UConn Football

The UConn Huskies fell 24-20 to Big 12 opponent Iowa State last Friday night, bringing their regular season record down to 1-2 and snapping their 10-game home win streak at Rentschler field. After coming off a loss to Vanderbilt on the road in week 2, the Huskies and their deficient offense were unable to rebound against a hot Iowa State squad.

Although the Huskies offense moved the ball better on Friday night, they were still too inconsistent and inefficient to come out on top.

Head coach Paul Pasqualoni continued to showcase a triumvirate at quarterback, and was a little more democratic with the snaps than he was against Vanderbilt. Junior Johnny McEntee got the majority of the playing time once again, with freshman Scott McCummings spelling him frequently throughout.

Freshman Michael Nebrich played the entire 2nd quarter under center, but only completed one pass on three attempts.

Although McEntee completed only 13 of his 30 pass attempts, he looked much better than he did the week before on the road in Nashville. However, McEntee's inaccuracy, especially in key third down and fourth quarter situations, cost the Huskies as they were only able to muster 343 total yards of offense.

The Huskies defense turned it yet another outstanding performance limiting the Cyclones to only 341 yards of total offense in the game. Despite putting up 24 points, Iowa State managed only 12 first downs, and held the Cylcones' offense to 35% on third downs.

The Huskies defense intercepted Cyclone quarterback Steele Jantz three times and sacked him twice. Unfortunately the Huskies were only able to scrap together three points off all three Jantz turnovers.

For head coach Paul Pasqualoni and the UConn Huskies this loss came down to two things--missed opportunities and big plays.

Leading 7-0 early in the first quarter, Scott McCummings ran right on what looked to be a designed run play. However, just as the defense began to collapse on the line of scrimmage, the freshman stepped back and threw, much to the surprise of the Iowa State secondary. Freshman running back Lyle McCombs was wide open at the Cyclones ten yard line when McCummings' pass sailed ten yards over his head, resulting in a disastrous in completion.

The Huskies ultimately had to settle for a field goal.

Although Teggart was able to knock that 52-yarder through, he missed two from less than 45-yards out. One of those two missed field goals ended a drive that began on Iowa State's 28-yard line.

The Huskies defense turned in yet another strong performance, with their only real blemish coming on a trick play early in the third quarter. Iowa State wide receiver Josh Lentz took the ball from Jantz on what looked to be a reverse and delivered a perfect pass to a wide open Darius Reynolds for a 40-yard touchdown reception.

If you subtract the yardage from the trick play, plus a 48-yard jump ball hauled in by Reynolds on a third and nineteen, the Cyclones were only able to put up 243 yards of total offense all night on Don Brown's defense.

A couple bright spots for the Huskies included seniors Isaiah Moore and Kendall Reyes. Moore caught eight balls for 143 yards while Reyes compiled three tackles for loss and one sack during the game.

You couldn't script two more devastating losses for the Huskies to open the season. The Huskies look to change their luck as they travel to western New York to take on Buffalo next Saturday night at 6 p.m.

News is traveling faster than ever in the world of conference expansion and realignment, and never has it been more apparent than now with all the breaking news about ACC expansion.

Yesterday morning, news broke that Syracuse and Pittsburgh were seeking a move to the ACC. Later, we heard that they had officially sent in their request. By the time most people had headed to bed on Saturday night, it looked like all but a certainty that the two would be added.

Now, the news is surrounding the University of Connecticut and their hopes to change conferences. In a story on ESPN.com, Dana O'Neill broke news that the university president is actively seeking a move to the ACC:

UConn president Susan Herbst is aggressively pursuing membership in the ACC to become the 15th or 16th member institution in the conference, according to a source with direct knowledge of UConn's situation.

The floodgates have opened out of the Big East conference. In what amounts to a "straw that broke the camel's back" situation, UConn leaving to head to the ACC would mean the end of the Big East conference, at least as a major player in D-I athletics.

It's ironic that what made the Big East special over the last several years has also been their undoing.

When conference expansion and shifting started in earnest several years ago with Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College moving to the ACC, the Big East decided to take a different approach to expansion.

Rather than try to fight fire with fire and bring in historical college football powers as had been the strategy of the ACC, the Big East decided to make themselves the top college basketball conference in the nation.

Their mission to do that was wildly successful. They routinely put eight teams in the NCAA Tournament and no one could argue that they weren't the best basketball conference in the country.

Now, that strategy seems to be backfiring on them, as football continues to rule the day. Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Connecticut's basketball programs are all much more established than their football programs at this point, but they are looking at moving on because of the money that is promised to teams that are part of a powerful football conference.

The ACC isn't a huge football conference, but they certainly have a higher profile than the Big East.

Now, the Big East is left with a huge dilemma. They stand to lose arguably their three most consistent basketball programs. Pittsburgh and Syracuse are perennial top-10 teams and UConn is the defending national champion.

They would lose their spot as the top basketball conference in the nation and they barely have enough football-playing teams left to have a football season.

They are left with the choice of trying to get involved in the rat race of cherry-picking teams from other conferences or restructuring as is, knowing that they simply won't be mentioned among the top athletic conferences anymore.

The decision they make is a huge one. The future of their conference hangs in the balance. The unfortunate thing is that it doesn't appear that it will matter which way they go. The Big East just isn't going to be the conference that we had all grown to know and love.

The UConn Huskies' first real test of the young 2011 football season came last Saturday night, as the Huskies traveled to Nashville to face perennial SEC whipping-boy Vanderbilt. The Commodores are coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons and have only produced one winning season since going 8-4 in 1982.

UConn rode into the Music City with some questions surrounding their football team, not the least of which is who will be the Huskies quarterback in 2011?

Unfortunately for Paul Pasqualoni, that question remains unanswered. Although it seemed Pasqualoni had finally settled on Johnny McEntee as his starter, he can't feel good about his decision after Saturday's performance.

The junior quarterback completed only ten of his 27 pass attempts for just 99 yards. McEntee was responsible for all four Huskies turnovers, including a fourth-quarter interception by Commodores cornerback Robby Barbieri, which was returned for a game-tying touchdown. As bad as it sounds, it could've been worse for McEntee, as Vanderbilt's defense dropped a couple easy interceptions.

Statistics aside, McEntee never looked comfortable under center. Although Vanderbilt's front seven did a good job of creating pressure, there were times where McEntee's indecision led to sacks.

McEntee's inability to look off the coverage, coupled with his poor decision making, ultimately resulted in three interceptions for the Huskies quarterback.

On the bright side, the Huskies defense did more than their fair share in this game. The defense produced the Huskies' only two touchdowns of the night, including a blocked punt in the end zone by Byron Jones.

The Huskies' second touchdown came late, as Sio Moore's forced fumble was picked up by freshman linebacker Yawin Smallwood, who took it 64 yards to the house to give the Huskies the lead.

The defense added two interceptions and recorded seven sacks, all while holding the Commodores to 2-16 on third downs.

With senior tailback D.J. Shoemate sidelined with an injury, true freshman Lyle McCombs got the majority of the carries for the Huskies. McCombs carried the ball 27 times for 118 yards—an impressive feat considering the Commodores stacked the box against the Huskies' weak passing game.

The Huskies play at home next Saturday night against Iowa State (2-0). The Cyclones are coming off a thrilling triple-overtime win against rival Iowa on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if Pasqualoni will stick with McEntee or call on freshman Michael Nebrich to take the snaps at Rentschler next week. Either way, the Huskies need to find a way to generate some offense before they enter conference play against West Virginia on October 8th.

Since the departure of Dan Orlovsky, the UConn Huskies have experienced seismic instability at the quarterback position. Despite experiencing their most successful season in their short history in 2010, earning their first Big East Championship and a trip to the Fiesta Bowl, the Huskies still featured three different players at quarterback.

In early October senior Zach Frazer lost his starting job to junior Cody Endres due to injury and poor play. It didn't take long for Endres to falter, as he was suspended for the remainder of the 2010-11 season for violating team policy. After Endres' suspension, Frazer had to wrestle the starting job away from third stringer Michael Box, ultimately finishing the season as the Huskies' starting quarterback. 

But even before 2010, the Huskies had experienced a number of quarterback battles under head coach Randy Edsall, and as Edsall departed in the offseason for the University of Maryland, many fans hoped the quarterback controversies would go with him. 

Unfortunately, for UConn fans, the Paul Pasqualoni era looks to be much of the same.

The good news for the Huskies is they have multiple intriguing options at starting quarterback.

The bad news for the Huskies is going into their Week 2 matchup against Vanderbilt, Paul Pasqualoni still hasn't named a starter.

In the Week 1 warm-up against 1AA opponent Fordham, the Huskies featured not two but three players under center. Junior Johnny McEntee started and played the majority of the game while true freshman Michael Nebrich spelled him for a bit in the first half. In the fourth quarter the Huskies went with running quarterback Scott McCummings, who ironically was the only one of the three to throw a touchdown pass.

It's not unusual for a coach to treat a team's first game, especially against an opponent like Fordham, as preseason. But to think that the Huskies are going down to SEC country with this quarterback carousel is a little alarming. 

Pasqualoni has stated multiple times that he won't make a decision until the choice is clear. But as the season begins to wear on, Pasqualoni may be forced to choose sooner than he might like.

Just as it looked like McEntee was going to emerge as the favorite by completing 8 of 12 passes for 113 yards in the victory against Fordham, McCummings opened eyes in the fourth by using his arm and his legs to make plays.  

No team that I can remember has had any success with even two guys getting regular snaps, let alone three. The chances of the Huskies repeating as Big East Champions with a triumvirate at quarterback are slim if at all. It seems that Paul Pasqualoni's first real test comes in the form of multiple choice. Let's just hope he doesn't choose d. All of the above.