The Importance of Finishing Strong. Take Care of Business Against Sacred Heart and UMESS. What Say You?

[TouchdownHusky]

Yeah, boy. Beating SH (FCS) and "winning the Yankee Conference championship" against UMass will only underscore how abysmal this team is. The program was a laughing stock when it opted out of the Covid season so early, only to watch the vast majority of programs play. It continues today. Zero TD's in two games. Pathetic.

 

[CTBballfan243]

I think UMass has better team than UConn this year. We shall see what happens, but I’d be surprised if we beat UMass.

 

[jdb50]

The players worked hard to prepare for the season. Many things have brought us here. Getting wins in the last 2 games would be huge for them. UMass will be tough. Don Brown will throw everything at Charlton and Roberson. They run the ball well and have a good receiver- Simpson from Bloomfield- that they got in the portal. It would show a lot about the team's character if we put together a solid effort and win in Amherst. UMass picked up 4 players from Arizona in the portal. Simpson is one of them. UMass QB is Puma's brother who we faced at Clemson. UConn clearly wiffed in the portal.

 

[ManFromOZ]

In spite of the way this season has gone, i'm looking forward to another trip to the Rent to finally see the team get a win at home. As poorly as we've played at times, we should easily handle SH, a bad FCS squad. That should give us a much needed boost heading up to Amherst the following week.

UMass will come at us with everything they have, which isn't much, but it could be more than enough if we play as poorly as we have at times. We played a very uninspired game up there in 2021, whereas their team seemed jacked to get the win, which they did. Let's hope our guys play to the best of their ability and take out a season of frustration on the Minutemen.

We desperately need to win both these games and I say we will.

Well said Gopher. Keep the faith.

 

[ManFromOZ]

There is a huge difference between winning 3 and talking about a few key moments going the other way and the embarrassment of going 1-11, losing your last two to SH and UMass because your team quit and your program doesn't care about success.

Well said. Couldn't agree more.

 

[huskysupporter]

Winning these last two games nothing to change perception of program. UMASS, although better than us his season, and Sacred Heart are terrible.

No recruit or portal player is going to say “man they are terrible but those huge wins against UMASS and Sacred Heart show they are on the upswing!”

 

[UConnDan97]

It's simple. It's easier to convince God players to come to your program when you're 3-9 than when you're 1-11. It means the turnaround is only a few players away.

We absolutely CANNOT go 1-11 and then hope for a turnaround next year...

 

[KryHavok]

Winning these last two games nothing to change perception of program. UMASS, although better than us his season, and Sacred Heart are terrible.

No recruit or portal player is going to say “man they are terrible but those huge wins against UMASS and Sacred Heart show they are on the upswing!”

Totally agree. UConn has 1 win, SHU has 2, and UMass has 3. Three teams, 6 total wins in 30 games. I'm sure a win should get that 4* recruit from Texas we'd be pining for.

These are must win games not for anything else other than to prove the program has a pulse, but win or lose, a major rebuild of coaches and players is sorely and direly needed.

 

[UCFBfan]

Winning these last two games nothing to change perception of program. UMASS, although better than us his season, and Sacred Heart are terrible.

No recruit or portal player is going to say “man they are terrible but those huge wins against UMASS and Sacred Heart show they are on the upswing!”

I can promise you a recruit will look at a 1-11 program that lost to that terrible FCS school SHU and say Nah, I'm good.

You all can keep saying you don't care but stop for a second and think about what losing to a 2-8 Sacred Heart would look like.

So yeah, these last two games matter.

 

[Alum86]

Keep Ruelas safe over the next few days. He’s our offense. All of it over the last few weeks. SMH. Fire Charlton. Now.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

UConn needs to win next two games. No excuses.

 

[spsct]

As much as I would like to see us win the last two games, my concern is that we score a lot of points and then decide that Charlton has turned the corner and deserves another season. So I guess a couple of grinding wins?

 

[MKH2317]

It's simple. It's easier to convince God players to come to your program when you're 3-9 than when you're 1-11. It means the turnaround is only a few players away.

We absolutely CANNOT go 1-11 and then hope for a turnaround next year...

This. My uncle is a HS football coach in PA and and one of his players is being recruited by UConn. The kid recently had his visit and said he loved the school, loved the facilities and loved Mora. He said he didn’t think he wanted to come to UConn though because UConn doesn’t win. My uncle told him that UConn is a few key players away from a complete turnaround and to not dismiss that possibility. My uncle has a lot of respect for Mora as do other HS coaches in that area. You’re absolutely right, a 3-9 record is a better argument for a turnaround than 1-11

 

[Scoe]

He’ll ya it matters this isn’t the NFL. The players themselves have gotta find a way to win in spite of bad coaching, have to hope our running game can rip off 2008 Donald Brown type of runs to lessen the impact our moron OC has on this offense.

 

[AllHusky]

Wins will not change the trajectory of the program dramatically, but losses will. The downward slope will steepen dramatically with losses, as it would signal a lack of character, determination, pride, competitiveness of the people in the program, starting at the top. Wins would not change the season, or the talent level, but it would show that some of those characteristics listed are positives.

 

[ManFromOZ]

Wins will not change the trajectory of the program dramatically, but losses will. The downward slope will steepen dramatically with losses, as it would signal a lack of character, determination, pride, competitiveness of the people in the program, starting at the top. Wins would not change the season, or the talent level, but it would show that some of those characteristics listed are positives.

Well said!

 

[BlueandOG]

As much as I would like to see us win the last two games, my concern is that we score a lot of points and then decide that Charlton has turned the corner and deserves another season. So I guess a couple of grinding wins?

If this happens, Mora has to go.

 

[Buffett10]

If this happens, Mora has to go.

Don’t worry according to the boneyard Mora’s got 2 feet out the door

 

[Bthlhf79]

We will beat SHU by a wide margin. SHU is a very weak, 2-8 FCS football team. Recruits and the coaches competing with us for them will know how meaningless a win here is. Conversely, we absolutely must beat UMass. This is a far more significant game for the future of Huskies Football. While a win over a perennial cellar dweller in the BCS won’t appreciably change the team’s trajectory, a loss would be disastrous and will fuel the narrative that we’re hopeless.

 

[Scrutiner]

The difference between 1-11 to 3-9 or even 2-10 is significant if only for setting a positive mindset for 2024. Everyone (coaches, players, admins, fans, recruits - both high school and portal) needs something to latch onto heading into a long NE winter. It's imperative to blow out Sacred Heart and take down UMESS if only for our collective sanities. We need a laugher although long term forecast calls for rain on Saturday - could be under 5000 in the stadium. (I can't convince my fellow mid-70's graduates to even sniff a thought of attending - they'll be huddled up under blankets at home tuning in on the TV). Yes, the attention has been turned to hoops (rightfully so). W's are critical in these two games. Wondering what everyone is thinking as we approach the final two weeks of a trying season. What Say You?

We'll be there Saturday making our annual trek from South Carolina for several games (going to MSG for Sunday and Monday men's games, but no women's game this year).

Last year was a great trip. Saw the men win Friday, football's win over Liberty on Saturday, the women beat Texas Monday and the men win over Buffalo on Tuesday (at least that's what I remember and I'm not looking them up to satisfy the critics).

When we lived in WMass we went to all games, rain or shine, and the weather didn't matter once we discovered the great ponchos sold at Dick's.

Admittedly, we were on the upswing in football until we moved South in 2011 so we don't fully appreciate what all the diehard fans are going through right now.

 

[Scrutiner]

In spite of the way this season has gone, i'm looking forward to another trip to the Rent to finally see the team get a win at home. As poorly as we've played at times, we should easily handle SH, a bad FCS squad. That should give us a much needed boost heading up to Amherst the following week.

UMass will come at us with everything they have, which isn't much, but it could be more than enough if we play as poorly as we have at times. We played a very uninspired game up there in 2021, whereas their team seemed jacked to get the win, which they did. Let's hope our guys play to the best of their ability and take out a season of frustration on the Minutemen.

We desperately need to win both these games and I say we will.

UMass is always jacked up for UConn. They are a failure as an athletic department so we are their Super Bowl and World Series in any sport in which we compete.

Their state government doesn't support them as Connecticut supports UConn even though we'd like to see more support for football. Even their buildings look like a different design was chosen every 20 years. No consistency and not very pleasing to the eye but that's UMass isn't it?

 

[ManFromOZ]

We'll be there Saturday making our annual trek from South Carolina for several games (going to MSG for Sunday and Monday men's games, but no women's game this year).

Last year was a great trip. Saw the men win Friday, football's win over Liberty on Saturday, the women beat Texas Monday and the men win over Buffalo on Tuesday (at least that's what I remember and I'm not looking them up to satisfy the critics).

When we lived in WMass we went to all games, rain or shine, and the weather didn't matter once we discovered the great ponchos sold at Dick's.

Admittedly, we were on the upswing in football until we moved South in 2011 so we don't fully appreciate what all the diehard fans are going through right now.

That's a weekend in full. A true Husky fanatic. Hope the weather holds out for you and you come home with a fistfull of W's!

 

[nycscooby]

I really hope that we don’t lose either of these last two games but I find myself maybe hoping even more that Cole Welliver shows up to Storrs next Summer.

 

[NHRich]

This Saturday is a must win, Umass would be a nice win, and not easy. Both really really do not want to lose that game. It should be a battle.

 

[UConnDan97]

This. My uncle is a HS football coach in PA and and one of his players is being recruited by UConn. The kid recently had his visit and said he loved the school, loved the facilities and loved Mora. He said he didn’t think he wanted to come to UConn though because UConn doesn’t win. My uncle told him that UConn is a few key players away from a complete turnaround and to not dismiss that possibility. My uncle has a lot of respect for Mora as do other HS coaches in that area. You’re absolutely right, a 3-9 record is a better argument for a turnaround than 1-11

This should be mandatory reading on the Boneyard football tab...