UConn Football

In case you missed it, former Syracuse head football coach Paul Pasqualoni is coming back home to the Big East.

The Connecticut native takes over for Randy Edsall who skipped out on the Huskies after 12 years for his apparent "dream job" at Maryland.

News like this would have been a national story ten years ago but not now. This isn’t the same conference Pasqualoni left behind back in 2004.

Coach P remembers the golden days of Big East football.

He led Syracuse to three straight conference titles from 1996-98 and took the Orange(men) to nine bowl games in his 14 seasons on the sidelines.

Syracuse actually did Pasqualoni a favor by firing him back in 2004 (the same season he won a share of the conference title). That year, football as we know it in the Big East became irrelevant.

Three teams decided to jump ship to the Atlantic Coast Conference: Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.  

In response, the Big East had the bright idea of adding five teams in Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida.  Add it all up and that’s a total of 16 members with just eight watered down football teams left in the conference.

The move has killed the legitimacy of the Big East and should have Miami second-guessing itself. The Hurricanes were the class of the conference from 1991-2004. They won nine Big East titles during that stretch and two national titles. Since joining the ACC, the Hurricanes have yet to win a conference title, suffered one losing season and have had five straight seasons with four or more losses.

The overall perspective on the Big East is that it’s very strong in basketball and a joke in football.

When Pasqualoni was still coaching at Syracuse, his current team, UConn was still a Division I-FCS school. Since then, UConn has won a share of two Big East titles, Syracuse is just now recovering from the Greg Robinson era (10-37) and for some reason TCU is joining next season.

Maybe with Pasqualoni back in the Big East some legitimacy will come with it. Teams like UConn, West Virginia, Syracuse, South Florida and Pittsburgh are vital to the life expectancy of the conference.

 With TCU leading the charge, the Big East has a chance to slowly rebuild its reputation but it never will be what it once was. I just hope Pasqualoni realizes that.

A couple of days ago, it looked like former Miami (FL) offensive coordinator Mark Whipple was set to become the next coach at Connecticut.

A couple talks with representatives from arch-rival Syracuse changed Jeff Hathaway's mind.

The Huskies have reportedly agreed to a deal with Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni and the 2010 Big East Champions and BCS representatives are expected to formally introduce the 61-year-old at a press conference on Friday.

Connecticut went 8-4 in the regular season in 2010, including 5-2 in the Big East, winning the conference and its BCS berth only seven seasons after joining the conference and nine after becoming a bowl-eligible FBS school.

The Huskies lost the Fiesta Bowl 48-20 to Oklahoma, though the score was close for most of the game. Following the game, Randy Edsall, who had coached the team from its final season in FCS in 1999, unexpectedly did not make the flight home to Storrs, instead flying straight to Maryland without informing his players and became the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins.

Under Edsall, the Huskies made the jump to Div. 1-A, now FBS, won a share of two Big East titles and won the BCS berth for the first time this year. The team's big wins under Edsall include winning against West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, South Carolina and a victory in South Bend over Notre Dame.

Pasqualoni coached Syracuse from 1991-2004, the year UConn joined the Big East. In his time there, he suffered only one season below .500, led Syracuse to nine bowl games and three BCS appearances, playing in the Orange Bowl in 1998 and the Fiesta Bowl in 1992 and 1997.

Along with his success at Syracuse, the decision to hire Pasqualoni is also about recruiting. Whipple is not considered a strong recruiter.

A huge advantage for Pasqualoni is his connection to Connecticut, which paid off at Syracuse. The Chesire native recruited several big name players from Connecticut, including Bloomfield native and Indianapolis Colts star Dwight Freeney and New Britain's Tebucky Jones, who starred in the New England Patriots' secondary on the team that won Super Bowl XXXVI.

Another point of interest in recruiting is the new hot target for the Huskies—Texas. As Big East champions in 2010, the Huskies have completed their ascension from the days of FCS football in Storrs and are now looking to stay on top. Pasqualoni has connections down in the Lone Star State, especially since he was the offensive coordinator at Dallas this year.

Texas Christian University, the nation's second ranked team and 2011 Rose Bowl champions, are joining the conference in 2012. As the team gets better, so does the prospect of playing there. Pasqualoni could help UConn gain some foothold in the area, as well as farther east in Florida, where he was the offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins, as they hope to stay in contention once TCU arrives.

All in all, this seems a good fit for the Huskies. Offense will be a big key next season. Youngster Michael Box looks to be the next starter and the Huskies lost several major pieces to their offense, including running back Jordan Todman, offensive lineman Zach Hurd, and fullback Anthony Sherman. With wide receivers Michael Smith and Kashif Moore set to return and with the dual running backs Robbie Frey and D.J. Shoemate, Pasqualoni may look to increase overall offensive production.

With the defense still looking good, as well as the special teams, this should be a good year for the Huskies, who many have in their preseason top 25 for 2011. This is a good move by Connecticut by getting Pasqualoni. Things will only look up for UConn.

  There was a general consensus that Oklahoma was going to win the Fiesta Bowl. That being said, it wasn’t like UCONN rolled over. The Huskies rallied late in the season, winning four straight and entering their first BCS bowl in school history. They were playing in honor of the late Jasper Howard, who dreamed of making it to a BCS game.

Obviously, the loss left UCONN heavy hearted. They were simply outclassed by a bigger, faster, and significantly more talented Oklahoma team. One would think a loss of that magnitude would give Head Coach Randy Edsall a lot to think about. But apparently, he digested all the facts pretty quickly; leaving the Huskies for the University of Maryland literally 24 hours after losing in the Fiesta Bowl.

Edsall described the Terps’ opening as a “Dream Job.” But that doesn’t change the fact that the move surprised college football fans on every end of the spectrum. First, Maryland spent more than two million dollars just to terminate the contract of Ralph Friedgen. With that kind of money spent on the firing of a coach that went 8-4; the overwhelming assumption was that Maryland was getting a major coach. Names tossed around included Chris Petersen and Mike Leach.

But perhaps more interesting is where Maryland stands in the ACC. Maryland does not make nearly as much money from their football program as the rest of the ACC (sans Duke and Wake Forest). If anything, Edsall made a lateral move, to a strikingly similar modern program. The only real difference is the conference. And this is something the Big East has had a lot of trouble getting used to.

In 2006, Bobby Petrino led the Louisville Cardinals to a BCS game for the first time in the school’s history, and then unceremoniously left to coach the Atlanta Falcons (who he also departed from in controversial fashion). The next year, Rich Rodriguez led West Virginia, an offensive juggernaut with White and Slaton into the BCS, before ditching his alma mater for another maize and blue team. Last year, Brian Kelly literally left the Bearcats coach-less for their BCS game, in order to fill the void at Notre Dame.

So let’s add this up. In the last five years, four teams have won the Big East. All four of those teams’ coaches left, resulting in absolute chaos throughout the conference. And even though all of these coaches are doing it to seek greener pastures, there are two things that are worth mentioning. First, with the exception of Bobby Petrino, who somehow landed on his feet in Arkansas, the departed Big East coaches have had significant problems in their new environments, both on and off the field. Second, and more important, is the rate of exchange.

Since the 2005 departure of football powerhouses Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech, there is no other conference that has experienced coaching turnover quite like the Big East. In a country where football is the money sport, the Big East is literally the only major conference that has built itself around basketball success. Interestingly enough, the ACC’s decision to acquire BC, Virginia Tech, and Miami, were part of initiative to make the ACC a football conference again.

Try as they may, the Big East is not in a position to do that. Notre Dame has flat out refused to join the conference, so the Big East instead reached out to TCU, a school more than halfway across the country. TCU’s departure officially spells doom for the Mountain West, but also doesn’t do anything for the Big East. Because instead of moving to a conference where you can be a BCS team at-large with such a successful season, TCU has put themselves in a position where they can lose five regular season games, and still make the BCS. Hell, if an undefeated Cincinnati couldn’t get National championship consideration, you can be certain that TCU won’t either. And it’s simply because the focus is not on football.

Now, the truth is, that’s not always a huge problem. Football is literally six times more expensive to operate than the next most expensive college sport. So if you are the Big East, and basketball is the big ticket, it’s probably not a terrible idea to ride the basketball wave. The only problem is, coaches know that too.

Yesterday, I spoke to a former National Champion Football player at Boston College about the series of Big East exits, and his response was simple. “If you put every Head Football Coach from the Big East in a room and asked them to air grievances, the first thing they’d all say is, ‘we can’t get top talent here because we are a basketball conference.”

But if the understanding is that they aren’t a football conference, why is there an illusion that these are real football coaches? UCONN football was literally the only head coaching position that Edsall ever knew. And unlike Jim Harbaugh, who literally need one recruiting class to turn a 1-11 team into a national powerhouse in the Pac 10, Edsall needed 12 years, a lost of losing seasons, and three of the most significant athletic defections of the new millennium.

Perhaps coaches are doing what anyone else would do. They are striking while the iron is hot.

Randy Edsall, “the father of Connecticut football,” has spurned his Huskies and opted for greener and brighter pastures down south.

The man who brought UConn from a quarter-filled 30,000-seat, on-campus stadium competing at the Division I-AA level to a Fiesta Bowl participant left within a blink of an eye,without warning.

Saturday night in Glendale, AZ was a crowning achievement for Edsall and the UConn Huskies. A berth in a BCS bowl game is an accolade that few programs can hang their hat on, let alone a recent upstart full-time Division I-A program.

When Edsall arrived in Storrs, CT back in 1999, the Huskies sustained limited success, albeit in lower-level football. Only three coaches remained with the program for more than 100 games. Edsall was the longest tenured coach for UConn, and for good measure, the program would not be where it is today without the contributions of Edsall and his staff.

Edsall went to work in double-wide trailers behind UConn’s old Memorial Stadium and had little to offer recruits other than a shot at building a program from the ground up. Granted, the Huskies have been playing football since 1896, but UConn was light years behind the top dogs across the country. 

The path was long, treacherous and, early on, unrewarding, but the Huskies had a true leader to call their own.

Now, upon Edsall's departure from Connecticut, the Huskies reached new heights. No longer are there trailers to work in, but state of the art facilities for coaches and staff members on campus, as well as a picturesque 40,000-seat stadium in Hartford, CT that is the home of the current Big East champions.

A Fiesta Bowl appearance versus one of the most historic and accomplished programs of all time in the Oklahoma Sooners was evidence of all the hard work and emphasis that Edsall established with his players and inside the Husky football program.

Then in one moment, Edsall left the Huskies for the Maryland Terrapins and the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference. The Connecticut football team flew from Phoenix back to New England, but Edsall had his sights set on College Park, MD the entire time. In doing so, the Huskies were left behind without a leader in New England.

Edsall has every right to take another job, as he has been the leader of the Connecticut program since 1999, but the perception he exuded, at least to outsiders, seemed to be a loyal upstanding leader of men and the Huskies.

But the philosophy of most head coaches around the country is similar: Money talks and opportunity knocks. The days of coaches resurrecting a program from the depths of defeat and transforming their squad into consistently competitive teams each year are long gone.

Edsall seemed to be the next in line of the longest-tenured coaches in America.

Unfortunately, there will no longer be the Joe Paternos or Frank Beamers of the world. The days of an aspiring coach taking a job, building a program, establishing his family and becoming a household name in his community have been passed over for the search for the next dream job.

No one can blame these coaches bolting every few years in pursuit of that one shining star, but Edsall appeared to be part of a different breed, an “old school” colonel—through everything that Connecticut and Randy Edsall endured, not only bringing the Husky program into the new millennium, but also dealing with a horrific tragedy on campus last fall with the death of Husky great, Jasper Howard. 

Now, it seems that Edsall placed the UConn program, once again, as a steppingstone to the next job in line, much like former head coach and current South Florida Bulls skipper Skip Holtz did prior to Edsall taking over.

But there is no doubt that the University of Connecticut is grateful for Edsall’s tenure in Storrs. Nobody knows where the Huskies would be as a football power without Edsall’s time, dedication and success.

However, Edsall will now have a new project of revitalizing the Maryland program from middle of the road status to BCS bowl contenders. The Connecticut Huskies are now left with a glaring vacancy. With only six seasons of Big East competition under their belts, one conference championship and one Fiesta Bowl appearance, UConn now has much higher standards in terms of football excellence.

There might not be another Randy Edsall out there to fill the void on the Huskies' sideline, but for the first time as a Division I-A program, Connecticut has an extremely large decision to make in appointing the next leader of the UConn football program. 

Many people argued that UConn had no business playing in the Fiesta Bowl as they were unranked and had four losses on the year.

As it turned out, they were right.

The Oklahoma Sooners ended their five-game BCS losing streak with a convincing 48-20 win over the UConn Huskies.

The Sooners were never challenged or threatened and dominated the game start to finish as they out gained the Huskies 525-335.

Oklahoma started fast as Landry Jones completed his first 11 passes and finished off the opening drive with a touchdown pass.

DeMarco Murray added a three yard touchdown run and right out of the gates the Sooners were up by 14 and not looking back.

Jones’ first “incomplete” pass was an interception which was returned 46 yards for a touchdown by Dwayne Gratz. While this may have had the UConn sideline hopeful and optimistic, the anemic Husky offense quickly proved they were over-matched.

The Huskies only managed 109 yards of offense in the first half, a total that Oklahoma eclipsed in the middle of their second possession.

Oklahoma scored on four of their first five drives and did not punt until the third quarter. That punt however, did not seem to slow down the Sooners as Cameron Kenny caught a 59 yard touchdown pass on the very next Sooner possession.

Landry Jones finished the game with 433 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Ryan Broyles also had a great night as he had 13 receptions for 170 yards and a touchdown.

UConn looked overpowered from the start. While the Huskies may have been excited to play in their first ever BCS bowl game, it was very clear this team was not quite ready to compete with the elites of college football.

Oklahoma has been victimized by underdog opponents in the past, but this year they put those rumors to rest and dominated the Huskies the way they were supposed to.

It may seem like the Sooners had nothing to prove in this game, but snapping the five game BCS losing streak is a huge load off the Sooners back. UConn may not have been a great opponent in everyone’s eyes, but Oklahoma needed to show up and prove they could win the big game despite the circumstances, and boy did they ever.

The University of Connecticut has been known as a basketball school for, well, ever.  

With a men's a women's program that are consistently in the top 25 and making deep runs in the NCAA tournament and ultimately winning championships, it's hard to be considered as such.  

However, the UConn football team is doing its best to shed the stereotype that football season is simply something to keep fans occupied on the way to basketball season.  

On January 1, the Huskies will face off against the Oklahoma Sooners in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl as Big East Conference champions. It is the first BCS bowl game for the program who only 12 years ago was playing at the FCS level.

In 1997, the school board of trustees voted overwhelmingly in favor of upgrading the school's football program to the highest level of college athletics. Then athletic director Lew Perkins cited reasons such as the possibility of falling behind schools that fielded football and basketball teams at the highest level as motivation for the change.  

UConn went into the two year transitional phase of the upgrade in 2000 and went 5-17 in the two following seasons. In 2002, the Huskies were officially a I-A football program and went 6-6, followed by a 9-3 season in 2003. However, the Huskies did not receive a bowl bid either season due to their lack of a conference affiliation.

The 2004 season was the first for the Huskies as a Big East school and the team has many successes since then, winning three of the four bowl games they have participated in and sharing two Big East conference titles.  

The constant in this whole process has been head coach Randy Edsall, who has guided the Huskies for the past 12 seasons. Edsall has taken the Huskies from fledgling I-AA program to bowl team to now Big East champion and BCS bowl participant.  

What this program has accomplished since 1999 is nothing short of remarkable.

The Huskies can add to their growing legacy if they can knock off Oklahoma on Saturday night. However, it won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination.

The Sooners are one of college football's most historic programs and will be looking to snap a five game BCS bowl losing streak. Add in the fact that Oklahoma already validated another upstart program in Boise State, and you have a very focused and determined Sooner team that will be looking to protect their reputation as one of the best.

Regardless of the outcome in this game, UConn has changed the way people, both fans of the Huskies and generic college football fans, view their team.

August no longer signals only three months until basketball season.  

It signals that it's football time in Connecticut. East Hartford, to be exact.  

Analysts, radio hosts and commentators have all been clamoring about this game being one to watch.  It makes one wonder what all of the noise surrounding this matchup is about. 

It is, after all, the Fiesta Bowl—the BCS Fiesta Bowl.  Featuring the storied Oklahoma Sooners and the trying for an upset and upstart University of Connecticut Huskies, this game is high-quality entertainment. 

Prime time on New Year’s Day at 8:30 p.m. at University of Phoenix Stadium, the haters and the hopefuls will witness history.  UConn will play in its first BCS bowl game.  The Huskies could be motivated by the chance to prove the Big East deserves to be a BCS conference. 

A decisive win by Oklahoma could raise eyebrows and speculation against the BCS as a worthy football competitor.  Oklahoma will play in it for the third time in five years. They are the mighty Sooners, but they’ve lost five bowl games in a row. 

Connecticut understands they are the underdog, but they put their pads on just like Oklahoma.  That being said, do they have a chance to pull the upset with a field goal to end the game? Keep reading and ask yourself, otherwise, I’ll tell you.

Oklahoma has perhaps the preeminent program in America.  Again, they find themselves in a situation where losing to a big underdog will bring national mock and scorn.  The Boise State Broncos shocked the Sooners and the BCS world in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl. 

Three years later, it’ll be the Huskies (8-4, 6-6) rolling their sleeves up and getting after Oklahoma.  Like the Broncos, they’ll be hoping to make a name off the Sooners.    

In their blue and white uniforms, Connecticut gets it in the blue-collar way—ground and pound—running the rock to daylight. 

Who can blame them? Not Sooners coach Bob Stoops.  He wishes he had Connecticut’s running game.  In terms of individual rushing yards per game, they have America’s second leading running back, Jordan Todman. 

As a junior this season, he gained 1,574 yards rushing and scored 14 touchdowns.  DeMarco Murray rushed for 1,121 yards and 14 touchdowns, averaging 86 yards per game as Oklahoma’s leading rusher. 

Pass offense, though, is what separates these two programs in this thriller.  Like Oklahoma State, Oklahoma has one of the best passing games in the FBS. 

With one of the weakest passing games among major colleges, Connecticut averages 145 yards per game—about the same as Todman’s rushing yards per game average (143.09). 

Todman trailed only LaMichael James, who averaged 153 yards per game for the Oregon Ducks.

UConn’s quarterbacks had better duck when the Sooners pass rush comes after them.

Fiesta Bowl 2010 officials were hoping to sign Stanford, reportedly, but UConn ducked into the game—allegedly.  It is what it is. 

The Huskies are the Big East champion and the Big East is a BCS conference.  The other BCS conferences are the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC.

UConn finished the regular season by beating South Florida.  The Huskies, during the season, however, lost to lowly Temple and Rutgers and got blanked by 6-6 Louisville.  They are unapologetic and a bit sensitive over the situation.

"Don't get on UConn for what the system is," UConn coach Randy Edsall said. "We happened to win the conference and we’re deserving to be there. We didn't back our way into it. We won our way into it."

The University of Connecticut began playing in Division I-A in 2000—the year Oklahoma won its last national championship.  Now, against one of America’s powerhouse football programs, UConn will try to gain its first BCS game victory.

When it comes to passing the ball, the Huskies are ranked No. 112 out of 120 schools. 

I picked the Huskies women’s basketball team, in an earlier column, to win 100 games in a row.  They’re proving me right so far.  I love the colonial atmosphere of the University of Connecticut and the entire Connecticut area. 

I’d pick and choose one of those homes close to the New York border if I lived there.  For now, though, let’s go over my pick for the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.

Prediction

Is this a mismatch to the millionth degree?  I don’t believe so.  The Sooners are bigger, faster and more experienced in BCS football. 

They are, however, 1-3 in the Fiesta Bowl and 0-3 in their last three tries.  I suspect eight or nine defenders will be in the box to stop Todman.

The hungrier team could be the Sooners.  Their proud program has lost five straight BCS games, but they’ll turn it around starting with UConn.  No disrespect to the Huskies. 

If this was a women’s basketball game, I’d pick UConn in a New York minute.  But full-court traps and three-point shots don’t apply.

Win, lose or draw, it’s a marvelous achievement for the Huskies program to play Oklahoma in a bowl game.  Connecticut football, while on the rise, will get a rude awakening from one of America’s big-time college football programs. 

Oklahoma will win it, 43-34.