Football Improves to 8-3 With Thrilling Win Over Rutgers
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EAST HARTFORD, CT (November 8, 2003) – Freshman
running back Cornell Brockington (Burlington, NJ) scored on a one-yard
run with 26 seconds remaining after a misplayed punt return by Rutgers
as Connecticut came from behind to defeat the Scarlet Knights, 38-31,
in the final home game of the season at a sold out Rentschler Field.
The Huskies, winners of four straight, improve to
8-3 on the season. Rutgers slips to 4-5 on the campaign.
The game was tied at 24, when junior quarterback
Dan Orlovsky (Shelton, CT) hit junior wide receiver Keron Henry
(Brooklyn, NY) with a 72-yard catch and run scoring play with 4:25
remaining in the contest to put the Huskies ahead 31-24. Rutgers
marched down the field, scoring on a 35-yard run by running back Brian
Leonard (a season-high 184 yards on 33 carries with two touchdowns).
The game was tied at 31, with 1:52 to play and it appeared destined to
head towards overtime. After Rutgers held the Huskies without a first
down and were forced to punt, the UConn special teams came up with the
play of the day. Senior Adam Coles (Gladesville, Australia) punted
the ball deep into Rutgers territory and the Scarlet Knights’ Tres
Moses mishandled the kick and UConn’s senior Michael McIntosh
(Edgewood, MD) pounced on the loose ball setting the stage for
Brockington’s heroics. Brockington has now scored seven touchdowns in
the last two weeks, six rushing.
 The Huskies fell behind on the opening possession
of the game, 3-0, but took their first lead of the game when starting
tailback junior Chris Bellamy (New Britain, CT) bulled over from the
3. Rutgers held the UConn offense in check the rest of the half,
limiting the Huskies to just 101 yards of total offense in the first
half. The Scarlet Knights Markis Facyson scored twice in the first
half; once on a return of a blocked punt and once on a 26-yard pass
from Ryan Hart.
UConn bolted from the locker room after trailing
17-7 at intermission. Brockington (16 carries for 64 yards, 2 TD’s)
rushed three times for the final 33 yards to cap a 68-yard scoring
drive to start the second half. After junior linebacker Alfred
Fincher (Norwood, MA) recovered a fumble caused by freshman cornerback
Allan Barnes (Starke, FL), Orlovsky put the Huskies ahead by
connecting with sophomore tight end Tim Lassen (Cheshire, CT) on a
four-yard scoring strike. The scoring pass marked the 23rd
consecutive game he threw a touchdown, and his 31 TD’s on the season
increases his school record. He finished the game with 17 completions
in 32 attempts, for 222 yards.
After Leonard’s second touchdown of the game put
Rutgers ahead, 24-21, UConn attempted to take the lead. Junior
cornerback Justin Perkins (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) intercepted his second
pass of the game, and returned it 50 yards setting up a game-tying
field goal by freshman place kicker Matt Nuzie (Trumbull, CT).
The Huskies will conclude the regular-season
portion of their schedule next Saturday, November 15, when they travel
to Winston-Salem, NC to play Wake Forest. Kickoff is slated for 3:30
p.m. and WFSB-TV 3 will televise the game locally.
 POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head
Coach Randy Edsall
To steal a line from Bill Parcells: “It’s not
how, it’s how many.” There are 8 in the bank right now. Not that
this was our greatest effort or greatest performance of the season,
but we did enough to win the football game and that’s really what it’s
all about. It’s finally good to be on the side where special teams
helped us rather than hurt us and cost us the game.
I don’t know what it is. These kids just have a
lot of resolve and a lot of heart and they just play until the whistle
blows. I’m just so extremely happy for the seniors and this football
team for hanging in there and coming out on top. We knew it was a
good football team we were going against. And to get number 8 and to
be 5 and 1 here at Rentschler Field in our inaugural season here, I
just can’t say enough good things about today and where we’re at this
point in time.
On Keron
Henry's TD
They had 2 weeks to prepare for us and they did
some things against us, but we ended up making enough plays. We just
decided that when we got in the third and twenty situation – we were
in a couple of long yardage situations on third down today – I just
told Norries, “Let’s just take a shot and see if we can get an
interference call, or if it’s not incomplete, to make a play.” Keron
made a play and Dan made a play. That was big.
On beginning of 2nd half
I thought it was big coming out at halftime and
getting back up on top and getting those points right away. I thought
that was huge.
On muffed
Moses’ punt return
I’m thinking that we’re going to go to the
Mohegan Sun tonight and play some blackjack….He just made a decision
and it didn’t work out for him.
Dan Orlovsky
On the72 yard touchdown pass to Keron Henry
He ran a good route. He got off
the jammed corner. I threw it up over the corner, but not too high to
get hit by the safety. He (Keron) went up and made a great play.
He’s 6-3, 220 pounds and when he breaks a tackle he’s able to outrun
everyone.
On the punt at the end of the game
I was just hoping to pin them. I
understand what the kid was trying to do – he’s just trying to make a
play for his team, not pin his team back in. Finally we got a bounce
on special teams our way, and it was nice to get.
On the Rutgers defense and being down early
They got good pressure on us up front, and they were covering the
pass well…I wasn’t down. We’ve been here before. And it wasn’t our
best day. I didn’t have my best half, personally. We didn’t have our
best half as a team. I think we had only 101 yards offensively. But
if it was just 30 minutes of football, they wouldn’t have halftime.
On being 8-3
It’s not mind boggling, but it’s
nice. I’m not going to sit here and say I expected it. But I’m not
going to say I’m awed by it. I knew we had talent on this team and I
knew the kind of kids we have, so I thought 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 was
realistic.
Confidence going into the 2nd
half
I wasn’t really down at all. They
had their bye week and they prepared for us well. They didn’t do won
thing we expected in the first half. They changed up their whole
defense really.
There’s a thing with our offense.
We get into a groove and we find plays that work for us. So your
whole team gets into it and the crowd gets into it. Those two drives
(to start the half) were big for us.
Mike McIntosh
On recovering the punt
It was a great feeling to set up
the team for a victory. But the best thing is that we got the
victory. That’s what we always shoot for…I just played my role and
the ball just fell into my hands.
What did you think when he touched it
I was shocked. Actually I thought
they were just going to down it and try and drive down the field. But
luckily our special teams were hustling to get down the field and make
the play.
Was the recovery like Christmas?
Yes. It was a great gift to have.
It’s my last game here. And for everything we went through just to
get to this moment, it is just a great feeling to have this victory,
to have our eighth win. My first year here we were 4-7 and now where
8-3.
Adam Coles
On his punts deep into Rutgers territory
It’s great that it happened today.
Change the approach after the block
Not so much. On the last one I
just tried to get it off basically as fast as I could because the
coaches said to watch out for the block.
Justin Perkins
We did this for the seniors. For
all 19 seniors, it was their last game here at Rentschler Field. We
played our heart out just for them.
Tim Lassen
It came down to the wire and big
plays were made on both sides of the ball. That punt was huge.
Without that we’d be playing overtime right now, probably still
playing. But big plays by Keron and big plays by Perkins – the whole
defense really – opened up things to happen at the end.
On not getting discouraged when they’re down
We’ve
just built up a confidence in each other that it’s going to happen if
we need it to.
Rutgers Head
Coach Greg Schiano
It was certainly a heck of a football game, that
we came up on the wrong end of. A great college football game. All
of the momentum swings and all of the great plays and excitement that
you look for. We’ll be in many more of these down the road and we’ll
win our share, I’m sure of that. Today wasn’t our day.
On muffed punt return
It’s easy to make that play the game, but we
don’t know what would have happened in overtime. We don’t know if we
would have driven the ball down field – Who knows? Tres Moses just
tried to make something happen and, unfortunately, it backfired.
Certainly you could see his thought process. We were all standing
there seeing the same thing. But without Tres Moses we don’t do a lot
of things we do. So it’s a tough learning experience for this
football team. He knew what to do. He just tried to make something
happen.
On time management at end of 4th
quarter
We felt that we had an opportunity to block a
field goal if we could make them kick a field goal. We saw things
that we didn’t get to, but we saw it. That’s why we decided to use
them (time outs) late there. Could we have managed them better? I
don’t know – maybe we could have. I called a time out at the
beginning to slow everything down, much like a basketball coach does
when momentum is getting out of hand there. I wanted to get Tres
Moses out of there and get him over to the side and get our defense
settled down. It was a young football team that wasn’t knowing how to
handle that situation.
If there is one thing that happened today is that
we got beat by a football team that is just a little further ahead of
us in development as a program. Notice I didn’t say “talent” and I
didn’t say “facilities” or “players,” just a team that’s been together
for 5 years now and understands, from top to bottom, how they’re going
to play, how they’re going to live, how they’re going to do
everything. We’ll be there. Hopefully, we can accelerate it and
reach that point earlier than 5 years. That’s our goal.
This isn’t a question of one or two plays in a
football game. It’s a series of plays that ended up not ending in our
favor.
Fullback Brian Leonard
This is the biggest game of my life and the
hardest loss of my life. I’ve never been in a game this close before
in my life. It was an exciting game but I wish it came out the other
way.
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