FATE SEALED
It’s tough to watch as another lost football season unfolds
EAST HARTFORD — It is fair now, if it wasn’t already, to wonder whether the UConn football team will just putter along to another 1-11 record.
Who are the Huskies going to beat? Maybe UMass in the Bottom Of The Barrel Bowl up in Amherst later this month?
Things are bad — really, really bad — at empty Rentschler Field, where on Saturday UConn was pounded 48-22 by South Florida. Just under 11,000 fans actually showed up to watch it happen.
And this was the swing game. With blowout losses at Indiana and Central Florida in the rearview, it was a chance to turn a corner. UConn did and got roughed up, run over, chewed up, spit out, all that stuff.
This was a bad football team beating the tar out of an awful football team.
South Florida, remember, had lost nine consecutive games against FBS opponents since its victory last season over the Huskies. But the
Bulls, with 313 rushing yards, had no problem ending that streak Saturday as UConn’s
dubious streaks grew.
The Huskies have lost 20 games in a row against FBS opponents. That’s mind-boggling, no matter how many times you pause to remind yourself of youth and inexperience and anything else that Randy Edsall knows everyone is sick and tired of.
“We’re still in a process that is hard, and people might not want to hear it but we have to get going,” Edsall said. “We have to keep working and getting these guys to understand that every play is important, and what you do, how you execute, is going to determine if you give yourself an opportunity to win.”
See? He mentions it in every press conference, the nobody-wants-tohear-it thing.
He’s spot on. Nobody wants to hear it because nobody wants to continue seeing all of this — the really boring games, the lifeless environments, the double-digit deficits so soon after kickoff. It has all driven away many fans and tested the patience of those who remain.
UConn has lost 13 consecutive conference games and, hey, if you’re looking for a more optimistic stance I can guarantee this: The team won’t lose a conference game in 2020.
In the meantime, let’s think.
Big picture: When is it not Bob Diaco’s fault anymore?
Immediate view: There is a complete absence of anything interesting going on with this team. It is early October, seven games remain, but Saturday’s loss basically sealed the 2019 script.
Things have gotten so bad at Rentschler and yet I keep torturing myself, returning for every home game.
Maybe our Alex Putterman is just that entertaining, a hell of a guy to spend eight hours with in a press box. Putterman has sat through every single game the past two seasons, home and away, meaning he has seen and documented one of the worst stretches in the history of college football.
It was in the third quarter — it usually is — when I turned to Putt Saturday and mumbled something about a football disaster.
What was I even doing there? Central Connecticut and Sacred Heart were playing an important Northeast Conference game down in Fairfield. In Bridgeport, the UConn men’s hockey team was trying to snap its ridiculous string of six consecutive losses to Sacred Heart in the season opener.
There was relatively compelling stuff going on elsewhere. I chose UConn football because I thought it might be the day when the story lines and a season’s trajectory changed.
I was wrong. Six of my past eight columns have been about UConn football. I’m sorry.
The Huskies are at Tulane next week, home for Houston the week after. They play UMass, another program redefining struggle, Oct. 26.
Then home for Navy, at Cincinnati, home against East Carolina and at Temple to close.
Where are the victories? One could argue the UMass and ECU games are coin flips. Saturday’s beat down was a healthy reminder that we can’t expect UConn to win until we first see the Huskies do it. It’s been almost two years since UConn’s last FBS victory, at home over Tulsa on Oct. 21, 2017.
“We all can do better,” Edsall said. “It’s a team thing. Everybody. We’re going to keep looking at that and keep working and that’s all you can do.”
I know, I know. He’s right. He needs to do his job and nothing can be forced or rushed and there is no quick fix to any of this. But it’s just torturous. UConn has been outscored 142-46 the past three games and three of those touchdowns came last week in garbage time against Central Florida’s second-teamers.
On Saturday, quarterback Mike Beaudry was erratic and the defense couldn’t chase down his counterpart, Jordan McCloud. Another Jordan, running back Cronkrite, ran for 148 yards and averaged 7.4 per carry.
South Florida scored a couple of late and needless touchdowns, one on a faked field goal, a hell of an AAC parting gift from a team that has shared the field for some of UConn’s best memories over the years.
Edsall wasn’t bothered by that. Not at all. Charlie Strong apologized and Edsall told him it wasn’t necessary.
He’s got enough to worry about.
“We made too many mistakes to give ourselves an opportunity to win,” Edsall said. “It’s not rocket science. Until we do that, we’re going to put ourselves in a position not to win.”
No, it’s not rocket science.
Neither is the equation that is keeping fans away.
The product is just about unwatchable.