UConn sports

A few more quick hitters from around the Big East:

– Cincinnati has already clinched a share of the Big East title heading into Saturday’s game with Pittsburgh. The winner gets the league’s automatic BCS berth.

So does the share the Bearcats have already earned mean anything?

“No,” coach Brian Kelly said Monday. “We’re not playing for co-championships.”

– So, if by chance the Bearcats don’t win this weekend, do they deserve an at-large BCS bid?

“I know we’ve answered the call when it comes to traveling and doing those things. I think our reputation is pretty good,” Kelly said. “But I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it.”

– Will Kelly campaign for a BCS title shot if his team wins?

“No. I think our record will speak for itself and the teams we’ve played,” Kelly said. “Obviously we’ll be pulling hard for Oregon State to be the Pac-10 champions.”

– Miami ran all over USF last weekend. Coach Jim Leavitt expects UConn to try and do the same this week.

“They’re going to try to run the ball right at us, I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Leavitt said. “I would.”

– For the third time this season the Huskies are facing a quarterback who doubles as a basketball player. UConn beat Syracuse and Greg Paulus, but lost to West Virginia and Jarrett Brown.

Now it’s USF and B.J. Daniels.

Edsall has never coached a player who played both basketball and football in college. He joked that he has a good idea of what he wants if the opportunity came along.

“Jerome Dyson, I’d like to coach him and let him be a defensive back for us,” Edsall said.

- Neill

The UConn-USF football game on Saturday will be “Military and Veterans Appreciation Night”. Discounted tickets are available to all military and veterans for the price of $16. All uniformed military and veterans are invited to the field during halftime to be recognized in a march around the field.

To purchase the military/veterans discounted tickets visit UConnHuskies.com.

Click “BUY TICKETS” in Ticket Center

Click Promotions

Enter Promotional Code: USA

The deadline to order $16 discounted tickets is Friday at noon. There is an eight ticket maximum per order.

To participate in the halftime activities please register at the Marketing Table at FanFest between Gates C & D between 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. or the Marketing Kiosk, located on the concourse of Rentschler Field at Gate B from 6:30 p.m. through the end of the first quarter.

Veterans who do not have uniforms are still invited to participate. Disabled veterans, who may not be able to walk around the entire field, are invited to be recognized on the field in the end zone area.

The Big East’s weekly awards. More info to come.

BIG EAST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Tony Pike • Sr. • QB • Cincinnati • Cincinnati, Ohio

Pike returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Oct. 15 and showed no signs of rust as he completed 32 of 46 passes for 399 yards and a school-record six touchdowns in the Bearcats’ 49-36 win against Illinois. Pike threw four touchdown passes as part of a 35-point first half that effectively put the game out of reach. Despite missing three games due to injury this season, Pike has thrown for 2,048 yards and 23 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

BIG EAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Robert Sands • So. • FS • West Virginia • Opa Locka, Fla.

Sands was the catalyst on a West Virginia defense that limited ninth-ranked Pittsburgh to a season-low 16 points in the Mountaineers’ 19-16 win. Sands had seven tackles, three pass breakups and a pivotal fourth-quarter interception that allowed West Virginia to take a two-possession lead on the ensuing possession. Sands leads the Big East with five interceptions and 13 passes defended this season.

BIG EAST SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Tyler Bitancurt • Fr. • K • West Virginia • Springfield, Va.

Bitancurt kicked four field goals, including the gamewinner from 43 yards as time expired, to give West Virginia a 19-16 win against ninth-ranked Pittsburgh. Bitancurt scored 13 of the Mountaineers’ 19 points, including three field goals in the second half. In addition to the gamewinner, Bitancurt was successful from 20, 43 and 39 yards.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL

Mardy Gilyard, WR, Cincinnati — Had 260 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns in a 49-36 win against Illinois. Had seven catches for 102 yards and two TDs and scored on a 90-yard kickoff return.

Lawrence Wilson, LB, Connecticut — Had a game-high 17 tackles with one sack in a 56-31 win against Syracuse.

Mohamed Sanu, WR, Rutgers — Had 18 carries for 148 yards and two touchdowns and one reception for 10 yards in a 34-14 win against Louisville.

Greg Paulus, QB, Syracuse — Was 24-of-32 for 296 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-31 loss at Connecticut. Set school records for completions (193) and completion percentage (67.7) in a season.

Noel Devine, RB, West Virginia — Had 17 carries for 134 yards and an 88-yard touchdown in a 19-16 win against Pittsburgh.

- Neill

Some bad news from the UConn football team in the wake of a key win over Syracuse:

– Junior LB Greg Lloyd tore both the ACL and MCL in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season _ next week’s game against South Florida and the bowl game.

Lloyd will have surgery at some point this week. He will miss spring practice but should return next season.

“He won’t be ready for the spring,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said Sunday. “I would hope he would be ready for August.”

Scott Lutrus, who plays in the middle on passing downs, will move to middle linebacker in Lloyd’s place as the Huskies move forward. Redshirt freshman Jory Johnson will take over for Lutrus at strong-side linebacker.

Lloyd was hurt in the fourth quarter of the Syracuse game. He blitzed and was cut by an Orange offensive lineman.

“It wasn’t anything dirty. It was just a clean football play,” Edsall said.

– No other significant injuries, though G Erik Kuraczea (lower leg) remains probable.

– As a whole, UConn’s defense hasn’t played well in some time.

“We have some young guys making some mistakes and even some older guys making some mistakes,” Edsall said. “We just have to be more consistent.”

– Game balls for the win went to: WR Marcus Easley (offense), LB Lawrence Wilson (defense), and Mike Lang/Anthony Sherman (special teams)

– With Notre Dame’s loss to Stanford late Saturday, the Huskies are virtually assured of heading to a Big East bowl.

“We know we’re going to take one of the six spots that the Big East has contracted bowls with,” Edsall said. “To know that’s done now, it’s less worry.”

It’s St. Petersburg or Birmingham for the Huskies, it seems.

– Edsall said he liked what OG Matt Olivier did in filling in for Kuraczea.

“I thought he was steady. I thought he played good,” Edsall said. “I wasn’t disappointed in him.”

– A contact period started Sunday, allowing football coaches to visit with potential recruits. The Huskies, however, are somewhat limited by their schedule.

“But we won’t be doing any contact. We’re going to get ready for South Florida,” Edsall said.

The coaches might get out to visit players in Connecticut or the surrounding states.

“If we have local guys that we can go see, we’ll go see them,” Edsall said.

- Neill

About to exit into the Connecticut night and maybe even get some sleep. But here are few topics of conversation from UConn’s 56-31 win over Syracuse Saturday (it’s football people…basketball was yesterday…wake up!)

– UConn is bowl eligible for the third straight year. It’s a position some people didn’t think the Huskies would get to given what they’ve been through on and off the field.

“We’ve been through a lot this year. At times it seemed like the season was never going to end. Things weren’t going our way,” quarterback Zach Frazer said. “But to get our sixth win today meant a lot.”

– Big East Senior Associate Commissioner Nick Carparelli was at Rentschler Field today.

Carparelli, among his other duties, helps negotiate bowl bids. Now that UConn is eligible (along with Cincy, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers and USF), it’s all about selections…and perhaps hoping Notre Dame doesn’t somehow squeeze itself into the Gator Bowl and bump all the league teams down a peg.

“I hope the Gator Bowl does the right thing and selects a Big East school,” Carparelli said Saturday.

– As for the game, UConn coach Randy Edsall didn’t think he was running up the score when Frazer threw deep to Marcus Easley on a fourth down play with less than a minute to play.

“There’s still time left on the clock and they were bunched up there,” Edsall said. “I thought that was a good call. The game’s not over yet and we didn’t want to give them the ball back with only an 11-point lead.”

– UConn gave up 489 yards of offense to Syracuse, not something the coaches were obviously pleased with.

“Defensively we didn’t play as well as we would have liked,” Edsall said. “We made some plays when we needed to.”

– Speaking of Easley, he’s now a bonafide stud. I mean, it’s one thing to make plays when no one knows who you are and a defense is clueless. It’s another thing to do it when defenses prepare for you and to do it on passing downs.

“He’s going to have an opportunity to further his career (NFL) after this season,” Edsall said.

Easley caught six passes total for 105 yards and two scores.

“He’s taken advantage of his opportunities and he’s come up huge,” Edsall said. “And hopefully he can do it for a couple more games.”

– Edsall nearly allowed Easley’s long catch at the end of the first half to go for naught.

UConn found itself with a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line with nine seconds left and no timeouts.

“I thought I screwed up there at the end of the half with the nine seconds,” Edsall said. “I probably should have clocked it and saved the timeout.”

The Huskies called a running play and allowed Andre Dixon to try and score a touchdown. He did, but if Dixon had been stopped it’s unlikely the Huskies would have got another play off and they wouldn’t have scored at all.

“I told Dre ‘Thanks for making me look good,’ ” Edsall said. “Because I questioned myself on that one.”

– LB Greg Lloyd hurt his left knee in the fourth quarter and left the game. Edsall didn’t say much about it after the game.

“I’ll know more (Sunday),” Edsall said.

– UConn has gone over the 30-point mark in three straight games, the first time it’s done that since the last game of 2004 (Motor City Bowl) and the first two of 2005.

– UConn’s 56 points were the most it has scored in a game since a 59-0 win over Liberty Sept. 1, 2005.

– RB Jordan Todman now has 1,079 yards, which is ninth on the UConn single-season list.

- Neill

It’s 35-17 but Syracuse is driving and perhaps about to score.

Syracuse coach Doug Marrone’s curious decision to decline a chop block penalty on UConn’s Mike Hicks led to UConn’s score at the start of the half.

During a 1-yard run by Andre Dixon on third-and-6 from the 26, Hicks was called for a 15-yard penalty. But instead of pushing UConn back to make it third-and-21 from the 41, Marrone declined the penalty and it was fourth-and-5 at the 25.

The Cuse coach probably thought UConn couldn’t/wouldn’t attempt a field goal from there (he was right) but the Huskies completed a pass to Brad Kanuch for a big first down instead. Zach Frazer hit Marcus Easley two plays later for a touchdown to make it 35-17.

Syracuse had a reasonable chance to score (kind of) but Ryan Lichtenstein missed a 48-yard field goal (with the wind) wide to the left with 3:06 left in the quarter.

– UConn LB Greg Lloyd left the game briefly in the third quarter with an injury. He came back on the very next snap.

– UConn SS Jerome Junior left the game after getting blasted by Syracuse RB Delone Carter on a run. He was replaced by Aaron Bagsby.

Junior eventually came back, too.

- Neill

UConn 28, Syracuse 17 halfway through a windy affair at Rentschler.

It was a four-point game before some late heroics from the home team.

An unbelievable catch from WR Marcus Ealsey (I guess it’s not unbelievable anymore…he’s turning into a terrific offensive weapon) set the Huskies up for a late touchdown. The Stratford native’s 42-yard reception from Zach Frazer set the Huskies up with a first-and-goal at the 9 with 16 seconds left in the half.

Andre Dixon scored on a 1-yard run that was technically the next play (though penalties by the Orange helped a lot).

Syracuse pulled within four early in the second quarter on a Ryan Nassib-to-Mike Owen 4-yard touchdown pass. The score was set up, however, by a 36-yard Greg Paulus-to-Averin Collier screen pass.

But an Orange turnover, a fumbled pitch from Nassib to Delone Carter, set the Huskies up in Syracuse territory. On the second play of the ensuing UConn drive Jordan Todman ran 37 yards up the middle for a touchdown to make it 21-10.

Todman passed the 1,000-yard rushing mark with his TD run (which ended with a flip of the ball to the official, it should be noted, not any kind of organized celebration).

The Orange didn’t fold, however, putting together another drive with the wind that mixed the pass and run nicely and ended with a Paulus 2-yard touchdown pass to Alec Lemon.

- Neill

For the second straight week (and three of the last four) UConn returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

Freshman Mike Lang took one back 80 yards late in the quarter to make it 14-3. It was just the third kickoff return of Lang’s career. The previous two totaled 23 yards.

A wind-aided punt (the bad way) of 13 yards by Syracuse’s Rob Long set the Huskies up with a very short field and led to the game’s first score.

It took UConn eight plays, three different ball carriers, a fumble going out of bounds, a review from the replay booth and a two third-down conversions but Andre Dixon finally scored on a 4-yard run to make it 7-0 UConn with 9:47 left in the first quarter.

The Cuse answered with a long drive into the wind that ended with a 26-yard Ryan Lichtenstein field goal. A few nice plays on the drive, including a reverse to Antwon Bailey and a 19-yard third-down pass from QB Greg Paulus to a wide-open Marcus Sales. Still, the Orange had to settle for three.

- Neill