We have a football team too... Guru's UConn Huskies (NCAA 14)

[whughes]

Since we're all reminiscing I'll just that add that I too went to a tiny school in the middle of nowhere (about 100 kids in 9-12) and we were also completely terrible as a school in all sports. With that being said I wouldn't trade my 4 years of high school for anything. Favorite memory by far is my entire senior football season, our varsity (we didn't have a jv team) hadn't won a game since I was a 7th grader. I was the only senior on the team that year and we went 3-6, it was a great feeling to be a part of rebuilding a program with a new coach. They made the playoffs for the first time in school history the next year right after I graduated and I can honestly say that I helped lay the foundation for them to be successful going forward.

Anyway, good luck against K-State. Like you said, you're more talented than them across the board so as long as your guys don't play sloppy you should have no problem coming out on top.

[itsbigmike]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesportsguru11

UConn Flashback: In 2018 in Manhattan, Kansas State (a 1-win team) gave UConn a scare. But nevertheless, UConn would pull out the W to keep their playoff hopes alive (albeit temporarily). Relive the game here. That's a good point business-wise.. I had forgotten about that. The extra exposure of being on a ESPN network mid-week ensures more people to watch than on a Saturday competing against Michigan/ND/MSU games... very good point. I'm personally going to a D-II school this fall so.. I just can't imagine Saturdays on campus without football.

For sure man, it makes sense business wise but nothing beats Saturday football for me. I'm much more of a college football fan than an NFL fan, so Saturdays are king, for me.

[thesportsguru11]

Some additional thread information/updates

Bowl name changes, Madden Simulated Universe, Pending updates for first page information

Good evening all!

Hoping to have the K-State game up within the next 24 hours. Until then, however, I just wanted to put some dynasty news updates into a post. Additionally, I want to say thank you to all of you for the fantastic discussion about our high school careers/sports memories of youth, a topic that is very meaningful to me thanks to a couple people and experiences in particular! It's really neat to read about all of your stories and see some of the parallels between them. I've replied to all of you down below.

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Bowl Name Changes

To run the playoff, I have a once-a-season (at least) encounter with the editor .. and each year I make a point to change a handful of things through it. One of them are corporate names of bowl games.

The main purpose to doing this is to keep with the times, so to say. Bowl names and games change every year, so I therefore find it interesting to do a few changes every year. As we go I hope to continue to move games to different locations to provide more geographical diversity and find more Fortune 500 companies, restaurants and lawn tool products that can sponsor some games.

For the 2020 season, you'll notice the renaming of a few games, allowing for the creation of the DuPont Baltimore Bowl, the Windy City Chicago Bowl presented by Boeing and the Southern Bowl, along with the traditional name and sponsor changes.

A full of list of changes is below, with the old bowl in the left column and the new bowl name or sponsor in the right column. There are other changes that have been done in past seasons (I've done two prior lists highlighting changes from past season), therefore you may not recognize the full list of bowl games. I'll happily cover any questions you may have.

And if you have any suggestions for neat places to take the bowl series to or sponsors for bowl games, please suggest them!

Following the table is a full bowl list with the tie-ins, copied directly from the editor. If they don’t make sense, it’s not my fault!

Old Name	New Name
TECO Energy Outback Bowl	Office Depot Outback Bowl
Quick Lane Bowl	General Motors Bowl of Detroit
Poinsettia Bowl San Diego	Dish Network San Diego Poinsettia Bowl
Olive Garden Citrus Bowl	Orlando's Citrus Bowl pres. by CSX Play it Safe
Fidelity Bowl	Fidelity Financial Bowl
ExxonMobil Dallas Bowl	DuPont Baltimore Bowl (M&T Bank Stadium)
Arby's Birmingham Bowl	Windy City Chicago Bowl pres. by Boeing (Soldier Field)
Time Warner Cable Bowl	Southern Bowl (Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, AL)
Rose Bowl pres. by Best Buy	Rose Bowl pres. by Farmers Insurance
VIZIO Fiesta Bowl	Microsoft Fiesta Bowl

Full Bowl Map for 2020 Season:

Sports Authority Bowl Denver: Denver, CO - Pac-12 #7 vs. Mountain West #5
Famous Idaho Potato: Boise, ID - Mountain West #6 vs. MAC #3
Dish Network San Diego Poinsettia Bowl: San Diego, CA - Mountain West #2 vs. BYU or at-large
Tropicana St. Petersburg: Tampa Bay, FL - American #5 vs. C-USA #5
CenturyLink New Orleans: New Orleans, LA - Sun Belt #1 vs. C-USA #4
Amazon Las Vegas: Las Vegas, NV - Mountain West #1 vs. Pac-12 #5
Sheraton Hawai'i: Honolulu, HI - Mountain West #3 (or Hawai'i) vs. C-USA #2
General Motors Bowl Detroit: Detroit, MI - MAC #2 vs. Big Ten #7
CitiBank Military (pres. by Northrop Grumman): Annapolis, MD - ACC #7 vs. MAC #4
Chevron Holiday: San Diego, CA - Pac-12 #3 vs. Big 12 #5
Bank Of America: Charlotte, NC - American #3 vs. ACC #4
Popeye’s Independence: Shreveport, LA - ACC #6 vs. SEC #9
Phillips 66 Bluebonnet Bowl: Houston, TX - Big 12 #6 vs. Big Ten #5
Target Bowl Minneapolis: Minneapolis, MN - Big Ten #2 vs. American #2
Armed Forces pres. by Cessna: Fort Worth, TX - Mountain West #4 vs. C-USA #3
Intel Santa Clara: Santa Clara, CA - Pac-12 #6 vs. ACC #8
Valero Alamo: San Antonio, TX - Pac-12 #2 vs. Big 12 #3
Buffalo Wild Wings Cactus: Tempe, AZ - Big Ten #4 vs. Big 12 #4
Franklin American Mortgage Music City: Nashville, TN - ACC #5 vs. SEC #7
Sysco Sun Bowl: El Paso, TX - ACC #3 vs. Pac-12 #4
AutoZone Liberty: Memphis, TN - C-USA #1 vs. SEC #8
DuPont Baltimore: Baltimore, MD - Big Ten #6 vs. C-USA #2
Office Depot Outback: Tampa Bay, FL - Big Ten #3 vs. SEC #3
Fidelity Financial: Jacksonville, FL - Big Ten #2 vs. SEC #6
Citrus pres. by CSX Play It Safe: - Orlando, FL - ACC #1 vs. SEC #2
Windy City Chicago Bowl pres. by Boeing: - Chicago, IL - SEC #10 vs. American #4
Southern Bowl: Mobile, AL - Sun Belt #2 vs. MAC #1

New Year's Six

Microsoft Fiesta: Phoenix, AZ - no set tie-in
Discover Orange: Miami, FL - no set tie-in
Goodyear Cotton: Dallas, TX - no set tie-in
Chick-Fil-A Peach: Atlanta, GA - no set tie-in

Rose pres. by Farmers Insurance (CFP SEMIFINAL): Pasadena, CA - CFP #1 vs. CFP #4
Allstate Sugar (CFP SEMIFINAL): New Orleans, LA - CFP #2 vs. CFP #3

College Football Playoff Championship (Meadowlands, NJ - MetLife Stadium): Winner Rose vs. Winner Fiesta

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Madden Simulated Universe-type thing

Inspired by an idea from Cheese’s EMU dynasty, I’m working on something that will tie into the dynasty universe a bit that I thought I’d discuss here. I’m planning on starting a Madden 25 franchise to be purely simmed and will incorporate our favorite players from the history of the UConn dynasty. The only problem I have is that I did not export draft classes for the first few seasons -- as far as I can tell. I have a set for last season but nothing prior.. Keep in mind I started the dynasty with the 2014 season so I’ll have to do some simming with the 2014 set to get the first five classes. Nevertheless, I’m hoping the results will be similar to what we actually saw in the dynasty.

My goal is to provide some periodic updates from the pros and allow some coaches to jump to the pro ranks if I so choose.. Longtime followers of the dynasty might remember all the rumors we had about Coach Diaco jumping to the NFL in the earlier seasons, and now if I ever actually make that storyline happen we can follow his exploits in the pros and draft some of his UConn guys to go with him.

Surely we'll check in on the current and past superstars and vexing figures from East Hartford.. Josh Marriner, Jamar Summers, Luke Williamson when/if he goes pro, Shav Wade when he leaves.. even TDL and David Hamilton now that's he destroying everyone at Old Dominion.. :/

We should get our first pro updates around the end of the 2020 season and we’ll go from there!

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Front Page Updates

The last thread update I have regards my never-ending task of updating the front page and reserved information. I’m going to be playing around with this a little more in the coming days, including creating a graphic for season recaps and the dynasty’s Hall of Fame. This could be especially handy for newer followers who weren’t around when I started this dynasty in December 2014.

Additionally, I’m planning on finally, once and for all, updating the table of contents which I lazily stopped doing in the middle of Season Four… Three seasons and two real-life years later, nothing’s changed!

I’ll make note in a future post when that goes live but I encourage you to check out the front page and the first post of the second page of this monster thread until then!

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And One Last Thank You

Lastly.. I truly appreciate the outpouring of support since I’ve restarted this project. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I’ve had a blast playing season seven and hopefully I can keep at this once school starts at the end of the month. Now that I’ve restarted, I sure as hell don’t want to stop again.

It means an awful lot to me to see the dynasty continue to grow and attract new followers and my friends from the good ole’ days.. especially after a year and a half of dormancy. You guys are the best and it means the world to me that I've made new friends through doing this. You all come to my little corner of the world and we've made something pretty awesome here.

Plus.. I’ve put way too many hours into this over the past few years, but it’s rewarding to have a new icebreaker.. Hey I have a blog-ish thing with 120,000 page views!

So yeah.. I’ll stop talking now. Thanks to all of you as always. Thanks for reading this boring and long post too! Hahah...

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Quote: Originally Posted by young22

Yeah man I used to stress about this ****, but it's really just hoop at the end of the day. Been playing so much better these past few months. My boy tore his ACL and the **** just gave me a whole new perspective, this time doesn't last. I'm about to be a junior, so these next couple years are hella important. I'm playing catch up tho, cause I only started playing last year. I have been blessed with decent height (6'1, probably grow a couple inches), and I'm pretty athletic. Not freakishly so, but more than most. I'm really just tryna see how far hoop can take me. Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app

Exactly! I never worried much about playing time because I knew how lucky I was to even be playing given my skillset and physical makeup. You hit it right on the nose. It’s fun to compete and be hungry to be the best but it is basketball and that’s all we should ever see it as!

Definitely stay hungry for those opportunities.. I’ve seen some guys have great junior years and parlay that into some college interest so I’m hoping the same happens for you. A teammate of mine is of a similar mold as you .. he’s a senior this year and hoping to get a chance at a small school next year.. Wishing you the best bud

Quote: Originally Posted by RoundingThird

I feel the same way about baseball. We were 2-18, but every game was a blast. All of us seniors had formed a really tight bond, and for two of us, including me, we knew that this would be the last time we'd ever play, no summer ball, no fall rec leagues, nothing. This was it. That made me truly cherish every game we played, even though I didn't play every game. Senior night in the cold rain was amazing. My last at bat, I was down 0-2, worked it full fouling off a bunch of pitches, then hit a shot to left, that just so happened to be caught, but it still ended up being a sac fly.

Darn!! That’s a tough way to go out without a hit, but the sac fly is still productive! That’s the way sports should be though.. Being a leader even when times get tough and enjoying the experience. Every role on the team is important! I bet you’ll miss baseball though when that season rolls around. Hopefully there will be some club sports at UConn that’ll pique your interest.

My basketball senior night was memorable too --- we had a new coach last year and he let our assistant coach and I do all the organizing of the senior festivities. The atmosphere was absolutely crazy. The girls team brought signs and a basketball shaped cake for the student section, my assistant coach and I set up spotlights in the gym and we announced the lineups with Enter Sandman playing in the background. Unfortunately we had to play the two-time (now three-time) defending state champs and we lost by 20 points.. But I went out and hit four three-pointers that night -- my first time scoring double digits on varsity. We went on a 20-0 run in the fourth quarter (I think there were six threes in total during that stretch) and the crowd was just crazy.. I have some pictures and memories from that night that I’ll treasure forever, no doubt.

Quote: Originally Posted by whughes

Since we're all reminiscing I'll just that add that I too went to a tiny school in the middle of nowhere (about 100 kids in 9-12) and we were also completely terrible as a school in all sports. With that being said I wouldn't trade my 4 years of high school for anything. Favorite memory by far is my entire senior football season, our varsity (we didn't have a jv team) hadn't won a game since I was a 7th grader. I was the only senior on the team that year and we went 3-6, it was a great feeling to be a part of rebuilding a program with a new coach. They made the playoffs for the first time in school history the next year right after I graduated and I can honestly say that I helped lay the foundation for them to be successful going forward. Anyway, good luck against K-State. Like you said, you're more talented than them across the board so as long as your guys don't play sloppy you should have no problem coming out on top.

Fascinating how much your story parallels mine. One of two seniors on my basketball team.. Tiny high school... We haven’t won a state title in 30 years and we won five games in the entire decade before the start of my senior year. Oddly similar to your story!

In any case that must be a really cool feeling to know .. hey I was a part of bringing this team back to relevancy! Seeing the team transform right in front of your very eyes is certainly rewarding. Thank you for sharing as well bud!

Quote: Originally Posted by itsbigmike

For sure man, it makes sense business wise but nothing beats Saturday football for me. I'm much more of a college football fan than an NFL fan, so Saturdays are king, for me.

I love my Pats but I totally agree that nothing quite beats Saturday

[beast10]

i hopped onto your idea of renaming bowls but couldn't get creative enough lol. i know for sure i'm going to add the Bahamas Bowl though (i think the blue/orange HS stadium resembles the real life venue).. look forward to seeing this and Madden side by side. that's something i wanted to do a while back but the simulation takes so long on that game.

and cool seeing you guys' basketball stories. thats great advice on never taking this game for granted. for me, i'm very thankful that my coaches helped me realize that before it was too late. i'm really looking forward to my final season, and hopefully to extend my playing days to the next level

[young22]

Preciate the well wishes bro. I'm really just tryna get on somewhere. All it takes is one offer, somewhere I can go and just get buckets, and I'm good. Just working every day.

Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app

[TheOtherPotterGuy]

Kansas St should be a win for you but as a Texas Tech fan, I know just how tough and annoyingly good those guys can be. Be careful. But hey! Shout out to my offensive coordinator at Texas State! That offense has been booming and we might go to a bowl! Whoop! Whoop!

[thesportsguru11]

Running the East

Williamson stars again as UConn pitches defensive gem to keep playoff hopes in full swing



Luke Williamson kept his Heisman candidacy in good standing with today's performance: 30 carries, 168 yards, 2 TD's.

Time and again throughout the Bob Diaco era at UConn, it’s been the defense that has helped clinch victory, save the team from certain doom. October 24, 2020, was just the latest example of the defense coming in clutch. Against 23rd ranked Kansas State in rowdy Manhattan, the defense was on point all game long en route to a 27-12 UConn victory. Despite allowing Wildcat tailback Patrick Dennis to gain 139 yards, the secondary turned in another great performance, holding impact QB Antoine Fordinal to just 16 of 34 passing with 138 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.

With UConn now sitting with an 8-1 record (4-1 in conference), the Huskies take a commanding two game lead in the Big 12 East with three games left to play and appear destined to return to Dallas for the Big 12 Title Game in December.

If today’s game was any indication, however, UConn still has some work to do. Isaac Jackson's highlight was a TD pass to Kevin Lacey at the end of the first quarter that opened up a UConn lead to 10-3. Despite that lead, I-Jax and the offense struggled for most of the game outside of star tailback Luke Williamson. Williamson continued his fantastic season with 168 yards and two touchdown runs on 30 carries.

In the second and third quarters, K-State outscored UConn 9-7 thanks to a field goal from Jamie Greene and a touchdown run from Houston Hammons (followed by a missed extra point). A lot of good defense was played during the stretch.

Both sides tallied INT’s --- big play middle linebacker Marcus Bradford for UConn and Phay’ton Trayle of Kansas State. Wildcat defenders Lorenzo Banks recorded 12 tackles and a sack, Aaron Newton had two sacks. Both sides forced turnovers on fumbles to prematurely end potential scoring drives, and both sides missed field goals as well. Much as UConn held Fordinal in check, K-State did the same for I-Jax. Conversely, the run games for both sides picked up yards all day, but neither seemed to be able to cash in near the goal line.

Both Jackson and Fordinal were under pressure all game long, victims of great defense on both sides.



The co-captain Marcus Bradford was part of the defensive gem, making yet another big play in the middle.

As a result, UConn had another tight game to contend with only being up 17-12.

Fortunately, UConn put their offensive struggles behind them on their first drive of the fourth quarter. Sort of. Wildcat punter Victor Kalataneta, an All-Big 12 selection last year, booted a good punt to the UConn 29 yard line after K-State went three and out from their own 20 yard line. Jeff McNeal had lots of space to field the punt and promptly brought the punt back to the Kansas State 43. Jackson hit Lacey for a 22 yard gain, and two carries from Williamson gave UConn a touchdown and a 24-12 lead.

Defensively, the Huskies continued to put the pedal to the floor with time ticking away. Forcing a 4th and short from the Wildcat 30, the Huskies were able to stuff Dennis shy of the first down marker to put the ball back into UConn’s hands. A short field goal from Tyler McCray on that drive made the game 27-12, but the game was not yet over.

Fordinal marched the Wildcats down the field with the necessary urgency for the game situation. He hit E.J. Fields for 8 yards, Dennis gained 9 on a couple run plays, then Baltic Cooper for 14 and 13, Graham Winston for 13 more. Inside the red zone now, Fordinal took a shot in the right hand corner of the end zone for Phallen Landrum. Unfortunately for Fordinal, the pass was forced with Shavlion Wade and redshirt freshman Victor Castalanetta in the area.

Despite this, Landrum had a hand on the ball. He was unable to haul it in though, and Castalanetta saw the ball fall right into his lap for the first INT of his career.

Phallen Landrum had a key touchdown go right through his hands .. and it ended up Victor Castalanetta's reward.

UConn would run out the clock with McNeal at tailback to close out their fourth straight win, a big one according to Coach Diaco.

Quote: Originally Posted by Coach Diaco

We’re in good shape in the division but complacency is not something I like to put up with. Keep grinding. I’m not too proud of our run defense and our offense but we made the plays when we needed to and we won. Trent [Miles - Kansas State coach] runs a tight ship and they gave us a good game.

UConn returns to the Property next week to take on Iowa State, who now sits at 3-5 and is 0-4 in Big 12 play. UConn won their last matchup in Ames last season.

Connecticut Huskies at Kansas State Wildcats
Oct 24, 2020	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#2 Connecticut Huskies (8-1, 4-1)	10	7	0	10	27
#23 Kansas State Wildcats (5-3, 1-3)	3	0	9	0	12

Team Stats Comparison
	CONN	KSU
Total Offense	403	312
Rushing Yards	218	174
Passing Yards	185	138
First Downs	20	15
Punt Return Yards	58	12
Kick Return Yards	0	14
Total Yards	461	338
Turnovers	2	3
3rd Down Conversion	4-12 (33%)	2-11 (18%)
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	5-3-2 (100%)	2-1-1 (100%)
Penalties	0-0	2-20
Possession Time	21:01	14:59

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KSU
5:22	(CONN) McCray 30 FG	3	0
2:25	(KSU) Greene 28 FG	3	3
:16	(CONN) Jackson 9 pass Lacey	10	3
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KSU
2:16	(CONN) Williamson 4 run (McCray kick)	17	3
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KSU
3:59	(KSU) Hammons 6 run (PAT no good)	17	9
1:02	(KSU) Greene 43 FG	17	12
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	KSU
7:25	(CONN) Williamson 6 run (McCray kick)	24	12
5:04	(CONN) McCray 31 FG	27	12

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Isaac Jackson 12-18 185 1 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Luke Williamson 30 168 5.5 2 Jeff McNeal 13 68 5.2 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Rashad Harris 5 90 18.0 0 Kevin Lacey 3 46 15.3 1 Alfred Hart 1 24 24.0 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD Ross Sinclair 8 0 0 0 Marcus Bradford 6 0 1 0 James Mandrell 5 (2) 0 0 0

Kansas State Wildcats PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Antoine Fordinal 16-34 138 0 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Patrick Dennis 23 139 6.0 0 Houston Hammons 3 5 1.6 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD E.J. Fields 6 48 8.0 0 Graham Winston 5 55 11.0 0 Baltic Cooper 3 31 10.3 0 DEFENSE TACK (TFL) SACK INT TD Lorenzo Banks 12 (1) 1 0 0 Marques Bass 9 (2) 0 0 0 Aaron Newton 5 (2) 2 0 0 Phay'ton Trayle 3 0 1 0

Patrick Dennis had a great game. Here he shoves off Sam Barnett violently.


Phay'ton Trayle picked off I-Jax.


Kevin Lacey's TD grab gave UConn an early lead.

Quote: Originally Posted by beast10

i hopped onto your idea of renaming bowls but couldn't get creative enough lol. i know for sure i'm going to add the Bahamas Bowl though (i think the blue/orange HS stadium resembles the real life venue).. look forward to seeing this and Madden side by side. that's something i wanted to do a while back but the simulation takes so long on that game. and cool seeing you guys' basketball stories. thats great advice on never taking this game for granted. for me, i'm very thankful that my coaches helped me realize that before it was too late. i'm really looking forward to my final season, and hopefully to extend my playing days to the next level

The Bahamas Bowl is actually a really good idea.. I'll have to keep that in mind. I don't have the full teambuilder/editor capabilities being on PS3 and seeing as how that hasn't been figured out yet. Anyways all I used for the bowl game name changes (primarily) was a Fortune 500 list. Hahah.. it doesn't take as much creativity as you might think.

Quote: Originally Posted by young22

Preciate the well wishes bro. I'm really just tryna get on somewhere. All it takes is one offer, somewhere I can go and just get buckets, and I'm good. Just working every day. Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app

You are most certainly welcome

Quote: Originally Posted by TheOtherPotterGuy

Kansas St should be a win for you but as a Texas Tech fan, I know just how tough and annoyingly good those guys can be. Be careful. But hey! Shout out to my offensive coordinator at Texas State! That offense has been booming and we might go to a bowl! Whoop! Whoop!

Texas State is coming off a couple C-USA title appearances.. the cupboard was left very stacked for you guys with a couple high rated recruits in RB Dotson and a TE named Sharriff.. along with QB Mock and the star wideout Julian you guys are doing really well out there. Hoping for a C-USA title push!

[young22]

Nice dub

Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app