Perhaps the best thing you can say about the 2013 football season is that it will all be over in three weeks. Games against Temple, Rutgers and Memphis remain, and while it would be nice to, you know, win once this season, the sooner this all ends, the better for everyone involved.
Earlier this week, interim head coach T.J. Weist had the impossible task of trying to keep his team focused in the face of an 0-9 season that could get worse.
“You can see it and feel it,” Weist said, via SNY.com. “You spend all week motivating players. We had good practices, every Friday and Saturday guys are fired up, focused and determined, they want to win…what truly matter is what happens on the field.
“When you don’t have big plays, successful guys, sometimes on the sideline they are like ‘here we go again.’ They have to break that mold, fight that…it’s hard, it’s easy to stay motivated when you are scoring.”
If there's a silver lining to all this, it's that Temple is just 1-9. Which means that Saturday could be the Huskies' best chance to get a win this calendar year. The downside: if UConn loses, there's no coming back from that. After dropping games to Towson to open the season, and then Buffalo a month later (that one cost Paul Pasqualoni his job), there's exactly zero margin for error now.
One thing Weist has noticed is that at the first sign of turmoil, the Huskies fold. It's been a recurring theme all season, one the team has yet to remedy.
Hopefully, quarterback Casey Cochran, who made his first start last week, can change that.
“He knows that he has to make more plays,” Weist said. “He knows he has to throw the ball better. He tried to fit some in there early in the first half and guys were double-covered and obviously he made some late, disastrous throws that hurt us with the two interceptions. But overall, from a leadership standpoint, from a communication standpoint, from running the offense, he did a good job and moved the ball down the field.”
It's as close to a ringing endorsement as you're going to get on an 0-9 team.
