Part 2 of 12 will be the UConn Huskies, they finished last season with a record of 3-9 and 1-7 in the conference. New Head Coach Randy Edsall will be changing the offense to an uptempo style for this season. With the new coach will that mean an uptick in wins or will it just be an experimental season for them?
Best Case Scenario for UConn, and their Schedule. Ok, so they open with Holy Cross and should easily win that game. They then have South Florida at home and then road games against Virginia and SMU as their next 3 best case is they pull off the shocker and win 2 out of 3 of those games. That will sit them at 3-1 after their first quarter of games. The next 3 games for them are important conference games if they want to make noise in the conference. The have home against Memphis and Tulsa and a road game at Temple. If they win the ones at home then they will be sitting at 5-2 heading into their home matchup with SEC team Missouri. Even in the best case scenario, I don’t see them beating Mizzou so that puts them at 5-3 with 4 games left. Their final 4 alternates home-away starting with a home against ECU. Then they will put on their mouse ears and visit sunny central Florida to play UCF. Then back home to play Boston College and finally ending the season in Cincinnati. Best Case is they split it 2-2 which will bring their record to 7-5 and in Randy Edsall first year they become bowl eligible.
Worst Case Scenario- UConn will be underdogs in all of their games to start the season. There are 1 or 2 that they can be favored in if things go their way. Honestly, this team could win their first game against Holy Cross and then lose out. We will start with a win for UConn against Holy Cross. They get to their week 5 matchup with Memphis and they are sitting at 1-3. Their next 4 they go 1-3 again and now sit at 2-6 and the final 4 they also go 1-3 to finish this season at 3-9.
Players to watch-Arkeel Newsome RB he has been the best running back they have had. If the line can improve Newsome can too. Bryant Shirreffs QB has to be ready to lead this team as a senior. Vontae Diggs LB- Needs to be the wrecking ball on defense and cause problems in the backfield. UConn last season was outscored 76-9 in the 1st quarter that cannot keep happening. And in addition, they will have to do a better job of running the ball and pass protection. A successful season for these guys would be to get to 4 wins.