Game Notes

·      With the win UConn moves to 2-0 on the season, the fourth time it have started 2-0 in the last five years.

·      With the win UConn remains a perfect 5-0 in Rentschler Field openers.

·      With the win UConn moves to a perfect 6-0 against Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA) opponents since it's move to the Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A).

·      UConn has beaten its FCS (D I-AA) foes by a combined score of 297-52.

·      With the win UConn is now 19-8 at Rentschler Field all-time.

·      With the win UConn moves to 39-31-3 in the all-time series against Maine.

·      Tonight’s win was the first shutout since 2005 when the Huskies shutout Liberty 59-0.

·      Tonight’s 38 point win ties for the fifth largest margin of victory in UConn annals since 2002 (Division I-A era).

·      UConn scored 48 (14:12) seconds into the game. This is the third-fastest score in UConn history since it joined the FBS (Division I-A)

·      Scott Lutrus’ 25 yard interception return for a touchdown was the first touchdown and second interception of his career.

·      Scott Lutrus recorded three interceptions in the 2007 Spring (Blue-White) Game, and one last week against Duke.

·      This is the second consecutive game where UConn has had a interception returned for a touchdown. Darius Butler had one at Duke on Sept 1. In 2004, UConn also had two consecutive games with interceptions returned for touchdowns to open the season. Alfred Fincher recorded one against Murray State, Justin Perkins recorded one against Duke.

·      Tyler Lorenzen threw for two touchdown passes, tying a career-high. He also ran for his first career touchdown.

·      Marcus Easley (Stratford, Conn.) caught his first career pass (10 yards).

·      Robert McLain intercepted his first career pass (26 yards).

·      Maine Linebacker Andrew Downey recorded a career-high 13 tackles (8 solo).

Post Game Quotes

University of Connecticut

Head Coach Randy Edsall | Brad Kanuch | Scott Lutrus | Tyler Lorenzen |
Danny Lansanah

Head Coach Randy Edsall

On the play of Tyler Lorenzen:

“On the play he threw to Brad Kanuch, what had happened was they played their coverage different than what other people do.  When he through the interception, the corner sunk back and he didn’t read that.  Sometimes he forgets that the defense will make adjustments next time around.  However, that was the last time he made a mistake.  The great thing about Tyler is when he makes a mistake, he corrects himself so he doesn’t make them again. 

As I said throughout the week, they were going to try to pressure us and shorten the game.  We anticipated all the things they were going to use against us.  After we were able to get him into a rhythm and stabilize him, he adjusted.  It’s different playing on Saturday than during practice.  We can show him all the looks during practice, but the scout team can’t emulate the speed and precision from our opponent on game day.” 

Are you concerned with the offense?  It seemed in the second half they were pretty much firing on all cylinders.  However, it seems like they took a step back in the first half.

“I think that is something we will continue to work on - getting off to a faster start.  I think we’re still in the process of finding out what everybody can do and what we want to do with all of our personnel.  We do know a little bit more after this game than we different after last week’s game.  I think what will also help us is now that we have played a couple of games is we will be able to put together a better game plan and have more information.  However, we do need to execute better than we did tonight.” 

Do you think that was a cheap shot on Danny Lansanah and how is he doing?

“In my opinion, yes it was.  He is walking around.  They x-rayed his ankle and it is not broken.  He told me before I came in here that he is from Pennsylvania and will play.  We’ll find out more tomorrow.  He was standing on a chair singing the fight song and walking a few minutes ago.”

On the defense shutting down the run:

“Except for a handful of plays, I think our guys did a very good job.  We were able to get good reads and react appropriately to what we were seeing which was good.  We had a good week in practice and we executed the game plan well.”

Sophomore, WR, Brad Kanuch: 

On winning the first two games:

Yea it was really exciting getting off to a great start this season, now we have to get out there and beat Temple so we can become 3-0. 

Do you feel that you are making steps forward?

I think that everyday we are making a step forward and everyday we have to keep doing that and get better. 

On the defense:

Our defense did a great job today holding their offense.  They had a very explosive offense and we shut them down pretty well. 

Freshman, LB, Scott Lutrus: 

On the touchdown interception:

We have been reading their defense and we knew that they were going to pass it.  They are both a good running team and passing team but we had the right read.  We saw the three step and the break into the flat and I just made the read and I was there.  

How did it feel to get a touchdown?

Well I used to play only offense, which was my big thing in high school.  It was good to touch the ball again

Jr. QB Tyler Lorenzen 

You looked more comfortable in that two-minute offense did you need that to get the tempo going?

“I don’t know if I needed it, but that’s what I did last year, we were a no huddle team and I am comfortable doing it.  It creates tempo, keeps the defense a little off-balance.  I like it a lot, but there are times when you can use a no-huddle and times when you need to huddle up.  I think our coaches did a good job of mixing it up.” 

You made that one bad decision early (interception), were you a little nervous coming into this game?

“No, it wasn’t that, I thought I was going to get something, which I didn’t get, after I threw it I realized that I shouldn’t have.  When throwing an interception you have to have a short memory and learn from it and that’s what I tried to do.” 

Do you think the team has made some improvements from last week?

“We’ve definitely made some improvements, we are seeing the field better, but all I really care about is winning, as long as we get better as a team each week and we win.  Improvement for myself is whatever it is, but if we win and improve as a whole, that’s what we are trying to do.” 

Did you get worried that it was taking a little while for your offense to get on track?

“We have to give a lot of credit to Maine. They are a good, quality team they flew to the football and made some plays, you have to give them all the credit for that.  At the same time we needed to make some plays, we were killing ourselves on 3-and-outs, and like I said it takes all 11 and if some guy is messing up whether it’s me our someone else, it causes the play not to work.” 

Sr. LB Danny Lansanah 

When you first got hit, were you a little worried it was worse than it is?

“I was, after it happened I tried to get up and couldn’t put pressure on it.  I went back to the locker room and put ice on it and after awhile it got better, so I should be ready for next week.” 

Did you feel like the hit was a cheap shot?

“It’s the game of football and things happen. He was probably running for the ball and I was running for the ball, if he has a bad ankle and he was trying to make the cuts that his coach taught him, but he can’t and he is trying to make a play.  Injuries happen in the game of football.”

University of Maine

HEAD COACH JACK COSGROVE 

Summary Statement:

“We got spanked tonight. We got out-coached, out-played, out-everything. You can’t get behind early versus a team like this and it really kind of snow-balled from there. They did a real nice job at their 2-minute drill at the end of the first half and scoring that touchdown made a big difference in the game. We struggled on the offensive side of the football tonight. They’re a good defensive team and the teams in their conference are going to see that this season.” 

On playing vs. a Div. I-A opponent:

“We saw them versus Duke last week and we thought they had impressive size on their offensive and defensive line. It reminded me of Boston College, when we played them last year - big, physical. Their quarterback had a good game tonight. He’s mobile and can escape pressure. I was most impressed by their defense and I think their linebackers are very good.” 

On the performances of QB’s Michael Brusko & Adam Farkes:

“We need to make some advances offensively. We need to find some success throwing the football or we’ll be seeing 9 to 10 players in the box defending us. We saw good and bad things from both quarterbacks tonight but both need to play better, too.” 

LINEBACKER ANDREW DOWNEY 

On giving up 38 points to the UConn offense:

“If we don’t let the opponent score any points, then we won’t lose the game. I know I messed up a couple of times out there. We gave up way too many points and bottom line, we just didn’t get the job done. They’re a great football team but we missed assignments, shot ourselves in the foot too many times and after a while that takes a toll on you. You can’t do that against a I-A team.” 

QB MICHAEL BRUSKO: 

On the performance of the Maine offense:

“We got beat by a better team tonight. We won’t make any excuses but obviously, things didn’t go they way we wanted them to in this game. We had a tough time matching up with them at times but the offensive line worked their butts off tonight. We did not have enough success in our passing game and that forced us to run the ball. We had too many penalties, too many mistakes and you can’t do that if you want to win. I tried to have a short memory out there but it was tough.”