The University of Connecticut has only been a Division 1-A (known more commonly as the BCS) football program since 2000, and was not a full member of the BCS until 2002. Since that time, the UConn Huskies have moved forward steadily by the years and have been bowl season regulars the past few years. They have been in five bowl games since their first bowl invitation to the 2004 Motor City Bowl where they faced off against the Toledo Rockets. The UConn Huskies have a rather brief history of bowl games. The best is surely yet to come for the program which is still in it’s BCS infancy.
Counting down these bowl moments we must first, of course, go through The Bad:
5. 2011 Fiesta Bowl: The UConn Huskies finished the 2010 season with an 8-4 record and ranked 25th in the Associated Press poll and were co-champions of the Big East, earning the conferences bowl berth with wins over Pittsburgh and West Virginia. They were chosen to face off against an 11-2 Oklahoma Sooners team ranked 7th in the BCS (9th AP, 8th Coaches Poll). Sixty-seven thousand people packed University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to see the game live. If they were rooting for the team in crimson and cream, they probably left very happy. The Sooners scored off their first two possessions of the game, ending the first quarter leading the Huskies 14-0. UConn would pull the score back a little bit and went in to half-time down 20-10. The second half was mostly all Oklahoma as they won the contest 48-20. It was notable as the last Huskies game coached by Randy Edsall, who moved on to be the head coach at the University of Maryland.
4. 2007 Meineke Car Care Bowl: The second bowl game in the short BCS history of Huskies football was against the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest. The 2007 season saw UConn finish with a 9-3 record and went 5-2 in Big East play, including an impressive win over 11th ranked South Florida. It was a season of new highs, as the team was at one point ranked thirteenth in the BCS standings. Charlotte was the location for the match-up, only a short distance away from the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. The game started off well for the Huskies, who build a 10-0 lead going in to half-time. One of the most exciting plays all season was the 68-yard punt return for a touchdown by Larry Taylor towards the end of the first quarter. Their opponents would rattle off twenty-four unanswered points in the second half, and won the game 24-10.
And this is where we find ourselves looking back on The Good:
3. 2009 International Bowl: The beautiful Canadian city of Toronto was the host of the game between the MAC champion University of Buffalo Bulls and the Huskies. This was the first bowl game for the Bullls in fifty years, since they stood up to segregation and refused a bowl invitation in 1958. It was a much more memorable game, however, for UConn. The two teams exchanged scores repeatedly, going in to the half with the Bulls leading 20-17. All of the scoring in the second half was done by the Huskies, and they finished the game with a score of 38-20. The player of the game would go to Donald Brown, who finished with 261 yards and a score. It was a spectacular end to his career as a running back for the Huskies.
2. 2004 Motor City Bowl: The 2004 season was the first time UConn would earn a bowl berth, only two years in to their full membership in the BCS. They finished the season 7-4, splitting their conference games 3-3 and earning an invitation to a bowl game. They would face off against a University of Toledo team that finished their season as champions of the MAC at 9-3. The game would be played in Ford Field in Detroit in front of a crowd of fifty-two thousand. The game was all-UConn as they were ahead 17-0 before Toledo would score their first touchdown of the game early in the second half. The Rockets would only manage another field goal while the Huskies went on to win the game 39-10. It was a great first bowl win for the young program.
1. 2010 PapaJohns.com Bowl: If there is one constant in college football, it is that the SEC and Big East stand at opposite ends of the conference power spectrum. The SEC is where national champions are forged, and the Big East is for the runners-up and losers. When the Gamecocks from the University of South Carolina faced off against UConn in the 2010 Papajohns.com Bowl, however, that bit of history didn’t matter. The beautiful city of Birmingham, Alabama was the backdrop for the most impressive post-season victory in the history of the Huskies football program. Both teams came in to the contest finishing their seasons at 7-5, with the Huskies finishing fifth in the Big East. The Gamecocks did not score at all during most of the game, their only touchdown coming with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter with UConn leading by twenty points. The Huskies defense was staunch, holding the Gamecocks to only seventy-six yards rushing in the game and forcing two turnovers, and kept them from gaining a first down until their second drive of the second quarter. UConn running back Andre Dixon was named the player of the game for gaining 126 rushing yards and a touchdown on thirty-three carries.
