It Was Close For a While

Well, in Friday night’s UCONN football game, it was actually close for a little bit. At the end of the first quarter, the score was West Virginia 3 UCONN 0. Early in the second quarter, the game was actually tied 3-3. West Virginia then kicked another field goal to take the lead 6-3 and never looked back from there.

Pat White, WVU QB, busted open a 45 yard run for a touchdown and then right at the end of the first half, West Virginia scored on a 1 yard run to close the scoring at 20-3 for the first half. Amazingly at half time, UCONN had held West Virginia’s star running back, Steve Slaton, to 15 yards rushing on 9 carries.

An early interception by UCONN QB, Matt Bonislawski ended his day. Luckily for UCONN, West Virginia was unable to punch it in. A field goal by West Virginia and and 1 play drive consisting of a 52 yard TD pass from Pat White to Rayshawn Bolden put West Virginia up 30-3.

DJ Hernandez who took over for Bones, ran one in from 5 yards out. Terry Caulley added a two point conversion to make the score 30-11. Just a few minutes later, Steve Slaton busted open a 56 yard TD run to end the scoring for the game.

Some notes and observations from tailgating and the game itself:

• In the beginning of our hold’em game, our tent decided to take off and hit the people behind us. We had staked that thing in but it wasn’t good enough to hold that thing from the gale winds. The tent was rendered useless to us but the hold’em game continued anyways out in the elements. We pulled one car back and sat between two cars using them as shields from the wind to play. This proved adventerous as occasionally some cards went flying.
• In a classy move at the end of the hold’em game, Ken and Marc donated the winnings to Mat to help pay for a new tent.
• It appears we might have a QB controversy at UCONN. Matt Bonaislawski was ineffective again and DJ Hernandez proved to be more mobile at QB. The problem is that DJ is still making the stupid mistakes that cost him his job in the first place.
• Tony Ciaravino will be handling all the extra points and field goals within 40 yards for the time being. Matt Nuzie will attempt anything over 40 yards.
• UCONN’s running game was nonexistant again. Although, if you saw the size of the West Virginia front line on D, you wouldn’t have run the ball that far either.
• UCONN needs to get bigger at all the skill positions in order to compete with the big boys.

I would like to touch on that point briefly. This was supposed to be UCONN’s first year in the Big East but with the earlier defections of Miami and Boston College, they started play a year earlier. It is also UCONN’s 5th season as an 1-A school for football. So what does that mean? Well it means that it’s gonna take time for Coach Edsall to build up his program and recruit the bigger and stronger players. Folks, it’s gonna take time for UCONN to be the team that we expect. The basketball teams here at UCONN have spoiled us with their winning ways. It will come in time for the football Huskies. Just be patient.