2009 Record: 8-5 (3-4)
Head Coach; Randy Edsell (66-65, 12th season)
Offensive Coordinator: Joe Moorhead (2nd season)
Defensive Coordinator: Todd Orlando (6th season)
2009 Bowl Game: Papajohn's Bowl, Defeated South Carolina 20-7
Offense: The Huskies will have a healthy competition at QB in fall camp between Zach Frazer and Cody Endres. Neither one is awesome by any means which makes the Huskies lucky to have Jordan Toddman at RB. Toddman can carry the load, but UConn has the same issue as WVU and Pitt here. They will risk riding their backs too hard to make up for their unstable QB situations. RG Zack Hurd is a pre-season All American, and he leads 4 returning starters on the line. RT Jimmy Burnett, a sophomore, is the lone new face on the line.
Defense: 8 starters return on a very nice defense. The defense, however, seemed to lose steam at the end of the regular season, as they tired of saving games from the under producing offense. The offense must give these guys a break in 2010. The entire D-line returns, and the line also gets depth with the emergence of DE Trevardo Williams. LB Lawrence Wilson is also a pre-season AA, and is the leader of this D. Greg Lloyd will shift from LB to DE this season, but may drop back at times in certain packages. Jory Johnson will be a new face in the starting LB group, replacing Lloyd. Three starters in the secondary will be sophomores this season, which could be problematic against more seasoned receivers around the league at Pitt and Cincinnati.
Special Teams: Dave Taggert returns at PK, and he will be leaned on heavily. The punting job is wide open, but freshman Chad Christen looks to be the leader in the fight so far. Robbie Frey had a 100 yard return for a score in 2009, and will handle kick returns.
2010 Schedule
Wins: 9/11 Texas Southern, 9/18 @ Temple, 9/25 Buffalo, 10/2 Vanderbilt, 10/23 @ Louisville, 11/20 @ Syracuse, 12/4 @ South Florida
Toss Up Games: 9/4 @ Michigan, 10/8 @ Rutgers
Losses: 10/29 West Virginia, 11/11 Pittsburgh, 11/27 Cincinnati
The schedule is not insanely ambitious by any means. 7 wins are guaranteed, and UConn needs the wins against Michigan and Rutgers to poke past the 8 win mark that they have been stuck at. That's a high asking price, but not impossible. The Huskies will qualify for a mid tier bowl game.
Outlook: UConn has been stuck at the same level for awhile now. They need to get over the hump and move on to the next phase in the program's history. 8 wins a year is great , but there should be passion to move ahead in a very winnable league. Unfortunately, the Huskies are just the 4th best team in an average at best conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment