UCONN Huskies vs Baylor Bears Recap

The people of Connecticut hopefully realize how good they have it right now. Husky football will overachieve as long as Randy Edsall's running the show.

It's hard to deny the stabilizing effect Edsall's had on the UConn program. With each passing season, the Huskies continue to exceed the sum of their abilities, staying a step ahead of the college football competition and reaching the bowl games other programs desire, but don't have the chops to attain. The gloriously happy reality of UConn football was in evidence once more this past Saturday in Waco, Tex., as the visitors from New England kicked around their Big 12 South hosts from Baylor.

The Bears haven't gone bowling in 15 years, so they wanted a piece of the team that not only turned them back last season in East Hartford, but which has made the bowl games Baylor's missed over the past decade and a half. Yet, when 60 minutes had run their course at Floyd Casey Stadium, Edsall's outfit had once again lorded its superiority--and its nose for winning seasons--over Art Briles's beaten and bruised bad-news Bears.

There wasn't anything complicated about this smackdown in the Southwest: Connecticut decided to run the ball right at Baylor, and the Bears couldn't stop the Huskies. UConn punched the home folks in the mouth, racking up 252 rushing yards in a manhood-enhancing mauling of its green-shirted opponent. Andre Dixon rocked Baylor for 149 of those rushing yards, while teammate Jordan Todman rolled for the other 103. Connecticut's ground game was so effective that the visitors held the rock for nearly 40 minutes, keeping Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin off the field in the process. While the Huskies were converting 11-of-20 third downs, Griffin--who didn't throw an interception in this contest--was nevertheless rendered irrelevant to the proceedings. Griffin completed 17-of-26 passes, but for only 119 yards with no touchdowns. Connecticut, under Edsall's guidance, not only shortened the game; the Huskies shortened the field and squeezed Griffin to death in a quiet yet unmistakable manner.

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The whole afternoon represented one unending masterstroke, as a team wounded by the bizarre two-point loss to North Carolina managed to post a thoroughly impressive win just a week later. More than that, the Huskies prevailed without cleverness or sleight-of-hand; they delivered many crushing blows to a team hungry for newfound stature in the college football world.

The more seasons change, the more they stay the same. Randy Edsall outcoaches another program with a man viewed to be an up-and-coming coach (Art Briles) and flummoxes a youngster with well-publicized talent ( Griffin). UConn fans are living the good life as long as their coach sticks around in New England.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer