It's been exactly a year since we at the blog officially launched the campaign to convince people that UConn could/would win the Big East in 2010. It was right after the 56-31 win over Syracuse, when it became clear that the Huskies were closing out the season on an incredible hot streak.
We launched Twitter hashtags, included a note on our inevitable Orange Bowl appearance in every other football post and changed the masthead. Turning into a legitimate Big East contender seemed like the next logical step for Randy Edsall's program.
And then when they actually started playing, UConn lost to Michigan, Temple and Rutgers. *cough*
But a football season is a strange journey. Just like last year, the Huskies have amassed a late-season four-game winning streak and, somehow, someway, Edsall finds himself 120 minutes of football away from a spot in the Bowl Championship Series, just like we predicted. At 8-4, UConn-as-BCS-seat-filler might be the butt of jokes (not to mention a heavy underdog playing against a team like Oklahoma or Nebraska), but I, for one, don't really give a rat's ass.
Of course, this 12-game journey is only 10 games deep, and there are two teams still out there who are very much capable of beating UConn. There's Randy Edsall's history in Late-Season Games That Really Matter (sample size: one).
And today, there's Cincinnati, a team who last season put 750 yards of offense on UConn in a wild 47-45 victory, and a team who last week nearly dropped 70 points on Rutgers. Zach Collaros (2500 passing yards, 24 TD-7 INT) has a ton of weapons to work with to make the Bearcats' offense hum, and we'll find out very quickly if last week's defensive dominance was a mirage or not.
Thankfully, today's game is at Fortress Rentschler, and it will be in front of what I expect to be a loud, emotional Senior Day crowd. Winning this game - and setting up a one-game season on the road in Tampa next Saturday - won't be easy, but there's no such thing as an easy conference championship run, no matter how bad your particular conference is. (Right, Boise?)
Use this thread for all your game chatter. Kickoff is noon on SNY.
Let's go Huskies.