UCONN vs Cincinnati Recap

This really is preposterous, but it seems to have no intention of changing: The Connecticut Huskies appear to be the team fortune forgot in the 2009 NCAA football season.

It's been this way for the past month: UConn competes and spills its full tank on a football field, only to have an opponent rise up and narrowly eclipse the Huskies in a thrilling, closely-contested collision. (And this doesn't even include the 12-10 September loss to North Carolina.)

In October, coach Randy Edsall's club was on the short end of a 24-21 decision at Pittsburgh, in a game UConn led most of the way. In the previous two weeks, the boys from New England were denied by West Virginia's Noel Devine, on a late 56-yard touchdown run, and then rocked by Rutgers on a last-minute 81-yard catch-and-run by Jasper Howard's childhood friend, Tim Brown.

When Connecticut then ventured to Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati to take on coach Brian Kelly's top-5 titans, Big East watchers and casual college football fans figured that if the Huskies lost, they at least would avoid the last-minute heartbreak that's been such a regular part of this Autumn on the gridiron.

Well, if fans and experts figured as much about UConn and its fate, those folks figured wrong.

Once again, the Huskies played just well enough to lose another razor-close head-spinner of a Saturday showcase. Formerly holding the short end of the stick in medium-scoring games that didn't exceed the twenties, the kids from Connecticut decided to lose a game played in a video arcade. In a contest that featured ridiculous numbers but standout performances, Edsall's team lost 47-45 to the homestanding Bearcats, winning yet more respect but not moving upward in the Big East standings.

If you had told Edsall and his staff before this game that Jordan Todman would run for 162 yards, the UConn coach would have liked his chances against the No. 5 team in the United States. If you had told Zach Frazer, UConn's starter-turned-backup-turned-starter, that he would throw for 261 yards and a touchdown without any interceptions, the quarterback would have loved his team's prospects in the Queen City. If you had told UConn fans that their team would score 35 second-half points, 21 of them in the fourth quarter, and rack up 462 yards while committing only two penalties and no turnovers, those diehards would have been positively ecstatic.

All those things happened, however, and they still weren't good enough to lift Connecticut into the winner's circle.

It's all because Cincinnati's No. 2 quarterback, Zach Collaros, had the game of his life, just a few weeks after replacing starting signal caller Tony Pike.

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Collaros merely threw for 480 yards, ran for 75 more, and accounted for three touchdowns (two rushing, one passing) while enabling the Bearcats to accumulate 711 yards of offense. UConn faced deficits of 30-10, 37-17, and 40-24, and trimmed the home team's lead to 40-38 on the basis of sheer persistence, but each time the Huskies made Cincy sweat, Collaros was able to lead a crucial scoring march, and when Bearcat running back Isaiah Pead scrambled into the end zone from 14 yards out with 1:52 left, the home team had established a two-score lead at 47-38. Frazer directed one more scoring march, culminating in a nine-yard pass to Marcus Easley with 13 seconds left, but the score merely made the loss a little more cosmetic.

One of these days - perhaps years - UConn will catch a break. Until then, the Huskies can only continue to give opponents their very best shot. It's what they did against Cincinnati, and it's all they can do for the rest of 2009.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer