Healthy Houston awaiting UConn

STORRS » A year ago, when an undefeated, nationally-ranked Houston football team made its way to Rentschler Field, a gimpy ankle made it uncertain that the Cougars’ dynamic playmaker of a quarterback would even get onto the field.

Greg Ward Jr. gave it the old college try when Kyle Postma, starting in Ward’s place, was injured. However, Ward was barely able to move and he was clearly not the same dual-threat quarterback who tormented defensive coordinators since midway through the 2014 season.

There will be no issues with Ward taking off and running on Thursday night (8 p.m., ESPN)

when the sixth-ranked Cougars host a UConn team that is responsible for Houston’s only loss in the last 21 months.

“He can do it through the air,” said UConn junior linebacker Luke Carrezola, who had two tackles for loss in last year’s UConn/Houston game. “He is an underrated thrower and is a really good thrower and he can obviously do it with his feet, he has been running all over. With a guy like that you have to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t go off.

“He runs the offense and what he does is special. He is a special guy in college football and trying to stop him is going to be our job.”

It will be especially challenging for players like Carrezola, Vontae Diggs and Cam Stapleton to be disciplined when they do rush the passer. If they take the wrong angle, Ward can add to his career rushing total of 1,970 yards.

“It is a common thread among active quarterbacks, you saw it in the NFL with Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb at one time, Randall Cunningham when he was doing it and tons of guys,” UConn linebackers coach Kevin Wolthausen said. “You see it is college all the time. My first real experience with a guy like that was playing West Virginia when they had (Pat White) so you can run up field but you are only going to create vertical seams for the guy so. You have to be really disciplined and make the right decisions in order to keep the guy corralled.”

UConn is 0-8 against top 10 teams. The Huskies haven’t been close to springing the upset, with the notable exceptions of a wild 4745 loss at No. 5 Cincinnati on Nov. 7, 2009. If that game is taken out of the equation, the average margin of defeat is 34 points.

The Huskies lost their first 10 games against ranked opponents until a 22-15 home win against No. 11 South Florida on Oct. 27, 2007. The Huskies are 3-24 against ranked foes with last year’s win over Houston, then ranked No. 13, and a 2012 triple-overtime victory on the road against No. 19 Louisville marking UConn’s only other wins over teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25 poll.

After Houston’s win over Texas State, it was reported that Herman told his team “there’s some added motivation for this one.’ However, on the weekly American Athletic Conference coaches teleconference, he somewhat downplayed the revenge angle.

“I think some of the older guys who were on that team last year that played in that game I’d be foolish not to think there was some added motivation to atone for the wrongs that were made and committed in Connecticut last year and hopefully make them right, if not for the current teams but for the seniors on that team that have gone on in their lives,” Herman said. “We don’t talk about it much as a coaching staff as an added motivation personally. I’d be foolish to think that our kids aren’t excited to play UConn again to maybe get a little bit of a chance at redemption.

Houston was held to a season-low 318 yards of total offense in the 20-17 loss in November.

Herman didn’t use Ward’s injury or the ejection of leading tackler Elandon Roberts for his helmet-to-helmet hit on UConn quarterback Bryant Shirreffs as excuses why the Cougars suffered their only loss of the season.

“We lost the turnover battle 4-0,” Herman said. “We were first in the country in takeaways last year, second in turnover margin which was a big key in last year’s team success. When you go on the road, play a good team and if you lose the turnover battle 4-0, that is usually not going to end very well. We have to hold onto the football, we dropped some balls, we didn’t make as many plays as we should have and from a coaching standpoint, we gave up a couple of big plays on defense. We played pretty good for the most save for a couple of big plays. Offensively, with Greg out we tried to lean on our run game a little bit and probably got a little stubborn there on offense. They are very difficult to run the ball against, big physical guys up front that are difficult to move around.”

Carrezola and his teammates aren’t taking a trip down memory lane at last year’s improbable victory, one that made the Huskies bowl eligible. Houston’s current roster features 28 players who played in last year’s loss to the Huskies including 13 starters. If the Cougars were possibly looking past the Huskies when they met in November, that certainly won’t be the case this time.

The UConn players also figure to have an extra bounce in their step playing a nationally-televised game against a top 10 opponent.