Embarrassment: Rutgers defeats UConn 19-3

Wake me up when the Paul Pasqualoni era at UConn is over because I am done with him. Today's performance was an total embarrassment and a frightening sign of what is in store for UConn in Big East play. There is talent on this roster and I have no doubt that the players want to win but they are being let down time and again by the coaching staff.

There are plenty of bizarre and frustrating coaching decisions to go around (like George DeLeone's continued refusal to do anything but run on first down), but the end of the first half should provide enough of an example: Down six to three the Huskies completed a pass to move to Rutgers' 34 yard line with 21 seconds remaining. UConn, which had three timeouts, ran one play, gained zero yards and then elected to kick a fifty-one yard field goal, which naturally missed. The Huskies used none of their timeouts. I have no clue what Pasqualoni or DeLeone were thinking during that sequence, and I suspect they don't either, because there is no justifiable football reason for it to play out like it did.

That wasn't the worst part of the day though, nor was it the thing that upset me the most. What upset me the most was this: in the early hours of Friday morning UConn running back Lyle McCombs was arrested on campus for allegedly yelling at, spitting on and pushing down his girlfriend. Despite this Pasqualoni allowed McCombs to travel to New Jersey later that day and let him play against Rutgers after a one-quarter suspension. I can rant and rave about losses all day long, but at the end of the day football is just a game. Off-the-field behavior like this is far more important and is completely unacceptable. Letting McCombs travel with the team and play less than 36 hours after his arrest is completely inexcusable and indefensible, and easily marks the lowest point of the Pasqualoni-era at UConn.