There aren’t a lot of advantages to playing independent FBS football outside of South Bend, Ind. But there is this: The chance to assemble a schedule of one’s own, in some sense, in a conference of one’s own.
So here we find UConn (1-2), it’s FCS opponent and its Big Ten Goliath in the rearview mirror, staring at six straight home games against opponents with which the Huskies should be competitive. We’ll use the relative term “winnable” to categorize these games.
Starting with Florida Atlantic Saturday at 7 p.m., followed by Buffalo, Temple, Wake Forest, Rice and Georgia State.
“Just having the ability to compartmentalize,” receiver Skyler Bell said this week, “and focus on one game, one play, series at a time. I’m not a big flyer, I get nervous on planes, so six in a row at home is fun.”
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UConn is staying, geographically and competitively, in its own backyard for the next six games. Win four or five, and the Huskies can start looking at the metrics that drive bowl invitations. The season ends with three road games, at Alabama-Birmingham, Syracuse and UMass. I’d put two of those in the winnable column, too.
This is UConn’s conference in 2024. This is UConn’s season, right?
“There’s no place in my brain for that,” coach Jim Mora said. “I don’t remember how the schedule thing laid out, I don’t remember how it happened. When you get into a season, if you’re thinking about anything other than what’s coming right at you that week, then you’re wasting energy and you’re cheating your team and cheating the people that support you.
“So just want to stay right here, and our players want to stay right here. … All eyes on FAU on Saturday night and playing the best we can.”
This, of course, is the correct sentiment for coaches and players. The rest of us do have room in our brains and energy to expend thinking about the schedule as a whole, and with a series of “group of five” opponents and one ACC foe in Wake Forest, UConn as a chance to make bold, broad statements. To its fanbase it can say that there are worthwhile games to watch at Rentschler Field and a team worth following, that is playing for something somewhat tangible.
To the college football movers and shakers, it can be shown that UConn football would not necessarily be dead weight in a major conference and eliminate the excuse for some to look down their nose guards and say, “Well, if they can’t beat (fill in the blank), they don’t belong in our league.” Even if conference decisions don’t boil down to anything so simplistic, it’s the optics.
Moreover, UConn is … wait for it … favored by a point and a half. So I’m moving Saturday’s game from winnable to must win for the Huskies, to keep the momentum they’ve gathered after crushing Merrimack and taking a lead into the fourth quarter before losing at Duke last week; putting more distance from the season-opening nightmare at Maryland.
Mora made a point, after the Merrimack game, to thank the students who ventured the 23 miles from campus to fill their section at Rentschler by kickoff. He’s hoping that will happen again on Saturday night, and if the La Jolla-level weather we’ve been enjoying can hold out a little longer, maybe it will. Then it will be on Nick Evers, the quarterback from Wisconsin via the portal, and the retooled offense to show something worth returning and shivering to see again in October and November.
If you go by comparative scores, meaningless exercise that it is, FAU lost to Michigan State only 16-10 in the season opener, then Michigan State went to Maryland and won. Since, FAU has lost to Army, beat Florida International. It serves to say this game is in UConn’s league; the Huskies should not be overmatched, even if FAU is coached by Tom Herman, formerly of Houston and Texas, and quarterback Cam Fancher is an old nemesis, who stung the Huskies while playing for Marshall in the Myrtle Beach Bowl year before last.
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FAU, Buffalo, Temple, Wake Forest, Rice, Georgia State, UAB and UMass — this is UConn’s football conference, UConn’s football season in a tidy package. The Huskies are positioned for success, a student body and fan base positioned to embrace it. Just protect the football.
“If you win, you become more confident, regardless of where you win,” Mora said. “If you want me to take off my blinders and think about the six games, if you win and you build momentum and your crowd sizes increase because they like to watch you play football. If you’re winning at home, then there is more energy in the stadium and that helps you. That becomes a true homefield advantage. Yeah, if you want me to look down the road, there’s no doubt it can help us …but it only helps if we win.”
