Great night, no matter what anyone says

Don't listen to the noise.

Don't let the snickering bother you.

Don't let the snide remarks affect your euphoria.

This isn't about "deserve" or "should" or "shouldn't." This is about a program. This is about a coach. This is about players, expectations, adversity, broken dreams, redemption won, and a kick that, improbably, looked straight and true as soon as it was lifted in the air, that brought the University of Connecticut to a place few, if any, dreamed was possible.

A team with an 8-4 record going to a BCS bowl will make a lot of elitist college football fans groan for a month. Some will even suggest that the Big East no longer deserves its automatic qualifier status for the Bowl Championship Series (a point I address a little later), and will point to all the lowlight Uconn stats for evidence: they were out gained from scrimage by their opponents this year; they lost to the likes of Temple and Louisville and won only one game, their last one, on the road; they will have, by far, the most losses of any team in a BCS game this year.

But, while that will be the story outside of Storrs, CT, here in Connecticut, a land that has no professional sports team and nothing seemingly on the horizon, a state that hails basketball as king, and a state were rabid sports fans usually divide their loyalties among the established franchises in Boston and New York, the story must be about a little program that could.

I was on campus from 1996-2000, was there for the Uconn Men's Basketball's first national title, when Khalid El-Amin promised they would "shock the world" by beating Duke one Monday night late in March, and then did. I know ho crazy Storrs is for basketball, and I know how apathetic they were towards football.

The "stadium" they played in on campus would have been put to shame by any Texas high school facility. If the stands were half empty for a game, that was a good crowd for Uconn football. There wasn't any tailgating. There weren't any rallies. While the basketball players, men and women, were looked upon as stars, no one even knew the names of the football players. I literally might have sat next to the starting quarterback for the squad multiple times during my years at Uconn, I wouldn't have known it.

When Uconn went big-time, moving into The Rentch, moving into I-A, I, like many others, sorta laughed. I liked the idea of going to a new stadium, tailgating, enjoying the brisk fall weather with some food and a few beers, but the games, quite honestly, would be secondary. What was Uconn ever going to be in college football? A doormat for the bigger schools? Just another win on the schedule for teams that always found a way to load their season up with guaranteed victories?

As Dave Taggert's field goal passed through the uprights last night, all those questions seemed a distant memory. Uconn was going to a BCS Bowl game. They were representing the Big East. They were getting a chance to go up against one of the old guard (Oklahoma) to see if they have what it takes to compete at that level. 

It is impossible to underplay the job Randy Edsall has done at the helm of this program. He was there when it played second-level football. He was there when no one cared whether his team won or lost. He was there when his name was as unknown as a any freshman calc major just moving into his dorm room.

I'll never know how Edsall got quality players to come to Storrs. I'll never know how he convinced kids, who could have played in the weather offered in Florida or California to, instead, take a chance on a cold, windy, out-of-the-way school in Connecticut. For basketball, I get it. Jim Calhoun is a hall-of-famer who has produced NBA players as a trade. The weather doesn't seem all that bad up in Storrs when some kid is playing one-on-one with Ray Allen or Caron Butler, Rudy Gay or Emeka Okafor. But, for football? There's no lineage, no history, no intangibles to fall back on. Much like Calhoun did when he arrived on campus in the mid-80's, Edsall has had to build this thing from scratch. 

He has, and his trip to the Fiesta Bowl to play Oklahoma marks one of the greats jobs ever done by a football coach, ever.

And, as impressive as Edsall's overall job has been, his team's resilency and determinaton the past two seasons has been even more memorable.

This was a group that could have easily phoned it in. They lost each of their games by a combined 15 points. They lost heartbreaking games that should have ripped the heart out of any group of players. Then, they lost a teammate in the most tragic of ways, as Jasper Howard, one of their best defensive players and a kid with a perpetual smile on his face, was killed over a foolish argument on campus one night.

Edsall and Uconn made their way through the thicket of emotions to pull off one of the great wins in school history, beating Notre Dame at Notre Dame, with Touchdown Jesus looking on, then headed to Papajohn.com Bowl, where they beat up on Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks.

It led to expectations coming into this year. It led to talk of winning the Big East. It led to discussion about a BCS bid. And it led to disappointment.

Uconn walked into The Big House to take on Michigan the first game of the year, only to have Denard Robinson run wild over the Huskies and a freshman fumble away their best chance for a comeback. It spiraled from there.

Uconn lost to Temple at Temple, lost to Louisville 26-0, lost to Rutger in a game handed away, and the team looked like that second-level squad we all believed they always would be. Then a funny thing happened. Uconn started to win. They beat West Viginia. They beat Pittsburgh. They embarrassed Syracuse. Suddenly, after being out of the picture, an afterthought, a wait-till-next-year team, Uconn controlled their own destiny. Win against Cincinnatti and South Florida and you're in. Lose and, well, you're probably going back to the Meineke Bowl, or maybe the new Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.

The first part was easy. Uconn made quick work of Cinci, holding their top offense down and letting Jordan Todman run wild. 

The second part was tricky.

Give South Florida credit. They weren't playing for anything other than pride. They had already upset a good Georgia team the week before and were already bowl eligible. There wasn't anything to put on the line. Yet, they lined up and smashed Uconn  in the mouth time and time again. 

Jordan Todman's 93 yards were almost as impressive as any of his 130 yard games in the past, because all of them were earned. How many times was he hit in the backfield? How many times did he have to turn a sure loss into some sort of gain, by sheer will alone? There were no holes to run through. There were no open lanes to exploit. Everything was hammer and hold on. Everything was lower shoulder-level football. 

By now, you know what happened. By now, you know Uconn held, at 16-13, USF to a field goal, despite them being on the five yard line with a first and goal to go.  You know that Matt Fry had a good return, that Zach Frazier completed a great pass, then almost threw a devastating interception, and by now you know that Dave Taggert raised every NFL scout's eyebrow by casually kicking a 52-yard field goal with EVERYTHING on the line. It isn't hyperbole to say that, for that team, in that moment, a Super Bowl kick wouldn't be any less pressure packed. It was a calm kick in the face of a storm of anxiety, and he nailed it.

So, does Uconn have a chance against Oklahoma? Probably not. The Sooners are bigger, stronger, and faster, and have been on this stage before.

Uconn will be a heavy underdog, and their membership in the Big East won't help, even though the media has somehow overlooked the fact that the Big East has, by no means, been a pushover when it comes to BCS games over the last 6 years. The BE record in that time, 3-3. For comparison, the ACC's record over that time is 1-5 yet no one seems to be talking about their automatic qualifier status, or despairing because a mediocre Virginia Tech team will represent their conference.

I don't think Uconn will win the Fiesta Bowl, but I don't care. I hope they make it close. I hope they let the Sooners know they were in a game when they leave the field. I hope the talk after the game is how the Huskies represented the Big East, and the school, well.

But, right now, this is a time for basking in the glow of a trip to Glendale, AZ. This is about enjoying the reality of a dream come true. This is about celebrating hard work, a desire to win, and never giving up. I don't care what Uconn's record is, to me those players, and that coach, represent what is right about college sports, and why love it so much. Others can sneer at Uconn's BCS bid and laud Can Newton as the best player in the game, spending their time breaking down the Auburn, Oregon National Title Game. Go right ahead. I would rather root for an 8-4 team that isn't led by a player whose father sold him like a commodity, and for whom the NCAA forever abandoned what little credibility it already had by clearing him of any charges, just so he could go and play for a title. I would rather root for a little engine that could.

Husky Nation, welcome to football. Welcome to the BCS. Enjoy the ride.

Back to the blog..........and basketball

I have to admit, the football season sorta put me in a funk in terms of writing on this blog, but all it takes is a little basketball at Gampel to get me back in the saddle.
It's funny because, with a few exceptions, this is it when it comes to the Jim Calhoun era. Take a good look at the players who were on the court last night. The majority of them will make up the last run for Big Jim, unless you're under the delusion that he will fill out his full five years and sign on again. Let's face it, there isn't a chance in hell of that happening.
So, the team you saw last night, the core players, will either bring Uconn back to the top of the college basketball world and help send one of the iconic coaches in the history of the sport out on a high note, or they will add to the questions already surrounding the program, most notably "has Uconn seen its best days pass it by?"
Stony Brook isn't exactly the greatest indicator of where a team is at, especially early in the season playing on the road. However, I think you take a few things away from last night.
Here's what I learned:

*Kemba Walker needs to learn who he can trust, who he can't trust, and his jump shot still needs to be more consistent. If Walker is going to affirm all his coaches praise (he has called him the best point guard in the country) then he needs to still improve in certain areas, and improve quickly. I think understanding his teammates will come with time. Sometimes, as a point guard, your play is determined by the guys around you as much as you determine their play. Last night, there were times where it seemed some of the younger guys had one thing in mind: get Kemba the ball and then get out of the way. Kemba, for as great as he can be, isn't that type of player. He isn't a Lebron James physical specimen who can just take over a game by himself. He needs to be able to play like a Chris Paul: shoot when needed, drive when needed, pass when needed, always taking what the defense is giving, exploiting what is available. He has the great open court vision when it comes to getting guys the ball in the right spot, and at the right time, on the break. He still needs to improve his vision when it comes to the half court, creating for guys and putting them in the best position to succeed.
He also still has a somewhat inconsistent jump shot and, in order to go from a really good player to terrific, that needs to become more of a weapon. We'll see what happens.

*No one could buy a basket for long stretches last night it seemed, but it is obvious the coaching staff believes this will be a perimeter-oriented team. They took a lot of threes last night and if Calhoun and his guys didn't think they could make them, I'm sure a time out would have been called and a new strategy would have been kindly requested of the players. They kept launching, which tells me they think, on most nights, those shots will go in. Of the guys shooting, the one who was the most impressive and would seem to have the potential to be the lethal was Shabazz Napier. I loved what I saw from him. He is going to be very disruptive. He'll make some bone head plays, but he has range on his shot, he played pretty good defense, and he had one killer cross over move that almost broke a guys knee that he didn't finish on, but it was a special kind of move that shows the talent he has. He and Walker in the same back court will pose a lot of problems for other teams.

*Alex Oriaki was a man among boys last night, and I'm not sure what that means because he won't be playing boys starting with the Maui Invitational in a few weeks. But, last night, he was unstoppable. He looks like an absolute beast. He is huge. He actually looks somewhat intimidating, and he was flying all over the place. You saw some of that last year, but it only came in flashes and there would be times where Oriaki got pushed out and around way too much. He also seemed to disappear, even from a hustle stand point, at times. If he plays the way he did last night, that shouldn't be a problem, and considering there doesn't seem to be the depth of big men in the Big East this year as there has been in the recent past, Oriaki has a chance to really make his presence felt.
I have no idea if his overall offensive game has improved or not because he didn't need to show anything other than put-back ability last night against Stony Brook. Everything came from point-blank range so whether he developed a real nice little hook or mid-range jumper remains to be seen. The one thing I did like is that Oriaki finished everything last night. Last year, he had some difficulties putting it in the basket even after a rebound. No problem last night. Hopefully, the beast continues to thrive as the season moves forward.

*The guy who disappointed me last year more than anyone else was Jamal Coombs-McDaniels. He was touted as a sharp shooter, and if hitting the side of the backboard is considered sharp shooting then, by all means, he lived up to expectations. Besides that, he was an airball waiting to happen and never really contributed anything of substance.
Last night wasn't a huge night for him offensively, but two things stood out for me: first, he looks freakin huge. Does the NCAA check for steroids because he added a lot of bulk muscle. Man, did the kid looked ripped. He went from an incredibly skinny milktoast of a wafe to a guy who looks to be inviting opponents to the gun show. That showed up a couple of times when Coombs-McDaniels went up and grabbed a rebound over a few guys. I don't remember him playing physical at any time last year, so his increased size could make him a more versatile, and valuable, player this season. He also hit a couple of jumpers and even the ones he missed seemed to be somewhat on target. Maybe Coombs-McDaniels takes a big step up and a big step out of my shit list this season.

*I already talked about Shabazz who, from this point on, get's the Prince and Bono one-name treatment, but two other freshman jumped out at me: Jeremy Lamb and Roscoe Smith. First on Lamb: he looks like a Daddy Long Legs spider out there. Arms and legs seem to be going everywhere all at once. Yet, he played with a fluid, almost graceful style I wasn't expecting. I was expecting something a lot more disjointed, as if it would look like a kid learning how to deal with a new body. Instead, he handled the ball well, his jump shot, while way off last night, looked really nice, and his one chance on the fast break looked like a guy who could use his freakishly long limbs to keep other faster guards away from him when going to the basket. Oh, and I loved his agressiveness. He had a couple of offensive fouls going to the rim, but he took it inside and attacked. I also loved his mid-range jumper he hit in the second half where he grabbed an offensive rebound, turned, righted himself in mid-air, and hit the little jumper. That's a play I always thought Stanley Robinson could have, and should have made with more consistency but, like everything else with Stanley, it just never completely clicked.
As for Smith, I was ready to be disappointed. This was the big recruit and, from what I had read, he had not performed well to that point. Yet, when he walked on the court, he immediately passed the eye test. He is obviously the most physically impressive player the Huskies have, and his athleticism was obvious. He had two offensive rebounds in the span of a few minutes, one where he layed the ball back in, the other where he got the put-back blocked, but both times he simply out jumped, and out muscled the other guys for the ball. He didn't assert himself offensively all that much so it is hard to say whether he can get to the basket or hit a jumper but, man, if Calhoun can coach this kid up, he could be a reallly good one.

*The one kid I was dissappointed in was Niels Giffey, who shall now, and forever more, be known as Giffey Lube. Calhoun and the staff have pumped him up, and one game doesn't give a very good indicator of what he can do, but last night was not a very good coming out party for the German sensation. I liked his quickness on defense and his length is going to give smaller guards problems because it looks like he might be able to stay in front of them, but his offensive game, last night, was not overly impressive, from his shaky ball handling skills to a shot that was way, way off. Again, I'm not going to go crazy off one night where everyone's shot was off and even the veteran guys like Kemba and Oriaki seemed a little tight at times, but whereas Lamb and Smith stood out for me, Giffey Lube came across as a disappointment.

Overall, I think you have to be happy with the performance. Again, difficult to judge off of a game against Stony Brook. The defense looked like it could have holes against better teams, you don't know what to expect in terms of rebounding when the bigger squads come to play Uconn, and the entire team's jump shot was off, so you don't have a great read on what this team will be offensively. Yet, a couple of things stand out to me, and the first is that this team hustled from the opening bell to the end. Aside from one loose ball that got away, Uconn never let up. There weren't a lot of mental breakdowns where guys were caught standing around while someone went to the basket, an unfortunate trend of last year's team. They are also very quick and the length that guys like Lamb and Giffey will bring to the guard position will really make for interesting matchups going forward. I also love the fact that Stony Brook was put out of its misery early. I have this sneaky feeling that last year's team would have allowed that game to get to a 10 point margin late, and would have had to scramble to pull out a victory. This team, however, added on. A 10 point lead turned into 20, which turned into 30, and hovered around there from that point forward. Last year's team, to me at times, seemed to suffer from a sense of entitlement. They had talent, they were coming off a Final Four year, and even though the leaders of that team had all left, they acted like they were a better team than they were. This one seems to be playing for their lunch money. They looked as energized as could be last night, even up 30.
As a young team, there will be ups and downs. They are gonna run into games where things go wrong and they make mistakes. But the talent level seems to be there and, if the effort is there, they will win some games they perhaps shouldn't. You have to like that, if you're a fan of this program.
So, the season starts well and all I have to say at this point is BRING ON VERMONT!!!!!!!!

It's officially time to panic......

Who knew Temple had the 85 Chicago Bear defense?

It is hard to muster up a lot to say about this absolute stain of a game. All I know is, I have never been embarrassed by the football team. I have been disappointed, like I was against Michigan, but never embarrased. Well, there's a first time for everything.
Temple? You lose to Temple by 14 points? You let Temple dictate the game? There is no excuse. You can say Temple is better than people think, but, since people think they are putrid, that really isn't all that hard to accomplish. It still doesn't make them good.
What I think we have to accept at this point is that Uconn just isn't good. All the hype, all the talk of winning the Big East, doesn't mean anything on the field. Simply put, Uconn looked bad against a very mediocre team and they have problems that don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
There's plenty of blame to go around. Uconn's defense allowed Temple to rip them for 364 yards, 201 of which came on the ground. The tackling, again, was shaky. There were too many times where runners gained extra yards after first and second contact. Also, there were no adjustments made to try and adapt to what Temple was doing on offense. How many screen passes did The Owls throw? All their passes were screen passes, it seemed, yet Uconn was always caught off guard. For all of the accolades thrown at Randy Edsall, the most frustrating thing about the veteran coach is that his teams rarely modify what they are doing, even when the game dictates they should. Uconn got beat time and again on essentially the same type of plays.
Then, you have the special teams play, which remained erratic at best.
But, to me, the major failing of this team is under center.
Zach Frazier isn't good. He might have a strong arm but he throws an ugly, ugly ball that flutters like someone shot it mid-air and has little idea of where it might end up once he releases it. He misses wide-open receivers, makes terrible decisions (with 10 second left in the first half and the ball on the 8-yard line, how do you dump the ball down to a running back, 6-yards away from the end zone?), and just simply doesn't seem to have a feel for the game. The Huskies have a great runner in Jordan Todman and a good running game, but you have to be able to throw the ball a little, and Frazier is incapable of doing anything other than dump down and, occassionally, throw a 20-yarder to a receiver who finds an opening in the defense's zone. In a sport where offensive plays always seem elaborate and creative, Uconn runs a scheme that would bore Frank Gifford to death.
That's the other problem: play calling.
I have no idea if Randy Edsall refuses to change things up or he simply can't because of his quarterback but something has to change because, sitting at home miles and miles away from the game, I can all but predict what Uconn will run, play in and play out, at about an 85% clip. That's just not good.
Edsall has been a golden boy now for a while, justly given credit for helping build this Uconn program into something resembling respectable. His work, and the credit he has earned, even had him on a short list of finalists for the Notre Dame job last year and rumors have been circulating that, if the Rich Rod experiment in Michigan died after this year, Edsall would be getting a call from Ann Arbor.
Well, if you're going to get the accolades, you have to take the slams as well.
Simply put, Uconn isn't playing at a high enough level. Not for where they should be. Not for a program that is supposedly growing. Losing to Temple four or five years ago would be no big deal, but losing now, that's unacceptable. Edsall created this atmosphere and has welcomed it. But, much like Greg Schiano a few years ago at Rutgers, when you ask for expectations, you have to deliver.
Edsall needs to instill something in this team or all that good will, all those expectations, will be dead and gone if the Huskies continue to play at this pathetic level.

Gametime Thoughts before Temple/Uconn showdown

Uconn beat Temple 12-9 in their last meeting. They need a better showing this time around.

Temple always seems like a school whose athletics should be better than they are, right? I mean, I always think of Temple basketball as somewhat of a big deal, even though every March comes and goes without the Owls doing much of anything.
Temple football?
They've been a real PITA (pain in the ass) for a while now. In fact, the last two meetings of these teams, you can make the case that Uconn should have lost both outings (a 22-17 victory in 2007 and a 12-9 ug-fest in 2008).
As such, this, to me, is a somewhat important game for the Huskies. First, quite simply, you don't want to lose to a MAC team. Sorry Temple fans but, if you're a team from a BCS-qualifing conference with Orange Bowl aspirations, you can't lose to Temple. Case closed.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, college football remains a beauty pagaent as much as an athletic competition. How you win becomes equally as important as that you do win. Uconn had a very bad showing on opening day of this year in The Big House against Michigan after much hype. It knocked Uconn back into the relative obscurity of also-ran college teams.
However, Michigan's subsequent win at Notre Dame, and Denard Robinson's virtuoso performance against the Irish, where he ripped them for more yards, both on the ground and through the air, than he did to Uconn, has made that loss look, well, okay. It gives Uconn the "out" so many schools look for. "Hey, I know we didn't look good against Michigan at Ann Arbor, but look at what Robinson is doing to everyone else? We are still a pretty good team" will be the mantra from this point forward.
No one is going to schedule a parade because the Huskies dismantled Texas Southern. But, beating them by a score of 62-3 is what good teams are suppose to do. It's hard to imagine that any top-tier school could have won or dominated by more.
While no one expects Uconn to destroy a team like Temple by 59 points, they need something more than a last-second field goal victory here. They need a resounding win, one that lets people know Uconn hasn't gone away.
Temple, so far, has beaten Villanova and Central Michigan, both in close games (Central Michigan was an overtime game). That's not an impressive showing.
Simply put, Uconn needs to continue to establish itself as a good team, and a lopsided victory at Temple would help keep that momentum going.

Thank You, Texas Southern!!!

Photo courtesy of AP

Look, it's Texas Southern. This wasn't exactly Alabama walking in to The Rentsch Saturday afternoon. This is a SWAC team that doesn't even do much in the SWAC. That says it all, right there.
But, so what? This is what you're suppose to do to bad teams. In college football, where you get style points, winning 62-3 is impressive no matter who the opponent. I look at Texas Southern like this: sometimes, with race horses, trainers will bring in a second horse to run against their prized stallion. The second horse is always inferior and its only purpose is to lose and instill a sense of confidence in the racer. That was today, and it was needed.
When it's 62-3, there isn't much to discuss. It isn't like there is a lot to break down. The game was over before it started. Uconn scored touchdowns on seven straight posessions at one point, and Jordan Todman was over 100 yards for the game before the first quarter had even been put in the books. Randy Edsall literally could have gone into the stands, grabbed a dog and beer, and talked baseball with some fans and the outcome of the game would have been the same. It was a beatdown.
The only thing to take away from the game, quite frankly, is that everyone just needs to relax. As I said in the post after the Michigan game, Uconn wasn't winning a National Championship, so one loss wasn't a big deal. if Uconn takes care of its business, and gets better and better each week leading up to the Big East schedule, they will be in prime position to take that next step forward.
After a 62-3 mauling of another team, it is important to note that Uconn played about as bad as one possibly could for the first quarter and a half of football in Ann Arbor, got down by three touchdowns, then, for the next two and a half quarters, allowed Michigan only 9 more points and had two separate opportunities to turn the complexion of that game completely around. It is also important to note that Michigan beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame on Saturday where Denard Robinson went for 500 total yards, about 200 more than he got on Uconn. In other words, Uconn played poorly, but wasn't outclassed by Michigan.
Conversely, they manhandled Texas Southern the way a superior team should. So, we can all, in Husky Land, feel a little better about things. We can relax a bit, wait for the game in Temple, expect that Uconn will continue to get better, and get ready for Rutgers down in Jersey in a few weeks to open up what will be the referendum on the team.
Thanks, Texas Southern, for taking the body blows Uconn needed to deliver, for their own sanity.

Well, that sucked!!!

Should I catch this? Nah.

So, that was it? All the hype, all the excitement, and it ends with another loss to Rich Rod and his West Virginia 2.0 style? Does he have something on Randy Edsall? Maybe a grainy video of Randy and Jonathan the Husky in the locker room after everyone has gone home?
All I know is that it always seems as if Uconn teams are taken off guard by Rich Rod running quarterbacks. "Wait, he isn't passing the ball? What the hell do we do know?" That might be the conversation on the sidelines for all we know because, yet again, a Michael Vick clone just pounded the ball down Uconn's throat for what seems like the 3,000th time under Randy Edsall's tutelage.
There are a couple of things I take away from yesterday:
*Randy Edsall deserves a lot of the credit he gets. If anyone was at Uconn in the mid to late 1990's, they know that Uconn Football got less of an audience than a beer pong tournament at one of the frat houses. It was a non-factor.
Edsall has changed that, turning the program into one that can get games against Michigan and Notre Dame, and one that has "expectation." Maybe it's unfair to hold Edsall to a standard that wouldn't even exist if he hadn't done such an outstanding job to this point, but the reality of the situation is that, now, the Huskies are expected to be more than just also-rans, meaning that, when they produce a prodigious crap-bomb like yesterday, some of the fault lands on Randy.
We can talk about the limitations of recruiting in the Big East and up at Uconn all we want. Certainly, Rich Rod is getting the better recruits to come play for Michigan. However, it remain's somewhat disturbing that a.) Uconn continues to start off games slowly, allowing their opponent to jump out to leads they spend three quarters just trying to erase, and b.) that they still have no real way of stopping a running quarterback.
By the third quarter of yesterday's game, Uconn had regained its footing. At 24-10, they were going in for a score that would have made it 24-17 and put the Big House on mute for a while. After giving up 21 points in a little over a quarter of play, the Husky defense only allowed nine more points the rest of the way. The significance? Had the Huskies come out and played better in those first 20-25 minutes, they would have been right there to win it, regardless of fumbles and dropped passes. Again, Edsall gets a tremendous amount of credit, but the team's shaky early play in games is a definite kink in his armor.
*It might be time to cope with the fact that this is who Zach Frazer is: an okay college quarterback who is never going to rival Kurt Warner in accuracy or Tom Brady in decision-making abilities. He wasn't helped by his wide receivers, who dropped passes as if the ball were made of procupine skin, but he also missed some wide-open shots (including one that would have gone for a touchdown) and everything is thrown at 600 MPH, whether the receiver is 30 yards, or 30 feet down field. Someone needs to get to Zach and let him know that you don't get points for almost taking your teammate's head off with a short pass.
*The biggest problem the Huskies have is the small size of their front line on defense, which was obvious yesterday. They got man-handled. They got assaulted like a Ben Rothliesberger blind date.
Sometimes, smaller defenses can present real problems for their opponents. Indianapolis in the NFL has routinely had a small front line, but the quickness of Dwight Freeney and the like has made their defense stout. Of course, in the NFL, you are taking the pick of the litter. In college, a lot of times, you're taking what you have.
If Edsall and his defensive coaches don't come up with a real plan to negate their obvious size disadvantage, then the scenario we watched play out in the Big House is going to repeat against other top-quality opponents as the season goes on.
*I have no idea if Michigan is as good as they looked, Uconn as bad, or the Huskies had an off day, but even their vaunted linebacker core just looked a step slow. First, there was no containment of the quarterback. With the D-line getting overwhelmed as they were, it was up to that linebacking unit to limit the damage and keep 5-yard gains from turning into 30-yard romps. They didn't. Again, the group has enough talent to give them a mulligan for game one, but they need to play a lot better if Uconn is gonna have any kind of a chance this year.
Look, it's one game. We all get that.
One of the biggest problems I have with college football is how everyone wets themselves over the concept of a weekly "one-game playoff." Whereas college basketball's regular season is simply about NCAA Tournament placement, CFB enthusiasts claim, college football has something on the line week by week. A lot of people love that. I, personally, think it's stupid.
The idea that you're season is done, or that your chances of doing anything of significance is over after week one is absurd to me. You don't get a bad game in college football? You don't get to lay a stinker like Uconn did on Saturday and have it be something off of which to build, rather than settling in to a three-month consolation schedule? To me, of all the problems in CFB (competitive imbalance, BCS standings, the fact that teams like Florida or Alabama can schedule teams that they can beat by 60 points at the end of the year) the thing that really bothers me is this notion of "one and done."
But, no matter my problems with the sport, the truth is, because of yesterday, Uconn will go back to being a non-factor. Maybe they rattle off a bunch of wins. Maybe they run the table in the Big East. Maybe yesterday was just a bad game at the wrong time, and maybe Uconn's dream of actually making it to a BCS Bowl didn't die in Ann Arbor yesterday. But, after getting knocked around by another Rich Rod squad, it's going to take some convincing.