University of Connecticut Athletics
2007 Football Schedule Announced; Huskies to Play Seven Home Games
2/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
STORRS, Conn. (February 1, 2007) - The University of Connecticut will play seven home football games in 2007 for the second consecutive season and the third time in four years. In addition to BIG EAST home games against Louisville (Oct. 20), South Florida (Oct. 27), Rutgers (Nov. 3) and Syracuse (Nov. 17), the Huskies will face Maine (Sept. 8), Temple (Sept. 15) and Akron (Sept. 29) this upcoming season at Rentschler Field in non-conference action. UConn will travel to face a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference members in Duke (Sept. 1) and Virginia (Oct. 13) along with BIG EAST foes Pittsburgh (Sept. 22), Cincinnati (Nov. 10) and West Virginia (Nov. 24) in league action.
All dates are subject to change at the request of the BIG EAST’s television broadcast partners. Game times will be announced at a later date. As usual, many of the games will fall into the conference’s 12-day broadcast selection windows with the kickoff time and television information not announced until the Monday of the week prior to the game.
“We are very excited that we will once again be playing seven home games and give our fans even more opportunities to enjoy the Rentschler Field experience,” says UConn Director of Athletics Jeff Hathaway.
UConn football season tickets will be on sale in February and, for the first time, patrons will have the opportunity to order their season tickets online. Exact details for UConn online ticketing will be provided shortly.
“This is a very demanding schedule,” head coach Randy Edsall says. “We look forward to playing it this year. I like that we have five games, a week off, and then we play seven more. I also like having seven home games.”
The BIG EAST Conference slate will prove to be a challenging one, featuring five teams (out of seven) which won a bowl game this past year. The BIG EAST was a perfect 5-0 in its bowl games, marking just the third undefeated bowl season ever for a conference that sent at least five teams to a bowl. The Big Ten accomplished the feat in 1998 and the SEC in 1996 with both leagues going 5-0 those years. No conference has ever gone 6-0 or better in bowl games. The BIG EAST celebrated bowl game wins by Cincinnati (International Bowl), Louisville (FedEx Orange Bowl), Rutgers (Texas Bowl), USF (PapaJohns.com Bowl) and West Virginia (Toyota Gator Bowl). Three of those teams (Louisville, Rutgers and USF) are heading to Rentschler Field in 2007. During the course of the season, the BIG EAST collected 14 wins over schools from other BCS Conferences, by far the most of any conference. Three league teams (Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers) finished the year in the top 12 of the final polls. UConn’s non-conference slate is not without interesting matchups as well.
Opening the year at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., the Huskies will begin a season away from Rentschler Field for the first time since inaugurating the 2002 campaign at Boston College. The Huskies and Blue Devils met in East Hartford on Sept. 11, 2004 with UConn pulling out a 22-20 win after trailing 20-6 with 11:06 to play in the game. Matt Nuzie capped the comeback with a 21-yard field goal while Duke failed on a 36-yard try with six seconds remaining in the game.
For its home opener, UConn will renew its second-longest series as Maine ventures to Rentschler Field on Sept. 8. The meeting will be the 73rd between the Huskies and Black Bears. Only Rhode Island (93 meetings) has opposed the Huskies more often all-time. UConn has faced both Massachusetts and New Hampshire 71 times. The Huskies are a perfect 5-0 against Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA) competition since 2002. However, an Atlantic 10 team has defeated a BCS Conference school in four of the past five years, including a 9-7 win by Maine at Mississippi State on Sept. 18, 2004. UConn leads the series against Maine 38-31-3 with the last meeting being a 34-20 UConn win on Sept. 25, 1999 in Orono. The Black Bears finished 6-5 last fall including a narrow 10-9 loss at eventual national runner-up UMass.
The Huskies will stay at home the following week as Temple heads north from Philadelphia to face the Huskies. Each team has defeated the other once since 2002 when UConn joined what was then called Division I-A. Though the Owls took a 2002 game from the Huskies at Memorial Stadium in Storrs, UConn emerged victorious, 45-31, on Oct. 23, 2004 in Temple’s only previous visit to Rentschler Field. The game kicks off a four-game series with Temple which will have UConn heading down I-95 next fall to face Temple at Lincoln Financial Field, the modern new home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
The rematch of one of the most exciting games in UConn football history kicks off the 2007 BIG EAST schedule when the Huskies travel to face Pittsburgh on Sept. 22. This past Nov. 11, UConn trailed the Panthers, 31-17, with 12 minutes to play and the ball on its own two yard line but rallied to tie the game in regulation and eventually win it, 46-45, in double overtime when quarterback D.J. Hernandez ran in a two-point conversion. The home team has won each of the first three meetings in this budding series. The Huskies are 2-0 against Pitt in East Hartford, but were shutout in their only previous trip to Heinz Field, also home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.
The home Husky non-conference slate wraps up on Sept. 29 when Akron ventures to Rentschler Field. The Zips dropped a thrilling 38-37 decision to UConn on Oct. 25, 2003 in their only previous trip to East Hartford when Matt Nuzie hit a 27-yard field goal as time expired. The wild contest featured three fourth-quarter lead changes as UConn fought its way back from a 28-14 deficit in the second quarter for the win in a matchup of future NFL quarterbacks (UConn’s Dan Orlovsky - Detroit and Akron’s Charlie Frye - Cleveland). The game will mark UConn’s second matchup of the season against a team from the Mid-American Conference as Temple will join the MAC this season. UConn is 10-1 against MAC opponents since joining the I-A ranks in 2002 and has won each of its last eight such meetings.
Following a bye week, UConn heads south to face an ACC school for the second time in 2007 on Oct. 13 when the Huskies face Virginia at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers will return the game next season, facing the Huskies in East Hartford. Last year, UVa went 4-2 on its home field under the direction of former New York Jets head coach Al Groh, who led the Cavs to bowl bids in each of four straight seasons from 2002-05. Virginia will bring a veteran team into next season, losing only four seniors from the starting lineup for last year’s season finale against rival Virginia Tech. After the game against the Cavaliers, UConn will have faced 10 of the 12 members of the ACC in its football history, missing only Clemson and Florida State from its all-time opponent series roll.
Each of UConn’s final six games will be BIG EAST contests and four of them will be at Rentschler Field. UConn starts off this stretch with a three-game homestand. The last time UConn played three straight conference games at home was Oct. 30-Nov. 13, 1999 when the Huskies faced Richmond, Northeastern and New Hampshire in Atlantic 10 play under then-rookie head coach Randy Edsall.
UConn opens this run against defending BIG EAST and FedEx Orange Bowl Champion Louisville on Oct. 20. The Cardinals ranked second in the nation last year in total offense at 475.31 yards per game and will welcome back the 2005 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year, senior quarterback Brian Brohm. Louisville will be under the direction of new head coach Steve Kragthorpe after Bobby Petrino left in January to coach the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Kragthorpe guided Tulsa to three bowl bids in his four years at the school and will hope to continue U of L’s success against UConn as the Huskies have yet to beat the Cardinals in three tries.
The Bulls of South Florida will venture to Rentschler Field a week later on Oct. 27. USF’s first trip to East Hartford resulted in a 15-10 Husky victory on Nov. 26, 2005 as an ABC Sports regional audience watched on. Ranking fourth in the “also receiving votes” category of the final AP poll, the Bulls won the inaugural PapaJohn’s.com Bowl on Dec. 23 in Birmingham. USF is led by promising quarterback Matt Grothe who ranked 17th nationally in total offense last year as a freshman.
The three-game homestand wraps up on Nov. 3 when Rutgers comes to Rentschler Field. The Huskies and Scarlet Knights have played five times in recent years with UConn holding a 3-2 edge in what has been a tight and competitive series. Four of the five meetings have been settled by a touchdown or less, including both of the previous games played at Rentschler Field. UConn downed Rutgers, 38-31 in 2003 at Rentschler Field on a Cornell Brockington touchdown with 26 seconds to play. In 2005, a fourth quarter safety was the difference in a 26-24 Rutgers win.
A game at Cincinnati on Nov. 10 follows for the Huskies who will look to avenge one of 2006’s toughest losses as the Bearcats rallied from a 23-16 deficit in the final minutes, getting a game-winning field goal with just 10 seconds to play. The Huskies will be making their third trip all-time to Nippert Stadium and searching for their first win there. Cincinnati will be facing UConn for the first time under the direction of new head coach Brian Kelly who guided Central Michigan to the 2006 MAC Championship.
Syracuse heads to East Hartford on Nov. 17 for the Huskies’ seventh and final home game of the 2007 season. The home team has won each of the first three meetings in this burgeoning rivalry. The Orange’s Rentschler Field debut was not a pleasant one as UConn rolled to a 26-7 win before a prime-time national television audience on Oct. 7, 2005. Syracuse has won both of the meetings between the sides at the Carrier Dome and UConn will look for some similar home cooking on Senior Day to even out the series against Edsall’s alma mater.
The 2007 regular season schedule will come to a close on Nov. 24 with perhaps its most daunting hurdle, a game at West Virginia’s Mountaineer Field. UConn will be facing one of the league’s loudest and most hostile crowds, not to mention one of America’s top teams. Winners of both the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl and 2007 Toyota Gator Bowl, WVU returns two of the nation’s most explosive offensive stars in quarterback Pat White, the 2006 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year, and tailback Steve Slaton, a consensus 2006 All-American.
