I didn't expect us to go undefeated.
Well, I did--lol. Now I’ll have to be satisfied with 11-1 and a footnote saying “UConn’s only loss was on the road in overtime to Syracuse.”
At dinner after the game on Saturday, I told our waiter that we'd just lost a perfectly winnable game and badly needed to see the cocktail and wine list! He then motioned to the table next to ours and said “that’s our qb Steve Angeli and his dad, and a few other players with their dads.”.
Well, if you know my wife, that's all she had to hear. She immediately got up and approached the table with a smile, congratulating them on their "comeback that broke our hearts”—lol.
After I finished ordering the wine, I noticed she was still over there chatting away with the group and decided to join her. One of the players who grew up in Fairfield County said he and Cam Edwards are still great buddies who loved seeing each other before the game.
When I asked what they were all thinking as the game entered the 4thQ, one dad said “It wasn’t pretty! We kept bitching about passing up those two early chip-shot field goals. The coaches underestimated this UConn team—and so did the players!” The table nodded in agreement. They all expressed that UConn was for real and would be a tough out for anyone. Another player said he knew Skyler Bell when he played at The Taft school in CT. "He’s "elite”--and we went hard after him, like Michigan did."
All in all, it was an unexpected and enjoyable encounter with a good bunch of guys—who were understandably all in a good mood! For me, it captured some of the rivalry and revelry that make college football so great.
(At the time I didn’t know about the wind-sprints. I would’ve loved to have heard their perspective—especially since they were being so candid!)
Bottom line, losing that game absolutely sucked. But around that table it was clear that ‘Cuse was also expecting to lose— until they didn’t!
On to Delaware!
