Football Is Back! What Should We Expect?

Are You Ready For Some Football?

The Story: The football team will play a game for the first time in 637 days on Saturday when it begins life as an independent with a game at Fresno State (2 p.m., CBS Sports).

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: The Huskies were the first FBS football team to cancel their season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t play last year. Instead, they held a series of practices, much like they do during the spring.

● The Huskies are set to begin their fourth season since Randy Edsall returned as coach in December 2016. It has been a rough go-round for Edsall as UConn went 6-30 in his first three years and has not won more than three games in a season. (There haven’t been any 66-21 losses to West Virginia, though.)

● UConn achieved more than a bit of success near the end of Edsall’s first tenure. It won at least eight games from 2007-10, when it shared a pair of Big East titles and went to four consecutive bowl games. We call those the “golden years.”

HERE WE GO AGAIN ON OUR OWN: After leaving the American Athletic Conference for the Big East, which doesn’t sponsor football, UConn decided to continue as an FBS independent. That’s a glorious road for tradition-rich programs like Notre Dame and BYU, but it has been a bit more difficult for the other four teams traveling it: Army, Liberty, New Mexico State and UMass. (UConn was notably an independent from 2000-03 as it made the transition to what was then called Division I-A.)

● The schedule will look a bit funky in coming years because there are no conference games to anchor it. That’s why the Huskies will play games against teams like Fresno State and Wyoming this season and Utah State next season. But if we’re being honest, the scheduled looked a bit funky for the better part of the past decade, too. (East Carolina?!) Going forward, the Huskies will play Syracuse, Boston College, UMass, Army and Temple, and they will get back into their usual recruiting hotbeds with games at Florida International, Georgia State and Maryland on the horizon.

● UConn may not be a national brand when it comes to football, but it performed some wizardry when it comes to its TV deals. Nearly every game should still be televised locally, with CBS Sports agreeing to carry all home games through the 2023 season.

● One necessity of going independent (and a significant deficit with regards to the athletics budget): The Huskies will have to play a number of guarantee games, meaning they’ll receive big money for playing on the road against some of the nation’s most storied programs. In addition to playing at Clemson in November, UConn will play at Michigan next season, at Tennessee in 2023 and at Ohio State in 2025. Whenever they feel like playing in East Hartford, Dave Benedict will answer the call.

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT? Amazingly, despite a year with no games and the challenges of the pandemic, the Huskies experienced very little turnover in the last 18 months. Several players who showed promise as underclassmen in 2019 will be back — and two years older.

● Running back Kevin Mensah, a fifth-year senior, could become the first UConn player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. Mensah needs 1,182 yards to set the school’s rushing record, which is held by “Touchbrown” Donald Brown. He’ll be joined in the backfield by Robert Burns, a transfer from Miami and graduate student who has two years of eligibility remaining.

● Wide receiver Cam Ross led the Huskies with 60 catches for 723 yards as a true freshman in 2019. He’ll be needed even more with fellow wide receiver Matt Drayton, also a true freshman in 2019, out for the season with a knee injury.

● Defensive tackle Travis Jones, a junior who is 6-foot-5 and 333 pounds, is a disruptive force who is already receiving NFL Draft buzz. He has the ability to collapse the pocket in a way most players cannot.

● And at quarterback … we don’t know. Still. Really. Yes, Edsall loves to keep the quarterback situation a big secret, and you knew he was going to do that when he didn’t have to talk about it for a year and a half. Jack Zergiotis, who started nine games as a true freshman in 2019, and redshirt sophomore Steven Krajewski figure to be the finalists for that role.

AND FOR THIS SEASON? Well, we really don’t know. Take away the two FCS teams on the schedule, Holy Cross and Yale, and remove Clemson and its 10-2 finish, and UConn’s other nine opponents combined to go 38-44 last season for a .463 winning percentage. At the very least, it should be exciting. (Let’s hope we still think the same way in November.)

● Saturday, Aug. 28: at Fresno State, 2 p.m.
● Saturday, Sept. 4: Holy Cross, noon
● Saturday, Sept. 11: Purdue, 3 p.m.
● Saturday, Sept. 18: at Army, noon
● Saturday, Sept. 25: Wyoming, 3:30 p.m.
● Saturday, Oct. 2: at Vanderbilt, time TBD
● Saturday, Oct. 9: at UMass, 3:30 p.m.
● Saturday, Oct. 16: Yale, noon
● Friday, Oct. 22: Middle Tennessee State, 6 p.m.
● Saturday, Nov. 13: at Clemson, time TBD
● Saturday, Nov. 20: at UCF, time TBD
● Saturday, Nov. 27: Houston, noon