The Johnny Unitas Bowl X

This Friday, we play against the University of Louisville’s biggest booster, “Papa John” Schnatter. He probably put more money into the Louisville Cardinals’ football program than any of our boosters have put into UConn’s football program and it wouldn’t be surprising if that may have played a role in Louisville getting into the ACC ahead of us. Free pizza franchises for all ACC schools! They’ve been playing football since 1912, the same year Memphis started. Have all-time records of 2-12 against Florida State, 1-9 against Miami, 2-5 against Virginia Tech, and 22-30-1 against Cincinnati, 23-19-1 against Memphis.

Louisville fans have a delusion of grandeur based on two factors. The first is they had Bobby Petrino as the head coach until he bolted. He was secretly interviewing with other schools while he was their head coach until he ultimately took the NFL Atlanta Falcon’s head coaching position, only to bolt on them mid-season for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Some of our fans really want him as a head coach? The second factor being Clint Hurtt. As we know, there is plenty of dirty recruiting going on in college football and he is someone who should be a household name when it comes to dirty tactics. He made a name for himself at the University of Miami under booster Nevin Shapiro. He is now Charlie Strong’s recruiting closer. There are plenty of people who are shocked that he did not get any punishment for his involvement in Miami’s recruiting scheme when people as distant as Missouri basketball’s head coach, Frank Heath, were punished. There are around 30 players on Louisville’s roster from Florida with a very good percentage from the Miami area including their star quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater. Perhaps we should learn about recruiting from Louisville. (Texas is the home state of 10 present NFL starting quarterbacks.)

The Louisville Cardinals started out the season strong, reaching as high as #8 in rankings, but have been somewhat slowed down and were ultimately defeated at home by the UCF Knights. UCF is now in the driver’s seat for the AAC’s final BCS bowl bid. The Cardinals also still have yet to face the red-hot Houston Cougars at home the week after their game against us. Losses to UCF, Houston, and hopefully us would be a very sweet departing gift as they move onto the ACC next season. They are strong in all facets of the game and appear as if they can only be challenged by programs just as well-balanced. After all, they did manage to win their BCS bowl game last season against the Florida Gators. But the Gators are not the same as they were under Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. Their defense can only be exploited by the best teams and no one appears to be able to completely slow down their offense. Last season, as we all know, UConn somehow won at Louisville with a legendary showing by the defense, keeping Bridgewater in check, and QB Johnny Youtube helping win in overtime.

We don’t have the stout defense we had last year anymore. Our defense doesn’t have confidence in our defensive coordinator, Hank Hughes. Losing DC Don Brown to Boston College has been a major blow to our defensive scheming and confidence. The best players were also drafted into the NFL and now we are left with some players on defense who are in their first year as members of the starting lineup. We don’t have any players who stand out on defense this season besides maybe Yawin Smallwood. However, the defensive showing on national television against the Michigan Wolverines can be used as proof the defense does have potential. But our last game has shown the defense is letting down, missing way too many tackles and made UCF QB Blake Bortles appear as if he should be a Heisman candidate. Maybe Bortles should be on the list of Heisman candidates. The defense did play much better in the second half but that was against second-string players.

Same applies to the offense. The offense was smothered by the UCF defense in the first half but Casey Cochran played well against the second-stringers. One can hope TJ Weist opens up a QB competition between Tim Boyle and Casey Cochran. Boyle was incredibly shaken up by the horrible offensive line’s pass protection against Cincinnati. The line did protect somewhat better against UCF but that was not enough to shake off the trauma Boyle experienced against the Bearcats. Our rushing attack was completely smothered with the exception of a 57 yard run by Lyle McCombs. DeLorenzo annd Hyppolite were ineffective, more so than McCombs, completely the opposite of how they played in the game against Cincinnati.

Both programs are coming off bye weeks. Teddy Bridgewater and the Cardinals come into this game with a big chip on their shoulder. Revenge for last season’s defeat is on their minds, a chance to earn “style points” with poll voters and keep up in the race for a BCS bowl bid. Once again, we will need a complete game in all facets to have a chance to defeat the Cardinals. Can they do it after being routed by UCF? Being on national television certainly seems to provide motivation for the players to give their best effort. We came very close to defeating Michigan, so anything is possible. The players need to give their best effort along with the coaches coming up with a very effective game plan. From a defensive standpoint, Louisville focuses on passing. But they can also run the ball very well. Their offense’s numbers are even better than UCF, but UCF has played a tougher schedule. Our opponents this season have shown that we are weaker against the pass than the rush. A balanced attack with a solid showing by the offensive line is obviously absolutely essential. Otherwise, we are in for another embarrassment. This time on national television. Our nationally ranked men’s basketball team will be playing against the University of Maryland before the football game in a UConn doubleheader on ESPN. One can hope the basketball team wins and inspires the football team even more. Had our team played more inspired throughout the whole season, we could have at least won one game, maybe two, maybe three. Lack of motivation did cost us games.

Our all-time record against the Papa John’s Cardinals is 4-5. And yet, they were chosen over us for an invite to the ACC. Delusional perceptions created through Bobby Petrino’s high-flying offense and Clint Hurtt’s dirty recruiting tactics clearly played a large part in Louisville getting an invite over us. Everyone knows if the invite came during Steve Kragthorpe’s tenure, we’d have been invited instead. The Cardinals do have a much longer history at the top tier but their historical rivals are Cincinnati and Memphis. Their all-time winning percentage now is just .516! Major, major disappointment for UConn fans but we need to keep our heads up and know we are still in very, very strong consideration for future expansion. We have to continue to pay our dues. And get boosters to donate more. And maybe find more boosters, too.

If we lose this game, this will be our worst start since 1978, when we also started 0-8. As stated before, we have to shift away from the focusing on Connecticut (or New England) so much and seek out recruits from states with much stronger high school football scenes. Randy Edsall didn’t care to fence in the state of Connecticut and he won games. Nothing wrong with Connecticut or New England recruits but we need to focus on much stronger recruiting grounds. It is completely ironic this season is a result of Connecticut egomaniacs Paul Pasqualoni, George DeLeone and the mighty Connecticut High School Football Coaches Association. We all should remind our Connecticut high school coaches that this season is their doing. Will they learn a valuable lesson and keep their hands off UConn football? Unlikely. They were “shocked” Pasqualoni was fired. Amazing how short-sighted people can be.

The players are as human as the rest of us and need our full support. Hopefully, they behave with the women on campus, too. UCF put a stamp on what a “Knightmare” this season has been.

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