Being a sports fan in the state of Connecticut is tough.
The lack of a professional baseball, football and basketball team leave sports fans divided over the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Some like the New York Knicks while others remain loyal to the Boston Celtics. For football, there’s a few different options but the state is pretty split on the New England Patriots and the New York Giants (The Jets, Mets and Nets are other New York teams that haven’t had much recent success, and they rhyme so there’s that).
Then there’s UConn.
The football program had their last taste of success in 2007-2010 with four straight bowl appearances. They went 2-2 in those games with a loss against Oklahoma in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl. Those were the days. The Big East and BCS days.
2015 should be one of two things. It should be a progressive step up from the 2-10 season from last year and perhaps improving to three or four wins with a jump-started offense and a step in the right direction for Bob Diaco. Or it could be somehow worse than last year and continue the trend of disappointing seasons and fans will have to re-evaluate their future as frequent occupants of last place in the conference.
Let’s go with the first one. Here are a few things that UConn fans should look forward to in the fall.
New Opponents
2015 offers UConn fans their first look at teams like Missouri and Houston in first-ever matchups with the Huskies, and also Villanova will play UConn for the first time since 1999. Newcomer Navy will travel to Rentschler Field for their first ever road AAC game, even though they last played the Huskies in 2006.
Quarterback Play
This one is a wild card. While the situation isn’t fully clear at this time, at least one thing is; Chandler Parsons and Casey Cochran are out of the picture.
JuCo transfer Garrett Anderson and NC-State transfer Bryant Shirreffs will battle it out and UConn football will have a different look and feel at quarterback, no matter who Diaco dubs as his starter. Shirreffs impressed many at the spring game with his legs and Anderson has just arrived to campus after getting married a few weeks ago.
New Uniforms
Two times in three years? Yep.
Early, Important Home Games
If UConn is to have any success this year winning more than two or three games, it will have to come early in the season before the majority of their conference schedule rolls around. The first three home games for fans will be Villanova, Army and Navy. Throw in a road game at Missouri and it would be a pleasant sight to see UConn at 2-2 after their first four.
A Conflict Of Civil Sorts
As of right now, we’re sitting at just over 110 days until the UCF/UConn game. UCF may want to have nothing to do with this rivalry, but the Huskies are coming to Orlando on October 10 with some artificial hype.
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