Welcome back to The Terry Baltimore Cup, a 12-play tournament to pick the best play in UConn football history. We've reached the semifinals where the four plays that got a first-round bye will have to defend themselves. We had two votes yesterday and have our final two today. Our third contest? Greg Lloyd's helmet-popping hit against Kashif Moore's one-handed catch. Check back at 1 p.m. for today's second matchup. You have until 6 a.m. tomorrow to vote for your favorite.
Today's first contestent is Kashif Moore's one-handed catch in the PapaJohns.com bowl. Here's what we wrote about it last week:
UConn's 20-7 win over South Carolina in the Papajohns.com bowl was a wonderful end to the most difficult of seasons. Two and a half months after the murder of Jasper Howard the Huskies had managed to get their season back on track with an emotional win over Notre Dame and strong showings against Syracuse and USF to wrap up the Big East season. They were off to a bowl, but their draw was against Steve Spurrier's South Carolina team. South Carolina isn't a powerhouse, but neither is UConn and the Huskies had never beaten a SEC team before this game.
Kashif Moore helped change that. His one-handed touchdown catch set the tone for the day (UConn had a 20-0 lead at one point and USC's only points came on a garbage time score). The Huskies came to play and beat up their opponents on both sides of the ball. If we're being honest, the best performance of the day belonged to the defense, who allowed USC to convert only three third-downs in fifteen attempts, but it was Moore's catch that sticks with fans to this day. UConn may not have SEC speed, but Moore showed that it did not matter.
Moore's catch is taking on Greg Lloyd's epic hit against Notre Dame. Our description:
Searching for its first win since Jasper Howard's death, UConn traveled to South Bend, Ind., where the Huskies roared back from a slow start to force overtime, ultimately winning in the second OT. The game produced a ton of highlights (including an impressive Jordan Todman touchdown run and a Todman kick return that went for six) but today we're going to focus on two in particular.
The first is Greg Lloyd's thunderous goal-line hit, which liberated Armando Allen's helmet. You can check that out by going to the 50-second mark of the above video. It's an absolutely ferocious hit, one of the best in school history and it's a wonder that Allen did not fumble the ball.