Before Paul Pasqualoni and his staff started piling up the 2012 commitments, there was some apprehension that UConn's recruiting efforts wouldn't much change from the Randy Edsall era. Which is to say: the Huskies would lose out on bigger names to the better recruiting Big East schools.
Edsall was never mistaken for a recruiting guru, but there was something to be said for his ability to get players who fit his system and generally performed well in it. After all, the Huskies won the Big East last season, and ended up in the Fiesta Bowl.
For more evidence of just how improbable UConn's run through the conference and to a BCS bowl game was, just consider this from the Big East Coast Bias blog:
According to the F/+ rankings over at Football Study Hall, the 2010 Connecticut Huskies were the worst BCS team over the past six years (limited to six seasons because of lack of play-by-play data before then).
Connecticut ranked 55th overall in 2010. Only three times did a BCS participant not rank in the top 25 for that particular season. The Huskies in 2010 were the worst of those teams and were joined by 2006 Wake Forest (32nd) and 2007 Hawaii (48th). Those teams had the 341st, 190th and 267th best seasons of the last six seasons, respectively.
A pessimist might say, "See, UConn didn't deserve to be in a BCS bowl game. They got lucky!" An optimist, on the other hand, would point out that it's evidence that Edsall got the most out of his players, many of whom weren't prized national recruits.
Physical skills will carry you far in athletics, but mental toughness (specifically: the ability to overcome physical shortcomings) is underrated.
Yes, the Huskies probably don't want to hang a banner to celebrate the fact that six years of play-by-play data show them to be the worst BCS Bowl team. But statistical analysis aside, they're still Big East champs, and as Pasqualoni is fond of saying, the program has had a lot of success in a short period of time. If the Huskies continue to stockpile recruits, that shouldn't change anytime soon.
