UConn’s thumping by Michigan doesn’t dampen chances of winning Big East

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – There would be no close encounters of the ’09 kind for the UConn football team on Sept. 4, when the Huskies lost decisively to Michigan, 30-10, in front of the largest crowd in the history of college football.

After a season filled with cliffhangers, nail-biters and assorted heartbreaking end-of-game lapses, Saturday’s season opener was decided early on when the Wolverines scored early and built a comfy 21-0 lead with nine minutes left in the second quarter.

The Wolverines totally outfoxed the Huskies’ defense. They scored on three of their first four possessions and got close enough on the fourth to miss an attempted field goal.

In 2009, Connecticut’s five losses were by a combined total of only 15 points, five fewer than Saturday’s margin.

There are surely easier ways to open a season than on the road, against a past – and, yes, future – Big 10 powerhouse.

And on the day when the largest stadium in the nation is being re-dedicated, as such.

And against a coach-clone combo that has clobbered you all four times you’ve met.

It’s just the beginning

Then again, no one said Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall was timid.

Edsall’s coaching nemesis, Rich Rodriguez, entering his third season as Michigan

head coach, was on the hot seat in this game. A loss to UConn would put his job in jeopardy.

On the other hand, Edsall, who certainly didn’t like the loss, can absorb it easily as he is comfortably ensconced as Connecticut’s coach for the foreseeable future.

A win would have given the Huskies “street cred,” as the kids are wont to say, but a loss doesn’t dampen their chances of winning the Big East this season; all it does is halt the four-game winning streak that ended the 2009 campaign and assure the Huskies won’t be undefeated this fall.

“It was a game where we really didn’t help ourselves in certain situations,” Edsall said. “Offensively you can’t drop as many balls as we dropped. We had a chance to go in and make it a seven-point ballgame and you fumble the ball. Again, it’s little things, technique things like get the ball on your outside arm and cover it up when you’re down in that area.”

Rodriguez beat Edsall in Ann Arbor the same way he did while at West Virginia, with a fleet-of-foot quarterback who could throw well enough to keep the safeties honest but was way too quick for beefy, built-up linebackers to bring down in an open field.

If there can truly be a key play in a 20-point final, then it would have to be the UConn fumble late in the third quarter, after Michigan had driven 74 yards in 19 plays, the Wolverines chewing up clock as if the minutes were wild jack rabbits.

‘First down, Blue’

But all they could show for that eight-minute drive was a field goal, and now the Huskies were banging on the door, a fourth-and-inches on the Michigan seven-yard line with the score 24-10 and a couple minutes left in the third quarter.

A score here and UConn moves to within seven…. and who knows? But D.J. Shoemate got stripped of the ball after making the first down. He lost it as he struggled for more yardage at the three-yard line.

And despite the cacophony of the crowd noise, you could hear the air coming out of the UConn bench when the ref signaled “First down, Blue!”

On this day, Michigan’s blue was darker than Connecticut’s, their runners were faster than Connecticut’s defenders and their team was, simply put, much better than Connecticut’s.

“We were really poised up front,” Rodriguez said. “I thought our front five did a great job handling them – getting a hat on a hat.”

Historic day

The hundreds of Husky fans who traveled to Ann Arbor were denied a UConn victory but if it’s any consolation, Connecticut fans, you were part of college football history.

Michigan Stadium was given a $226 million face-lift during the past year, during which more seats were added, so that now with an official capacity of 109,901 the school can once again lay claim to having the largest arena in the nation.

The new seats allow the Wolverines to leapfrog both Penn State and Tennessee in the ongoing “my stadium is bigger than yours” competition.

But they don’t call it “The Big House” for nothing; the best way to describe the place is to simply say that it is BIG! And noisy!

Designers say the renovations should make the stadium 30 percent louder; veteran Michigan Stadium staffers claim the sounds on Saturday were nothing compared to the din created during Big Ten games.

Despite its massive size, or maybe because of it, Michigan Stadium does not have expansive areas surrounding it for fans to tailgate, squeezed in as it is within the downtown limits of Ann Arbor.

Some UConn fans paid $35 or more to park their vehicles in a nearby lumber yard and set up their pre-game parties in loading docks replete with a definitely-non-tailgate-type background of stacked roofing shingles and pressure-treated plywood.

But what took place inside the stadium prior to kickoff more than made up for any shortcomings outside the gates.

The pre-game re-dedication ceremonies were inspiring and memorable, beginning with the easily recognizable voice of venerable announcer Keith Jackson, extolling the statistics of this historic stadium built in 1927.

A couple of World War II dive bombers flew overhead followed by a pair of modern day fighter jets.

The most touching moment involved a young man, Brock Mealer, the brother of a Michigan player.

Mealer had been crippled in a car accident that claimed the lives of his father and his girlfriend. And he was given a one percent chance of ever walking again.

But this courageous and inspiring young man, on cue, got up from his wheelchair on the sidelines and with the help of a cane, hobbled to midfield to take part in the dedication, eliciting rousing cheers and a two-minute standing ovation from the crowd along with heartfelt applause from unbiased referees and cynical journalists alike.

During the second half, the PA announcer blared that “today’s official attendance is 113 thousand” at which point the crowd roar was so deafening, it literally drowned out the last three digits of the record-setting attendance of 113,090 – including the Michigan student section, of course.

There were thousands of them, all wearing matching yellow T-shirts, making that corner of the stadium appear to be a field filled with bright, yellow daffodils.

Denard Robinson

The home crowd certainly had plenty to cheer about, especially about what appears to be Michigan’s new quarterback for the next three years.

Sophomore Denard Robinson, a 6-footer who runs and cuts as if he did indeed have six feet on which to maneuver, is nothing more than a Pat White clone reincarnated by Rodriguez from some parallel universe specifically to taunt Edsall… who is now 0-and-5 against Rodriguez; but at least this latest loss doesn’t count in the Big East standings like the other four did.

On Saturday, Denard dominated, decimating the defense for a total of 383 yards: 29 carries for 197 yards and a 32-yard TD jaunt plus 186 yards through the air, hitting 19 of 22 – including an 11-yard touchdown to Vincent Smith with 13:07 left in the fourth to make the score 30-10 after the missed extra point.

“That was deja vu, Pat White, all over again,” Edsall said after the game.

“I would say that Rich [Rodriguez] would feel very, very comfortable with this guy at quarterback, because this is what Rich did when we played him at West Virginia with Pat White. I’m not saying that he’s Pat White, because Pat was pretty good, but with time I think that this young man will have a chance to become a very good quarterback,” Edsall said.

Rusty Huskies?

The Huskies appeared flat, especially early on.

Maybe the rustiness was a result of meshing all the new parts; perhaps players were intimidated by their presence on such a grand stage.

Despite their team malaise, UConn appeared to have gotten back on track in the second quarter, spurred by a circus catch by Mike Smith.

Smith tapped the ball three or four times while running at full speed – resembling a tall juggler on roller skates – before finally gathering in the elusive pigskin for a 47-yard gain.

There was a feeling, at least on the Huskies’ side of the sun-filled stadium, that this remarkably athletic catch would spur a comeback, much as David Tyree’s helmet catch did for the Giants in their Super Bowl upset over the Patriots.

Smith’s catch gave Connecticut a first down at the Michigan nine and led to UConn’s only TD of the game, a two-yard dive by Jordan Todman on a fourth-and-goal coming on a no-huddle surprise play that apparently caught the Wolverines defense napping, probably expecting Edsall to call a timeout to discuss the play call possibilities.

Dave Teggart hit a 32-yard field goal to open the scoring for UConn.

Todman gained 109 yards on 20 carries. Zach Frazer hit on 18 of 37 pass attempts for 205 yards.

On defense, linebacker Greg Lloyd Jr. – who nearly had to sit out the season due to an injury – led the team with 10 tackles while Dwayne Gratz, settling in nicely in the secondary, had nine.

“Effort doesn’t really mean anything, it’s all about winning [and] if we could have just done a better job on third down, we would have given ourselves a better opportunity,” Edsall said.

“There are a lot of things that we’ll take from this and work to get better, but like I said it’s just disappointing that we didn’t have a better performance than we did today,” he said. “We came out here to win and we didn’t.”

Next up, UConn hosts Texas Southern in the home opener at Rentschler Field this Saturday [Sept. 11] at noon.

Posted Sept. 6, 2010