Stuard saves Cougars’ bacon
Defensive back makes crucial touchdown-saving tackle as offense does just enough in win
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — As Kevin Mensah broke free for a 58yard run, heavy-underdog Connecticut appeared on the verge of changing the complexion of Saturday’s game.
Houston defensive back Grant Stuard had other ideas, chasing down Mensah and finally bringing him down at the 4-yard line for a touchdown-saving tackle late in the third quarter.
“Critical, critical, critical play,” coach Dana Holgorsen said after the Cougars held off the pesky Huskies 24-17 at Pratt & Whitney Stadium. UH improved to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the American Athletic Conference.
Defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen preaches for his unit to “play with fanatical effort.” The Cougars were tested repeatedly, as UConn missed a 40-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and had at least three overthrown passes with no defenders in sight.
But the biggest play of the game came from Stuard, who raced down the sideline, pulling down Mensah from behind just inside the 5-yard line.
UConn failed on four straight plays near the goal line, the last a fourth-down stop by Payton Turner and Blake Young.
“No matter what happens, make them snap it one more time,” said linebacker Donavan Mutin, whose first career interception set up a 12-yard touchdown run by Kyle Porter that gave the Cougars a 10-7 halftime lead. “Give us a chance to play goal-line defense. Give us a chance to go out there and put our toughness against theirs and see what happens.”
Mutin said that hard-nosed culture is what the Cougars are “trying to start now, develop and keep here.”
“You’ve got make them snap it again. If it’s 1 yard, half a yard, they’ve still got to get that yard to get that touchdown,” added Stuard, who finished with a career-high 15 tackles. “You’re going to have to score on us. You’re not just going to walk in the end zone.”
The 17 points tied a season-low (also set against Prairie View A&M in Week 2) allowed by the Cougars this season. From there, UH did just enough offensively while playing without quarterback Clayton Tune, who is dealing with a nagging hamstring injury.
The Cougars were held to a season-low 284 yards, punted on six of 10 possessions and did not convert on third down until midway through the fourth quarter. Making matters worse, an ESPN sideline microphone caught a visibly irate Holgorsen yelling, “I can’t (expletive) coach this (expletive)!” late in the second quarter.
“I say things all the time I don’t mean,” Holgorsen said. “Heat of the battle. My guys know good and well what I think of them and how hard I coach them and how much I think of them and how much I appreciate everything they do.”
Logan Holgorsen, a freshman walk-on and the coach’s son who began the season as the thirdstring quarterback, made his first career start. He was 7-of-15 for 123 yards and a touchdown, a 58-yard strike to Jeremy Singleton that put the Cougars ahead for good, 17-10. The Cougars also went with a wildcat formation that featured Bryson Smith and Porter. Smith completed a 45-yard pass to Singleton to set up the Cougars’ first score, a 42-yard field goal by Dalton Witherspoon.
“I thought he did fine,” Holgorsen
said of his son. “He’s not fazed on the sideline. It’s not too big for him. He’s not wide-eyed. With that said, he’s a freshman walk-on quarterback.”
UConn freshman quarterback Jack Zergiotis connected with Matt Drayton for a 17-yard touchdown early in the second quarter, the Huskies’ first lead in more than 235 minutes. UConn entered Saturday’s game as a 21-point underdog. The Huskies (1-6, 0-4 AAC) have lost 22 straight against FBS opponents.
UH added some cushion with a 13-play, 78-yard drive that took more than six minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter, Smith capped off the drive with a 2-yard run for a 24-10 lead.
A 7-yard touchdown catch by Art Thompkins sliced the lead in half with 1:40 remaining. UH recovered the onside kick, and Porter later converted on fourthand-3 to run out the clock.
“It was a rough win, but a win is a win,” Singleton said.
In the post-game locker room, Dana Holgorsen broke tradition and presented Stuard with the game ball.
“This is the first time I’ve ever given out a game ball,” he said. “I just don’t give out game balls. We watch the video and come up with players of the game. It’s the first time I’ve given a game ball in the locker room. That kind of sums up who our team is week-in and week-out.
“Just put your head down and play.”