid rule. Yale, which will receive a $285,000 guarantee from UConn, does not give athletic scholarships. Central Connecticut, which will receive $275,000 guarantees for each game at Rentschler in 2022 and 2025, fits that criteria. YaleArmy originally was supposed to be one game at Yale and two games at Army, Siedlecki said, but the NCAA changed that win criteria for qualification for bowl games and Army pulled out.
“In talking to the alums, we talked about how special the Yale-UConn game was,” Reno said. “It’s a major challenge for us. FBS, full-scholarship roster, all the things that come with it. It’s a different level of football.
“Hopefully, it’s something we can do more than once in the next four, five years. Away game, halfhour ride north on I-91. Great opportunity. Hey, you’d love to put them on your schedule every year, but there’s so much that goes into it. Absolutely, I’d love to play them at Yale Bowl.”