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

[Yankeesfan224]

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

tough first lose look forward to seeing what you did against Boise State

[Gronk4M13]

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

Following, this is very well done.

[thesportsguru11]

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

Bucked

UConn rallies back, falls in triple OT on fumble 6

Dallas Burroughs with his eventual game winning TD grab.

If you'll excuse me, I need to clear up two things before I get fully into this recap. Go ahead, text your girlfriend or something, I'll be right with you.

- Jefferson Ashiru is the best football player ever. Ever.

- Chandler Whitmer, I apologize for my mockery of you last week. Now that you have asserted yourself as a serviceable QB, you may enter the cockles of my (and Bob Diaco's) heart for the best turnaround in one week in NCAA Football history.

OK, all good.

Basically, all was lost from the get-go.

No turnovers or anything like that, it was just the offense sucked. Deshon Foxx had a great return to open the game, but Tim Boyle (in for an injured Whitmer, he had the wind knocked out of him on the second play of the game), went 0-5 in his very short stint as UConn QB.

A few numbers to illustrate my point: 1 yard of offense through the first quarter, no first downs until right before half.

However, the defense (led by Ashiru, of course), were able to stop Grant Hedrick and Jay Ajayi (for the most part) after the Broncos got up 14-0 after 1 quarter.

But after the terrible stats and Whitmer coming back in the game, UConn figured it out. Whitmer hit Geremy Davis for a big gain to get inside the 10 before hitting Sean McQuillan 2 plays later for a score.

14-7 at half. After Boise's Jack Fields ran in a score, Whitmer responded by running in a TD of his own with 4 minutes to go and brought our Huskies within 7.

Jay Ajayi, who had 83 yards and 2 scores, was one of 4 Boise rushers who saw snaps vs. UConn.

However, after stymieing Boise's offense most of the day, Hedrick found life. Ajayi had a few big runs and Hedrick directed Boise into the 10 yard line with 3 minutes to go. Seeing daggers, Hedrick looked for Shane Williams-Rhodes. Instead, he found.. who else.... Ashiru. Hedrick would throw 3 picks in the game, but that was clearly the biggest.

Max DeLorenzo (who would leave the game later; he'll be back next week) rewarded his offense by running in a short TD, and suddenly UConn tied the game at 21 with 1:45 remaining.

Needless to say, Boise didn't mess around. Because exactly 18 seconds after DeLorenzo's score Hedrick hit Dallas Burroughs for a miraculous 75 yard score where he spun past Byron Jones and ran into the end zone. 28-21 Boise.

Whitmer didn't flinch. He hit Foxx for a diving 21 yard gain, then Davis for another long completion that brought UConn 30 yards from overtime.

With 45 seconds and 3 timeouts, UConn took their time. Josh Marriner ran twice to get inside the 6, and Whitmer hit Foxx for a 6 yard TD.

Overtime here we come.

In the first OT, both teams matched field goals. Second OT, Whitmer hit McQuillan for a 20 yard score, and Boise responded with a 9 yard Jay Ajayi scamper. Tied at 38, we headed to a 3rd OT period.

Boise got ball first, and Hedrick hit Matt Miller, held quiet by Jones most of the game, for the go-ahead score. Miller also got the conversion. UConn's flawless D through regulation had faded away.

With the Broncs up 8, UConn needed a score and conversion to stay alive. It didn't last long, as Whitmer was sacked by Tanner Vallejo, and Jeremy Ioane ran it back to give Boise the 52-38 victory in triple OT.

That's going to sting. We had them on the ropes, we came back twice, we were close. At least we have our position battles finalized, and we can go into Army in 2 weeks with confidence.

As Coach mentioned, UConn has a bye before playing Army in Yankee Stadium Week 4.

In closing, Chandler, I do apologize.

Jefferson Ashiru's stat line: 16 tackles (5 TFL), sack, INT (DAMN!)

#AshiruforButkus #AshiruforNagurski #AshiruforBednarik

Graham Stewart is underrated.

See ya in 2 weeks.

Sean McQuillan with the first score in double OT.

Boise State Broncos at Connecticut Huskies
Sep 6, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	OT	SCORE
Boise State Broncos (1-1)	14	0	7	7	24	52
Connecticut Huskies (0-2)	0	7	0	21	10	38

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		BSU	CONN
5:00	(BSU) Ajayi 3 run (Goodale kick)	7	0
1:25	(BSU) Demas 8 run (Goodale kick)	14	0
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		BSU	CONN
:41	(CONN) Whitmer 10 pass McQuillan (Puyol kick)	14	7
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		BSU	CONN
:59	(BSU) Fields 16 run (Goodale kick)	21	7
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		BSU	CONN
4:04	(CONN) Whitmer 7 run (Puyol kick)	21	14
1:42	(CONN) DeLorenzo 2 run (Puyol kick)	21	21
1:24	(BSU) Hedrick 22 pass Burroughs (Goodale kick)	28	21
:14	(CONN) Whitmer 6 pass Foxx (Puyol kick)	28	28
OVERTIME SCORING		BSU	CONN
	(BSU) Goodale 38 kick	31	28
	(CONN) Puyol 19 kick	31	31
	(CONN) Whitmer 20 pass McQuillan (Puyol kick)	31	38
	(BSU) Ajayi 9 run (Goodale kick)	38	38
	(BSU) Hedrick 5 pass Miller (Converison good)	46	38
	(BSU) Ioane 75 fumble recovery	52	38

Boise State Broncos PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Grant Hedrick 28-36 422 2 3 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Jay Ajayi 17 83 4.8 2 Grant Hedrick 16 93 5.8 0 Devan Demas 8 64 8.0 1 Jack Fields 2 19 9.5 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Matt Miller 6 70 11.6 1 Dallas Burroughs 5 151 30.2 1 Shane Williams-Rhodes 3 35 11.6 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Tanner Vallejo 9 2 0 0 Jeremy Ioane 8 0 0 1 Cleshawn Page 4 0 1 0

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Chandler Whitmer 20-34 326 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Josh Marriner 16 26 1.6 0 Chandler Whitmer 7 9 1.2 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Thomas Lucas 5 85 17.0 0 Sean McQuillan 5 53 10.6 2 Geremy Davis 4 114 28.5 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Jefferson Ashiru 16 1 1 0 Graham Stewart 9 0 1 0 Byron Jones 8 0 0 0

tough first lose look forward to seeing what you did against Boise State

Well you're about to find out.

Following, this is very well done.

Thanks, Gronk!

[RoundingThird]

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

Glad to know you are enjoying the services of Ashiru.

I had tickets to this game but I sold them for a really, really good price after I found out I had a baseball tournament game.

[thesportsguru11]

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

NCAA Players of the Week

Glad to know you are enjoying the services of Ashiru.

I had tickets to this game but I sold them for a really, really good price after I found out I had a baseball tournament game.

Ashiru I believe is leading the NCAA in tackles with 25 right now. Just think, if he keeps at this pace he could end the season with 150 tackles, maybe 160 if we make a bowl. And that still wouldn't be a school record. Guy's a stud!

Like yankeesfan said earlier in the thread, it would've been painful had you not had this baseball tournament. I used to be good at baseball, but I hit my prime in 3rd grade, got really bad and stopped playing 3 years later. So Congratulations!!!

Happy New Year to Everyone!!!

[Gronk4M13]

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

Tough OT loss, good luck in game 3.

[thesportsguru11]

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

NCAA Players of the Week

American Athletic Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 14, 2014
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Houston	2-1		1-0
UCF	3-0		0-0
ECU	3-0		0-0
USF	2-1		0-0
Cincinnati	2-1		0-0
Tulsa	1-2		0-0
SMU	1-1		0-0
Tulane	0-1		0-0
Memphis	0-1		0-0
UConn	0-2		0-0
Temple	2-1		0-1

Tough OT loss, good luck in game 3.

Thanks, Gronk. Neutral site game vs. Army.. In the past I haven't done well against the option, but I played in one in my Mass State dynasty... we'll see how it goes.

[thesportsguru11]

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





GAMEDAY! (Yankee Stadium Edition)

Goody. A trip to the Bronx. Beautiful. Looks like I'm staying home for this game.

Anywho, a very winnable game for our Huskies vs. the surprising Army Black Knights coming off a bye in Week 3.

Army has slightly overachieved this year, jumping out to a quick 2-0 start in their option attack.

This option is led by junior QB Angel Santiago, who has 400 yards on the ground through 2 games. Even if Santiago struggles, he has 5 more than capable running backs and fullbacks. Terry Baggett is the top tailback, and Raymond Maples and Tony Giovanelli both get carries and are equally talented. Fullbacks Larry Dixon and Matt Giachinta are powerful blockers and equally good runners. All 5 have combined for over 3,000 yards on the ground in their careers, and because of them Army has arguably a top 10 group of running backs in the entire country.

The Black Knights don't often throw the ball, but they have two exciting receivers in Xavier Moss and Chevaughn Lawrence.

UConn hasn't faced an option yet this season, but they have seen scrambling QB's. Given two weeks to prepare for the game, I'd figure UConn could have a decent chance to learn potential reads and gameplan for it. I'm predicting Jefferson Ashiru, who had 16 tackles, a sack and an INT last week, to have another good game stopping the run.

On defense, the Black Knights have a solid unit led by sophomores Jeremy Timpf (linebacker) and Josh Jenkins (corner). Those two are the stars, but have a good supporting cast in corner Chris Carnegie, and safeties Hayden Pierce and Geoffrey Bacon.

However, the line is weak, and guys like Max DeLorenzo could be playing well. I'd expect a little regression from Chandler Whitmer after his sensational performance last week, but I still think he can play well.


Prediction: UConn 24, Army 21

UConn can and should pull this out. They need a win to keep their bowl hopes at a reasonable state. The big X factor is stopping the option. Do that, UConn can run away with it. Struggle, it could be different.

[thesportsguru11]

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

Ran over

Santiago headlines Army rush attack with 188 yards in blowout win

Upon reflection of this game, I keep thinking back to a quote from MLB The Show anchor Matt Vasgersian, in which he famously said "You can't win if you can't score." This works inversely as well. If you can't play defense, you can't win, no matter how bad the offense is. Story of the game right here.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Army came out and completely obliterated UConn, to the surprise of many, including UConn.

Everything went wrong for the Huskies, who perhaps looked unprepared to face the option. They gave up 188 rushing yards to Army QB Angel Santiago, and the defense just looked lost all day.

The best example of this came right before the half, when Santiago and Army were marching downfield after a punt from UConn. With no timeouts and 11 seconds to go, Santiago scrambled and was tackled for no gain at the 19 yard line. The Knights went no huddle and Santiago heaved to the end zone.

Despite being in a deep zone that should have been well-equipped to stop this, only one guy was in the remote area of the ball's location, corner Jhavon Williams, who was picked on all day. Williams tipped it, and stopped, thinking the ball had gone out of bounds. Instead, Xavier Moss came down with it and put Army up 21-0 at the half.

Though UConn held Army through most of the first half (allowed 7 points on a Hayden Pierce pick 6, we'll touch on that shortly), from then on out they couldn't cover the option, especially Santiago. When they focused on him, Santiago was able to hand off to Terry Baggett (6 carries, 57 yards), Tony Giovanelli (3 carries, 53 yards, 44 yard run in first quarter) or fullback Larry Dixon (5 carries, 39 yards) and gain optimal results.

The Black Knights' top 10 rushing numbers only increased, gaining well over 330 yards on the ground.

Now that we have analyzed the defense, let's look at the anemic offensive performance.

Chandler Whitmer, deservedly earning apologies from the UConn media and fans after his incredible performance vs. Boise State last week, lost all that and more after his second at least 4-INT outing in 3 weeks and subsequent benching in favor of Tim Boyle in the 3rd quarter.

Whitmer, who was protected not very well by a patchwork offensive line, made poor decisions, not so much throws, and it is believed Boyle will start going forward after a good performance out of him despite 2 INT's which were both tipped.

The only productive offensive player of the day was Max DeLorenzo, who despite playing for the aforementioned patchwork O-Line, managed to pick up 74 yards on 15 carries.

Again, the Army defense dominated, being in the right place at the right times, and making a total of 6 INT's and two fumbles (8 Turnovers!!). There was just no production out of anyone and it showed.

I'll try my best to put this on the backburner. Stony Brook next. If we don't win this one....

Army Black Knights at Connecticut Huskies
Sep 20, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Army Black Knights (3-0)	14	7	7	7	35
Connecticut Huskies (0-3)	0	0	0	7	7

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		ARMY	CONN
4:13	(ARMY) Pierce 41 INT Return (Grochowski kick)	7	0
1:32	(ARMY) Schurr 2 run (Grochowski kick)	14	0
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		ARMY	CONN
:00	(ARMY) Santiago 19 pass Moss (Grochowski kick)	21	0
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		ARMY	CONN
4:15	(ARMY) Santiago 88 run (Grochowski kick)	28	0
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		ARMY	CONN
6:54	(ARMY) Baggett 5 run (Grochowski kick)	35	0
1:01	(CONN) Marriner 2 run (Puyol kick)	35	7

Army Black Knights PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Angel Santiago 5-7 107 1 1 A.J. Schurr 2-4 32 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Angel Santiago 17 190 11.1 1 Terry Baggett 6 57 9.5 1 Larry Dixon 5 39 7.8 0 Tony Giovanelli 3 53 17.6 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Xavier Moss 3 70 23.3 1 Edgar Poe 2 37 18.5 0 Chevaughn Lawrence 1 27 27.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Jeremy Timpf 10 0 0 0 Tevin Long 4 0 2 0 Chris Carnegie 4 0 2 0

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Chandler Whitmer 12-27 106 0 4 Tim Boyle 8-12 80 0 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Max DeLorenzo 15 74 4.9 0 Josh Marriner 5 25 5.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Deshon Foxx 5 49 9.8 0 Kamal Abrams 4 26 6.5 0 Geremy Davis 3 33 11.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Graham Stewart 8 0 0 0 Jefferson Ashiru 7 0 0 0 Junior Joseph 6 1 0 0

(Left) Jhavon Williams was picked on by Xavier Moss most of the day, but he did lay a big hit on him here. (Right) Terry Baggett on his TD scamper.

[AlphaSlash]

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

Been a rough start but expected though hope the team can pick it up

[beekay415]

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

enjoying the series, keep it up!

[thesportsguru11]

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

Been a rough start but expected though hope the team can pick it up

Yeah, with a young, not very good team, I wasn't expecting us to shatter expectations this year. Our non-conference schedule (exception being Stony Brook) is a little tough, especially with Army out to a good start. Luckily we play the weaker teams in AAC play (Tulsa, SMU, Tulane) then a bunch of middle of the road teams (Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, ECU). I think 3-4 conference wins is reasonable, I think we can beat all of the weaker teams. Hopefully once Bryant Shirreffs becomes eligible next year we can have a QB who can throw a football haha.

Thanks for checking in.

enjoying the series, keep it up!

Thanks beekay! Glad you are enjoying this!

[Gronk4M13]

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

0-3 start hurts, hopefully your Huskies will find their footing.

[thesportsguru11]

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

NCAA Players of the Week

2014 American Athletic Conference Standings - Updated: Sep 21, 2014
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
Houston	3-1		1-0
Tulsa	2-2		1-0
UCF	3-0		0-0
East Carolina	3-0		0-0
Cincinnati	3-1		0-0
Temple	2-1		0-1
USF	2-1		0-0
SMU	1-2		0-1
UConn	0-3		0-0
Tulane	0-1		0-0
Memphis	0-2		0-0

0-3 start hurts, hopefully your Huskies will find their footing.

As I said a few posts up, Army being good (they are 4-1 through 6 weeks) really hurt us. I felt we needed that win to have a chance at a bowl, but with the L that kind of deflates us. Presuming we can win vs. Stony Brook after another bye in week 5, hopefully we can take some momentum into AAC play.

[LopaKa]

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

this is awesome so far! Great work sportsguru. It's definitely been a rough start to the year, but the season isn't over yet. Just gotta put together some wins, and hopefully become bowl eligible! I love the layout bro, keep up the awesome work.