UConn Comes-From-Behind to Take Win from Western Michigan

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EAST HARTFORD, CT (November 1, 2003) – Freshman tailback Cornell Brockington (Burlington, NJ) came off the bench to score five touchdowns and junior quarterback Dan Orlovsky (Shelton, CT) became the school single-season leader in passing yards as Connecticut stormed back from an early 17-point deficit to defeat Western Michigan, 41-27, before a crowd of 32,851 at Rentschler Field Saturday afternoon.

The win, UConn’s third in a row, improves their record on the season to 7-3. The Broncos fall to 3-6 on the campaign. The victory makes the Huskies bowl-eligible, with six Division 1-A victories.

Brockington took over for running back Chris Bellamy (New Britain, CT) in the second period, as the Huskies trailed 17-0. He carried eight times on a 12-play scoring drive, dashing in from 10 yards to put UConn on the board. On the Huskies’ next possession, Orlovsky completed five of six passes, the final one a 15-yard connection to Brockington to inch the Huskies with three at 17-14.

Western Michigan jumped out quickly as quarterback Jon Drach hit Greg Jennings in stride for a 70-yard bomb, just 3:26 into the contest. UConn’s Brandon Young (Morganza, MD) fumbled the ensuing kickoff and WMU, converted the turnover into a field goal.

UConn seized control of the game on their first possession after intermission. Brockington bulled over from the one to cap a 10-play, 75-yard drive to put the Huskies in front for the first time, 21-17. After a WMU punt, Orlovsky hit senior wide receiver O’Neil Wilson (Scarborough, ON) for a 40-yard completion, and then connected with senior wide out Shaun Feldeisen (Stow, MA) on a 30-yard touchdown. Orlovsky was his usual productive self. He completed 25 of 37 attempts, for 343 yards and two touchdowns. He now has thrown for a school-record 2,950 yards this year, and has also thrown for a school-record 29 touchdowns. He also threw for a touchdown in his 22nd consecutive game. It was Orlovsky’s third straight and fourth career 300-yard passing effort.

After a WMU field goal early in the final stanza, Brockington gave UConn its’ biggest lead of the game, 34-20, when he capped a 10-play, 72-yard drive with a 19-yard scamper. After the Broncos scored to get within 34-27, UConn recovered the onsides kick. On the second play of the drive, Brockington ripped through the line of scrimmage, and raced in for a 46-yard score. It was the first time a Husky scored five touchdowns in a game since Wilbur Gilliard scored five times against James Madison in 1993. He finished the game with 186 yards on 29 carries, his first career 100-yard rushing effort.

Keron Henry (Brooklyn, NY) paced a balanced receiving attack, with seven catches, good for 91 yards. Wilson had four grabs for 60 yards, and Feldeisen finished with three catches for 68 yards and the touchdown.

The Huskies conclude the home portion of their 2003 schedule when they play host to Rutgers next Saturday, November 8. Kickoff is slated for noon and the game will be televised locally be WFSB-TV 3.

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Head Coach Randy Edsall

Today is a very, very special day for this program. Two milestones in terms of, in two short years of being a I-A football program, we achieved a winning season.  After ten games and being seven and three, I think that’s just a great statement about assistant coaches, players, all of the people involved with the program, to give everything that they have and to believe in each other and to find a way to go out and do that is just incredible.  I think there are a lot of people that never thought we could get to where we are at right now.  These guys just play and try to make it as tough on themselves each and every week.  My hat is off to them for accomplishing that goal.   But we don’t stop there.  We have more games to play.  And what we want to do is raise the bar.  We want to keep raising the bar so every team that comes after this team is going to have to try to match the standard that’s been set.  That’s what we’re going to do.  So, we’ll enjoy this one for another couple of hours and then we’ll get ready for Rutgers.

I’ve been fortunate in college coaching from the standpoint that you play the college game to win conference championships and go to bowl games.  And I’ve had the experience as a player and as a coach to be able to participate in those games on both levels.  And that’s why these kids play the game and that’s why they came here, to maybe have the opportunity to do that.  The second milestone is that we made ourselves bowl-eligible today, with seven wins.  That’s all we can do.  We did what we needed to do in terms of getting to that, and again, in the second year of our program.  It’s a heck of an accomplishment.  As far an anything else goes, we have no control over it.  And that’s the way we’re going to look at it.  All we have done is put ourselves in a position to be in position, and if things work out they work out.  If they don’t….We’re going to go out and play hard each and every week for the last two weeks and raise the bar.

I’m very proud of our football team and very happy that we’re seven and three.  And now what we have to do is just keep working to get better.

On first quarter

They’re a good football team and they have three very good receivers.  And then we fumble the kickoff.  So after two possessions you say “What’s going on here?”  But that’s just the resolve of this football team.  They don’t ever doubt their own abilities.  They don’t ever doubt themselves, and they know that they’re going to find a way to get themselves out of a position.  We did it again.  Maybe we have to scrimmage in the locker room before we come out.  Last year we used to start off great in the first quarter an not finish as well.  I’d rather start slow and finish strong, if I have a choice of doing things.  If you finish strong you have a chance to win.

On Brockington & Herriott

You get injuries in the game of football, and to have a couple of guys to step up like they did today I think makes another strong statement about this football program.

Dan Orlovsky

What does it mean winning a  7^th game

It gives us a chance to win number 8.  It’s nice to be the first team to have a winning season in I-A, and in only our second year, to be bowl-eligible.  But we’re enjoy that moment for the night, and then we’ll focus on Rutgers tomorrow morning.

On Cornell Brockington’s play

We needed Brockington to step up today.  We knew he had it in him, it was just a matter of getting an opportunity, and he showed it today.

On being the big offensive weapon

I’m just trying to do what makes our offense score points.  Whatever the coaches ask me to do as an individual to keep our offense going and keep points on the board, I’ll do for us.

On being down 17 pts.

It wasn’t panic mode or anything.  We just said, ‘guys, we need to go on a drive and we’ll get one here.’  I kept saying, ‘one play at a time, we’re not going to try and get it abll back at once.’  The defense got a stop and came over and said, ‘keep chipping away.’  When your defense says that, it gives you a lot of confidence.

On the offensive line

I don’t think they’ve played a better game  this year.  That kid, Jason Babin, was the best defensive player this school has ever seen – and we’ve played Miami and Virginia Tech.  He’s quick, fast, has a motor, and plays hard.  And to have 200 yards rushing, and 300+ yards passing, speaks volumes about how they played.  They fight.  They work.  And they don’t get any credit.  And I think those are the guys who should be getting interviewed right now – those 5 guys.

Cornell Brockington

On this big day

Working hard pays off.  I give the credit to the offensive line.

Your best day playing football

It was the best day on the college level.  I never thought I’d come in and score five touchdowns.  It feels like high school again.  (scored 6 in high school with 253 yards)

Finally your day?

I had fun out there today.  It felt like high school.

Shaun Feldeisen

On being down 17 pts.

Luckily it was still early in the game.  I looked at the clock and I knew we had a lot of time.  No one was worried because this team has shown week in and week out that even being down the game isn’t over, that we’re not done yet.

On the face mask play

The guy took my face all the way around so I could see my back.  When that happens you go wherever he wants you to.

When Dan scrambles, one of the things he does really well is he keeps his eyes downfield to see if there are any receivers open.  So the receivers know we have to keep running and try to give him an option – try to give him something so we can make a play.

Alfred Fincher

On coming back

We happen to get in holes early.  But we just never give up.  We have so much heart on this team.

Justin Perkins

On the slow start

Today we came out a little flat early in the game.  But  we came together as a team.  We came into the half and decided to step it up a little bit.

We were making key mistakes and once we corrected that, we got it done. 

WMU Head Coach Gary Darnell

The deciding difference in the game was their balance.  They rushed for 41 times and they threw for 37.  You know, that has been typical Connecticut football and that was the deciding difference in the game….They would keep us on our heels one versus the other.  That’s frustrating.  And we know we’re not physical enough right now to handle certain things, certain types of runs, certain kind of ways.  And they were able to do that and get their running game going. 

On Orlovsky

Dan certainly had an excellent day throwing the football.  That’s nothing new for those guys…. Once he got going – and it’s something I told our guys as long as I’ve been coaching, on defensive teams, a guy starts to get hot and you’ve got to find something to change it.  And we couldn’t change the momentum of the guy.

On onsides kick

With a 1:29 to go in that game we were playing our tails off to win.  We really thought we could get the onside.  There was a little unique twist to that and we really, really thought we had that.  The guys were really getting excited on the sidelines when we got into that situation.  And we misfired.  We missed the putt.  We missed a three-foot putt….Had we got that, who knows?

Wide Receiver Kendrick Mosley

On first quarter

We knew they had a good front seven and if they had a weakness it was their secondary.  We just wanted to exploit their secondary a little bit.  We did, but we just couldn’t get it done.