The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Huskies remain winless with loss to UMass
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? How about this: 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 to Wyoming and Vanderbilt, 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.
Unable to beat a team 60 miles north, UConn turns its attention to a program 60 miles south. Yale, 2-2 and coming off an overtime loss to Dartmouth, visits UConn Saturday as the state programs meet for the first time since 1998.
Can UConn beat Yale? Or Middle Tennessee (2-4), which comes to East Hartford Oct. 22?
Those were considered winnable games before Saturday’s loss. But nothing is certain for UConn, a program that will have a new head coach in 2022.
The Huskies led UMass early and 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 with UMass leading by three.
UMass’ Bryce Watts returned the interception to the UConn 6 and the Minutemen quickly scored on Ellis Merriweather’s
1-yard run.
After a field goal by UConn’s Joe McFadden, the Huskies’ 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 drive.
Fans stormed the field as the game ended. It was UMass’ first win since Sept. 28, 2019 — a span of 742 days. The postgame celebration in the UMass locker room resembled something reserved for a championship party.
“Huge team win for us,” UMass coach Walt Bell told reporters. “Happy for our players. Just everything they’ve been through ... it’s been a long time for these guys.”
It’s been a long time for UConn, too. The last victory was at UMass in 2019. The program canceled its schedule because of COVID-19 last year and returned with a renewed sense of optimism this fall.
But UConn has struggled all season. The run-up to the game in Amherst was all about the state of New England’s futile, independent programs. 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 just a three-point lead.
“I know obivously it hasn’t manifested itself in wins and losses, but our kids prepare and they work their asses off,” Bell said.
UMass scored on their first drive of the game — a 9-yard touchdown run by Merriweather — which it marked the program’s first lead since Nov. 16, 2019. UConn responded quickly, as Nate Carter (20 carries, 136 yards) ran for 30 and 10 yards before Krajewski (13 of 24, 128 yards) 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 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 the game away.