USF football is Connecticut bound for Game 5 of the 2019 season. The UConn Huskies will host the USF Bulls at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut.
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The University of South Florida Bulls visit the University of Connecticut Huskies for the fourth game of the 2019 season. The Huskies are coming off a 1-11 (0-8) record in head coach Randy Edsall’s third year of his second stint at UConn. Their sole win of the seasons was against Rhode Island.
This game marks the 17th meeting between these two teams, with the Bulls holding an 11-5 advantage in the all-time series. USF has won the past seven games in-a-row, with the last Huskies win a 16-10 victory back in 2011. While the Bulls were victorious last season, 38-30, this was their final win of the 2018 season, which ended in a six-game losing streak.
Offense
The UConn offense ranked 89th in the nation, last season under now-departed offensive coordinator, John Dunn. After one year with the team, he was hired by the New York Jets as tight ends coach. Replacing Dunn as coordinator is Frank Giufre. Giufre coached the offensive line, last season, and retains those duties in addition to running the offense. While Dunn left UConn for an NFL gig, Giufre left the NFL after spending six seasons with the Colts as offensive quality coach. While with the Colts, he served as assistant offensive line coach for five years.
Giufre’s offensive line is one of the few areas of strength on the offense. The Huskies return four starters from last year’s line, who cleared the way for the 37th ranked rushing attack in the country, averaging nearly 200 yards per game.
The top runner on the team was quarterback, David Pindell, who rushed for 1,139 and ten touchdowns on the season. Running back, Kevin Mensah, had a few more carries than Pindell, but finished with just six touchdowns and 1,045 rushing yards. Mensah will likely be the starter at running back, getting support from Toledo transfer, Art Tompkins. Tompkins rushed for 563 yards and six touchdowns for the Rockets, the third best rushing total in a system that used three backs fairly evenly.
When Pindell wasn’t carrying the ball, he was tossing it for an average of 164 yards per game. He passed for nearly 2,000 yards, last season, for 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His favorite targets were seniors, Kyle Buss and Aaron McLean, who combined for more than 800 yards and five touchdowns. The top returning receiver is tight end, Tyler Davis, who had just 22 catches for 237 yards in 2018. The bad news here for UConn is that Pindell and the top three receivers have graduated.
The Huskies will look to Michael Beaudry to fill the gap at quarterback. Beaudry, who played high school ball at Oviedo’s Hagerty High School, transferred to UConn from the University of West Florida, where he led his team to the Division II championship game in 2017. He spent 2018 recovering from injuries. At UWF, Beaudry passed for 3,215 yards and 29 touchdowns. By naming him starter, Edsall signals a shift from a running quarterback to a traditional pocket passer. This should result in a big boost in offensive production for the Huskies. Mensah is a proven running back, who should have no problem leading the ground game. While UConn’s schedule is significantly more challenging than Division II, his numbers are 1,300 more yards passing than Pindell achieved.
Ardell Brown, Cameron Ross, and Heron Maurisseau project to be the replacements in the receiving corps. Like Beaudry, Brown is a Division II transfer, moving up from Seton Hill. He had 1,267 receiving yards with nine touchdowns for the Griffins in 2018. Maurisseau had just 88 yards receiving in four games, last season, and Ross is a freshman.
There's a lot of new on the Connecticut offense, but change was much needed. The Huskies averaged 22 points per game, last season, which is one of the worst scoring averages in the country (112th).
Defense
As bad as things were on offense, things were much worse on defense for the Huskies. In 2018, they ranked dead last, 130th, in total defense, allowing 617 yards per game. They also were last (130th) in scoring defense (50 p.p.g.) and rushing defense (335 y.p.g.). They were slightly better, but only slightly, in passing defense, where they ranked 126th in the nation, allowing an average of 282 through the air, last season. The Huskies The marks for total defense allowed and points per game are new FBS records.
As a team, they managed just 11 sacks. For perspective, eight individual players on other teams had 11 or more sacks over the same season. Four of those sacks came courtesy of linebacker, Darrian Beavers. The Huskies had 52 total tackles for loss, 125th worst total in the nation.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. One bright spot returning for UConn on defense is junior safety, Tyler Coyle. Coyle led the team with 109 total tackles, the fourth best total in the conference, which also ties him for 50th, nationally. Junior linebacker, Omar Fortt, also returns as a tackle leader. His 76 tackles ranked him third on the team. Fortt had a particularly good day against USF, last season, when he posted seven tackles and pulled down an interception.
UConn is also looking for some help from Notre Dame graduate transfer linebacker, D.J. Morgan. Morgan was a three star recruit in 2016 who played two games at safety in 2017. He moved to linebacker in 2018 and logged no playing time with the Irish.
Perhaps the biggest reason for hope for the Huskies’ defense is incoming defensive coordinator, Lou Spanos. Spanos spent 2018 as an analyst for Alabama, but coached various defensive positions in the NFL for 20 of the previous 22 years. His NFL stops include Pittsburgh, Washington, and Tennessee. The two years he didn’t coach in the NFL in that span of time were spent as defensive coordinator at UCLA.
Expectations
UConn football has a lot going on right now, ranging from conference affiliation to existential questions. It looks like Edsall is still operating his program as if it is a going concern. Bringing in new coordinators will certainly have an impact on performance. That said, it’s a long way from the bottom and they’ve got a big task ahead of them. The Huskies probably improve, but finish the season in a way that leaves a lot to be desired.
Summary
There are no game odds available for this matchup, but the ESPN FPI gives the Bulls an 84% chance of victory. The gaming site, FanDuel, has the over / under for UConn wins this season set at 2.5. That’s reasonable improvement for a team rebounding off of a one-win campaign. The date of the game is 10-5, but the time is to be determined based on television schedules. At present, the game is not scheduled to be televised.
