This season has not been kind to the Connecticut football Huskies. Despite lofty preseason expectations to go bowling and more, the team has taken a number of steps back. With nothing but pride to play for from here on out, UConn does have a pair of winnable games to close out the year.
The first of those opponents is Sacred Heart, which will be the team’s final home game and senior day. Being honored on Saturday is Rayonte Brown, George Caratan, Desmond Fogle, Kevon Glenn, Christian Haynes, Jaylen Jones, Sokoya McDuffie, Collin McCarthy, Will Meyer, Cale Millen, Jackson Mitchell, Noel Ofori-Nyadu, Bruno Perlicki, Noah Plack, Geordan Porter, Eric Watts, Raashaan Wilkins Jr. and Maurice Wilmer, per release.
The Huskies got the year started off on the wrong foot with an expected defeat to NC State at home. They covered the spread, but the offense looked stale under transfer QB Joe Fagnano. Fagnano injured his shoulder for the season during a blowout defeat at Georgia State, thrusting backup Ta’Quan Roberson into the starting role.
Roberson hasn’t been great, but it’s truly difficult to pinpoint one issue for the team. They lost against FIU, No. 18 Duke and Utah State at home in Roberson’s first three starts, but surprised many with a win at Rice. With manageable games against South Florida and Boston College immediately following and bouts with SHU and UMass in the distance, there was hope they could turn a disappointing start into a five-win season.
Those hopes went out the window fairly quickly. The Huskies lost all the winnable and unwinnable ones since, left with a single victory to their name after 10 tries. Saturday serves to give the aforementioned seniors a proper sendoff from Rentschler Field.
Sacred Heart has had an equally frustrating campaign, only doing so at the FCS level. After making the FCS playoffs in 2021 behind an 8-4 mark, the Pioneers have only gone backwards. They lost four of their final five games en route to a 5-6 record last year and have continued trending down. This season SHU sits at 2-8, though they’ve shown some signs of life at times.
The Pioneers only have two losses by more than 10 and each of their wins have been close. The victories came against Saint Francis and CCSU, both in-conference matchups.
Leading their offense is QB Rob McCoy, who has taken over as the starter for Cade Pribula. Neither have been great, with McCoy sporting three touchdowns and five picks, while Pribula has two and five. With only five total touchdowns through the air all season, Sacred Heart is a much more ground-oriented squad.
Malik Grant and Jalen Madison have had a reasonably even share of the carries, with both recording similar totals. Grant has 713 yards and Madison has 622, with each finding the paydirt four times. Though both are from the tri-state area, it doesn’t appear that either were offered by UConn coming out of high school. Perhaps that’ll serve as extra motivation for the backfield pair heading into the matchup.
Sacred Heart is tabbed by Sagarin Rankings as the 14th worst team in all of Division-I football, both FBS or FCS. Connecticut is No. 153 out of the 260 squad rankings, roughly 25 points better if the teams were to play on a neutral field.
The Huskies really should win this matchup. The ball hasn’t bounced their way this year, but they don’t look like a team that would lose their FCS game. Connecticut has put out teams that looked much worse in the Randy Edsall era and those teams still won at least one FCS contest per year (they went 1-1 in 2021 with a loss to Holy Cross and a victory over Yale). Though they’ve had many close calls, the last time they went winless against the FCS was in 2013, the year Paul Pasqualoni was canned.
Roberson and his receivers have been frustrated lately, so this should be a chance to get a bit more creative and put up bigger numbers. TE Justin Joly is positioned to have a nice day as a matchup nightmare for SHU defenders. He’s been held to one score this year but could explode Saturday.
The defense should also have an easier time. They’ve proven they can compete with much of the FBS when given enough rest via longer offensive drives. The Sacred Heart offense won’t give them much to fear, scoring just 14 points per game against FCS competition. Expect the pieces to come together nicely for the Huskies.
The game can be viewed on UConn+, UConn’s streaming platform. The platform crashed when it was the sole streamer of the UConn women’s basketball’s preseason exhibition, so check UConn’s YouTube if it’s not cooperating.