Mensah hits milestone with another big year
PHILADELPHIA — Though UConn running back Kevin Mensah didn’t have his strongest outing Saturday in a seasonending 49-17 loss to Temple, the junior did enough to make Huskies history.
With an 11-yard rush in the first quarter, Mensah surpassed 1,000 yards rushing on the year, becoming only the second player in program history (along with Jordan Todman) to hit that mark in multiple seasons.
Mensah, who has battled nagging injuries all fall, carried only six times for 20 yards Saturday, barely playing in the second half as the Huskies fell further behind Temple. Still, he ended his season with 1,013 yards, fifth in the American Athletic Conference.
Mensah was not available to speak to the media after Saturday’s game, but on Tuesday he discussed his milestone, crediting his offensive linemen and reflecting on what back-to-back 1,000yard seasons say about him as a running back.
“It just means, hopefully, I can just show people: just keep working,” Mensah said. “No matter what adversity you go through, you’ve just go to keep pushing, keep doing the things you do, keep doing your job. And if you can do those things, you’ll get the results that you want.”
UConn coach Randy Edsall praised Mensah all season for his work ethic and attitude.
“He epitomizes what a true football player is, and a teammate,” Edsall said after Mensah rushed for five touchdowns against UMass. “You’re just happy for guys that have those kinds of performances because of what they put into it.
It’s a lesson to everybody that if you work real hard and do the right things, you can be successful.”
After 561 rushing yards in 2017 and 1,045 last year, Mensah hit 2,000 for his career midway through this season, then continued to climb UConn’s all-time rushing list. Over the course of the fall, he passed players including Andre Dixon, Cornell Brockington, Vinny Clements and Ed Long, before ending the season sixth, just barely behind Wilbur Gilliard and Lyle McCombs.
Mensah also scored a careerhigh nine touchdowns this year, giving him 19 for his career.
With one year of eligibility remaining, Mensah needs only 568 rushing yards to move into second place on UConn’s all-time rushing list. With a career year (about 1,200 rushing yards) he could surpass Donald Brown as the program’s all-time leader.
Huskies play short-handed
UConn played without a number of key players Saturday after a rash of injuries last week. Cornerbacks Jeremy Lucien, Myles Bell and Tahj Herring-Wilson did not travel with the team, nor did safety Diamond Harrell or center Nino Leone. Safety Tyler Coyle was in uniform but did not play.
Those injuries resulted in cornerback Abiola Olaiyan, safety Messiah Turner and center Stanley Hubbard all recording the first starts of their careers. (Additionally, offensive lineman Dylan Niedrowski started for the second straight week at left guard, in place of Cam DeGeorge.)
Injuries especially hurt UConn in the secondary, where the Huskies were without three of their top four corners and both of their usual starting safeties.
“It hurt big, but that’s why we’ve got the back-up secondary,” said cornerback Keyshawn Paul, UConn’s only healthy first-string defensive back. “They’ve just got to come in and play their part.”
Temple quarterbacks completed 18 of 29 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns.
The Huskies played more true freshmen than usual, including some — defensive back Winston Jules and defensive linemen Justin Moore and Dalmont Gourdine — who had previously appeared little or not at all.
AAC exit
Saturday marked UConn’s last ever game as a member of the American Athletic Conference.
Though the Huskies enjoyed some happy moments in the AAC, such as a memorable upset of unbeaten Houston in 2015, the final statistics were not pretty:
UConn had a record of 11-45 in conference play over seven seasons.
The Huskies finished below .500 and in the bottom half of the league in all but one year (2015, when they went 4-4 and tied for third in a six-team division).
They wound up last or tied for last in their division or the league in five seasons.
They ended with a 19-game conference losing streak that including two straight years without an AAC win.
The Huskies will officially leave the AAC next summer and compete in football as an independent beginning in the fall.