After two games, UConn football has already shown the shape of its season. The Huskies are 1-1, coming off a 56-7 win over Lafayette and a 38-14 loss to Maryland, and now they head to Southern Miss for their first road game under new head coach Jason Candle on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The biggest takeaway so far is hard to miss: this offense runs through Kalieb Osborne.
Osborne, a transfer who followed Candle from Toledo, won the starting quarterback job the day before the season opener and wasted no time proving why. Against Lafayette, he completed 19 of 26 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns, and he added another layer to the attack by leading the Huskies on the ground with 90 yards on eight carries and two more scores. The performance drew national praise.
Week 2 was messier, but the dependence stayed the same. Against Maryland, Osborne threw for 156 yards and a touchdown, while also handling the most carries on the team with 13. He managed 30 rushing yards, but UConn still leaned on him to create offense.
That dependence is understandable given where this roster sits. Jim Mora’s departure to Colorado State came with a wave of players, and UConn also lost Joe Fagnano, Skyler Bell and Cam Edwards.
Fagnano and Bell are now in the NFL, while Edwards transferred to Michigan State. With so much turnover and so many new faces, the Huskies were never going to look finished in September.
Still, there’s one area that needs to move forward quickly: the offensive line.
Osborne is good enough to carry a lot, and UConn will need him to make plays, but he can’t be asked to do everything. That puts too much on one player and makes the offense easier to defend. It also raises the risk of wear and tear if that workload keeps piling up.
The Huskies need the line to give other pieces a chance to matter. Kenji Christian flashed that possibility with his dynamic running style, but he finished last week with just 17 yards on nine carries.
If there’s a crease, he can do more damage. The problem is getting him that opening in the first place.
Improvement up front is coming eventually, but the schedule won’t make it simple, with ACC matchups against Syracuse and North Carolina still ahead. Southern Miss, though, gives UConn a chance to start that climb now.
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