The 2014 season has been mostly a disappointment for the UConn Huskies (1-3, 0-1 AAC), with glimpses of a bright 2015 season and beyond. Bob Diaco and his team will continue their rebuilding season, but that doesn’t mean that the Huskies still can’t compete for a bowl game bid.
UConn must find a way to win five more games to become bowl eligible, and the upcoming conference schedule favors its chances of returning to a bowl game for the first time since the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.
After dropping its conference opener to South Florida, UConn will have two winnable games against Temple and Tulane before traveling to face the AAC conference powerhouse in East Carolina.
Temple lit up the scoreboard against FCS opponent Delaware State in a 59-0 win, and also forced seven turnovers in its first game of the season against Vanderbilt. However, UConn was able to beat Temple last year after losing the first nine games of the season.
Tulane is another beatable team for the Huskies, despite the emergence of Sherman Badie in the backfield with 349 yards on the season. With two weeks to prepare for this road game, UConn should be well rested and ready to come into Yulman Stadium to pull out a win.
Next up is East Carolina, and well, while nothing is impossible, this one is highly, highly unlikely to turn out well for the Huskies in a Thursday night matchup.
When November rolls around, UConn will have a pair of measuring stick games in Central Florida and Army.
UCF has a relatively tough schedule so far and will have played Penn State, Missouri and BYU (a common opponent with the Huskies), before the November 1 game against UConn.
Army is quite the opposite with a lack of strength in its schedule. Playing this one at Yankee Stadium will be the wildcard factor here as it’s not a home game for either team, but it’s neither a road game when you consider both teams are less than 110 miles away from the Bronx.
These two games should give the conference more insight of what to expect of the Huskies as they head into the last three games of the season.
Having home-field advantage against Cincinnati will be the only aspect of the November 22 game UConn will look forward to. Let’s count this one as a loss.
If the Huskies are to mimic last year’s late season winning streak, it will have to come against conference opponents Memphis and SMU. For bowl eligibility status, UConn will know whether these are two must-win games before playing in them.
UConn is down, but not out. If Diaco wants to keep bringing in recruits, playing in a bowl game is about as high of a pitch as he can sell to prospects in the immediate future.
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