Thanks for osting original. Here it is for those who didn't see it before it was edited.
Courant.com
A Dismal Opener To A Crucial Season
Jeff Jacobs
11:33 PM EDT, August 29, 2013
EAST HARTFORD — Dismal.
Yes, dismal.
It's the one word that springs to mind. In fact, it's the only word the springs to mind.
If Paul Pasqualoni and the UConn Huskies were bent on setting a strong, positive tone from the start of the 2013 football season, well … dismal.
There were big, empty holes in the Rentschler Field stands for the season opener Thursday night. There were big, empty holes in UConn's game in a 33-18 loss to a team from Maryland led by a former UConn coach.
That team, of course, isn't Maryland coached by Randy Edsall. The Terps will be at the Rent in two weeks and heaven knows how ugly that one might get. Heck, Edsall — the Great Deserter — might even get cheered. No, this god-ugly opening loss would be to Rob Ambrose's Towson Tigers.
Your FCS Towson Tigers.
"They're a very good I-AA team," Paul Pasqualoni said afterward. "[He] clearly stated that this would be the toughest opener at least since I've been here. It proved to be that.
"We had a tough, physical camp. We were really looking forward to playing. That kind of makes it really disappointing."
Having said all that, this was the worst loss of the Pasqualoni era.
Any of the other bad ones are all tied for No. 2.
The last time the Huskies lost to a I-AA team was against Middle Tennessee Nov. 17, 2001. Forget about Middle Tennessee. On Aug. 30, 2013, there is this distinct feeling, even after only one game that the UConn football program is in the middle of nowhere.
Here's one bet, you could have fried an egg on Warde Manuel's head after this one. Heck, the UConn athletic director could have picked any number of spots around the stadium to start a bonfire and not burned a soul.
The announced crowd was 30,689 in the 40,000-seat stadium, yet even at its highest point it seemed like 3,000 or 4,000 fewer than 30,689. Certainly, midway through the fourth quarter there were barely 12,000. And even as the Huskies scored on a late touchdown pass from Chandler Whitmer to Shakim Phillips to cut the Towson lead to eight, the long line of red taillights was all you could see pulling out of East Hartford.
The Huskies got Towson to go three and out, burned all their timeouts and with one last chance, Brian Lemelle fumbled the punt with just under three minutes left. Game. Set. Dismal.
There were some lusty boos as early as the second quarter when Towson took a 13-7 lead on Sterlin Phifer's second touchdown.
There were no boos after the final whistle because only the band and the players' families were left.
The Huskies' play in the trenches was distinctively unimpressive. Whiter was sacked on back-to-back plays in the third quarter. Xavier Hemingway, who replaced Kevin Friend after a late-week injury, was blown away on one of them.
On the offensive side of the ball, a big play came in the second quarter when Lyle McCombs was ruled not to have crossed the goal line on a second-quarter carry. The Huskies, who had gone exclusively no-huddle on their spread offensive to that point, huddled. And would you know it. They were called for an illegal substitution, 12 guys on the field. They challenged the call on McCombs, didn't win it and settled for a field goal when it looked as if it would be a sure touchdown.
"Not grabbing that score certainly hurt," Pasqualoni said.
Yes, there were some unfortunate mistakes.
But read this. On that particular play, center Alex Mateas got blown away by his man and that guy stopped McCombs.
The new spread offense showed a number of interesting wrinkles. Yes, they varied pace. Lots of shotgun. Lots of plays from under center. There were multiple-receiver spreads. There was a number of different looks. One the first touchdown pass, Whitmer play-faked out of an I-formation. Phillips faked and went outside. The Towson DB went inside. Shak was wide open for the score. There wasn't enough of that.
The Huskies finished 110th of 120 teams in the nation last year with an average of 318 yards per game. Well, they finished with 287 in the opener against an FCS team.
Dismal.
Three of the four top tacklers in the first half were defensive backs. That's never a good sign. Redshirt freshman Obi Melifonwu, who made a diving interception in the first half and showed some real flashes of talent, was one of the.
When the game mattered, really mattered in the second half, they had a 95-yard touchdown drive jammed down their throats by a I-AA team or FCS or whatever they call it. We can say all the nice things about Towson. We can say all nice things about Ambrose.
But this wasn't Michigan, who'll be coming in September. This wasn't even Maryland.
"Obviously, we didn't play well enough," Pasqualoni said.
Obviously.
Coach P looked 1,000 years old after this one. He looked like Dead Coach Walking.
The only good news is there are still 11 games left.
Or maybe that's the bad news.
Copyright © 2013,
The Hartford Courant
They removed the "1000 years old and Dead Coach Walking" reference to Pasqualoni. Jacobs had it right the first time. No time to lighten up on the disastrous coaching situation.
