Huskies have problems to correct after BYU loss

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – UConn’s scouting report for BYU made it clear that quarterback Taysom Hill could pass. And run. And pass. And run. And score.

Unfortunately for the Huskies’ defense – and first-year coach Bob Diaco – UConn couldn’t figure out how to stop Hill Friday night at Rentschler Field. Hill, who may emerge as a Heisman Trophy darkhorse by the end of the season,  led unranked BYU to four first-half touchdowns and then the Cougars cruised to a 35-10 victory before a crowd of 35,150 that spoiled the start of the Diaco Era.

It was a tough task for the rebuilding Huskies. The result wasn’t pretty. Diaco felt his team showed improvement but there certainly is a long list of problems to focus on.

“Things are changing I hope you saw it,” a surprisingly upbeat Diaco said in his opening statement. “Everybody wanted to win and everybody tried hard. We’re going to [win]. This football team gets better every day. We got better tonight. We’re a better team. Kudos to the players. There’s so much to improve upon.

“But they fought hard. The deficit at the end of the first half was 21 points. But they responded, battled and fought hard. From where I was standing, it looked like they were locked in and nobody gave up.”

That may be hard for UConn fans to swallow. But get ready to hear more of that from Diaco. Winning may take time, especially with the approach Diaco took Friday night.

“We have some things to work on for next week to eliminate those things from happening again,” wide receiver Geremy Davis said. “We have to make the corrections ourselves. It is nothing that the coaches have to do. It is something where we must execute what they coach us to do.”

It was a sloppy debut for the Huskies, who were bothered by penalties (8), turnovers (2) and lack of execution (countless times). BYU jumped out to a 28-7 lead and seemed content to hold on – or maybe not to embarrass Diaco and the Huskies. And in the second half, UConn appeared to be preparing for the future, taking a look at a lot of players and failing to mount much of a threat. Diaco said he used 25 players on offense and 25 on defense and that number included eight true freshmen. That 50 player total didn’t include special teams.

A 35-yard field goal by Bobby Puyol was UConn’s only second half score – and some questioned why Diaco settled for that.

Diaco was bothered that UConn scored on only two of five opportunities in the red zone.

“It speaks to the things that cause losing,” he said. “And that’s what we are talking about and working on. That’s where we need to go and we aren’t there yet. You need to have better statistical work down there. It’s a critical situation.”

Hill completed 28 of 36 passes for 308 yards and three touchdowns and rushed 12 times for 97 more yards and two touchdowns. Hill split up his tosses to nine receivers, led by Mitch Mathews with 5 catches for 62 yards.

“As an offense that was our goal [to score on the opening drive],” Hill said. “And going into the first half, our goal was to score more than 12 points. Our mark this season is to score 24 points a game.”

Casey Cochran started at quarterback for UConn. As planned, Chandler Whitmer also played and led UConn to its first score – a 1-yard TD run by freshman Josh Marriner. Diaco also used all four tailbacks with Max DeLorenzo picking up 38 yards on nine carries. But DeLorenzo also fumbled on UConn’s first offensive snap, a play that set a bad tone for the night.

“You can’t start a football game like that and think you’re going to win,” Diaco said. “C’mon.”

Davis caught only three passes for 20 yards in the first half. He had six catches for 57 yards when he walked into the Huskies locker room with cramps early in the fourth quarter. Davis later returned to the game and finished with seven catches for 96.

In the end, it was really hard to tell what UConn could take from this game. BYU has a good – not great – team. The Huskies, starting over after a 3-9 season and a coaching change, just never seemed to have a chance against a better opponent.

“I’m happy with what the offense did tonight,” said Cochran, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 171 yards and one interception. “We’ve got to finish some drives. But for a first game against a great opponent, I’m happy.”

BYU dominated the first half with Hill passing for 195 yards and rushing for 54. The Cougars rolled up 17 first downs and 329 yards before halftime, compared to 10 first downs and 158 yards for the Huskies.

Hill had run for a touchdown and thrown a touchdown pass before six minutes were played. Despite 11 first-half penalties that cost the Cougars 95 yards, BYU jumped out to a 21-0 lead on UConn. The Cougars took the opening kick, marched 75 yards on 15 plays and scored when Hill ran seven yards untouched into the end zone with 9:56 left in the first quarter.

“I thought Taysom did a really nice job managing the game regardless of the number of miscues happening around him in terms of penalties, etc.,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “I think we lost a little bit of our edge after halftime. But there was that real nice drive that was reminiscent of the first half later which I really liked.”

The Huskies handed the ball right back to BYU on their first play from scrimmage. Tailback Max DeLorenzo took a handoff up the middle but couldn’t hold on to the ball when he was hit by Jherremya Leuta-Douyere. Bronson Kaufusi recovered for BYU at the UConn 26.

Hill connected with Mitch Matthews for a 26-yard TD on first down. It took all of 15 seconds for the Cougars to extend their lead to 14-0.

In addition to that lost fumble, the Huskies were called for five penalties totaling 65 yards. Cochran, who started at quarterback and played the entire first quarter, complete 6 of 11 passes for 50 yards but was intercepted by Craig Bills when he overthrew Deshon Foxx at the BYU 9.

Whitmer, slated to play part of the game by Diaco, replaced Cochran on the first drive of the second quarter. He was 4-for-6 for 45 yards passing but directed the only scoring drive of the first half. Freshman tailback Josh Marriner, who had six carries for 25 yards, dashed one yard into the end zone to complete a 52-yard drive on six plays to cut BYU’s lead to 21-7.

Marriner looked powerful on the drive and Whitmer directed the offense to a nice rhythm. The offensive line got the job done blocking and protecting and the Huskies briefly looked like an efficient offensive unit. A fumble recovery by Junior Joseph had given UConn the ball at its own 48.

“Everybody was kind of hyped up and we had the ball in a good position on the field,” offensive guard Gus Cruz said. “We felt like we needed some points. We were all really excited and concentrating. The defense did a great job getting the ball back and the crowd got in it again.”

Unfortunately, BYU turned around with a 5-play, 69-yard drive in 90 seconds. Hill threw 35 yards to wide receiver Terenn Houk for the final score of the half. Houk caught four passes for 58 yards in the first half. Adam Hine, who rushed for 9 yards, also caught a 7-yard TD pass from Hill.

UConn plays Stony Brook next in a game the Huskies should win with ease. It will be interesting to see what the Huskies get out of this opener and how much they improve.

“Our program is like an infant,” Diaco said. “We have a long way to go but we have the right guys to go there, there isn’t any doubt about that.”