Imperfectly comfortable
Huskies celebrate win over CCSU, but still have work to do
EAST HARTFORD — Victor Rosa rumbled into the end zone for the final points of an imperfect but ultimately comfortable 28-3 victory over Central Connecticut on Saturday afternoon and UConn football players celebrated on the field, down the tunnel and into the locker room at Rentschler Field.
“That's a hell of a start right there,” coach Jim Mora said.
This was new. A victory UConn didn't have to agonize over or apologize for, postgame optimism that had felt forever absent, satisfaction that those in the packed student section wouldn't recognize.
Because “The Rent,” as it's known, has been the stage for such embarrassment — a setting for the home team's silly play to fester into something so deflating — September games in East Hartford had become the springboard to lost seasons and disastrous coaching tenures, even reasons for the average fan to question why UConn bothers trying to play the sport at the level it does.
The Huskies on Saturday did what any remotely functional major college football program absolutely must.
They wore down an out-sized and overmatched opponent from the lower-level Football Championship Subdivision.
“I hope our fans, the people who are on the fence about whether they want to jump in with us, give us the benefit of the doubt,” Mora said afterward. “I hope they jump in. I can tell you this: If they do, they will be rewarded.”
UConn had 446 yards of offense to Central's 242. The Huskies scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns — including Rosa's, not necessarily needed with 36 seconds left — as Central huffed and puffed and cramped. The Huskies started slow but eventually and methodically took care of business, one year minus one day after an embarrassing loss to Holy Cross that had Randy Edsall announcing his retirement within 24 hours and packing his bags within 48.
Much of the UConn performance was less than inspiring, but the bottom line is the Huskies played a team that it should beat by three or four touchdowns and did just that. UConn hadn't defeated an FCS team by more than seven points since 2012, one demoralizing victory after the next.
A crowd of 22,442 was announced. Far fewer fans were
actually in attendance. The Huskies host Syracuse, a rival in another lifetime, next Saturday night at Rentschler Field.
“If we can get more people in there I think it can be a great environment, having the lights on, the weather should be great, the smell of the grass,” Mora said. “It’s going to be real football.”
Real football? The state will take it, if it can get it.
Perhaps more than anything, before any big-picture and long-term goals are reached for, UConn just had to get on the field and look somewhat competent and be somewhat interesting. Saturday’s was a serviceable showing, a baby step toward respect.
“Everyone’s happy,” said freshman quarterback Zion Turner, who made his first start and finished 14 of 22 for 172 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. “We know we can build on this.”
These FCS opponents are supposed to be a warm-up type of guest that is paid — $275,000, in this case — to take their lumps. Except UConn has been so inept over the past nine years, since the program started to unravel a bit under Paul Pasqualoni,
that even these “guarantee” games didn’t guarantee much beyond some statewide head-scratching.
The Huskies lost to Towson 33-18 in 2013, barely snuck past Stony Brook the following year, 19-16. The 2015 victory over Villanova was just 20-15, and a 24-21 victory over Maine in 2016 required a Bobby Puyol field goal with 11 seconds remaining. UConn trailed Holy Cross 20-7 at halftime in 2017 and managed a seven-point victory.
The 2018 Huskies, featuring one of the worst defenses in the history of college football, needed a late Eli Thomas sack to get by Rhode Island in 2018. A 2019 victory over Wagner was 24-21. Zzzzzz, went the crowd. Thank goodness the Huskies scheduled two FCS teams last year, needing the matchup with Yale for its only victory of the season.
Bob Diaco came and went during the program’s swoon. The piling losses under Edsall — probably both the best and worst coach in program history for his separate bodies of work — left UConn having to build from scratch again under Mora. Who knows what happens from here? But the team has managed not to embarrass itself through two games and that’s a start.
“It’s a change of mindset,
a different culture,” said running back Nate Carter, who rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown Saturday, giving him 313 yards on the season. “We’re not the same team, mentally, that we were last year.”
Look, the bar is so very low right now. UConn struggled early. The plucky Blue Devils took a 3-0 lead in the second quarter, left a first-and-goal from the 2 situation without points instead of taking a 10-7 lead in the third and missed several potentially game-changing plays that would have lent some stress to UConn’s ability to grind out what became an easy victory.
Huskies kicker Noe Ruelas kicked a field goal attempt into the back of a lineman. Dajon Harrison fumbled a punt. Turner had a pass picked off in the end zone to close the first half. By that point in this type of game, to inspire real confidence in winning the following week, UConn should be ahead by three scores, slinging the ball all over the field.
The team isn’t built for that yet.
At least it isn’t built to completely self-destruct.
Dal’Mont Gourdine took advantage of a breakdown on the offensive line and sacked Romelo Williams, pushing Central back to the UConn 11. Three plays later, Christiano Rosa’s field goal attempt clanked off the left upright, leaving the Huskies with a 7-3 lead early in the third quarter.
UConn took over from there. The 25-point victory was the program’s largest margin since beating Central Florida 40-13 in 2015. The three points allowed Saturday were the Huskies’ fewest since a 7-3 victory at Tulane, also in 2015.
The first step in this revolution, as Mora and his people are calling it, had to be simply to put a halt to the revolving turnstile of teams who show up to Rentschler with fewer resources and fewer scholarships and somehow manage to go up and down the field with the Huskies. UConn had outscored its past nine FCS opponents by only a combined 237228.
“It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination,” Mora said. “We had a pretty darn good second half.” The locker room?
“It was joyous,” Mora said. “The things they’ve endured, the things they’ve had to weather, the way they’ve stuck together, the commitment they’ve shown. It’s almost overwhelming, really.”