UConn Football

It is time to make that move. After faltering late in the fourth quarter on the road at Temple, now is the time to make a quarterback change.

Zach Frazer has had his chance and he has performed miserably. Looking at his statistics, he has yet to throw an interception, which is a miracle on its own. The Notre Dame transfer can't throw a tight spiral, he consistently makes the wrong read, and his accuracy is horrific.

The Zach Frazer Era in Storrs needs to end now. He's almost unwatchable because you just wait for him to make a boneheaded move that costs the team the game. The sad part is UConn has a great running game led by Jordan Todman, but it is tough to score points when the offense is one dimensional.

Any team that plays UConn can stack the box with eight players, because Frazer is such a below-average passer. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how he ended up with a full ride to Notre Dame. He reminds me of a high school quarterback who is still trying to figure out an offense.

The truth is he is a senior in college and won't win more than six games as the starter this season. It is time Randy Edsall makes the move to get his team prepared for Big East play.

I'm guilty for drinking the Frazer Kool-Aid, believing that he could lead UConn to a Big East title. It's not going to happen when you have a quarterback that can't throw the football.

While watching college football last Saturday, I was amazed to see REAL college quarterbacks on television. Denard Robinson, Ryan Mallet, Cam Newton, and Dayne Crist all know how to throw the football downfield and put points on the board.

I'm not sure if Randy Edsall is going to go through with demoting Zach Frazer, but it needs to happen.

"The depth chart will be different," Edsall said when asked about the quarterback position during his weekly conference call. "You'll see that on Tuesday."

Redshirt freshman Mike Box is waiting in the wings and UConn is getting Cody Endres, a proven passer, back from suspension this week.

Their next two opponents are Buffalo and Vanderbilt, both at home. This is a critical stretch for UConn to try and establish some sort of passing game on offense.

Sorry, Zach Frazer, but it's time to take a seat on the bench. Your performance this season has been poor and it reflects in UConn's 1-2 record, for the first time since 2002.

Last year, the Huskies lost five games by a combined 15 points. This season they have lost two games by a total of 34 points.

Frazer has had far too many opportunities as a starter. It's time to get some fresh air leading the Huskies huddle.

Randy Edsall knows after his team punished Texas Southern last week that they needed to quickly put that win behind them.  Temple is a team that has always given the Huskies problems.

UConn will be without captain Scott Lutrus again as he is still recovering from an undisclosed injury.  There is no timetable on his return, and after a neck stinger last year who knows how many games he is going to be held out.

One area to watch during today's game is the Huskies wide receivers.  Michael Smith and Kashif Moore both had wide open touchdown drops last week.  They can get away with that against bad teams, but Temple will make them pay for those mistakes.

Al Golden has made his team a formidable opponent.  His team lost 12-9 in overtime back in 2008, and in 2007 lost 22-17 on a call that should have gave them a touchdown.

Jordan Todman has been the bright spot of UConn football through two games.  There was a lot of hype and expectations for him coming into this season.  He is currently the leading rusher in the Big East and 12th in the nation.

If the Huskies are to win today they need to find ways to pressure the quarterback.  Look for Kendall Reyes and Trevardo Williams to push the offensive line backwards and get to the quarterback.

UConn shouldn't be phased by the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.  Remember this Huskies team went into Ann Arbor just two weeks ago.

This game is probably going to be closer than most people expect.  Temple went to a bowl game last season and is off to another fast 2-0 start.  UConn needs to go out there and gain the momentum.

Zach Frazer looked comfortable in the pocket in only two quarters of play last weekend.  He is going to need to have that same poise and presence in the pocket.

The Huskies will ready and prepared for this Temple team.  I like UConn to win 29-14.

The poor Connecticut Huskies football team. Nobody seems to love them.

UConn is 1-1, following a beatdown at the hands of a good Michigan team (30-10) with a super-duper beatdown of an overmatched Texas Southern team (62-3).

First, there are the mean voters in the AP Top 25. In the preseason poll, UConn was in the ever popular "Others receiving votes" category, coming in at No. 31. Not too shabby.

Now here we are after two games, and the word "Connecticut" is nowhere to be found in the 48 names listed.

Next are the slightly less mean people voting in the USA Today poll. Sitting at No. 32 in the preseason poll, Connecticut now sits at No. 48. Five crappy votes was all UConn received.

I mean, really.

Sure, that Michigan loss wasn't pretty, but there were mitigating factors. We're hearing that the team didn't practice well the week before the game (whatever that means). Michigan was better than we thought. The building was really loud. Maybe the kids were nervous about being on national TV for their opening game. Whatever, that loss is looking less horrible now that Michigan has also beaten Notre Dame.

Doesn't a score of 62-3 against a powerful (kidding) team like Texas Southern mean anything to these voters?

Okay, so Texas Southern is only an FCS (I-AA) team. They still had nice uniforms and stuff, didn't they? Rutgers only beat them by 42 last season, a far cry from the 59-point beating Connecticut administered.

Enough with the voters. They seem petty anyway. Maybe they're jealous or something.

Even more disconcerting are the Connecticut Huskies fans.

I'm on record somewhere as saying that UConn fans are among the worst in the nation. I really don't think much of us as a group. I'll probably expand on that in a separate post next time they (we) irk me, but for now, let's stick to football.

Coach Randy Edsall, his staff, and the entire athletic department have done a truly remarkable job of building UConn football from essentially nothing.

Sure, those 16 conference championships in the old Yankee Conference and later the Atlantic 10 are cool, but when you're playing the likes of URI, UNH, and UMass to get them, it sort of lacks a bit of prestige.

Edsall was hired in 1999, right as UConn embarked on the road from Division I-AA to I-A. The campaign got off to a predictably rough start, 3-8 and 2-9 in the first two years as a I-A independent, but it wasn't long before it was clear that Connecticut had found the right man.

UConn football's last season before joining the Big East produced a 9-3 record, and in 2004, the school earned its first ever bowl invitation—a 39-10 victory in the Motor City Bowl.

Connecticut earned a share of the Big East Conference championship in 2007 with a 9-4, 5-2 record and capped off the season with another bowl invitation.

UConn football has now been to three straight bowl games. In 2009, Connecticut defeated South Carolina, an SEC opponent, in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. You can bet on another bowl bid in 2010.

This season, Connecticut is projected to finish anywhere from first to third in the Big East. On the field, Connecticut football has arrived. The Huskies are on the verge of "big time" college football.

In the stands? Different story altogether.

Too many UConn football "fans" are treating the games the way I did in the mid-to-late '80s.

Start by partying in the parking lot/dorm/empty patch of grass before the game and continue this activity deep into the first quarter. Make your way into the stands and catch the second and third quarters, occasionally looking in the direction of the action. Begin leaving the stands at the start of the fourth quarter, and resume your merrymaking back at your starting point. You conclude the exercise by asking folks, "Who won?" on their way out of the stadium about a half an hour later.

Coming off a trip to Michigan, where Connecticut played before the largest and loudest crowd ever to watch a college football game, Coach Edsall had to remind UConn fans that that was the way fans support a team.

"That's a football environment," Edsall said. "That's what football is all about. And that's the way it should be. If you want to support your teams, that's what you do. You get into the stadium early and you stay until the end, win, lose or draw. Or not trying to get another drink before you go in. Somebody should have last call in the parking lot.

"You've got plenty of time to get there early; you've got four hours. ... We come out of the tunnel about five minutes before they start the game. You would hope that the place would be packed so when our guys come out of the tunnel all those fans are cheering. That's what the environment should be. That's what you would expect. It's disappointing when it isn't that way, to be truthful. It's disappointing."

Well, Randy must have been disappointed by the crowd at Rentschler Field for Saturday's game against Texas Southern.

The stadium was about half empty (no, not "half full") as the players hit the tunnel. Thousands of the 40,000 seats were still empty at kickoff. The stadium was sold out and eventually did fill up, but a mass exodus back into parking lot began well before the clock expired.

You might think that fans in Connecticut deserve a pass, given our lack of experience with "big time" college football. Decent theory, but that pass expired a few seasons ago. Heck, the football coach is actually taking the time to educate the fans on proper protocol.

If the fans are still unsure of how to support a team, watch a University of Georgia or Notre Dame University game some time. Try to find an empty seat during the warm-ups—I dare you.

Pack the damn stadium before kickoff. Doesn't seem hard, does it?

While I have you here, please indulge me in a final thought on supporting college sports.

You can walk out of a movie if you don't like it—no harm done. You can boo your favorite pro team if they lay down on the job—I wouldn't, but it doesn't bother me.

College sports are different. These are kids. They are sons and daughters, friends and classmates, taking the field in the name of the school you support.

I know that the revenue-producing college sports have many business-like elements to them (not all good), but these are fundamentally student-athletes trying their best to represent their school. They are playing for you as much as anything else. These aren't professionals cashing a weekly paycheck (for the most part); they're kids.

These kids are doing everything they can on the field to represent the University of Connecticut. Would it kill you to show up and support them with the respect and pride that they deserve?

UConn didn't show up to the Big House prepared for Rich Rod's spread offense and the lethal weapon of Denard Robinson.  His quarterback lit up the Huskies through the air and on the ground.

He rushed for a record 197 yards against UConn.  He frequently was left free to run up the middle and outside the corners.  The Huskies looked as if they had never seen a mobile quarterback.  The real problem was the speed of Michigan.

UConn struggled up front on the line against the huge offensive line that Michigan has.  Getting blown back off the ball every play makes it difficult for a team to get penetrations on the quarterback.  Robinson faced little pressure all day and because of this he was able to read the defense and run for big gains.

When the Huskies fell into a 21-0 hole early, you knew it wasn't going to be difficult to dig out.  Though they didn't give up, considering they scored 10 points in the second quarter to make it a 21-10 game at half.

Where UConn really lost the game was in the third quarter, when a D.J. Shoemate fumble on fourth and one only a few yards from the endzone cost the Huskies dearly.  Instead of cutting the deficit to a touchdown, UConn was now back on defense.

Michigan was dominant on offense.  It could run and pass the ball at will.  The corners for UConn looked slow and some of the tackling techniques were downright ugly.  It certainly seemed that the Huskies were overmatched and unprepared for this national televised game.

The linebackers for UConn made a lot of plays but they were after Michigan was moving the ball five or six yards at a time.  Scott Lutrus didn't play much in the second half due to an apparent shoulder injury which is yet to be determined to what extent.

The play of Zach Frazer was pathetic.  Yes, some of the wide receivers dropped some catchable balls, but 18 for 37 isn't going to get the job done.  He didn't throw an interception, but there were at least a couple of passes thrown that should have been picked off.  One hit a Michigan linebacker square in the chest.

I couldn't believe how bad the UConn defense looked.  This was a group that last year that lost all five games by a total 15 points.  Randy Edsall has a lot of work to do in preparing his team for Big East opponents.

It has always been the UConn defense that keeps them close at the end of games.  This game it was a whole different story.  Michigan fumbled the ball a couple of times, but got it back immediately. 

UConn's punter shanked a punt that literally went five yards.  Kicker Dave Teggart had a 40-yard line drive kick blocked and another kick that was tipped.

The UConn special teams was very inconsistent, which only added to their struggles.

The one bright spot was Jordan Todman, who ran for 105 yards on 20 carries.  He also scored UConn's only touchdown of the afternoon.

There is a lot to digest from this game.  It is only one game and the Huskies have eleven games left to play.  There are some major adjustments that need to be looked at for the improvement of this team.

Those changes should take place this weekend with UConn's home opener set for Saturday against Texas Southern at noon.

The cataclysmic shift that was rumored to end the existence of the Big East Conference did not happen this Summer, but the apocalyptic realignment could be right around the corner for the Big East.

Even though the Big 12 got smaller and the Pac-10 and Big Ten grew, the Big East remained unscathed.

There was talk of two or three mega, 16-team conferences forming in the college football world. None of that happened....yet.

In the era where money is the key basis for any monumental shift, the days of the super conferences could be close.

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But, for now, fans of Big East football can rest easily.

The conference is intact, and if you listen to Commissioner John Marinatto, the conference is thriving.

Marinatto said two weeks ago at Big East Media Day that the Big East was “is stronger today in every way than it ever has been.”

This is a bold statement for a commissioner who had to wait and see if the Big Ten would poach any of his teams in an attempt to form the largest football conference in the country.

Marinatto would not let his coaches talk about what the Big Ten may be planning. Not talking about expansion can mean only one thing, Marinatto is still worried about what his conference big brother to the west, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, is going to do next.

No matter what happens on the expansion front, the Big East could be poised to have one of its most solid campaigns ever.

The 2009 season had several uplifting occurrences and performances.

From Cincinnati's run at perfection to Pitt’s Dion Lewis rushing for nearly 1,800 yards and second-team All-American honors, it was a good year for the conference. Lewis plus several other explosive playmakers return in 2010.

The Big East has also fared well in bowl games over the past two years. The league is 16-6 the past two years.

There were no BCS wins in that time span, but league members have several opportunities in the regular season to prove they belong this year.

With Oklahoma at Cincinnati, South Florida at Florida and Miami, UConn at Michigan, Miami at Pittsburgh, West Virginia at LSU and Pittsburgh at Utah highlighting the non-conference schedule, the Big East has challenged some of the premiere teams in the country.

If the league's teams can pull off a few wins, it will only bode well for TV contracts in the future.

The league is locked into its current contract for another four years, but another few good years on the field could have broadcast companies bargaining for rights to air the Big East's games and that would be a huge win for the conference that was proclaimed dead earlier this Summer.

The league could see a lot of green come its way in September 2012 because that is when the conference can begin negotiations with ESPN.

Another aspect in the league's favor is that for the first time in a long time, it is more than a two-team race for the league title.

Sure, Pittsburgh is slated by many organizations to win the championship, but the two through four teams vary depending on publication.

Cincinnati, West Virginia, and Connecticut trade places in those spots across the many publications. South Florida and Syracuse may not have the experience needed to compete for the title, but both should be able to pull off some upsets this season.

The Panthers, Mountaineers, Huskies, and Bearcats could all be ranked in the Top-25 by the end of the year, and the Panthers and Mountaineers are ranked by USA Today in the preseason poll.

It never hurts to have parity in the league.

This CSM original content written by Matt Nascone

Twelve years ago this game would have never even been possible. This Saturday that dream of taking on the one of the most storied football programs in America becomes a reality.

Don't think this UConn team is going into Ann Arbor for the sight. They have their eyes on winning and starting off this season with a statement victory. 

Yes, Randy Edsall is winless lifetime against Rich Rodriguez, but heading into the Big House there is a lot of buzz around these Huskies. What better place than Ann Arbor, Michigan on the first Saturday in September would there be for UConn football to kickoff their 2010 campaign.

A season that is full of expectations.  UConn returns 17 starters all of whom are ready and eager to step into the spotlight that is national television 3:30 on ABC. This is an important game for both teams, because either one really plays any notable games out-of-conference beside the Wolverines who travel to South Bend in Week 2.

Rich Rodriguez knows that with this being his third season at Michigan he has to win. That is it.  If he continues to have mediocre seasons and can't live up to the billing that is Michigan Wolverine football then he is going to be fired.

On the contrary, Randy Edsall is in the exact opposite position. He has built UConn from nothing and now there are analysts who are picking them to win the Big East Conference this season. He has been here and given everything to the University of Connecticut since Day 1.

The early success in UConn's program is what adds excitement to the season opener against Michigan. Connecticut has gotten votes in both polls and could be ranked if they start the season off strong.

Michigan has had a tough summer being involved in NCAA allegations and has issued self-imposed penalties or sanctions.

Now it is all about looking ahead to the schedule and finding ways for Michigan to win this season.  The Wolverines could go 8-4 or they could go 4-8. They have another deep recruiting class along with some experience from last season.

The duel-threat at quarterback Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier both should see playing-time early-on in the season. Rich Rod has to be feeling the pressure as someone who has underachieved in his first two seasons at Michigan.

The way he left West Virginia and the NCAA punishments add even more question marks to what type of job he has been doing over the last few years.

For UConn it has steadily built recruits year in and year out and now finally as a team in place that is up to the task of winning week in and week out.

Last year UConn couldn't find a way to win the close games. That has to change if this is a game-changing year that puts them on the map. It all starts Saturday at Michigan.

Michigan is going to be the favorite going on.  A season-opener at the Big House there is no denying that fact.  The fact of the matter is both teams are trying to jumpstart their seasons with a win against a quality opponent.

This is a monumental game for Connecticut. It is a very important game for Michigan.  It should be a game that comes down to the last few minutes. Whichever team can execute more than the other will win.

The big day is less than a week a way, and UConn is finalizing the depth chart before they take on Michigan in the renovated Big House in a game that could potentially set the largest attendance record for any college football game ever to take place.

Randy Edsall and staff had a lot of tough decisions to make over the last few weeks, but have released the depth chart which included a couple of surprises.

The biggest shocker of them all was seeing Greg Lloyd as the opening day starter at linebacker.  Lloyd, who tore his ACL against Michigan, was playing with the third-string defense during camp.  Many believed that he would use a medical redshirt this season and sit out.

That's not the case for the senior who should help UConn who was looking thin at linebacker.  His speed and athleticism are going to be needed in order to stop dual-threat quarterback Denard Robinson of Michigan.

Wide receiver Mike Lang, who converted to strong safety, will be backing up Kijuan Dabney who converted from linebacker.  This was a close race, but Dabney has secured the job to start the season. 

Opposite of him, Jerome Junior will not be starting at free safety.  Harris Agbor, who only played in five games last season, will start opposite Dabney.

Both Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Dwayne Gratz will be the starting cornerbacks.  The secondary has been an area of concern for the Huskies.  After last year, where UConn looked more than vulnerable at times, an early indication of the changes made on the defensive side of the ball should be a key to look out for.

On the other side of the ball, Zach Frazer will be starting and behind him will be Michael Box, a redshirt freshman from Georgia.  Box has a lot of size and arm strength, but nobody really knows what to expect from him if Frazer goes down.

He has no experience, and the loss of Cody Endres, an experienced quarterback, could be felt in that particular scenario.

At running back, Jordan Todman will start and most likely receive the majority of the carries.  Todman had a great season last year and that success should only continue.

Behind him, though, are two quality runners in Robbie Frey and USC Transfer DJ Shoemate.  Nobody is really sure how the carries will be divided but it has always been with Edsall in the past that the player who is hot is going to run the football.

At wide receiver Michael Smith, Isiah Moore, and Kashif Moore will be the featured three-wide set.  With Joe Moorehead's offense entering year two the passing game, it should be exciting to watch.

UConn has always been a running team, but Frazer has shown the ability to throw the ball through the air, and he is going to have the chances to show his passing skills.

Much of the talk around this UConn team is surrounded by the season opener at Michigan against Rich Rodriguez.  In the grand scheme of things it is only one game, but it holds a significant meaning.

Michigan is the winningest all-time college football program.  Sure they aren't as strong as they have been in the past, but they are still Michigan.  There is an enormous amount of pressure on them to have a strong year and to contend for a Big Ten title.

Randy Edsall knows his team has a lot of hype surrounding them.  That is something that they can't worry or be concerned about.  At the end of the day, it is all about going out on the field and winning games in the fourth quarter.

Some people are picking UConn to win the Big East.  Others believe they are a dark-horse or sleeper pick to win the conference.

No matter what happens this season, expect them to leave everything they have out on the field.  Win or lose this team has always possessed a never-back-down mentality.