UConn sports

UConn’s Dec. 6 football game against Pittsburgh at Rentschler Field will kickoff at noon.

It’s an ESPN telecast.

- Neill

A few notes as I sit next to the esteemed Rich Elliott and wait to watch the UConn men’s basketball team practice Friday. (And then some from after practice)

– Former Providence coach Tim Welsh will be the analyst Saturday on MyTV9 and SNY when UConn and Bryant hit the court.

I’ve never heard Welsh call a game but it would seem to me he’d be an entertaining listen. He was always fun (even after a loss or in a sour mood) after games.

Veteran Bob Picozzi will be alongside Welsh to provide play-by-play.

– Kemba Walker has scored 20 or more points in two of his first five games at UConn. The only players to do that at UConn under Jim Calhoun before now were Ray Allen, Caron Butler and Khalid El-Amin.

– With a win against Bryant Calhoun would tie Lute Olson and Lou Henson for 8th place on the NCAA’s all-time victory list with No. 780.

– Finals are coming up for the Huskies, which means guard Jerome Dyson might have to make the trip to Buffalo one day later than the rest of his teammates.

“That’s part of being a student athlete,” Calhoun said.

– Guard A.J. Price says he’s healthy. That’s rare this season.

“I’m actually feeling good for probably the first time this year,” Price said. “It’s the best I’ve felt in a while.”

– UConn and Bryant have met in each of the last four seasons, but all of those have been exhibitions.

Bryant is moving up to Division I now and Saturday will be its first “real” game against the Huskies.

– Freshman forward Ater Majok is still scheduled to arrive in December. It’s just not clear when.

“There’s nothing new. We’re still waiting on that,” Calhoun said. “On the holidays it’s very difficult to get anybody at the NCAA. We’ve tried. We’re trying to get that news as quickly as we can.”

– The Bryant contest is “an us game” according to the UConn coach.

“We better just make sure we pay attention to the job at hand,” Calhoun said. “Our job is to take care of Connecticut, take care of ourselves.”

And Calhoun isn’t getting too caught up in the Huskies’ record.

“Two years ago we had a deceptive 11-0 record,” he said. “So the 5-0 record doesn’t impress me. Two of the wins do impress me.”

- Neill

Walked off the plane at Bradley this afternoon and hurried home for coach Randy Edsall’s afternoon chat with reporters.

Here are the highlights.

– UConn RB Donald Brown isn’t among the three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, an award for the nation’s top running back.

Shonn Greene of Iowa, Knowshon Moreno of Georgia and Javon Ringer of Michigan State made the final cut.

Rarely does Edsall talk about individual awards but he wasn’t too pleased that Brown wasn’t among the top three for this one. Brown remains, of course, the nation’s leading rusher.

“To me that’s a disappointment. I think he should be,” Edsall said. ”You’re the leading rusher in the country. What else would you have to do? … Just because he’s not from a supposedly big-name school?”

Not sound like a homer (D’oh!) but I think Edsall’s correct on this one.

No, Brown isn’t a shoe-in to win the thing nor perhaps should he. But I don’t think there’s much doubt he’s among the top three this season.

Ringer will probably win and he deserves it. But Brown might deserve a little better.

– As an aside to this topic, the top three were announced for many of college football’s individual awards Monday. Brown’s was hardly the biggest snub.

I know it’s just punters and it’s no big deal to some people, but how is Cincinnati’s Kevin Huber not among the finalists for the Ray Guy award?

That guy is the best punter I’ve seen since Reggie Roby. Roby is the former Miami Dolphin punter who could measure the hang time of his punts with a calendar.

– LB Greg Lloyd is almost assuredly out for Pittsburgh but he could be back for UConn’s bowl game.

“He’s still in school,” Edsall said. “He’s just dealing with a personal issue right now.”

Aaron Bryant played pretty well in his spot against USF and is the likely starter in two weeks against the Panthers.

– The coach thought his defense played well (and it did) but the Huskies gave up four “big” plays for a total of 109 yards.

“I thought there were six plays in the game that were very, very critical,” Edsall said. “I thought we played well defensively for the most part, except for those six plays: the four big plays and the two third downs in that last drive. We had a chance to make them punt earlier in the possession, which would have given us the ball back and maybe we wouldn’t have had to use our time outs.”

– Edsall echoed what smart observers (Yeah it was me, how’d you guess?) remarked on Sunday night. Left tackle Will Beatty had an excellent game facing USF’s George Selvie.

It appeared Beatty used excellent technique (I can’t believe I just wrote that).

“Will Beatty played very, very well. I thought he did a tremendous job on George Selvie,” Edsall said. “That might have been Will’s best game of his whole career at UConn.”

– By the way, no time or specific TV (ESPN or ESPN2) for the UConn-Pitt game Dec. 6.

ESPN has invoked the power of the six-day window in this case.

Translation: TV bigwigs want to see what happens next weekend to determine how attractive this matchup is as compared to others they have available.

- Neill

A few nuts and bolts from UConn’s 17-13 loss to South Florida Sunday night:

– Quarterback Tyler Lorenzen’s fumble with just over 5 minutes to play was probably the difference. If he goes down (or is ruled down) UConn has a first down on about the 29-yard line and will have a good shot to take the lead.

Instead, it was first down South Florida.

“I was actually diving to get on the ground, which is surprising that I fumbled the ball,” Lorenzen said. “I knew I had the first so I was getting down to move the chains. He must have gotten his hand in there, helmet, something.”

The play was reviewed and it showed a bang-bang play. Lorenzen’s left knee appears to hit at about the same time the ball is jarred loose. No real chance for a reversal, whatever the call on the field was it was going to stand.

Lorenzen got hit plenty all night but was really pounded on the final play of the game. He was asked if he got his “bell rung.”

“Yeah, that’s the best way to put it,” Lorenzen said. “I was out of it. Zach Hurd was trying to get me to go down but I was just trying to regain my balance.”

– Linebacker Greg Lloyd will probably be out for the rest of the regular season, maybe UConn’s bowl game.

“Greg’s probably not going to play,” head coach Randy Edsall said. “He’s got some personal issues that he’s dealing with right now. I doubt very much that he’ll be playing against Pittsburgh, either.”

– Both teams had 10 penalties for 78 yards.

“South Florida is a team that gets penalized quite a bit,” Edsall said. “It’s unfortunate for us. We usually don’t get penalized. It was just uncharacteristic.”

– UConn allowed USF’s Dontavia Bogan returns of 64 and 71 yards in the first half.

“We just had some guys that didn’t execute,” Edsall said. “It wasn’t anything that they did differently. We practiced it but obviously we didn’t get our points across.”

– Ellis Gaulden caught his first career touchdown pass on the double-reverse flea-flicker that tied the score in the third quarter.

After taking the return pitch from Jordan Todman, Lorenzen was hit and the ball floated rather slowly down to Gaulden at the 5-yard line.

“I saw the ball in the air floating,” Gaulden said. “It took FOR-EV-ER to get there. I’m like ‘Oh my God! They (the USF safeties) are coming back!’ ”

- Neill

Raymond James is starting to fill up.

Of course, by fill up I mean dozens of people are streaming in. If you’re in the neighborhood, come on down.

One little pre-game note before kickoff between the Bulls and Huskies.

Middle linebacker Greg Lloyd Jr. didn’t make the trip to Tampa with his teammates. UConn officials called it “personal reasons.”

We’re still waiting to see how the Huskies line up defensively.

They’ll probably play a lot of nickel tonight so maybe Dahna Deleston slides down from safety and Aaron Bagsby makes another start (moving Scott Lutrus to the middle.)

Or maybe one of the backups starts and plays a lot. Greg Robinson maybe?

We’ll see.

In-game update:

The Huskies started with 5 DB’s with Lutrus in the middle and Deleston at linebacker. But Aaron Bryant is playing a lot as the middle linebacker when the Huskies go to a “traditional” defensive front.

- Neill

I’m not half as celebrity obsessed as it appears most of America is these days. Famous actors or athletes could knock on my door and I probably would just sick my 19 1/2-pound dog on them for interrupting my morning coffee.

I’m not a stargazer, nor am I a tabloid journalist. You couldn’t pay me enough to tail young starlets in their Benz’ or stick a mic in some schmo’s face on a red carpet.

That being said, when you run into a legend…all bets are off.

As myself and two of my fellow scribes (Chuck Banning of The Day and Chip Malafronte of the Register) strolled into a local eatery Saturday evening in Tampa, we stumbled onto a legend of athletics and entertainment.

None other than Terry Bollea was getting into his yellow Mustang with a young blond about half his age.

Don’t know Mr. Bollea?

Perhaps you know him better as Hulk Hogan.

Chuck’s attentive eye was the first to spot the Hulkster. Though in retrospect, how did Chip and I miss him? How many people wear ribbed white shirts and red bandanas to steak houses?

And I should have recalled that Hogan grew up in Tampa and still lives in the area. He actually went to USF for a time, too.

Now, Hogan’s meal at The Palm Restaurant may have cost a little more than our fare at Mitchell’s Fish Market (though the quality I’m sure was comparable: great fresh fish from Mr. or Mrs. Mitchell, whoever they are), but we were practically equals on this night.

I wanted to scream my best “What-cha Gonna Do Brother!?!?!?” or give him a flying leg drop but that probably would have been inappropriate.

I had to settle for a quick “Hey, wasn’t that?” followed by a “No, wait…”

I never watched Hogan’s reality shows and I don’t know anything about his daughter or, apparently, his recent divorce. Nice memories of Rocky III, WrestleMania and the like, though.

And in this day and age, don’t we need more Real Americans?

- Neill

Greetings from Tampa.

It’s like the Virgin Islands but with fewer virgins. And no Tim Duncan.

Anyway, enough of my whining about missing some silly basketball games.

Let me and try and concentrate on the football Huskies and their odd Sunday night affair.

– The Huskies were a woeful 2-11 in Big East road games through their first four years in the league. Only a win by Dan Orlovsky and company at Rutgers in 2004 and one over Pittsburgh in the Steel City last season stood on the plus side of the ledger.

This season the Huskies are 2-1 away from home in the league, conquering fields that have given them fits in the past.

“Every year we put out a couple of goals, to beat teams we haven’t beat yet and doing things we haven’t done yet,” defensive end Cody Brown said early in the week.

Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium? Check

The Carrier Dome? Check

Next up? Raymond James Stadium.

Even if you put the 2001 game aside as too long ago, the Huskies have still been terrible here. It’s only one game but USF could have named the score in that 38-16 win here in 2006.

“That’s the one thing I’m going to say is 40-21, 38-16 the last two times we’ve been there,” coach Randy Edsall said of his chats with his players. “It’s another thing we can get accomplished, to beat this team on the road.”

USF has not had much luck lately. The Bulls have lost three straight and four of vie. Most of that is because quarterback Matt Grothe has been picked off eight times in the last three.

Turnovers (as if you didn’t know) will play a big role Sunday.

That’s it for me tonight. I’m busy watching Notre Dame try and blow a lead against Syracuse.

(I think there should be Donovan McNabb rule on this game, by the way. Neither team deserves a win…let’s call it a tie.)

- Neill

Your usual Thursday afternoon update from the hardest working sportswriter in Connecticut:

(OK, I’m like 17th or 18th but let me live in my fantasy world.)

– UConn coach Randy Edsall says his team is healthy heading into Sunday’s game with South Florida.

“There’s really nothing to tell you. It’s been an uneventful week,” Edsall said. “No injuries that have come up during the week so far.”

– Tight end Steve Brouse has returned to practice but his broken leg still needs some time to heal and he won’t play this week.

“He won’t play. He’s practiced a little bit,” Edsall said. “He’s going to do some 7-on-7 today (Thursday). We had him on special teams before.”

– Defensive end Mike Cox, who has been out all season with a knee injury, will make the trip to Tampa with his teammates this weekend. He isn’t expected to play, however.

“He would be there from an emergency standpoint,” Edsall said. “He’s not in the depth (chart).”

– The original plan in having the Huskies practice indoor this week was to crank up the heat and simulate the hot and sticky weather they’re likely to face in Tampa.

As it turns out, the players didn’t mind it as much because of the bitter cold outside the Shenkman Training Center this week.

“(Wednesday) they were glad to be inside with the temperatures we had outside and the wind chill,” Edsall said.

It’s actually supposed to be rather cool (50’s maybe low 60s) Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium.

– With a rare bye week during the Thanksgiving holiday, the UConn coaches are allowing the players to go home next week.

They’ll leave after practice Tuesday morning and don’t have to return until Saturday.

“When the schedule came out, that’s the one thing I looked at,” said Edsall, whose team has usually played over the holiday.

“Let them enjoy it, let them get with their families. That’s what Thanksgiving is all about,” the coach said. “The guys that can’t go anywhere or don’t go with another player, we as coaches will get them and bring them over to our homes. We’ll make sure they have a nice Thanksgiving meal.”

– South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe is nursing a sprained ankle. He hasn’t practiced much this week.

Edsall was asked if the Huskies are preparing to face Grothe’s backup, senior Grant Gregory.

“We’re in a copycat league,” Edsall said. “So Jim (Leavitt) saw what I was doing and he’s trying to pull the same thing on me.”

Last week Edsall, of course, hid the fact that Tyler Lorenzen would return from an injury to face Syracuse.

UConn is obviously gearing up for Grothe.

“I’ll be dumfounded if Matt Grothe isn’t out there playing against us,” Edsall said.

- Neill