UConn football preview
Huskies determined to change their losing ways of recent seasons.
Maybe you’ve heard it, too? A random reference to UConn football — yes, football — on WFAN.
I was driving, startled out of paying half attention to the radio. The context was a commercial for a betting app, and the announcer drops in with , “you know you’re a gambler when you tune in to UConn football …”
Guess you have to be desperate enough to let rent money ride on two seagulls fighting over a potato chip in a parking lot to be interested in UConn football.
So this is where we find the program after its lost decade, the free fall from Fiesta Bowl to mediocrity to historic defensive porousness to a coast-to-coast symbol of irrelevance. Connecticut, the joke is on us.
It is here that the free fall must end and the laughter must begin to die out if the remaining believers, and I am one, feel that FBS football at UConn is worth to believing in. No team has ever profited by being comically bad — except the ‘62 Mets, and that was only because Casey Stengel’s gibberish was a lot funnier than Bob Diaco’s.
After a year off due to COVID-19, the Huskies are ready to regain our emotional investment. It all starts Aug. 28 at far-away Fresno State, where they are four-touchdown underdogs. The slate is clean and the mind is open. They are now an independent, no longer to be kicked around in a conference. They would need a winning record to get into a bowl game, but they will be on TV every week with good start times against some interesting opponents. Coach Randy Edsall, who has gone 6-30 since his return in 2017, sounds more optimistic than he has since coming back to Storrs. These are steps in a positive direction, but we need to hear what’s possible. We knowbynowwhatisn’t.
“It’s a whole different feel,”
Edsall said, “it’s a whole different vibe.”
What does success in this new world look like? Entertain us and force the sports betting crowd to seek comic relief elsewhere.
Neither you nor I nor Twitterverse has any idea how good these UConn players can be. They had a year to get bigger and stronger and bond. But they also missed a year to learn to play with cohesion at game speed. They have some promising athletes on both sides of the ball, players who may look big and fast against UMass, Yale or Army, but slow and undersized against Fresno State, Purdue or, gulp, Clemson. They’re still pretty young. Running back Kevin Mensah can gain ground against anyone, and Travis Jones is creating a little buzz on defense. With no useful film for opponents to study, there’s a chance to sneak up in the early games.
Quarterbacking is everything, of course. Jack Zergiotis, if he emerges as the No. 1 choice, has been described as a “gunslinger.” Now, that sounds like fun. Sling away, UConn Jack for football independence is, almost by definition, a roguish venture. Smash-mouth, three-yards-and-a-cloud-ofdust football works in the Northeast when there is a well-defined goal like a playoff spot or a bowl invitation. The Huskies need to be anti-establishment and make anyone who stumbles across one of their games on CBS Sports Network stop clicking and say, “Who are these guys?”
So here is my proposition: Be bold. Strike hard. Play with attitude. Play fearless. Play like there is absolutely nothing to lose and every week is a one-game season because that’s exactly what this is about. Avoid off-the-field problems, be a team that’s fun to watch and easy to root for.
“I hope, and I think they have that mentality that there’s not many people giving us a chance,” Edsall said. “And they’re the group that has the chip on the shoulder, they have something to prove and they’re just waiting for the opportunity to prove it.”
And if the Huskies hold up that end, give ‘em a chance. Tune in and turn out.
Make it interesting, and I believe the state will respond. This is a market that loves “events.” UConn football can’t be something it’s not. It can’t be Alabama, and no one should never expect that. We can ask that they play well enough for the country to stop laughing at the brand. The longer that label sticks, the harder it is to remove.
It’ll stick quite a few more years, too, if UConn is compelled to change coaches again and set recruiting back to square one. The heat is justifiably on Edsall and the players he has invested in to provide some progress and a few good wins in 2021. They can start winning hearts and minds by transcribing that radio spot, pinning it on the bulletin board and letting it fly at Fresno State. Win or go down punching, not as a punchline.