Stamford Advocate (Sunday)

UConn falls at UMass

- By Paul Doyle

It was has been a season of losses and chaos, a fall when the UConn football program has become a national punchline.

How low can they go? The Huskies’ 11th consecutiv­e loss ended a 16-game losing streak for neighborin­g UMass, perhaps the only program in America ridiculed more than UConn.

UConn’s 27-13 loss in

Amherst Saturday could very well qualify as bottoming out. The Huskies (0-7) were trending in the right direction after close losses, but they couldn’t keep pace with a team that last won a game in 2019 and was coming off a resounding loss to Toledo.

It was a tight contest for much of the afternoon, but UConn watched the game unravel in the fourth quarter when quarterbac­k Steven Krajewski threw an intercepti­on deep in Husky territory. UMass’ Bryce

Watts returned the intercepti­on to the UConn 6 and the Minutemen quickly scored on Ellis Merriweath­er’s 1-yard run

And after a field goal by Joe McFadden, UConn’s defense was unable to contain UMass. An eight-play, 78-yard drive ended with a touchdown run and UMass (1-5) was up by two touchdowns with 5 minutes left.

A comeback? Not after UMass recovered an onside kick. UConn would get the ball back after UMass ate time off the clock, but the Huskies could not mount a comeback.

So UConn lost to an old Yankee Conference rival in a meeting between two of the statistica­lly worst teams in the country.

A USA Today headline: Why UConn at UMass could be the worst game of this — or any — college football season. The story called it “a matchup that can only be loved by family members, degenerate gamblers and sickos rubberneck­ing the Football Bowl Subdivisio­n equivalent of a 10-car pileup.”

Amid all the negativity surround the game was word of five positive COVID-19 test results. UConn’s interim head coach Lou Spanos, along with offensive coordinato­r/offensive line coach Frank Giufre, tight ends coach Corey Edsall, senior left tackle Ryan Van Demark and freshman offensive lineman Will Meyer tested positive and were isolating Saturday while the team was in Amherst.

With Spanos unavailabl­e, defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter stepped in the interim coach for the interim coach. Dottin-Carter, who served as interim coach for Delaware in 2016, is third coach to lead the Huskies in this first season of independen­ce.

Randy Edsall, of course, lasted just two games — losses to Fresno State and FCS-level Holy Cross — before announcing he would retire at season’s end. A day later, he was immediatel­y gone.

Spanos, the former longtime NFL assistant, was elevated from defensive coordinato­r to interim head coach. Under Spanos, the team has shown signs of fight as the Huskies lost to Wyoming and Vanderbilt by five points combined.

The game at Vanderbilt, an SEC bottom feeder, was billed as a historical­ly bad matchup.

The game at UMass, though, was next level lower.

And after an initial burst of offense from both sides, the game lived up — or down — to expectatio­ns. Consider the first half: After the teams scored on three of the first five possession­s, seven consecutiv­e drives ended in punts. The streak ended when Krajewski was intercepte­d by Donte Lindsey with 33 seconds left in the half.

Yes, 33 seconds. Lindsey returned the intercepti­on to the UConn 40. Trailing 10-7, UMass was poised to drive into field goal range and go into the intermissi­on tied.

In fact, UConn was a willing participan­t in the UMass plans. A 12-yard competitio­n from Brady Olson to Rico Arnold was extended when UConn’s Eric Watts was flagged for a face mask penalty.

The ball was moved to the UConn 8 yard line with less than10 seconds left in the half.

After an incomplete pass, UMass lined up for a 26yard field goal attempt with two seconds left in the half.

But kicker Camerson Carson missed and UConn went into the half with a three-point lead.

When UMass scored on their first drive — a 9-yard touchdown run by Merriweath­er — it marked the program’s first lead since Nov. 16, 2019. UConn responded quickly, as Nate Carter ran for 30 and 10 yards before Krajewski connected with Keelan Marion on a 34-yard touchdown strike.

UConn drove 50 yards on nine plays on its next possession, which ended with a 38-yard field goal by Joe McFadden to make it 10-7.

And that was the it for the half.

But UMass began the second half with a 10-play, 72-yard drive capped by a 21-yard field goal by Carson. That’s where it stood as the winless neighbors moved into the fourth quarter.

Carson kicked a 28-yard field goal four seconds into the fourth to give UMass the lead. But Krajewski threw the intercepti­on on the next possession, setting up another UMass touchdown that put UConn into a 10point hole.

 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States