Connecticut Huskies Season Preview

Coming off a BCS Bowl and a College Basketball National Championship, Storrs has been sky high in confidence. The Huskies have lost head football coach Randy Edsall, who went 74-70 with five bowl appearances during his stint at Connecticut, but has moved on to Maryland. Edsall has since been replaced by Paul Pasqualoni who coached at Syracuse for fourteen seasons.

While Otto the mascot was digging the 107-59-1 record with nine bowl appearances, only once did he finish the season in the top ten. Still, he built the program of the Orange until it started tumbling back down to earth in his final seasons from ’02-’04. Paul has plenty of NFL experience on his resume as he was with the Cowboys/Dolphins for the past five seasons. 

An 8-5 record and coming off a BCS Fiesta Bowl shellacking thanks to Oklahoma has some fans worried about this upcoming season. There are seven starters back on offense and despite having lost two of the top rushers in America the past four seasons (Donald Brown & now Jordan Todman) they return USC transfer DJ Shoemate who can become the next stud at UCONN. Shoemate only toted the rock 28 times a season ago because Todman handled the pigskin 334 times!

The O-line should open some holes with three starters back. The stars are starting C Moe Petrus and LT Mike Ryan who will both give plenty of room for the playmakers to get open downfield. The entire receiving corps is back in Isiah Moore, Kasif Moore, Michael Smith and TE Ryan Griffin. Smith, Griffin and Kashif only combined for seven TDs and with a brand new QB you cannot expect those numbers to increase that much.

Speaking of the QB, Michael Nebrich is a big-time recruit for Huskie standards and he was in early at Storrs for spring ball, which means he is easily the leader at the moment. At 6’1", 189 lbs he is not the biggest QB in the Big East, but he has a lively arm with decent pocket presence for just a frosh. Overall, the offense was still abysmal ranking 96^th in total offense averaging just 325 YPG. 

The defense was ranked 58^th allowing only 366 YPG and with nine starters back (includes  entire front four) you have to believe they will improve upon their sack numbers (28 sacks was 47^th). Kendall Reyes was the best up front as a junior last year registering 7.5 TFL’S and 2.5 sacks. 

Twyon Martin and Jesse Joseph should also be productive as the two combined for 11.5 sacks. The fourth man will be Trevardo Williams who had 4.5 sacks by himself. Those four did a fine job, but they need to improve upon those numbers (18.5 out of 28 sacks belonged to DL). It is imperative that the LB corps improves though only one starter returns. Sio Moore was the team’s No. 2 tackler with 110 tackles and 10 TFL’s.

The secondary was 67^th a season ago allowing 223 YPG, but Sooners QB Landry Jones absolutely torched the Huskies in the Fiesta Bowl for 429 and three TDs. Luckily, nobody on the entire schedule has OU’s talent and even the non-conference slate should be a cake walk. The CBs are rock solid with Dwayne Gratz and Blidi Wreh-Wilson. They are both solid open-field tacklers and can come up in the running game to shut down opposing RBs. 

Jerome Junior and Harris Agbor make up the safety spots and it will be their play on the road against West Virginia and Pittsburgh that will determine if the Huskies have any chance to repeat as Big East champions.

Predicted Finish: 8-5, 2-5

Predicted Bowl:  BBVA Compass Bowl

Predicted order of finish in Big East: Sixth