New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Huskies continue to reach new lows
Back in August, UConn football fans were processing the possibility that the Huskies could begin to make the long climb back to respectability by winning a couple games. Now, with the Huskies having lost seven straight to open the season, there’s little reason to be optimistic anymore.
The Huskies aren’t just bad, but woeful. A punchline nationally. Incapable of providing the slightest hint of momentum.
Last Saturday’s loss to FBS bottom-feeder UMass was the Huskies’ latest example of ineptitude. It caused some of the program’s most prominent alums, including former NFL quarterback-turned-analyst Dan Orlovsky, to sound off, and also ratcheted up the criticism from national media.
“Honestly, it’s just stunning,” ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee said. “It was one of the great stories of college football when they had their run and won the Big East (in the 2010-11 season). Obviously you had the Fiesta Bowl. Just to go from there to this, it’s hard to do — to be that bad that many years in a row.”
Was it rock bottom? At least for now it was. But as the Huskies have shown throughout this forgettable season, they keep sinking to new depths of futility.
There’s a chance for further embarrassment when UConn hosts neighboring Yale Saturday (noon, CBS Sports Network). It’s the schools’ first meeting since 1998 — UConn’s second to last season at the NCAA I-AA level.
Yale, picked in the preseason to finish second in the Ivy League, is off to a 2-2 start. Not great. Not bad. Simply average. However, some are forecasting the Bulldogs to beat the Huskies.
In fact, ESPN’s Football Power Index rankings gives the Bulldogs a 60% chance of winning Saturday. That’s right, the Huskies, who have already lost to one
FCS team (Holy Cross) this season, are underdogs to another.
McGee, who authors the Bottom 10, a weekly regular season ranking of the 10 worst teams at the FBS level, unceremoniously elevated UConn to No. 1 in the poll following the loss to UMass.
“To me, it’s not even close,” he said.
The matchup between winless teams — billed by USA Today as the “worst game of this — or any — college football season” — was preceded by word that five Huskies, including interim coach Lou Spanos and starting left tackle
Ryan Van Demark, had tested positive for COVID-19, and wouldn’t accompany the team to Amherst.
It was another unfortunate break in a chaotic season — especially for Spanos, the former defensive coordinator, who has drawn praise from fellow coaches, players, and media for how he’s handled things since Randy Edsall abruptly retired.
“If you watch the coaches now, there’s an enthusiasm, they’re working hard, all that stuff. None of that stuff was there before,” McGee said. “There wasn’t any energy. Now there’s at least some energy. But again, it’s the most UConnthing ever, you’ve got an interim head coach, there’s energy and then they all get COVID and can’t be there for the game.”
Edsall, 63, was just 6-32 over three-plus seasons during his second stint as UConn coach. He was 80102 overall, having led guided the Huskies’ transition from Division I-AA to Division I-A in 1999-00, before bolting for Maryland following the Huskies’ appearance in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day 2011. He led the school to four other bowl games during his tenure.
“Listen, rehiring Randy Edsall was a horrible mistake,” McGee said. “Everyone around the country knew it when it happened. … They made just a series of really bad decisions that everyone on the outside seemed to understand were bad. But I think even those of us who saw the dominoes falling didn’t think they would fall this far.”
And yet, here the Huskies are, winless and noncompetitive, having to embark on yet another coaching search.
How enticing is the job? The Athletic polled a collection of current coaches, athletic directors and agents who ranked it the hardest job in the country. Among the concerns voiced was a perceived lack of support from school administration.
“UConn guys talk about how that school really doesn’t do much for that football program,” an anonymous Power 5 assistant said. “Well, if you’re not gonna support the program, it’s not gonna become what it ultimately could become.”
McGee pointed to at least one draw: state-of-the-art facilities.
“I think peoples’ perception is if you go visit
UConn it’s dilapidated, they’re using second-hand equipment, and that’s just not the case,” he said. “That’s part of what’s so baffling about it. It’s certainly not in the same realm as Clemson or Alabama, but it’s as nice as anywhere I go in the ACC outside of Clemson and it’s as nice I’ve seen as anything I see when I go out to the West Coast in the Pac-12. It’s on par with Power 5. Particularly in the Northeast, their facilities are way better than Boston College. They’re so invested in it, but they just made so many bad decisions. You can’t just throw money out and build a nice facility. You’ve got to put something in. They worked really hard to screw it up.”