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First of all, I want to congratulate the University of Massachusetts football team — players and coaches — for showing up, playing their butts off and giving us a good game right down to the end. Playing on a cold day in an empty stadium, with nothing but pride to play for after a poor season, with their coach fired for not being able to win in Amherst (like anyone could), them downgrading to the lowest level of FBS football there is and the university having blown up its relationship with their donors who were putting a little money in the players’ pockets for goodness knows what reason, it would have been easy enough to show up and not give a damn. They deserve respect for having cared. The University on the other hand — goodness gracious. You let a trophy be announced (whether it should have been or not is another matter) and then won’t give it to the winning coach at the end of the game because of an internal fight between the AD and the donor base? Way to prepare your students for a future as leaders of society. If the University had any class, or even gave a damn about athletics, the University President should have been at UConn’s President’s home this morning with a trophy and an apology. It’s one thing when young men act without class (the whole flag planting/fighting thing needs to be clamped down on firmly and immediately, and would have been in the day when the NCAA and not conference commissioners ran college sports), but for purported grown ups to seek that level of classlessness ….
Enough with UMass. Congratulations to the University of Connecticut and its players and coaches for a totally unexpected 8-4 season. I don’t know what kind of odds you would have had to have given me walking out of Byrd Stadium on opening day to get me to bet that we’d go 8-3 the rest of the way, but they would have had to have been astronomical. I did not see this coming. Yes, we were absolutely helped along by 7 home games and a schedule of 8 teams from outside the P-4 that, with the exception of Buffalo which had a good year in the weakest FBS conference, were just god awful. But we beat all 8 of them. Two on the road where wins have been beyond rare the last ten years. (Even two years ago, we went 1-5 on the road.). Three by blow out scores that we hadn’t even achieved against FCS teams for over a decade. And, while 5 were not fully won until the last two minutes, of the 8 wins it was only the game against Temple where losing in the last few minutes wasn’t just possible with a collapse but reasonably likely. And, after the Maryland game, all 3 losses were competitive games. So yes, it’s college sports. Any record has to be looked at in conjunction with the schedule, but the fact that the schedule was weak (and much of it was just luck of the draw of many mediocre programs having below par years) doesn’t change that a program that had struggled to win games for 14 years went 8-4. Congrats to all.
Special teams, but for the dumb decision and poor execution on the fake punt, that we were lucky didn’t put us in a bigger hole, played a huge roll in the win. The Brown KO return TD. Multiple punts killed inside the 20 in the third quarter when we were wrestling control from the other side. Sheffield getting to a number of punts to keep them from rolling forward, even if he couldn’t make a good return. 2 for 2 on FGs, one from over 50, on a cold and windy New England day. A good showing without which the game might very well have turned out differently.
On offense, it was a strange game. I don’t think we had more than 3 run attempts in the 1st Q between penalties, the one play TD drive, a quick TO and UMass dominating possession. But once it got going, the running game was fabulous and the single biggest reason we won. It’s hard to tell on TV, and God knows the idiots who passed as announcers weren’t helping, but I think there were multiple changes to the OL as the game wore down. And it didn’t matter. Blocking was consistently good and even when creases were small, Edwards and Robinson were just fantastic. I will admit to being disappointed in the passing game — don’t know what happened with the pick — but if we’re being honest, even with Bell’s 2 early drops the passing numbers for the two teams were similar, and I thought they tore us apart passing. So I guess we were o.k., if not as good as I would have liked. But the offense scored 5 TDs and 2 FGs without the benefit of a takeaway, so the results were certainly more than effective.
Defense was not up to snuff. Granted, they seemed to be playing without three starters (Gourdine wasn’t suited up), I thought I saw Wright play one series at corner but clearly Chadwick and Malcolm Bell were playing all game, and Tui Brown was gone after no more than 3 plays. Without three defensive starters, we were not the same defense. Frankly, I think that’s been an issue all year. Our defense had a string of games this year where it played really well, but it doesn’t have depth and when there are too many injuries or they are on the field two long, we’ve had problems. None of that, however, is an excuse for the way it played in the first half. Second half, obviously, was much better and enough to win, other than the non-preventive prevent that seems to be coming of age in college football these days.
So not a pretty win, by any stretch, but enough to get the job done and, on the road, getting the job done is enough. So 8-4 and bowl bound it is. Bowls are always impossible to predict, as teams play with different levels of intensity and the time off disrupts rhythm in a way that it doesn’t always come back for all teams. But the only prediction I’ll make is that whether we’re playing Michigan or Toledo, I expect this team to have everyone healthy enough to play (hopefully that includes Tui Brown) playing, and I expect them to give it their all. And I do want a win badly, not just because it’s been 15 years but because the graduation losses from this team — especially on D — will be substantial. But more on that from me after the Bowl Game. We for once get this time of year to enjoy the anticipation and one more game before I’m worrying about next year.
Hope everyone had a good Holiday. The win certainly helped mine.
Enough with UMass. Congratulations to the University of Connecticut and its players and coaches for a totally unexpected 8-4 season. I don’t know what kind of odds you would have had to have given me walking out of Byrd Stadium on opening day to get me to bet that we’d go 8-3 the rest of the way, but they would have had to have been astronomical. I did not see this coming. Yes, we were absolutely helped along by 7 home games and a schedule of 8 teams from outside the P-4 that, with the exception of Buffalo which had a good year in the weakest FBS conference, were just god awful. But we beat all 8 of them. Two on the road where wins have been beyond rare the last ten years. (Even two years ago, we went 1-5 on the road.). Three by blow out scores that we hadn’t even achieved against FCS teams for over a decade. And, while 5 were not fully won until the last two minutes, of the 8 wins it was only the game against Temple where losing in the last few minutes wasn’t just possible with a collapse but reasonably likely. And, after the Maryland game, all 3 losses were competitive games. So yes, it’s college sports. Any record has to be looked at in conjunction with the schedule, but the fact that the schedule was weak (and much of it was just luck of the draw of many mediocre programs having below par years) doesn’t change that a program that had struggled to win games for 14 years went 8-4. Congrats to all.
Special teams, but for the dumb decision and poor execution on the fake punt, that we were lucky didn’t put us in a bigger hole, played a huge roll in the win. The Brown KO return TD. Multiple punts killed inside the 20 in the third quarter when we were wrestling control from the other side. Sheffield getting to a number of punts to keep them from rolling forward, even if he couldn’t make a good return. 2 for 2 on FGs, one from over 50, on a cold and windy New England day. A good showing without which the game might very well have turned out differently.
On offense, it was a strange game. I don’t think we had more than 3 run attempts in the 1st Q between penalties, the one play TD drive, a quick TO and UMass dominating possession. But once it got going, the running game was fabulous and the single biggest reason we won. It’s hard to tell on TV, and God knows the idiots who passed as announcers weren’t helping, but I think there were multiple changes to the OL as the game wore down. And it didn’t matter. Blocking was consistently good and even when creases were small, Edwards and Robinson were just fantastic. I will admit to being disappointed in the passing game — don’t know what happened with the pick — but if we’re being honest, even with Bell’s 2 early drops the passing numbers for the two teams were similar, and I thought they tore us apart passing. So I guess we were o.k., if not as good as I would have liked. But the offense scored 5 TDs and 2 FGs without the benefit of a takeaway, so the results were certainly more than effective.
Defense was not up to snuff. Granted, they seemed to be playing without three starters (Gourdine wasn’t suited up), I thought I saw Wright play one series at corner but clearly Chadwick and Malcolm Bell were playing all game, and Tui Brown was gone after no more than 3 plays. Without three defensive starters, we were not the same defense. Frankly, I think that’s been an issue all year. Our defense had a string of games this year where it played really well, but it doesn’t have depth and when there are too many injuries or they are on the field two long, we’ve had problems. None of that, however, is an excuse for the way it played in the first half. Second half, obviously, was much better and enough to win, other than the non-preventive prevent that seems to be coming of age in college football these days.
So not a pretty win, by any stretch, but enough to get the job done and, on the road, getting the job done is enough. So 8-4 and bowl bound it is. Bowls are always impossible to predict, as teams play with different levels of intensity and the time off disrupts rhythm in a way that it doesn’t always come back for all teams. But the only prediction I’ll make is that whether we’re playing Michigan or Toledo, I expect this team to have everyone healthy enough to play (hopefully that includes Tui Brown) playing, and I expect them to give it their all. And I do want a win badly, not just because it’s been 15 years but because the graduation losses from this team — especially on D — will be substantial. But more on that from me after the Bowl Game. We for once get this time of year to enjoy the anticipation and one more game before I’m worrying about next year.
Hope everyone had a good Holiday. The win certainly helped mine.
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