Fall Doldrums
September 10th, 2008 — Mike GuerreraWhile I sit contemplating life post-graduation (yeap, I’m still contemplating 4 months later) at 1:30 a.m. (that’s proper AP style for you future journalism majors), I decided to take a quick peak at the Alma maters fall sports season. While I’ve loosely been following the comings and going of the illustrious UConn athletic program, I am no where near as close to it as past years so I felt I needed to reconnect with this long lost friend; from this meeting, I discovered a few things.
Mainly…NOTHING HAS CHANGED. The football team’s pass offense is Atrocious again with a capital ‘A’, as Tyler Lorenzen is making Tarvaris Jackson, of my beloved and underachieving Minnesota Vikings, look like Tom Brady - before the whole knee thing…sorry PATS fans. Lorenzen has clearly taken 0 steps forward from last year and neither have any of the receivers. Granted, the Temple game was in a tropical storm, but for the second consecutive year, UConn flirted with the possibility of losing to Temple, just bailing out at that very last second. It’s like that girl who you time and again almost get with when your guard is down - *wink* - but you always remember just before it’s too late, wait, this girl is by no means attractive and you get out of there. Well, Temple is that almost mistake and while we should have lost last year - thanks referees for screwing up the call - they squeezed one out this year as Donald Brown continues his early season heroics, just to get put into the doghouse by mid-year and let Andre Dixon take over.
I know this is getting lengthy but stick with me. Before I move on I must say, the football team is winning games and that is all that really matters. They are playing good defense and running the football and that is all you really expect. Unfortunately, I don’t see the magic of 2007 coming through in this squad unless a change is made at QB soon or you go get Randy Moss to play receiver [maybe he can stick around for hoops season too].
Anyways, looking across the rest of the fall slate, I see very promising outcomes. The men’s soccer team looks solid again, and while they clearly seem to not be as strong as last year, they’ll be ranked in the top 5 all year and with the country’s best forward in good health again, the Huskies will be a team that will make a lot of noise come tourney time. While there are a few early season stumbles - a tie to BU and Tulsa - but some big games coming up, most importantly St. Louis, probably the best out-of-conference opponent they will play all season. Then it is Big East time where the Huskies should flourish again like they did last season.
The women’s soccer team on the flip side seems to be still trying to find an identity after the loss of some key contributors from last years elite 8 team. Megan Schnur and Karyn Reviere provided the leadership and midfield presence that UConn seems to lack this year - which was shown in some tough loses to lesser CCSU and BU teams. A double overtime win against Yale is also something coach Tsantaris might be worried about. Another key contributor gone from last years team was on the defensive side of the ball and that was Sarah MacIssac (poor spelling). A player that played the left-back position but solidified a defensive that was virtually unbreakable, which also included(s) Olympic goaltender Stephanie Labbe. These three components from last year were key parts and are clearly one of the main reasons for the early struggles. However, as the women have done for many of the past years, they will go through a dry spell, but eventually go on a hot streak. Better be rusty now than at the end of the season when it really counts!
Lastly, two teams going maybe unnoticed but having probably the most noteworthy seasons of all are the Women’s Volleyball team and the Field Hockey team. While the field hockey team has become a perennial powerhouse and is doing it again this year - coming off a nice win over #6 Penn State - the volleyball team is not a team you expect to make big noise. But, after a 5-1 start, granted against some lesser competition, the women’s v-ballers are holding up their end of the deal when it comes to the fall sports juggernaut that is the University of Connecticut.
In summation, all is well in Husky land, but nothing is out of the ordinary. The men’s soccer team is slowly starting to get rolling, the field hockey team is already rolling, the women’s soccer team is at a bump in the road, the volleyball team is surprisingly rolling, and the football team is continuing to suck up a majority of the university’s resources, income, revenue, etc., and continuing to win games by playing lackluster football. Hey, whatever puts the fans in the seats right?
All in all, it comforts me to see that while the people may have changed, everything is still the same in the world of UConn Huskies fall sports. *sigh*
