We are just one week away from UConn football’s season opener against UCF at PAWS-ARF, and it’s Ranked Week (TM) here at ADB, so what better place than here, what better time etc. etc. etc. to objectively rank the best UConn football wins ever.
(I’m pretty sure I’ve done this before in a mailbag or something, but hey, there’s never a bad time to angry up the blood when (spoiler) Notre Dame isn’t #1 on the list.)
So we’re going to quickly run through the contenders for UConn’s greatest football wins before going into a little more detail on the top 10. Note that I’m limiting our range of choices to the 2000 season and after; there is certainly merit in noting the importance of, say, finally beating Yale in 1965, or beating an eventual I-AA champion UMass team twice in 1998, but Randy Edsall took over what was functionally a blank-slate program at the highest level of college football in 1999. It’s just a totally different ballgame.
We’ll start with some honorable mentions in no particular order before we count down the top 12:
NOT GREAT-BUT-COOL-LAST-MINUTE WINS
UConn 20, Rutgers 19 (Sept. 29, 2001): A 47-yard Marc Hickok field goal with 3:04 remaining gives the Huskies — who did not have a full complement of 85 scholarships at this point — one of their two wins that season against Noted Big Ten Powerhouse Rutgers.
Three wins in October/November 2003: After losing Terry Caulley for the year and losing to NC State on a pick-six as time expired, the Huskies bounce back with three straight late comeback wins: they score a TD and 2-point conversion with 1:51 to force overtime at Kent State before winning, 34-31; Matt Nuzie kicks a 27-yard field goal as time expires to beat Akron, 38-37; and after Noted Big Ten Powerhouse Rutgers fumbles a punt inside their own 10-yard line with a minute left in a tie game, Cornell Brockington’s TD run gives UConn a 38-31 win.
UConn 22, Duke 20 (Sept. 11, 2004): Nuzie atones for a missed extra point by hitting an extra-point-length field goal with 3:21 to play for the winning points.
UConn 15, USF 10 (Nov. 26, 2005): The Huskies denied USF’s bid to become the quickest team to jump from I-AA to I-A and qualify for the BCS. It ended with USF trying on a 4th-down halfback reverse pass in the red zone. It didn’t work.
Two wins over Temple: The 2007 game at the Rent, in which a good UConn team beat a bad Temple team (because the instant replay angle that would probably have given Temple the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute was blocked by a security guard) was fun. The 2008 game, hyped up by Extremely Not Mad Temple blogs as “Temple-UConn II: REVENGE” and played in a hurricane, was incredibly boring but Donald Brown carried the ball 250 times and UConn won in overtime, so it works for me.
UConn 26, Louisville 21 (Sept. 26, 2008): Lawrence Wilson’s pick-six in the final minutes provided the game-winning points in a Friday night ESPN game and gave UConn its best start to a season ever, 5-0. It was also the program’s 14th win in 17 games, which is a real thing that happened. (UConn’s only had 14 wins total since hiring Bob Diaco in December 2013, for perspective.)
UConn 29, USF 27 (Dec. 5, 2009): Dave Teggart kicked a 42-yard field goal (in the snow!) as time expired, the fourth lead change of the fourth quarter, to give UConn a feel-good win to finish the 2009 regular season at 7-5. Dave Teggart was very good at kicking footballs.
UConn 30, Pittsburgh 28 (Nov. 11, 2010): Edsall was always looked at as the ultra-conservative, close-to-the-vest coach. He ran inside draws at his wedding, and things. And then there was the time he went for it on 4th-and-1, backed up deep in his own end of the field, knowing that a turnover on downs would give Pittsburgh an attempt at a chip-shot game-winning field goal. But he had the 2010 UConn offensive line, a group of tough, big bastards. And he had Jordan Todman, who gained the first down and clinched the win.
NOT-GREAT-BUT-COOL-MILESTONE WINS
UConn 63, Kent State 21 (Nov. 9, 2002): The last game at Memorial Stadium, in which students braved pepper-spraying cops to righteously storm the field and tear down the goal posts, because the one unifying message of UConn football over the last 20 years is “the students should not get to have fun at football games.”
UConn 34, Indiana 10 (Aug. 30, 2003): Dan Orlovsky opens the Rent with a bang, throwing for 307 yards and 3 TDs, while Terry Caulley breaks a million tackles on a 43-yard touchdown run as the good guys dominate a Big Ten program in front of a sellout crowd at their fancy new stadium.
UConn 39, Toledo 10 (Motor City Bowl – Dec. 27, 2004): The brilliant capper to Orlovsky’s career saw the Huskies dominate in their first-ever bowl game. Orlovsky threw two first-half touchdowns and Larry Taylor returned a punt 68 yards for a score. It was good.
The Civil ConFLiCT: Two-win UConn beating a nine-win conference champion UCF in Bob Diaco’s first season is still probably the greatest WTF result in program history. It got better the following year, when UCF was horrendous and UConn smoked them, 40-13, in front of about 7 people in Orlando, to capture the prestigious Civil ConFLiCT trophy. This is all a reminder to anyone at UConn to please sell me the Civil ConFLiCT trophy, thank you.
THE TOP 12
#12 — UConn 31, Baylor 28 (Sept. 19, 2008): The Huskies beat freshman Robert Griffin III at the Rent on ESPN in an entertaining back-and-forth game, leading Griffin to call the stadium one of the loudest he ever played in. UConn actually beat Griffin again the following year in Waco (and Baylor didn’t really get good until RG3’s junior year), but no one even remembers that because the game the prior year was so good.
#11 — UConn 31, Pittsburgh 19 (Sept. 30, 2004): A Thursday night game on ESPN gave us all our first look at how much fun football could be in the right setting, with a fired-up fanbase, and with a competitive team beating relevant rival programs. The Rent was as loud as it’s ever been, the student section notably causing Pitt QB Tyler Palko to commit back-to-back-to-back false start and delay of game penalties during one sequence.
#10 — UConn 20, South Carolina 7 (Papa John’s Bowl: Jan. 2, 2010): This is still probably the best opponent Edsall’s teams ever beat, and UConn just manhandled an above-average SEC team. The Gamecocks gained just 205 yards (UConn had 253, to be fair, but hit a big play on Kashif Moore’s boss-ass TD catch from Zach Frazer) and were scoreless until garbage time in the fourth quarter. This win inspired the not-remembered #UConnIsWinningTheBigEastNextYear hashtag on UConn twitter, and lo and behold.
#9 — UConn 37, Iowa State 20 (Nov. 23, 2002): This is the game that made people take notice of UConn football. Though Iowa State was not ranked at this point, they had been in the top 10 earlier in the year and boasted a Heisman candidate in Seneca Wallace. And tiny UConn, in its first year with of full-scholarship football, went to Iowa and wrecked their shit, rallying from 10 points down in the second half to win behind Orlovsky (3 TD passes) and Caulley (191 yards, TD). It was the Huskies’ fourth straight win and clinched the first of Edsall’s seven .500-or-better seasons.
#8 — UConn 46, Pittsburgh 45, 2OT (Nov. 11, 2006): Possibly the best finish to a game at the Rent, even though roughly 15,000 people stuck around for it. D.J. Hernandez threw a pair of touchdowns in the final 8:00 of regulation to force overtime, then won the game in when he stumbled into the end zone untouched on a walk-off 2-point conversion in the 2nd overtime. Despite the 2006 team being extremely meh, Hernandez throwing the ball out of the stadium is still one of the iconic moments in program history.
#7 — UConn 21, Louisville 17 (Oct. 19, 2007): Larry Taylor’s Unfair Catch owns and is on the Mount Rushmore of UConn football. Enough said.
#6 — UConn 23, Louisville 20, 3OT (Nov. 24, 2012): Everyone forgets this game because the ACC picked Louisville three days later and it was a UConn team full of NFL talent (on defense, at least) that Paul Pasqualoni somehow made into a 5-7 team. Louisville had Teddy Bridgewater at QB and went 11-2 that year, but a really excellent UConn defense held them scoreless until the final 11:40 of regulation, when the Cardinals rallied to send the game into overtime at 10-10. Blidi Wreh-Wilson’s interception in the end zone ended Louisville’s possession in the 3rd OT, and Chad Christen booted a 30-yard field goal for the upset win.
#5 — UConn 20, Houston 17 (Nov. 21, 2015): It did not end up saving UConn football, but beating an undefeated team at the Rent in November to set off a field storm and clinch bowl eligibility is, legitimately, the unquestionable highlight of the last eight years. Yeah, I’m sad too. Diaco looked like he might just have ushered in an era of defensive dominance (he did not), as the Huskies limited Houston to just 318 yards and forced four turnovers. UConn did just enough on offense, scoring on their opening drive, adding a couple field goals before halftime, and scoring their final touchdown on a wacky lateral-to-the-third-string-quarterback-playing-receiver-who-then-passes-it to put the game (just barely) out of reach.
#4 — UConn 16, West Virginia 13, OT (Oct. 29, 2010): West Virginia was the only team in the Big East UConn could never beat, until they did. It was fairly fluky —the Huskies were outgained by 150 yards, and WVU was going in for a touchdown in overtime before randomly fumbling on the goal line, their fourth turnover of the game — but who cares? It was the win that unlocked the improbable “win five straight games and go to the BCS” path, the second field-storming at the Rent, and a great, great win.
#3 — UConn 22, USF 15 (Oct. 27, 2007): This game is arguably the apex of UConn football, as the Huskies came into the game ranked 23rd in the country, and left it with a nationally televised win over then-No. 10 USF and the first field-storming in the history of Rentschler Field. We would be ranked 13th in the BCS standings the following week, which, good lord, what? Scott Lutrus’ pick-six staked the Huskies to a 16-0 halftime lead, and the defense withstood a late USF rally, including a memorable sack on 3rd-and-goal from the 1-yard line that essentially stopped the Bulls from scoring the tying touchdown.
#2 — UConn 33, Notre Dame 30, OT (Nov. 21, 2009): It’s not #1. It’s just not. It was awesome. It was an incredible story, given that the program had lost Jasper Howard a month earlier and had suffered three of the most heartbreaking losses in a row immediately following Howard’s death. No one should ever forget UConn chants ringing out beneath Touchdown Jesus, the unbridled emotion in Edsall’s voice as he dedicated the win to Jazz, the remarkable fight in that team as they overcame an early 14-point deficit and some BS holding calls late in the fourth quarter and missed field goals. And no one should forget that UConn is forever better at football than Notre Dame. But: this ND team was kinda bad, losing to Navy for the first time in 40 years two weeks earlier and firing their coach two weeks later. Great win, phenomenal win, beautiful win. The second-best UConn football win ever. Fight me.
#1 — UConn 19, USF 16 (Dec. 4, 2010): If UConn football never accomplishes another meaningful thing before the sport is abolished by President Russ Steinberg in 2029, at least they did reach their ceiling for a brief moment. UConn football barely existed in 2000, possessing no history of success at the top level of college football, no extant facilities to speak of, no real connection with the outside community. Ten years later, UConn football won the Big East championship by beating a bunch of schools with national championships and Heisman winners, and played in the Fiesta Bowl. That is unfathomable. Rival fanbases and media/recruiting pundits said UConn could never succeed at big-time football. Given everything that’s happened since Dec. 4, 2010, they still might be proved right. But for one night, thanks to Dave Teggart’s incredibly clutch kick, they could all go sit the hell down. We won, and we won it all.
