UConn must use USF game as turning point

Randy Edsall couldn’t point to one reason why another shellacking didn’t happen Saturday night. He couldn’t point to one reason why a team that had been bent on breaking collegiate records for defensive futility dating to General Pershing and World War I nearly pulled off a colossal upset on the road against the No. 21 team in the nation.

“I don’t know,” Edsall said Sunday. “I would hope it was because of maturity. I’m sure because of some extremes out there with Eli (Thomas), maybe that helped a little bit, too. But I wish it was all intrinsic, where it comes from within those guys. We had a better week of practice. The week off helped them to clear their minds and get their minds right a little bit. There probably are a lot of factors involved.”

The Huskies didn’t play like they were losers at Raymond James Stadium.

They didn’t play like third graders who coughed up their allowance money and all their chocolate bars at the first sight of the neighborhood bullies.

They didn’t get down on their knees and plead with South Florida, “We’re too young. We’re too small. We’re too slow. So please! Please! Blow our doors off.”

They didn’t paste their horizontal thumb and vertical index finger to their foreheads as if the giant “L” was the signature for UConn football.

“We played aggressive for 60 minutes,” Edsall said. “We competed for 60 minutes … it gave us an opportunity to win the game in the fourth quarter. If we had taken advantage of some of the opportunities we had and paid a little more attention to some of the details that we needed to do, the outcome could have tilted in our way. But we didn’t.”

The Bulls were favored by 311⁄2 points. If Hergy Mayala hadn’t run offside on a successful onside kick, the Huskies would have had their golden chance to tie the game in the closing 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Still, for once, those whopping point-spreads against the Knights, Broncos, Orange, Bearcats, Tigers and Bulls proved

to be bull spit.

The 38-30 final is more than a starting point.

The Almost W should be a turning point.

Before the opener against Central Florida in August, I asked Edsall to define success for UConn football in 2018.

“I’ll tell you that at the end of the year,” he said, out-maneuvering me like the opposition that has out-maneuvered his defense for 51.4 points a game. That number, if it holds, would be the most since Stanford allowed 60.5 in 1918. Looking at their fourth World Series title of the 21st century, the Red Sox wiped out the 1918 Curse of the Bambino in 2004, but, hey, somebody has to keep New England tradition alive.

Edsall wasn’t going to answer beyond saying the goal is improving each week. And while that part absolutely is true, the fuller answer always involved four or five wins. The wins still are very much out there. The Huskies can win three of their final five games. Heck they could win four, but three would be good, finish 4-8, call it a definitive step in the right direction.

If you lose Saturday at

home against UMass, if that starting point at USF was nothing more than a mirage, you’ve got bigger problems than young players on defense. You’ve got lost hope. If you see a guy like defensive back Brice McAllister playing for UMass when he wasn’t good enough to stick around a final year at UConn, and the Minutemen spank you at home? You’ve got people wondering where is the bottom of this bottomless pit?

UMass. At Tulsa. SMU. At East Carolina. All that talk about the undefeated records of UConn’s opponents over the initial seven games gives way to the 8-21 combined record of the next four opponents.

Yes, after allowing only one touchdown and causing two interceptions in the first quarter, the Huskies were gashed for 611 total yards. Yet they also allowed 11 fewer points than in any game this season and played with lots of guts, lots of gusto. The bye week had to help them. Rallying around teammate Eli Thomas, who had a stroke, had to bring them together. Employing five defensive backs was a move that worked for better than half the game. Senior quarterback David Pindell, the best player on the team, playing healthy for the first time since the Syracuse game

had a huge impact. USF is also a quirky late-starting team, so that deserves some consideration.

Edsall praised Matt Peart’s and Ryan Crozier’s offensive line play and said Cam DeGeorge had his best game. Along with offensive coordinator John Dunn’s planning, he said it helped Pindell run the ball for 197 yards and Kevin Mensah for 120 more.

Edsall said DB Robert King did a good job in the defensive backfield. And when Tyler Coyle and Oneil Robinson were in at the same time, some good things happens. He also didn’t commit to that fiveDB alignment and away from the hybrid linebacker, saying he’ll go with whatever personnel groupings put the team in the best position to win a game. Edsall liked the way the Huskies were able to play eight defensive linemen, all between 20 and 39 snaps. Yes, there appeared to be some legitimate growth.

Will this be remembered as the night that the UConn football program turned it around?

“We’ll find out,” Edsall said. “Some of the things we’ve been stressing for the last 11⁄2 years maybe is starting to sink in a little bit. Guys are starting to understand just how you have to practice and the work and preparation you have to put in and that it’s hard.

“I talked to them earlier (Sunday) in the team meeting that when you play as hard and aggressive as we did, I saw a defense running and trying to take their shots. We gave up too many big plays again, but we weren’t discouraged. Now we’ve got to clean up the little things and do things the right way. If we do that, I think things like that can snowball.”

Little things that add up to big things. Omar Fortt show terrific technique. Result: Interception. Backup quarterback Marvin Washington did a few things he shouldn’t have. Result: He didn’t make the trip to USF. Edsall said Washington can be his own worst enemy. And for you folks who think Pindell, a senior, should sit as part of a larger growing process with Washington. Learn the game. UConn would go 0-12 without him. And as the outside guy with the best view of the kicker, Mayala “never” should have been offsides on the onside kick, Edsall said.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how close is Edsall’s team to cleaning up the little things that lead to big things like victories?

“50-50,” he answered. That better be enough to beat UMass.

Chris O'Meara / Associated Press Coach Randy Edsall and the UConn football team has had a rough go of it this season, but the Huskies have a chance to use Saturday’s effort in a loss to South Florida as a turning point to the season.