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

[thesportsguru11]

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

Boyle: "I'm playing vs. SMU"

UConn fans are breathing a collective sigh of relief today, as quarterback Tim Boyle announced his intentions to play in Saturday's game vs. SMU, insisting his broken right hand is well enough to play.

Boyle, who assumed the starting QB role in Week 4, has led UConn to a 2-2 record, including an OT loss to UCF, since taking over for senior Chandler Whitmer.

"I'm ready. We're in a chase to get to a bowl game. The team needs me."

Boyle has been at practice the past week despite his broken hand, and Coach Diaco mentioned that Boyle has been working to get back to full speed in preparation for the SMU game.

"Tim has clearly injected the offense with some energy, and they have been playing well lately. It's nice to have him back."

[thesportsguru11]

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

[thesportsguru11]

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

Rally Capped

UConn wins on walk-off Puyol field goal..again



Bobby Puyol looks on as his second game winning field goal in as many weeks sails through the uprights.

Um..I don't know how this has happened. Are we really better than 90% of the AAC?

I guess so. Bobby Puyol, you deserve a big hug good sir.

With that, let's hit the recap button.

UConn came in to a very winnable game against SMU, knowing all too well that they could pull within 1 game of .500 with a win. A loss means UConn would have to win all 3 of their remaining games.

And for a while, the second scenario seemed more likely. SMU got ahead 20-3 with 2 minutes in the half, exploiting UConn's suddenly horrendous secondary play as of late. Kevin Pope, who was playing linebacker at this time in 2013, nearly put the game out of reach with his 19 yard TD off a draw play.

Luckily, Max DeLorenzo got a TD on the board to cut the halftime deficit to 20-10. However, that didn't nearly tell the story of the first half. Tim Boyle, in his first game back from injury, wasn't performing great, coupled with the poor start defensively. It seemed UConn had bitten off more they could chew.

Perhaps getting lucky, UConn lost Jefferson Ashiru (pulled muscle) for the rest of the game (he'll be back next week), and with no clear backup, Diaco made a bit of a gutsy call. Knowing SMU would continue to pass as they had done with great success early, he brought out an extra corner in John Green and moved linebacker Marquise Vann to play in a nickelback spot and ran with a quarter defense.

Bob Diaco, you are a genius.

June Jones and Neal Burcham looked confused from there out, having a tough time getting anything done on offense, a pattern that would continue for the rest of the game.

Alas, UConn only managed a field goal in the 3rd, and went into the 4th trailing 20-13.

With Boyle struggling somewhat to score, UConn took their time, feeding off the incredible momentum shift on defense. Ticking off about 4 minutes in the 4th and converting a pair of 4th downs to keep the drive moving, Josh Marriner tied up the game at 20 with 2:42 remaining.

SMU did still have time, and the defense needed to come up with a stop. Luckily, Darius Joseph and Der'rikk Thompson, who both had good days receiving, dropped passes on 2nd and 3rd down, respectively that forced the Mustangs into a punt from their own 20 yard line.

Der'rikk Thompson had a good game, but also a key drop that led to UConn's winning field goal.

With the ball at the 50 and only 45 ticks on the clock, a field goal would likely have to do if UConn wanted to win the game. Forced into a 3rd and 3, Boyle and Diaco agreed to go long and try to fool the SMU D.

Did that ever work.

Boyle hit Geremy Davis, who was brought down by Jonathan Yenga, the only man between Davis and paydirt.

Down to 25 seconds, UConn went into conservation mode and ran 3 times with DeLorenzo, burning all 3 timeouts and setting up the potential winner from 27 yards out and 3 seconds left.

Feel free to sigh with confidence, there is no drama. We got this.

Bobby Puyol is a hero. Of course he'd nail the kick. Dead center in fact. UConn is victorious ONCE AGAIN! At 4-5, UConn has nailed this improbable comeback thing a few times now.

An interesting question will be how Diaco runs his defense against another pass heavy attack in Houston next week. Does he run quarter again? Does he find a place for Ashiru and Vann elsewhere? Are they left out to dry?

We'll see.

But hey, we're 4-5. I wouldn't worry. At least yet.

See ya next week.

Connecticut Huskies at Southern Methodist Mustangs
Nov 15, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Connecticut Huskies (4-5)	0	10	3	10	23
Southern Methodist Mustangs (4-5)	13	7	0	0	20

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SMU
5:43	(SMU) Burcham 16 pass Thompson (Rademacher kick)	0	7
3:18	(SMU) Rademacher 19 FG	0	10
0:31	(SMU) Rademacher 24 FG	0	13
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SMU
4:43	(CONN) Puyol 26 FG	3	13
2:58	(SMU) Pope 18 run (Rademacher kick)	3	20
:06	(CONN) DeLorenzo 1 run (Puyol kick)	10	20
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SMU
4:28	(CONN) Puyol 21 FG	13	20
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SMU
2:42	(CONN) Marriner 1 run (Puyol kick)	20	20
:00	(CONN) Puyol 27 FG	23	20

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tim Boyle 16-24 292 0 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Max DeLorenzo 19 64 3.3 1 Josh Marriner 8 21 2.6 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Geremy Davis 6 147 24.5 0 Kamal Abrams 5 78 15.6 0 Thomas Lucas 2 36 18.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Graham Stewart 7 0 0 0 Kenton Adeyemi 4 3 0 0 Marquise Vann 3 0 0 0

Southern Methodist Mustangs PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Neal Burcham 16-28 226 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Neal Burcham 9 -2 -0.2 0 Kevin Pope 3 29 9.6 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Darius Joseph 5 96 19.2 0 Der'rikk Thompson 4 68 17.0 1 Kevin Pope 3 31 10.3 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Robert Seals 8 2 0 0 Jonathan Yenga 8 0 0 0 Nick Horton 7 1 0 0

[RoundingThird]

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

Now we're going places!!! #PuyolForGroza

[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: Nov 16, 2014
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
UCF	8-1		5-0
Houston	6-3		4-1
UConn	4-5		3-2
Cincinnati	6-3		3-2
Memphis	5-4		3-2
SMU	4-5		2-3
Tulane	5-4		2-3
USF	4-5		2-3
Tulsa	4-8		3-5
ECU	4-5		1-4
Temple	4-5		1-4

Now we're going places!!! #PuyolForGroza

Yeah. A little too close, but still. A win's a win at this stage. Hopefully I can knock out a win over Houston next week, I just need to employ a similar approach in comparison to the SMU game and we could pick up win #5....

It's nice being so high in the AAC standings with teams 4-11 beating up on each other. We aren't going to win the conference title this year (with the loss to UCF, if we had won that game and we won out we would have gotten it by virtue of tiebreaker), but we could be as high as #2 in reality. In line for a solid bowl berth if that holds true.

[RoundingThird]

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

Looking forward to the end of the season. I can't remember UConn in a bowl game. I recall the Fiesta Bowl, but it was so lopsided. The year before that, they beat South Carolina in a bowl.

I would suspect that you are also going to be snowed in this week, even though we're getting the worst of it in CT tomorrow through Wednesday. Early dismissal tomorrow, no school Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday. That means that I should get some Browns work done, as I have a generator to serve us if the blizzard knocks out power.

[thesportsguru11]

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

Looking forward to the end of the season. I can't remember UConn in a bowl game. I recall the Fiesta Bowl, but it was so lopsided. The year before that, they beat South Carolina in a bowl.

I would suspect that you are also going to be snowed in this week, even though we're getting the worst of it in CT tomorrow through Wednesday. Early dismissal tomorrow, no school Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday. That means that I should get some Browns work done, as I have a generator to serve us if the blizzard knocks out power.

I remember watching that Fiesta Bowl too haha. I went to bed early, you could say.

Looks like school is open today, likely to be off tomorrow, and we could be back Wednesday. Not sure how much we are slated to get right now.

Our school is known to be tough when it comes to school cancellations, I remember one time every other school in the state was closed except for the 4-5 schools in our district, we ended up having a half-day, but still. So who knows.

[thesportsguru11]

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

@ Po1soNNN:

School has already been called off for tomorrow for me. Haha. So much for being stubborn with this sort of deal.

However, because of my ridiculously god-awful luck, photobucket is down, meaning I can't access my pics from the Houston game.

I'm praying it's just maintenance and that it's temporary, but we'll see.

[thesportsguru11]

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





Couple interesting stats to note:

Geremy Davis topped 1000 yards last week. He has 37 catches coming into this game.

UConn has a top 15 scoring offense, but is 126th in scoring defense. Exactly the opposite of how I thought it would go at the start of the year.

[thesportsguru11]

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

Nickel for your thoughts?

UConn wins 4th out of 5 thanks to tenacious nickel defense, one win away...



Geremy Davis hauls in the winning TD for UConn. He has already topped 1000 yards this year and is second in the nation in that category.

UCF, we're expecting a check in the mail. You're welcome.

With UConn holding on to top Houston, UCF, barring a 2011 Red Sox/Braves proportion collapse, has just about locked up their second straight Big East...er... American Athletic Conference... yeah.... championship.

UConn continued to look hungry, gutting out several key plays and playing even with arguably the second best team in the American. That is, second best until today. 5-5 baby. One more win....

Houston was without a doubt going to be the toughest team left on UConn's schedule this year. With an incredibly talented front 7 and a great offense, UConn appeared to have bitten off more than they could chew at points in the game. But, as they had done so many times during this hot streak, they gutted out tough points and found a way to win.

The first example of this was very early on, as John O'Korn fired a TD to Daniel Spencer to get up 7-0 on the first possession of the game. It was moments later when Trevon Stewart snatched a Tim Boyle pass and brought it back to the UConn 30, leaving Houston with a great chance to pad the lead early.

The resilient defense, testing out Coach Diaco's new nickel defense formations, returned the favor by blasting O'Korn on an attempted option.

Even better, the ball popped free. A Houston linemen couldn't scoop it up. Neither could Jamar Summers. However, big lineman Kenton Adeyemi did. That same Houston lineman dove and missed Adeyemi, and the big man rumbled untouched 71 yards to the house to tie the game.

Check? (Not yet Mate?)

The almighty Bobby Puyol tacked on a field goal midway through the second quarter (and I believe remained perfect on the year on field goal tries, I need to check that), giving UConn their first lead 10-7.

Markeith Ambles and Kamal Abrams traded TD's to cap off the second quarter, Abrams' coming right before half to put UConn up 17-14 to finish off a quick minute long drive, another sign of the new, gutty Huskies.

Into the second half.....

Though UConn's nickel package was playing well, they couldn't stop Ambles from getting another TD, giving Houston a 21-17 lead. UConn almost answered, but Boyle overthrew Abrams on a 4th down 25 yards shy of paydirt and 3 from the chains, bringing us into the 4th quarter, which is where we got exciting.

UConn and Houston both punted on their first drives, and UConn would take over from their own 25 with 5 minutes remaining. With Max DeLorenzo and Josh Marriner chewing out huge chunks of yardage, Boyle kept the offense moving, converting on key downs, including an incredible 3rd and 8 to Geremy Davis, leaping over 2 Cougar corners and getting nailed while making the catch.

Inside the 10, Boyle saw Davis open over the middle, but made a crucial mistake and lobbed the pass, likely forced seeing pressure from Joey Mbu, who was all over the ball all day, and the lame duck pass was picked off by Lee Hightower, a one-time Boise State Bronco. UConn may have thrown their best chance down the drain.

Defense to the rescue.

Oh yeah.

O'Korn's ensuing 3rd down pass to Ambles was picked off by John Green, one of the younger corners getting time due to the package change.

Boom. Redeemed.

Thomas Lucas, who continues to emerge as a potential #1 wideout this year, made a pair of catches to put UConn inside the 5, and from there, Boyle hit Davis to give UConn the 24-21 upper hand. With only 2 minutes left, Houston likely had one chance, or two if they held UConn.

O'Korn, who had significantly cooled off in the 2nd-4th quarters (started 10-11, ended up 30-49 on the day), couldn't complete a pass and went 3 and out.

UConn needed only 2 first downs to lock up the game, and did exactly that, locking up their 4th win in conference.

Hey, one win away. I don't want to jinx anything..

but...

we have East Carolina next week. They are really doing poorly...

We'll see ya then. I'm going to sit on that thought for a while.

Connecticut Huskies at Houston Cougars
Nov 22, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Connecticut Huskies (5-5)	7	10	0	7	24
Houston Cougars (6-4)	7	7	7	0	21

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
3:53	(HOU) O'Korn 1 pass Spencer (Bullard kick)	7	0
2:35	(CONN) Adeyemi 71 fumble return (Puyol kick)	7	7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
3:47	(CONN) Puyol 17 FG	10	7
2:31	(HOU) O'Korn 11 pass Ambles (Bullard kick)	10	14
:07	(CONN) Boyle 10 pass Abrams (Puyol kick)	17	14
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
4:23	(HOU) O'Korn 4 pass Ambles (Bullard kick)	17	21
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	HOU
2:52	(CONN) Boyle 3 pass Davis (Puyol kick)	24	21

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tim Boyle 24-37 256 2 3 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Max DeLorenzo 16 63 3.9 0 Josh Marriner 10 45 4.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Thomas Lucas 8 106 13.2 0 Geremy Davis 6 58 9.6 1 Deshon Foxx 5 54 10.8 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Graham Stewart 4 0 0 0 Kenton Adeyemi 4 1 0 1 John Green 4 0 1 0

Houston Cougars PASSING C/A YDS TD INT John O'Korn 30-49 295 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Kenneth Farrow 5 14 2.8 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Demarcus Ayers 9 105 11.6 0 Markeith Ambles 7 69 9.8 2 Daniel Spencer 4 36 9.0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Adrian McDonald 9 0 0 0 Derrick Mathews 8 0 0 0 Trevon Stewart 6 0 2 0

Markeith Ambles had a pair of TD grabs.



Really nice shot here. Jhavon Williams can't hang on to this INT.

[RoundingThird]

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

Squaaaaaad!!!


5-5 baby! #OneMoreWin

[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: Nov 23, 2014
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	PF	PA	STRK
UCF	8-2		5-1
UConn	5-5		4-2
Cincinnati	7-3		4-2
Houston	6-4		4-2
Memphis	6-4		4-2
SMU	5-5		3-3
Tulsa	4-8		3-5
Tulane	5-5		2-4
USF	4-6		2-4
ECU	5-5		2-4
Temple	4-6		1-5

Squaaaaaad!!!


5-5 baby! #OneMoreWin

Haha. It's amazing that we have managed this comeback. I'd have figured we were done after losing to Tulsa and falling to 1-4. Boyle has really rallied the offense, and the defense has done just enough. I'm really excited for next year already...

And a

Spoiler

The AAC race gets a lot weirder next week.. we could easily have 9-10 bowl eligible teams in-conference

[thesportsguru11]

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

[thesportsguru11]

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

Joyeux Noel

Thomas' TD, missed ECU field goals give UConn bowl eligibility

Noel Thomas dives in for the winning score.

This is going to be a really bad write-up, I played this game a few days ago and quite frankly forgot most of it. Haha. Sorry about that.

Noel Thomas, thank you. Warren Harvey, thank you.

UConn, we're going bowling...... we hope.

It took an improbable comeback, but we're going bowling.

It didn't look promising for most of the game, however.

ECU had several chances to get up early, as Warren Harvey missed 3 field goals in the first 3 quarters (and another at the end of the game). With the poor play of UConn's offense, who struggled for most of the game to get points, this would turn out to be very important.

ECU had a 14-3 lead at the half, as Shane Carden hooked up with Justin Hardy and Trevon Brown for their scores. But the margin could have been more if not for Harvey's misses.

As seen several times this season, UConn started their comeback in the second half, turning around the offense considerably and gaining momentum.

They had several chances to get back into the game early in the 3rd, but the offense really floundered at points. Dropped 3rd down passes, punts, an INT, just to name a few. Luckily, ECU fell under the same fate.

Tim Boyle struck first in the second half, hitting Thomas Lucas for a TD to pull within 4, then went up with 3:49 in the 4th on a Max DeLorenzo 1 yard TD burst.

Thomas Lucas on his TD score.

ECU obviously had 3:40 to try to score again, but they went 3 and out as Hardy was stopped short on a 3rd and 2.

UConn got the ball back, and quickly drove downfield. Closing in on paydirt, Boyle threw a pick to Brandon Williams. Williams, getting a block along the way, returned the INT back to the 50, and ECU was in business.

Carden completed a 10 yard pass to Hardy, then a few plays later hit Brown again for a 6 yard TD. ECU with the 21-17 lead with a buck 9 left.

To save the season potentially, Boyle responded by......


...getting sacked for a 10 yard loss on the first play of the drive. Thank you, K'Hadree Hooker.

Stuck on a 3rd and 20, Boyle went to his favorite play, pitch and catch in single coverage with Geremy Davis. 60 yards later, UConn was 30 yards away from the lead.

2 plays later, Noel Thomas caught a short pass up the middle, split a defender and dove into the end zone. UCONN LEAD!

But with 17 seconds, ECU wasn't done yet. In single coverage, Cam Worthy gained 40 yards, Brown tacked on 8 more and ECU had a chance to tie with a 50 yard field goal from Harvey.

The snap and hold were good, but Harvey pushed it wide left. UCONN WINS!!!!

The turnaround is complete, folks. Just think that 8 weeks ago, UConn was 1-3, and nearly 0-4. 6-5? Ha...

It was revealed after the game that UCF lost to South Florida, meaning we have 4 teams tied for the lead in-conference. The title will be settled next week, we'll see you then.

Again, my apologies for the somewhat bad write-up this time around. Eh...

East Carolina Pirates at Connecticut Huskies
Nov 29, 2014	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
East Carolina Pirates (5-6)	7	7	0	7	21
Connecticut Huskies (6-5)	3	0	7	14	24

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		ECU	CONN
5:23	(CONN) Puyol 38 FG	0	3
4:47	(ECU) Carden 29 pass Hardy (Harvey kick)	7	3
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		ECU	CONN
4:10	(ECU) Carden 33 pass Brown (Harvey kick)	14	3
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		ECU	CONN
:46	(CONN) Boyle 31 pass Lucas (Puyol kick)	14	10
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		ECU	CONN
3:49	(CONN) DeLorenzo 1 run (Puyol kick)	14	17
1:09	(ECU) Carden 6 pass Brown (Harvey kick)	21	17
:17	(CONN) Boyle 19 pass Thomas (Puyol kick)	21	24

East Carolina Pirates PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Shane Carden 28-37 365 3 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Breon Allen 9 39 4.3 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Isaiah Jones 7 82 11.7 0 Trevon Brown 5 65 13.0 2 Justin Hardy 4 112 28.0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Detric Allen 10 0 0 0 Lamar Ivey 7 0 0 0 Maurice Falls 4 1 0 0

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Tim Boyle 23-39 340 2 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Max DeLorenzo 17 69 4.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Geremy Davis 7 143 20.4 0 Sean McQuillan 5 39 7.8 0 Kamal Abrams 4 52 13.0 0 Noel Thomas 4 52 13.0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Marquise Vann 7 2 0 0 Graham Stewart 6 0 0 0 Kenton Adeyemi 4 2 0 0

[RoundingThird]

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

Thank you, sir, for taking UConn to the promised land. You've made me remember what it's like.