A Tip Of the Cap To the UConn QB
The story: UConn quarterback David Pindell was again shut out of the AAC’s weekly honor roll on Monday after he threw for 215 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 181 yards and two touchdowns in a 62-50 loss to SMU.
Pindell has been recognized just twice this season by the AAC, which again proves our point from Monday that the senior’s otherwise eye-opening season is being overlooked by the Huskies’ collective failures.
So, let’s take the opportunity of a slow news day to marvel in the magnificence of Pindell, who is set to join Connecticut football legend Dan Orlovsky in December as the only players since 1952 to account for more than 3,000 yards in a single season.
WHAT HAS HE DONE? Pindell has played a role in 25 of UConn’s 32 offensive touchdowns this season and accounted for 282.4 yards of offense a game. On Saturday, he surpassed 1,000 rushing yards, becoming not only the first UConn quarterback to ever do that but the first player to reach quadruple figures since Lyle McCombs in 2011.
He also has run for more than 100 yards six times this season, is third in the AAC in rushing at 110.7 yards per game, and has run 181 times — more than all but three players in the league, one of those being teammate Kevin Mensah.
WHAT CAN HE DO? Really, that’s what we wonder, too. Can we imagine what Pindell could have done with some help around him?
Let’s look at the record books. After Saturday, Pindell is now 10th on UConn’s single-season rushing list and, with two games remaining, legitimately has a shot of putting together the third-most rushing yards in a season by a UConn player, behind Donald Brown in 2008 and Jordan Todman in 2010. (Take a minute. Let that sink in.)
He also has run for 10 touchdowns and needs two more to crack the top 10, and if he completes 15 passes in each of his next two games, he could crack the top 10 in completions as well.
Remember, UConn doesn’t have one-year starters at quarterback. The only one in the FBS era was Johnny McEntee in 2011. If Pindell had a chance to grow with his team, imagine what he’d have accomplished.
WHAT DOES THE COACH THINK? “The guy’s a competitor,” Randy Edsall told reporters after UConn scored 50 points on Saturday — more than it had scored against an FBS opponent in nine years. “He’s given everything he has and being very productive doing it. He works at it, too. He’s a guy who works at it, who has really good ability but takes that ability and tried to make it better. He’s had a really good year, and I know that he’s given us everything he can.”
So to you, David Pindell, who is unlikely to ever see our start-up newsletter but may hear of it because it was dutifully opened by others in the Hilltop Suites, know that for all you went through this year, we at The UConn Daily salute you.
UConn Women Remain On The Mark
The UConn women’s loss in the Final Four prompted Carl Adamec of the Manchester Journal-Inquirer to take a look back in time to the last time the Huskies lost consecutive games.
Indeed, it has been 25 years since they suffered back-to-back defeats — a trick they avoided on Sunday with a 85-53 win over Ohio State at Gampel Pavilion. As Adamec noted, that means the Huskies are 58-0 after a loss and have gone 924 games without consecutive defeats since March 1993, when they lost to Providence in the Big East tournament and then Louisville in the NCAA tournament.
That streak is older than any of UConn’s current players, and it’s yet another example of just how dominant they have been during that time period.
Polls Stay Closed For UConn Men
As former Associated Press men’s basketball poll voters, we both know how difficult it is to assess teams early in the season and put together a list of the best in the country. It’s an inexact science, for sure, and remains even so as the season stretches into January and February.
But at times, beginning the season with a pair of eye-opening victories is enough to give a team a little bit of recognition. That seemed plausible this year as the UConn men, out of the polls since the 2016-17 preseason, throttled Morehead State and UMKC in their first two games. In fact, not a single AAC team received a vote.
Alas, it was not to be for the Huskies, who did not pick up even one vote in the first in-season media poll, which was released on Monday. Maybe a demolishing of No. 15 Syracuse on Thursday at Madison Square Garden will do the trick.
Morning Read
MEN’S SOCCER TO FACE URI: Someone grab the Ramnapping Trophy and prepare to bring the whoopin’. UConn’s men’s soccer team earned a spot in the 48-team NCAA tournament and will host Rhode Island on Thursday, with the winner traveling to face No. 2 seed Indiana on Sunday. (The UConn Blog)
STARVED FOR SUCCESS: ECU, also 0-6 in the AAC, is looking to get its first conference win on Saturday against UConn. “Both teams will be really, really hungry and thirsty for a conference win,” East Carolina coach Scottie Montgomery said Monday. (Hartford Courant)
WALKING TALL: Megan Walker never had thoughts of leaving UConn last season, when she was a freshman buried on the bench. As she showed on Sunday, she’ll be just fine. (Hartford Courant)
TRIO ON NAISMITH WATCH LIST: The trio of Napheesa Collier, Katie Lou Samuelson and Crystal Dangerfield all made the watch list for the Naismith Trophy, which goes to the top player in the nation. (UConnHuskies.com)
MEN’S HOCKEY HOSTS BROWN: The Huskies will welcome Brown to the XL Center in a non-conference game. (UConnHuskies.com)
PINDELL ON THE RADAR: David Pindell‘s performance wasn’t overlooked nationally, as he ranked as one of the top 15 jaw-dropping performances. (Sportsnut)
UNCLE VERNE TALKS UCONN, AAC: A podcast about Connecticut sports from Jared Kotler has Verne Lundqvist talking about the Huskies. We love Verne! (Soundcloud)
EDSALL SPEAKS ON WEEK 12 CALL: Randy Edsall previewed this week’s game against East Carolina on the American Athletic Conference call. (AAC)
