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.
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