Paw Prints - UConn Huskies (4-5) @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-4) Preview

This week:

The UConn Huskies travel to South Bend, IN to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium this Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Here are the rosters for the Huskies and the Fighting Irish.

The Line/Prediction:

According to Rivals.com, Notre Dame is favored by six points. The over/under is 57 points. My prediction for the game is UConn 31 Notre Dame 27.

Tickets:

While the game notes for Notre Dame says the game is a sellout, I was able to find tickets on Notre Dame’s ticket website.

Getting To The Game:

Here is some information about Notre Dame Stadium. Here are directions to the stadium, information about parking and a parking map. Here is the weather report for the game.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television:

Saturday’s game will be televised live nationally by NBC Sports. Tom Hammond is on play-by-play while Pat Haden is on color and Alex Flanagan is on sidelines.

Radio:

For the 18th consecutive season, WTIC 1080-AM in Hartford serves as the flagship station for the UConn Radio Network. WTIC is the state’s only 50,000 watt signal and can be heard in 23 states and parts of Canada. Veteran UConn announcers Joe D’Ambrosio (play-by-play) and Wayne Norman (color commentary) return to call the action with Kevin Nathan on the side lines and Eric Davis on production.

The UConn pregame show begins 90 minutes prior to kickoff, while home games, the UConn Tailgate Show will air two and a half hours prior to the game with Arnold Dean. UConn football games are also broadcast over the internet at WTIC.com. For a full list of stations on the WTIC/UCONN radio network, click here.

Notre Dame Radio

ISP Sports is the exclusive national rights-holder for Notre Dame football radio broadcasts. ISP manages, produces and syndicates the Irish national football radio network. Games are broadcast by Don Criqui (play-by-play), Allen Pinkett (analysis) and Jeff Jeffers (sideline). This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 159) and XM Satellite Radio (channel 117).

All Notre Dame games may be heard in South Bend on Sunny 101.5 FM and NewsTalk 960 WSBT-AM.

Last Week:

The Huskies were off last week. The Fighting Irish lost to the Pittsburgh Panthers 27-22 last Saturday night.

History:

The Huskies and Notre Dame have never met on the gridiron.

Connections:

The UConn roster does not have any players from the state of Indiana on it while there are three Connecticut natives on the Notre Dame roster — Jake and Mike Golic of West Hartford and Thomas Smith of Manchester.
UConn quarterback Zach Frazer originally attended Notre Dame
Randy Edsall has coached against Notre Dame twice and came out on the winning end in each game — in the Gator Bowl following the 1998 season when he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech and in 1993 as part of the Boston College staff
Edsall coached against Charlie Weis in the NFL on Sept. 22, 1996 as New England defeated Jacksonville 28-25 in overtime
ND defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta was on the SMU staff in 1989 when UConn lost to the Mustangs.

Other News:

Here are some quotes from UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall’s press conference. And here are quotes from the Notre Dame football captains’ press conference.

Saturday’s crowd at Notre Dame Stadium should be the largest live audience the UConn football program has ever played in front of — topping the mark of 65,115 at Virginia Tech on Sept. 27, 2003. The mark will likely topple again when UConn opens the 2010 season at Michigan.

UConn’s five losses this year have been by a combined 15 points and the Huskies have held fourth quarter leads in four of the five of the game.

Sept. 12 vs. North Carolina: UConn led 10-0 after three quarters, but gave up 12 fourth quarter points for the loss. The Tar Heels scored the winning points on a safety when UConn was called for holding in the endzone.
Oct. 10 vs. Pittsburgh: UConn led 21-3 late in the third quarter. Pittsburgh scored a TD with 12 seconds left in the third quarter and added a TD and field goal as time expired for the win.
Oct. 24 vs. West Virginia: UConn led 17-14 at halftime and took a 24-21 lead with 3:50 to go in the fourth on an 88-yard TD play. West Virginia came right back and scored on a 56-yard running play with 2:10 to go for the win.
Oct. 31 vs. Rutgers: UConn led 24-21 after taking their first lead of the game with 38 seconds to go. Rutgers scored on an 81-yard pass play for the 28-24 win.
Nov. 7 vs. Cincinnati: This time a UConn comeback falls short. UConn trailed 30-10 at the half and 37-17 with 7:03 to go in the third. UConn then outscored the Bearcats 19-3, but failed on a two-point conversation with 5:03 to go that would have tied the game at 40-40. The two teams then traded touchdowns for the 47-45 final.

Here are the categories where UConn is in the top 30 in the 2009 NCAA statistics:

Passing Offense – 39th at 241.00 (Second in BIG EAST)
Total Offense – 38th at 408.89 (Third in BIG EAST)
Net Punting – 11th at 39.02 (First in BIG EAST)
Punt Returns – 34th at 11.14 (Third in BIG EAST)
Kickoff Returns – 20th at 24.47 (Third in BIG EAST)
Sacks – 30th at 2.56 (Fifth in BIG EAST)

In addition, Jordan Todman is 34th in the country in rushing yards per game at 91.78 while Andre Dixon is 50th at 81.11. Robert McClain is tied for 17th in interceptions at 0.44 per game along with teammate Robert Vaughn. Desi Cullen is 14th in punting, and second in the BIG EAST, at 43.84 yards. Lindsey Witten is tied for second in sacks at 1.17 per game. Lawrence Wilson is eighth in tackles.

The Huskies are the 137th different opponent in Notre Dame football history.

UConn will become the 65th different team to visit Notre Dame Stadium (since its opening in 1930). Notre Dame owns a 55-8-1 mark (.867) in games when the opponent was making its first visit to the Stadium.

Notre Dame will honors its 33 seniors on Saturday in their final game inside Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish will recognize each individual senior prior to kickoff for the first time in recent memory.

Wake up the echoes [Chip Malafronte – New Haven Register]

Where Will UConn Tailgaiters Be On Saturday? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Prayers To Terry Richardson And His Family (UConn Foot News) [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

Who’s got balance in the Big East? [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

Thursday update [John Silver – Journal Inquirer]

Assistant coach will miss ND game [Neill Ostrout – Connecticut Post]

UConn football notebook: Huskies coach to miss ND game [Connecticut Post]

UConn at Notre Dame [Connecticut Post]

Irish Could Be Vulnerable To Huskies Run Game [Hartford Courant]

Todman’s workload continues to grow [New Haven Register]

Huskies top of class in Big East football [Norwich Bulletin]

UConn, Irish both wonder: ‘What if?’ [The Republican-American]