[thesportsguru11]

(23) 14 --- 4-3 (1-3)

(12) 44 --- 6-2 (5-1)

Having a Record Day!

Williamson, Wade break career records as UConn waxes Syracuse

The two greatest players in UConn history, perhaps? Williamson and Wade both broke career records, for rushing yards and interceptions, respectively.

After a trio of first quarter of interceptions from star quarterback Isaac Jackson, UConn looked to be in trouble in a hostile Carrier Dome crowd all decked out in Orange for the biggest game in Syracuse, New York in a long time. Despite this, UConn coach Stephen Belichick has preached team ball and playing within oneself all year long, with the promise of success in the distance.

On the strength of another team effort, led by two of UConn’s best football players ever, the Huskies continued their push to the top of the ACC standings with a 44-14 thumping of the resurgent Syracuse Orange in a surprising midseason top-25 matchup.

With UConn’s best on record watch, both junior corner Shav Wade and redshirt junior tailback Luke Williamson didn’t disappoint and were the key players in the rout this afternoon.

After weeks of waiting and quiet play, Wade found himself sprinting to the end zone to break the game open in the third quarter. Right when his team needed it most, Shav was there, yet again. Fitting that the most dominant corner in school history broke the career interceptions record with a pick six? I’d say certainly.

With UConn nursing a 13-7 lead into the halftime break and the Orange having received the second half kick, Wade made a gorgeous read on a Marcus Galloway pass, jumped in front of receiver Jacob Woods and made a house call, tallying record interception number 21 in his illustrious career. The 21st now puts Wade first all-time in UConn history in that statistic, passing Jamar Summers’ 20 set in 2017. That pick also puts Shav at seven on the 2021 campaign, just four shy of tying Summers’ record in that stat.

The humble corner from Union, New Jersey trotted back to the sideline next to linebacker Mike Hill, record ball in hand, with a team waiting to swarm him in congratulations. The excited energy rubbed off on the rest of the team; Jackson threw two of his three touchdown passes in that frame to Lonte’ Speier and #2 tailback J.P. Byers, exclamating a 21 point third quarter that let UConn jump out to a 34-7 lead. From there out, UConn relied on one man to move the offense and grind out the win.

Ryne Thomas (LEFT) and Lonte' Speier (RIGHT) added another touchdown to their season hauls on the afternoon.


Luke Williamson entered today’s contest also on record watch, though much less under the radar. The fourth year junior sat 152 yards behind Donald Brown and first place for the career rushing mark. After a rather tame start to the season, Williamson rolled in and firmly erased any such talk, proceeding to drop the boom on the Orange front seven to the tune of a career-high 243 yards on 38 carries (6.3 per). With eight runs of ten-plus yards, 118 of those yards came in the first half; he had the record in the third quarter.

Now at 3,891 yards in his storied career, Williamson surpassed both Josh Marriner and Brown as the new top runner in UConn history, while also passing 1,000 yards rushing for the second consecutive season (he had 965 as a redshirt freshman, preventing him from three). The homegrown Connecticut product from Nautilus Park got emotional on the sideline as he became aware of his accomplishment. “I’m so happy to do this for my home school. This is so great.”

Though certainly quiet and unassuming at times, Williamson has fought hard for every yard and has no doubt cemented his legacy on the Mt. Rushmore of UConn football. Williamson has also taken charge of the career carries record and is also closing in on UConn’s career touchdown mark; though he didn’t score in today’s contest, Williamson has racked up 50 rushing touchdowns, just five behind Marriner’s 55.

Despite the rocky beginning to the contest with freshman Gunnar Marzin picking off Ice-Jax twice in the end zone on consecutive drives, it was certainly a festive ending to a highly successful road trip. UConn’s top ranked run defense held the Orange’s potent rushing attack well below their season average with just 166 yards - star tailback Joey Wilkerson only gained 25 of those. Fullback Edmond Johnson was the leading rusher with 59 yards on six carries, with Galloway gaining 40 on the ground from his QB spot. #2 tailback Mikel Gibson ran for ‘Cuse’s lone touchdown on the ground. Marvin Daniel had three catches, albeit all in the fourth quarter when the game was well in hand, for 105 yards and a late score. The touchdown came on a 75 yard strike where Daniel simply beat the UConn secondary over the top and shed a tackle from our weekly punching bag Tony Rush.

Freshman Gunnar Marzin picked off Ice-Jax twice, while Adam Gilmore did once.


Marvin Daniel’s fourth quarter explosion was one of the few offensive highlights for Syracuse.

The Huskies also tallied four robberies of Galloway through the air as part of their six turnovers in total with Wade, Sam Barnett, John Cox and Vic Castalanetta all snaring interceptions. Thomas Willis and Johnquez Blair picked up fumble recoveries on ill-advised option pitches to make a tough day for the Orange all the way around.

With the margin for error appearing to be slim if UConn wants to return to the College Football Playoff, the win will go a long way toward building their resume. Even so, Coach Belichick would seem to rather talk about the first half, where UConn struggled to do much of anything.

“We need to play complete games. I know we can pull away in the second half, but we may not always be able to do that. Mistake-free football means winning football. Neverthelesss, there’s a lot of good to take away from today; a lot of guys played well. And my congratulations to Shav and Luke as well; they’re both tremendous players with bright futures still ahead of them and great legacies here at UConn. We’ll keep working over the bye and try to get better against UMass in two weeks.”

Question improvement all you want, but there is no denying that the Huskies are now riding a three-game winning streak into their bye week; the average margin of victory is a whopping 34 points, the offense has hit another gear and the defense has been fantastic. Can they keep it going? We’ll see. UConn moves to 5-2 and 4-1 in conference play, and will move to at least third in the ACC standings. Syracuse falls to 4-3 with their loss.


Other Game Notes: Starting outside linebacker Scott Coffman left the game with an apparent upper body injury and did not return. His status moving forward will be determined at a later date. Redshirt freshman Jevon Sapp played in his place.

Strong second half showing for the Huskies with four interceptions! John Cox (LEFT), Sam Barnett (CENTER) and Vic Castalanetta (RIGHT) are featured here.

For all the great defensive play today, there was at least one player for whom that was not true. The obligatory Tony Rush blooper reel has two high (or low) lights today!

Connecticut Huskies at Syracuse Orange
Oct 23, 2021	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
#12 Connecticut Huskies (6-2, 5-1)	3	10	21	10	44
#21 Syracuse Orange (4-3, 1-3)	7	0	0	7	14

Team Stats Comparison
	CONN	SYR
Total Offense	474	352
Rushing Yards	322	166
Passing Yards	152	186
First Downs	27	20
Punt Return Yards	36	14
Kick Return Yards	47	129
Total Yards	557	495
Turnovers	3	6
3rd Down Conversion	6-11 (54%)	3-11 (27%)
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	8-4-2 (75%)	1-1-0 (100%)
Penalties	1-10	1-5
Possession Time	19:58	16:02

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SYR
7:00	(CONN) Ricciardi 32 FG	3	0
3:40	(SYR) Gibson 3 run (Ager kick)	3	7
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SYR
2:02	(CONN) Ricciardi 38 FG	6	7
:02	(CONN) Jones 1 run (Ricciardi kick)	13	7
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SYR
7:43	(CONN) Wade 36 returned interception (Ricciardi kick)	20	7
3:40	(CONN) Speier 10 pass Jackson (Ricciardi kick)	27	7
:46	(CONN) Byers 4 pass Jackson (Ricciardi kick)	34	7
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		CONN	SYR
8:28	(CONN) Thomas 3 pass Jackson (Ricciardi kick)	41	7
8:18	(SYR) Daniel 75 pass Galloway (Ager kick)	41	14
5:22	(CONN) Ricciardi 27 FG	44	14

Connecticut Huskies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Isaac Jackson 12-20 152 3 3 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Luke Williamson 38 243 6.3 0 J.P. Byers 10 43 4.3 0 Isaac Jackson 5 36 7.2 0 Ja'Montres Jones 1 1 1.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Lonte' Speier 3 56 18.6 1 Chamarkelle Byrom 3 49 16.3 0 Devin Brown 2 34 17.0 0 Ryne Thomas 2 3 1.5 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Mike Hill 8 (2) 0 0 0 John Cox 8 (2) 0 1 0 Thomas Willis 7 (4) 0 0 0 Vic Castalanetta 6 0 1 0 Shav Wade 4 0 1 0 Sam Barnett 3 0 1 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Anthony Ricciardi 3-3 5-5 14 38

Syracuse Orange PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Marcus Galloway 10-21 186 1 4 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Marcus Galloway 24 41 1.7 0 Edmond Johnson 6 59 9.8 0 Joey Wilkerson 5 25 5.0 0 Mikel Gibson 3 20 6.6 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Marvin Daniel 3 105 35.0 1 Jacob Woods 3 50 16.6 0 Ralph Duncan 1 9 9.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Corey Petty 7 0 0 0 Kevan Lear 6 (3) 1 0 0 Adam Gilmore 6 0 1 0 Gunnar Marzin 5 0 2 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Larry Ager 0-0 2-2 2

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Quote: Originally Posted by ZSmit88

Not a terribly long injury luckily. Hmmm.. defensive coordinator for a power school - interesting.

Yeah, it's a huge relief that Broadricke's injury is minor as I mentioned that there's no depth there right now - I want to keep the redshirts on both Buckingham and Tellers if possible. With the bye to rest up I think that we'll be back to full strength at that position soon. All you need to do with the CAC is submit the form and I do the rest. It's totally your call in the end but it's fun to watch! Thanks for checking in bud.

Quote: Originally Posted by whughes

The Orange aren't too impressive on either side of the ball. And if they do pass you know exactly where they're going with Daniels on the receiving end of 39 of their 58 completions. Put Shav on him, keep the option in check and I think you'll come out on top for sure.

Despite that, they played well for a while .. until we stampeded in the third quarter. The pass game wasn't much of a problem as all of Daniel's catches came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand already, and no one else stood out. Ralph Duncan scared me a bit as he was 6'7, but was a non-factor against Sam Barnett.

I'm very proud of our run defense. We had problems stopping the fullback Johnson but they didn't go to him very often, luckily. They tried to spread the ball around a bit and it didn't work out well. Team effort all the way for us and we did what we needed to do! Momentum is increasing so hopefully the bye week doesn't trip us up, but we do get lowly UMass in two weeks, so I'm feeling confident.