The message on the wall in UConn’s defensive backs meeting room is about as plain as it gets: “GET BETTER.”
That, Jason Candle said this week, is the whole point after a weekend that showed the Huskies exactly where they still have work to do. After opening the season with a big offensive showing in a win over Lafayette, Candle wanted to see how his team would handle a tougher test. Maryland delivered that test in a 38-14 loss, and now UConn has to answer again on the road.
The Huskies are 1-1 heading to Hattiesburg, Miss., for their first road game of the season against Southern Mississippi, also 1-1. It’s a trip that comes with some baggage: UConn has not won a road opener in 13 years, with its last one coming in 2012 at Maryland. Even more troubling, in 11 of the last 12 seasons the Huskies have played, they have dropped at least their first two road games.
Candle didn’t hide from what the Maryland film showed. UConn rushed for only 67 yards, a number that left Kalieb Osborne carrying too much of the load in just his second college start.
The young quarterback, Candle said, looked confused at times with pre-snap reads. The tackling wasn’t clean, and the secondary had a rough afternoon.
Still, Candle pushed back on the idea that the loss was as simple as UConn being overwhelmed on defense.
“I find it hard to believe - and I will go watch the film with anyone - that it is just because we are terrible on defense,” Candle said. “The kid made some really, really good throws. Some guys made some really tough, contested catches where our guys were in position.”
He pointed to Maryland quarterback Malik Washington and his receivers, who had the kind of day that can make any defense look worse than it is. Washington completed 18 straight passes at one point, helped along by accurate throws and strong catches when the ball wasn’t perfect.
The run game had its own issues. Candle said missed blocks, backs missing open creases and Maryland’s big, fast front all played a part. The Terps also crowded the box frequently to take away UConn’s ground attack.
Running back Cyncir Bowers said the answer is to keep the offense simple and steady.
“When we all play to the best of our ability, I feel like we are going to be very tough to stop,” Bowers said. “Kenji (Christian), Trey (Cornist), Jay Hart, with all those guys I think we can go a long way.”
On the other side of the ball, linebacker Hayden Pegg said the defense already knows where the cleanup work starts.
“We identified what we need to work on,” Pegg said. “There were holes, but we are really excited about what we can fix. We saw a lot of things that are easily fixable.
“We have a lot of guys who are underdogs, and that is what you need. No one has a doubt in that locker room that we can bounce back.”
Candle’s bigger point was about resisting the urge to overreact after one bad Saturday. He said the program has to stay locked into the process, ignore the noise and accept responsibility for where it stands.
“Look, this is real life. This isn't Twitter,” Candle said.
“Something didn't go our way on Saturday, and everybody has individual responsibility for that. This isn't about some guy goes in there, takes his shirt off, beats his chest, gives some epic speech, and now all of a sudden we are going to win every game.
“This is, 'Can you be really good at your process when it doesn't feel like you should be?' That's it.
That is the same responsibility we all have. I need our senior leaders and our coaching staff, I need everybody to take full accountability for where we are at and continue to improve.”
For now, that’s the assignment in big letters on the wall: get better.
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The defense did plenty of its own heavy lifting, too, with two interceptions and a ground effort that limited Southern Miss to 102 rushing yards. One of those takeaways turned into points in a big way, and it fit the larger feel of the afternoon for UConn: the Huskies were sharp, opportunistic and comfortable making a statement away from home. [Read more 🡒]