University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Michigan
Huskies Head For The Big House To Face No. 4/5 Michigan
9/15/2022 10:39:00 PM | Football
UConn Athletic Communications / Sept. 16, 2022
TV: ABC
Radio: UConn Sports Network from Learfield - ESPN 97.9
Live Stats: Michigan.StatBroadcast.com
STORRS, Conn. – After two straight home games, the UConn football team is headed into the house of an opponent.
A Big House.
Michigan Stadium boasts 107,601 seats, the largest seating capacity in all of college football and the Wolverines have played 302 straight home games (save for the pandemic-plagued season of 2020) in front of crowds in excess of 100,000 fans.
The Huskies (1-2) will get the full experience of one of the classic venues in college football when they challenge No. 4/5 Michigan (2-0) in the Big House on Saturday afternoon (noon, ABC).
"They've turned up the speakers a lot in practice, and I've usually got coaches yelling in my ear, anything to try and distract us," said UConn starting quarterback Zion Turner. "But we've just got to stay focused and concentrate on executing the game plan."
Of far more concern to the Huskies than the myriad of people in the stands, however, will be the people in Michigan uniforms on the field. The Wolverines, coming off the program's first College Football Playoff appearance in 2021, have come roaring out of the gate in 2022 with dominating victories over Colorado State (51-7) and Hawaii (56-10). Michigan is tied for the top-ranked scoring offense in the country (53.5) and ranks 11th in scoring defense (8.5).
The Wolverines are using a two-quarterback system. J.J. McCarthy has completed 15-of-16, with no interceptions, for 259 yards and three touchdowns and has run for 66 yards. Cade McNamara has completed 13-of-24, with one interception, for 162 yards and one touchdown. Sixteen different players have caught at least one pass in the first two games.
Blake Corum is Michigan's leading rusher with 164 yards, while C.J. Stokes has 96 yards.
Michigan has won both games between the two teams – a 30-10 win over UConn on Sept. 4, 2010 at Michigan Stadium and a 24-20 win over the Huskies on Sept. 21, 2013 at Rentschler Field.
"We think of it as a great opportunity to play against one of the premier teams in college football, a team that played in the College Football Playoff last year and to me looks better than ever," UConn head coach Jim Mora said. "Obviously, they are extremely well-coached, they are big, they're physical, they're fast, they're skilled. They have their sights set on a national championship and they are certainly worthy of that. They do not have a weakness."
UConn's game plan?
"We're going up there and we're going to fight and compete like crazy and do all we can to try to win the game against a very good team," Mora said. "We're not going there for any reason but to give our best effort to win the game. I think it's a fantastic opportunity for our guys and they relish the opportunity."
Turner has hit 40-of-70 passes with three interceptions for the Huskies, for 373 yards and four touchdowns. On the ground, sophomore Nate Carter has rushed for 384 yards, averaging 128.0 yards per game. Sophomore Aaron Turner is UConn's leading receiver with 11 catches for 160 yards.
"Zion is doing some things better and better each week," Mora said. "He is playing without a lot of weapons around him that we had hoped would be around him. He's adapting and learning. He grows from his mistakes. You want to see people learning from their mistakes and Zion is doing that."
The Huskies are coming off a tough 48-14 loss at home to Syracuse last Saturday.
"I think we kind of purged that loss on Sunday night," Mora explained. "We always have a team dinner on Sunday night. We get together and it's our 24-hour rule. We lick our wounds for 24 hours, or we celebrate for 24 hours, and then we move on to the next one, applying the lessons that we did learn. I think our guys have bounced back well. They recognize that this is a great challenge and they are ready to go."
Turner had some takeaways from the loss.
"We have to be way more efficient on offense," the quarterback said. "We have to be better on first down and better on third down. Our game execution effort has to go way up. We have way too many turnovers and we have to get that number down to get the offense flowing. We can't be indecisive against a team like Michigan because they have a lot of great athletes who can make plays."
The UConn quarterback insists he will not be overwhelmed by the venue or the opponent.
"All my life, I've played big boy football," he said. "I've been in big games and big situations and I'm not going to treat this any differently. This is another Saturday, another chance to get better, another chance to showcase that we are one of the better teams in the country."
