Listen up, Husky Nation. Jo Ferrante here, Hartford-area born, former college point guard and current high school quarterback coach. I see football as a fast break with helmets: get the stop, push the ball, finish at the rim. And if you tell me "nobody watches UConn football," I'll take it personally. I'll take it very personally.
Part 1: The Bye, and the Game Before It
First, the honest part. UConn didn't play on Oct. 17. That was our bye week. So let me take you back to our last game, because it was a good one.
On Oct. 10, UConn beat Temple 34-20 in Philadelphia. That got us back to 3-3. And it was a run-and-gun game, my go-to kind of pace.
Kalieb Osborne opened the scoring with a 12-yard touchdown run, and we led 7-0. Temple tied it on the very next play from scrimmage with a 79-yard touchdown pass. Then Kenji Christian took his only carry of the game 39 yards for a touchdown. One touch, one bucket. That's efficiency, baby.
Temple tied it again with a trick-play touchdown pass from a wide receiver, then kicked a field goal to lead 17-14 in the second quarter. But here's where the fast break kicked in. Trey Cornist broke a 51-yard run and then scored from a yard out, and we led 21-17. We never trailed again. Our defense forced a turnover, and Jack O'Connor kicked a 21-yard field goal on the final play of the half to make it 24-17.
Temple kicked a field goal in the third quarter to cut it to 24-20. Then Cyncir Bowers finished a 10-play, 62-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run with 7:52 left, and O'Connor added a 27-yard field goal with 1:05 left. Ballgame.
Cornist ran for 114 yards on just seven carries. That's 16.3 yards a carry, Husky Nation. That's not a run. That's a coast-to-coast layup. Bowers added 84 yards on 18 carries. Osborne completed 17 of 23 passes for 257 yards, with no interceptions. Ryder Treadway caught three passes for 63 yards. UConn gained 505 yards and didn't turn the ball over once. Temple lost two fumbles.
And remember, the week before that, we lost 42-41 to Syracuse. One point. That still stings like a missed free throw at the buzzer. But we bounced back.
Part 2: Friday Night Lights in East Hartford
Friday, 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network. UMass (4-3) at UConn (3-3) at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field. Husky Nation, fill those seats. Let's prove the doubters wrong.
Scouting the Minutemen
I'll be fair, because a good coach always respects the opponent. UMass beat Rutgers 37-21 on the road in its opener. Its defense allows 19.1 points a game, 33rd in FBS, and its pass defense ranks 30th. UMass is plus-7 in turnover margin, eighth in FBS. That's a team that takes care of the ball and takes it away. Respect.
Now, the scouting report.
UMass is 4-3, but two of those wins came against FCS teams, Sacred Heart and Stonehill. Since then, it's lost three straight: 38-14 to Eastern Michigan, 20-19 to Miami (Ohio) and 25-18 at Buffalo last week. And last season, UMass went 0-12. Zero and twelve.
UMass's offense averages 339.1 yards a game, 113th in FBS. Its passing offense averages 179.0 yards, 117th. Last week at Buffalo, its quarterback, Logan Inagawa, completed 14 of 25 passes for 168 yards, with one interception, though he did run for a touchdown. That's a team that can't push the pace. In basketball, we'd call that a shot-clock violation waiting to happen.
Our Game Plan
UConn's offense averages 451.8 yards a game, 24th in FBS, and 35.7 points a game, 29th. Our run game averages 195.3 yards, 33rd. Osborne has 1,421 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Bowers has 433 rushing yards and six touchdowns, and Shamar Porter leads us in receiving with 235 yards and two touchdowns.
And history's on our side. UConn beat UMass 47-42 in Amherst in 2024, and 31-18 there in 2023. Last season, we went 9-4 and played in the Fenway Bowl.
My Honest Scouting Report on Us
A real coach watches her own film first. Our pass defense allows 290.5 yards a game, 135th in FBS. Our third-down defense allows opponents to convert 43.3% of the time, 113th. And we average 79.0 penalty yards a game, 130th. We lost 38-14 at home to Maryland and 24-21 at Miami (Ohio). And yes, we lost the Fenway Bowl to Army 41-16 last season. So we've got film to fix.
The Defensive Assignment
UMass leans on its run game, which averages 160.1 yards a game, 64th in FBS, and Elijah Faulkner leads the way with 361 rushing yards. Our run defense allows just 117.0 yards a game, 39th. Take away the ground game, and UMass has to beat us through the air, where its passing offense ranks 117th. That's a full-court press, Husky Nation.
Three Plays on the Whiteboard
1. Push the pace. Our run game averages 195.3 yards a game. Keep feeding Bowers and Cornist, and wear down that UMass defense. 2. Protect the rock. UMass is plus-7 in turnover margin. Don't give them free possessions. 3. Stop fouling. We're 130th in penalty yards. No reaching, no flopping, no free throws for the other team.
Home Court: East Hartford vs. Amherst
East Hartford. East Hartford sits on the east bank of the Connecticut River, right across from Hartford. It was incorporated as its own town in October 1783, and it's home to aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. Our stadium sits on the site of Pratt & Whitney's old company airfield, which began operations in 1931 and was named after Frederick Rentschler, who founded Pratt & Whitney in 1925. When it opened in 2003, it was the first stadium used mainly by an FBS team to open in the 21st century. So yes, we play football where jet engines used to take flight.
And the university? UConn has won 25 NCAA team national championships. We have a lot of banners, and yes, the basketball ones count.
Amherst. Amherst is a lovely place, and I mean that. But here's a fun fact. UMass's home stadium, McGuirk Alumni Stadium, isn't actually in Amherst. It sits just across the town border in Hadley. The Minutemen play their home games in a different town. That's like a point guard who shows up to the wrong gym.
Amherst also has a city form of government, but it still calls itself "The Town of Amherst." Choose a lane, Amherst. And the locals say "AM-erst," without the h, leading to the saying "only the 'h' is silent." Friday night in East Hartford, that won't be the only thing that goes quiet.
The Final Buzzer
Here's my read. UConn has a top-25 offense, a strong run game and a quarterback who protects the ball, plus a week of rest. UMass has an opportunistic defense and a lot of fight, but it also has a struggling passing offense and three straight losses. If we push the pace, protect the ball and stop the penalties, the Huskies win this New England matchup on Friday night. Fill the stands, Husky Nation.
My call: UConn Huskies 33, Massachusetts Minutemen 20.