The Connecticut Huskies football team is a college football team that represents the University of Connecticut in the sport of American football. The team competes in NCAA Division I FBS in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Connecticut first fielded a team in 1896, and participated in Division I-AA until 1999. The Huskies began their two-year Division I-A transition period in 2000, and became a full-fledged Division I-A team in 2002. From 2000 to 2003 the team played as an independent. The schools football team then joined the conference of its other sport teams, the Big East (later named the American Athletic Conference in 2013), starting in 2004.
College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land grant, National Sea Grant and National Space Grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881.
American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, which is the team controlling the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the defense, which is the team without control of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and aims to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, and otherwise they turn over the football to the defense; if the offense succeeds in advancing ten yards or more, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.
The University of Connecticut began playing football in 1896 when the school was known as Storrs Agricultural College, and the team was known as the "Aggies." It teamed up with the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Rhode Island to form the Athletic League of New England State Colleges for the purpose of scheduling football matchups between the schools. The first year was spent playing against local high schools and YMCA clubs. The following year provided their first competition against future rivals Rhode Island, an opponent that would be played over 100 times, and Massachusetts. Other early rivals included the Ivy League and the "Little Ivies", particularly Yale University starting in 1948, who have played the Huskies for 50 years.
The Connecticut Huskies are the athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the American Athletic Conference. The university's football team plays at Rentschler Field, and the men's and women's basketball teams play on-campus at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and off-campus at the XL Center.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system. UMass Amherst has an annual enrollment of approximately 1,300 faculty members and more than 30,000 students and was ranked 27th best public university by U.S. News Report in 2018 in the national universities category.
The University of Rhode Island, commonly referred to as URI, is the flagship public research as well as the land grant and sea grant university for the state of Rhode Island. Its main campus is located in the village of Kingston in southern Rhode Island. Additionally, smaller campuses include the Feinstein Campus in Providence, the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center in Providence, the Narragansett Bay Campus in Narragansett, and the W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich.
Tragedy struck the team on September 27, 1919 when Gardner Dow died from brain injuries related to a flying tackle that he delivered in a game against New Hampshire.[2] The college would honor Dow by naming the athletic fields after him. These fields would become the home for most of the school's athletic teams for the next three decades.
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public research university in the University System of New Hampshire, in the United States. The university's Durham campus, comprising six colleges, is located in the Seacoast region of the state. A seventh college, the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, occupies the university's campus in Manchester, the state's largest city. The University of New Hampshire School of Law, known as the Franklin Pierce Law Center until 2010, is located in Concord, the state's capital.
The football team plays on Gardner Dow Athletic Fields in 1920.
In 1924, the Aggies celebrated their first undefeated season when they finished with six wins, no losses and two ties. The defense was the strength of the team, as they allowed a meager thirteen points to be scored against them over the entire season, including a total of three points over the final seven games.[3] The team was proclaimed by The New York Times to be among the best in the country, and was led by the school's first All-America candidate in captain, Martin "Red" O'Neill.[4]
The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.
The UConn Club memorializes O'Neill with a yearly award given to a former student-athlete who has had a successful professional career.
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world. The NFL's 17-week regular season runs from early September to late December, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, which is usually held in the first Sunday in February, and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC Confrences.
The Hartford Blues of the National Football League played only in the 1926 NFL season, with a record of 3–7. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut but played at the East Hartford Velodrome.
Arthur Vincent "Pop" Williams was an American football back who played five seasons in the National Football League with the Providence Steam Roller and Brooklyn Dodgers. He played college football at the University of Connecticut and attended Killingly High School in Killingly, Connecticut.
The renamed Huskies went on to become long-time members of the Yankee Conference, winning 15 conference championships.
The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league. Although not under the same charter, it is essentially an ancestor of today's Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) football conference.
In 2012, Bill Belichick stated in an interview on WEEI that in 1983 he applied for the Huskies' head coaching position but was eventually turned down in favor of an internal hire, Tom Jackson.
Connecticut hired Lew Perkins as its athletic director in 1990. One of Perkins' first projects was to gather facts for a possible upgrade of the football program to Division I-A.[7] Perkins feared that if the university didn't upgrade the football program, that it ran the risk of falling behind other institutions that fielded both football and basketball teams at the highest level. However, UConn was in the middle of a budget deficit and many faculty feared that an upgrade of the football program would result in a loosening of academic standards.[7]
In 1997, the Big East Conference gave the University of Connecticut and Villanova University a December 31 deadline to decide if they were going to upgrade their respective football programs and join the Big East football conference.[8] Villanova, a private institution, declined the invitation. However, in October 1997, the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees overwhelmingly endorsed, by a vote of sixteen to one, the football team's plan to upgrade the program to Division I-A status.[9] Part of the plan would be to build a new stadium, as the current stadium, Memorial Stadium, fell well below the minimum occupancy level of 30,000, as set by the NCAA. Originally, the new stadium was to be built on campus.
UConn would be granted an attendance waiver by the NCAA in order to play its home games at Memorial Stadium in Storrs during the 2000–2002 seasons.
However, the enthusiasm toward the new stadium quickly faded as the estimated expenses rose, the idea of an on-campus stadium was tabled, and the upgrade of the program was put on hold by the Connecticut state legislature.[10] A year later, the stadium issue was rehashed during an attempt to bring the New England Patriots to Hartford, Connecticut. A proposed 70,000 seat, open-air stadium in downtown Hartford would also serve as the home of the Huskies football team.[11] The plans for this stadium also fell through and the Patriots announced that they would remain in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Eventually, a new site emerged across the Connecticut River in East Hartford, when Pratt and Whitney donated their land on the old Rentschler Airfield to the state for purposes of building an off-campus football stadium which is 20 miles away from the main campus. Randy Edsall was named the 27th head football coach at the University of Connecticut on December 21, 1998 and led the Huskies from Division I-AA into Division I-A. UConn officially began the upgrade process in January 1999 by applying to join the Big East football conference.[12] They would receive a special waiver from the NCAA in order to play in Memorial Stadium while Rentschler Field was under construction.[13]
UConn would become the first school to ever move from the FCS to the Bowl Championship Series as a member of the Big East after 3 years as an independent. The Huskies would spend the 2000 and 2001 as a transitional Division I-A program as they built their scholarship base to the maximum of 85. They recorded their first win over a Division I-A opponent on September 16, 2000, when they defeated Buffalo, 24–21. They would finish the 2000 season with a final record of 3–8. The 2001 season brought their first win over a BCS rival with a victory over Rutgers on September 29, by a score of 20–19. The growing pains continued, as they finished the season at 2–9.
The breakthrough came during the Huskies first year as a full-fledged member of Division I-A in 2002. Led by sophomorequarterback, Dan Orlovsky, they showed vast improvement over the previous two seasons, despite starting the season losing six of the first eight games. They closed Memorial Stadium in fashion by routing the last two opponents, Florida Atlantic and Kent State, by a combined score of 124–35. The 63 points scored against Kent State in the Memorial Stadium finale, was the most the Huskies ever scored in the 50 years of playing in the stadium. They concluded a successful season by defeating Navy, 38–0, and Iowa State, 37–20. The victory over Iowa State was the Huskies first win over a bowl-bound team.
The success continued in 2003, when Connecticut began play in Rentschler Field. They would finish the season with an overall record of 9–3. They opened the season with their first victory vs. a Big Ten team ( 34–10 over Indiana) and the final game of the season provided their first victory over an ACC opponent, when they defeated Wake Forest, 51–17. It was only the third time that a non-conference team had scored over 50 points in an ACC stadium. Despite the stellar record, the Huskies were not invited to play in a bowl game, largely due to their lack of conference affiliation.
Connecticut was originally scheduled to join the Big East as a football member in 2005. However, following the departure of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, the Huskies' entrance into the Big East was expedited by one year.[14]
The Huskies played their first Big East conference game on September 17, 2004 when they dropped a 27–7 decision at Boston College. Their first Big East conference win came only 13 days later, when they defeated Pittsburgh 29–17. They completed their first season in the conference in 5th place with a record of 3–3. That year's overall record of 8–4 was enough to garner an invitation to the 2004 Motor City Bowl, the first bowl invitation in the school's history. The attendance of 52,552 was, at the time, a record crowd for the Bowl.
The Huskies were hit hard by graduation and injuries in the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The program opened one of the best and newest college football facilities in 2006 with the completion of the $57.9 million (165,000 sq. ft.) Burton Family Football Complex & Mark R. Shenkman Training Center.[15] The 2007 season saw a quick turnaround with the Huskies first ever Big East Conference football title, which they shared with West Virginia, and an invitation to the Meineke Car Care Bowl. That was followed up with consecutive 8–5 seasons in 2008 and 2009 with wins in both of their bowl games (over Buffalo and the SEC's South Carolina).
The team was hit hard in 2009 by the on-campus murder of junior cornerback Jasper Howard who was stabbed by a non-student outside a dance following their homecoming game. UConn struggled following his death, dropping their next three games and falling to 1–4 in-conference, but got a major win to break the streak at Notre Dame, a victory quoted by Coach Randy Edsall as being the program's "Best Win".[16] The game ball from that victory was sent to Howard's mother in Miami, one of many tributes throughout the year for the fallen player.
The team honored Howard prior to every game through the 2010 season, which would have been his senior year. They capped off the season with a game ending field goal by Dave Teggart and a 19–16 win over USF for their 2nd Big East Championship in 4 years and a trip to the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. After a loss in the Fiesta Bowl, Edsall did not fly home with or tell his players that he was leaving the UConn football program. He instead took a separate flight to Maryland to become their new head coach. It had also been noted in the media that Edsall's relationship with then-athletic director Jeff Hathaway had been strained for several years.
Two weeks after Edsall left for the University of Maryland and after nearly seven years away from college football, Connecticut native Paul Pasqualoni was hired away as defensive coordinator from the Dallas Cowboys to lead the UConn football program, by the soon to be dismissed AD Hathaway. Following two seasons of mediocrity and a struggling offense, Pasqualoni was forced to replace his lifelong colleague George DeLeone as the offensive coordinator, just as he did prior to them both being fired at Syracuse. Pasqualoni named T. J. Weist as his OC for 2013. But Pasqualoni and Deleone (now his OL coach) were both fired after starting 0–4 with UConn's first ever and only loss as full D-I member to an FCS team (Towson 33–18) and following a humiliating defeat to Buffalo (41–12), which UConn had never lost to (8–0) as an FBS team. Weist was named the interim head coach and finished the season strong on a 3-game winning streak after starting out 0–5 and totally revamping the offense free of Pasqualoni's control.
Though Weist was considered for the head coaching job, UConn AD Warde Manuel announced Notre Dame defensive coordinator and Broyles Award winner Bob Diaco as the new UConn head coach for the 2014 season. After a complete tear down of the program in 2014, which would lead to Diaco finishing the year with only around 60 scholarship players available and needing to use a dozen true freshman, the team finished 2–10. The 2015 season resulted in a revitalization for the program as they finished 6–6 and became bowl eligible for the first time since the Edsall regime and the Fiesta Bowl in 2011.
American Athletic Conference
The Big East's name changed in 2013 to the American Athletic Conference as a result of the non-FBS split that took place as part of the conference's three-way realignment between 2010–2013. Three members moved to the ACC as full members, Notre Dame went the ACC as a partial and West Virginia to the Big 12. With the seven non-FBS basketball schools buying the Big East conference name for their own newly formed conference. Three teams departing to the ACC, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame, left the Big East with losing records against the Huskies in football.
On December 26, 2016, UConn announced Diaco( who posted his 3rd strait losing year with a 3-9 record) would be fired effective January 2, 2017 By not making the move immediately, the school saved $1.6 million in buyout expenses.[17] He was replaced by former coach Edsall, making his return to the program after six years.[18]
Academics
In 2010, Connecticut had 16 players named to the Big East All-Academic Football Team,[19] an honor which requires a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least a 3.0 in a minimum of two semesters. And several times UConn was ranked as one of the top bowl teams in the country per the annual Graduation Gap Bowl report.[20][21] In 2015, the team was honored by AF Coaches Assoc. for academic achievement and the 990 single year APR score in 2014–15 under head coach Diaco was also the highest in school history.
The Yankee Conference rivalry dates back to 1897. The rivalry became dormant in 1999 as UConn moved up to the FBS and UMass remained at the FCS level. UMass finally moved up to FBS and the teams played one game in 2012 a UConn (37–0) win. The rivalry is set to be revived with a 4-game agreement from the 2018 to the 2021 seasons. 2 games will be played at Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut and 2 games at the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts., which is 15 miles closer to the UConn campus in Storrs, Connecticut than it is to the Umass campus in Amherst, Massachusetts
The football rivalry dates back to 1897 and was centered around the Ramnapping Trophy after UConn students stole the URI mascot in 1934. The teams played nearly every year until the end of the Yankee Conference. Once UConn moved up to the FBS, the teams seldom play as Rhode Island remains an FCS program. Since 2000, there have been only 2 meetings; a UConn (52–7) win in 2006 and a UConn (52–10) win in 2009. They are scheduled to play again in 2018.
Facilities
Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field
Press box at Rentschler Field in 2008Rentschler Field in 2017
The Huskies play their home football games at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut, an off-campus facility located 20 miles (32km) to the west of the main campus and only 3 miles east of the new Downtown Hartford-Uconn campus. The inaugural game took place on August 30, 2003 when Connecticut defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 34–10. Since the opening, Connecticut has enjoyed a decided home field advantage, posting a 50–30 record when playing at Rentschler. In 2007, the Huskies completed their home season winning each of their seven home games, becoming only the second Big East team to compile a 7–0 home record. The stadium played to an average of 97% near capacity crowds for eight years (2003–2010), prior to Paul Pasqualoni's arrival and during the Big East.
Burton Family Football Complex
The Huskies on-campus home is at the Burton Family Football Complex on Stadium Road in Storrs, Connecticut. It contains the coaches offices, team meeting rooms, video facilities, dining hall and student-athlete lounge. Construction began in the fall of 2004 and it officially opened in July 2006. The facilities are considered to be among the best in the country. The building is named after Robert Burton, who in 2002 made a donation of $2.5 million to the University of Connecticut. The original location of the building was to be where Memorial Stadium currently stands.[23] However, it was later decided to construct the building across the street.
Mark R. Shenkman Training Center
Alongside the Burton Family Football Complex is the 85,000-square-foot (7,900m2) Mark R. Shenkman Training Center. The indoor training center includes a full-length football field and an 18,000-square-foot (1,700m2) strength and conditioning center.[24] The training center was made possible by a $2.5 million gift from Connecticut businessman and UConn alum, Mark Shenkman.[25] Construction of the Mark R. Shenkman Training Center and the Burton Family Football Complex were handled in tandem by HOK Sport + Venue + Event and JCJ Architecture. Upon completion in the summer of 2006, both buildings were granted a LEED silver designation. They are the first buildings on the University of Connecticut campus, and the first football facilities in the nation to be certified as a "green building."[26]
Records
Record vs. AAC teams
Official record against all AAC opponents (2013–present):[27][when?]
Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field is a stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut. It is primarily used for football and soccer, and is the home field of the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies. In the fall of 2010, it was home to the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League. The stadium, which opened in 2003, was the first stadium used primarily by an NCAA Division I-A team to open in the 21st century. The permanent stadium capacity is 40,000, consisting of 38,066 permanent seats with a standing-room area in the scoreboard plaza that can accommodate up to 1,934 people. It also has a game day capability to add approximately 2,000 temporary seats as it did for UConn football vs. Michigan in 2013. Connecticut played on campus at Memorial Stadium in Storrs, before 2003.
Paul Lucian Pasqualoni is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the defensive line coach at Boston College. He is a former head coach for the Syracuse University football team.
Randy Douglas Edsall is an American football coach who is currently in his second stint as the head coach at the University of Connecticut. He was director of football research-special projects for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) previously in 2016. He was the head coach at the University of Maryland from 2011 to 2015. Edsall was previously the head coach at Uconn from 1999 until the 2011 Fiesta Bowl, and oversaw the program's promotion from the NCAA Division I-AA level to Division I-A. He is UConn's all-time leader in wins and games coached.
The 2008 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was coached by Randy Edsall and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.
The 2009 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was coached by Randy Edsall and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. The team finished with a record of 8–5, 3–4 in Big East play and won the PapaJohns.com Bowl 20–7 against South Carolina.
The 2010 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was coached by Randy Edsall and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. The Huskies finished 8–5, 5–2 in Big East play to share the conference title with Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Due to victories over both schools, the Huskies earned the Big East's automatic bid to a BCS game, and were invited to the Fiesta Bowl where they were defeated by Big 12 champion Oklahoma 48–20. It was the first major-bowl appearance in the program's 115-year history.
The 2006 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was coached by Randy Edsall and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.
The 2011 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was coached by Paul Pasqualoni and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. It was Pasqualoni's first year with the team.
The Connecticut Huskies baseball team represents the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut in college baseball. The program is classified in the NCAA Division I, and the team competes in the American Athletic Conference. The team is coached by Jim Penders.
The 2012 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Big East Conference. The team was led by second year head coach Paul Pasqualoni and played its home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. They finished the season 5–7, 2–5 in Big East play to finish in a tie for sixth place.
Robert Albert Diaco is an American football coach and former player.
The 2013 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. They were led by third year head coach Paul Pasqualoni for the first four games then interim head coach T. J. Weist for the rest of the season. They played their home games at Rentschler Field.
The 2014 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut in the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. They played their home games at Rentschler Field. They were led by first year head coach Bob Diaco. They finished the season 2–10, 1–7 in AAC play to finish in a tie for tenth place.
The 2015 Connecticut Huskies football team represented the University of Connecticut during the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Eastern Division of the American Athletic Conference. They played their home games at Rentschler Field. They were led by second-year head coach Bob Diaco. They finished the season 6–7, 4–4 in American Athletic play to finish in a tie for third place in the East Division. They were invited to the St. Petersburg Bowl where they lost to Marshall.
The Civil Conflict, was the name given by former University of Connecticut football head coach Bob Diaco to Connecticut's annual matchup against the UCF Knights football team of the University of Central Florida. The teams first met in 2013 as members of the American Athletic Conference.
The 2019 Connecticut Huskies football team will represent the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Huskies will be led by head coach Randy Edsall, who is in the third year of his second stint as head coach at the school. The team will play their home games at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut, and will compete as members of the East Division of the American Athletic Conference.
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