The Tailgate: Connecticut

Saturday's marquee for a football game between Boston College and Connecticut probably reads like something out of a heavyweight boxing matchup between good and evil. A bitter border war for New England supremacy is straight out of Hollywood's central casting, and there aren't two better options to play either side of the rival factions or clans engaged in the centuries-long fight against one another. The storyline barely needs a scriptwriter, and the inherent drama included in "Boston College vs. Connecticut" is enough to fill a courtroom drama at the most personal level.

It's too bad, then, that the greater truth isn't that salacious. UConn and BC simply don't have the history to match their respective annual battles, and much of the bitterness and anger only existed because of off-field shenanigans and sniping that occurred during the realignment era of the mid-2000s. They didn't play at all after the Eagles left the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference and only restarted their matchup with a home-and-home in 2016 and 2017.

The marquee, therefore, might read something about anger, bitterness, and a jilted program looking to even and settle the score against the program that left it behind, but the truth is more steeped in respect by coaches and players who know what exists within the soul of teams trying to rebuild for their respective futures.

"I have a lot of respect for [UConn head coach] Jim Mora and the staff," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "I mean, look at what he did in his career. He's a [defensive backs] guy, a coach for the San Francisco 49ers, a coordinator, and he did a great job at UCLA. He must have missed coaching, coming out [of retirement], but I have a lot of respect for his career and what he's done."

For Mora, UConn is an untapped, fertile ground looking to reclaim status lost due to the post-realignment era. The Huskies were once the program that helped save the Big East as the Atlantic Coast Conference hunted for targets, but further expansions left them behind when the league finally crumbled at the start of the 2010s. The basketball schools split into their own league and retained the Big East name, and UConn, a national powerhouse on the hardwood, left that tradition to pursue football excellence with the structure that formed the American Athletic Conference.

Reproducing the success from the early 2000s, though, was more difficult than the Huskies bargained for, and after spending a few years toiling through the AAC, the university moved its programs back into the Big East and sent the football team into the murky waters of independence. It looked like a forfeiture at its surface level, but it now appears more like a reboot after a coaching change produced Mora's arrival in the Nutmeg State.

This year alone, UConn is on pace for its most wins in eight years, and the modest improvements have the Huskies in contention for a bowl game. They possess a 3-5 record, which doesn't appear as good to the naked eye, but it's more realistically a 2-2 record with three losses to nationally-ranked power conferences and a win over an FCS team that still hasn't won a game. Last week's loss to Ball State aside, UConn enters Saturday with an uphill, outside shot at six wins that hinges on its ability to defeat both BC and UMass.

Four games remain for the Huskies, but the opportunity that once felt like an impossibility is now within reach. A program that needed a reboot rediscovered its mojo and got out of a perpetual first gear by scheduling games that fit a formula. The 2010 Big East representative in the Fiesta Bowl has only been to one bowl game since that magical season, but a dozen years' difference does nothing to diminish the excitement and possibility that arrives if the Huskies can do something they've never done before: beat Boston College.

Here's what to watch for when Boston College heads to East Hartford to play Connecticut on Saturday:

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Game Storylines (Van Halen - Sammy Hagar Edition)

And I can't recall
Any love at all
Oh baby this blows 'em all away
It's got what it takes
So tell me why can't this be love?
-Why Can't This Be Love

UConn is statistically ranked as one of the worst offenses in college football. Its passing game averages less yards than every team except for Air Force and UMass, and no Huskies quarterback has thrown for 300 yards since David Pindell passed for 319 yards against Rhode Island, an FCS team, in 2018. Freshman Zion Turner is undersized under center and hasn't yet completed 100 passes on the year despite playing in every game.

At a high level overview, that should translate into feasting grounds for a BC defense ranked significantly better than UConn against the pass, but it's also impossible to judge some of those numbers since Turner went a combined 28-for-45 for 141 yards in the three games against Syracuse, Michigan and NC State.

It's also likely that BC doesn't see too many opportunities in the defensive passing game. Turner is usually limited to high percentage passes, and UConn defers to a ground-and-pound attack behind Nate Carter and Devontae Houston. Both average six yards per carry, and both are part of an attack that rushed for 245 yards against Utah State, 274 yards against Central Connecticut State and 295 yards against FIU.

"They've had some injuries at the quarterback position," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "Watching their offense, their quarterback is a good athlete and their running backs run hard. They're good up front. They're very well-coached up front, and I think their offensive line coach does a really good job. I like their offensive coordinator a lot. [Nick Charlton] is a BC guy who graduated from here and was the head coach at Maine. He runs a similar offense to Maine, and I think he does an exceptional job."

Don't want to wait 'til tomorrow
Why put it off another day?
One more walk through problems
Built-up and stands in our way
-Right Now

The atmosphere surrounding BC enters this game with an undercurrent of anxiety, but the Eagles themselves managed to turn that energy into positivity following last week's loss against Wake Forest. In the moments after the game, Jeff Hafley revealed that a player spoke to the team in positive tones, and teammates later revealed that Jason Maitre was the party who rallied the group in the bowels of the Winston-Salem night. Whatever he said sparked a positive charge for the team, and this week finished with a flourish heading into a potential turnaround game on Saturday afternoon.

"I've been in locker rooms before where you walk in and someone's talking up, but it's not a good talk," Hafley said, "and it goes in the opposite direction. I've been [in places] where guys are trying to talk and other guys are kind of [doing] whatever. It wasn't like that [for BC], so I think that's great."

Anxiety and excitement manifest identically on the senses, and people who experience feelings of both fright and euphoria vividly describe the increased heart rate, heightened senses, and more rapid breathing. The emotion is the only thing that's different, but it's also why the physical symptoms are interpreted differently from one another. If a player or person can control that emotional state, they can potentially move forward by simply accepting the physical state as a situation instead of a characteristic.

In pure football terms, Maitre's speech and the subsequent conversation enables BC to move forward with those individual emotions. Each player captured that moment in their own terms, but the sum of those individual parts is how the collective team advances through its week. Too much or too little emotion can be detrimental, but it instead appeared that the emotional balance struck the right chord for this week.

Another world, some other time
You lay your sanity on the line
Familiar faces, familiar sights.
Reach back remember with all your might
-Love Walks In

BC entered this week with several players listed multiple times on its depth chart, and the flexibility of the available personnel means someone like Jack Conley could shift around depending on which of his teammates are available. He's listed as the starting right tackle or the starting left tackle, but he would shift sides based on Ozzy Trapilo's availability. Nick Thomas is likewise listed as a left tackle and a left guard, which means he could shift outside if Jackson Ness is available for the guard position. Ness started last week at center, but he drew an "or" designation next to Drew Kendall.

If Kendall starts, Ness could play left guard and free up Thomas for the tackle position while simultaneously moving Conley back to the right side, or Conley could play left tackle if Trapilo, which would install true freshman Jude Bowry at the right tackle position for a second straight week. Dwayne Allick would then play right guard and determine if Thomas, Ness, or Conley shifts to a tackle position.

"We have an idea of what all the combinations will be," Conley said, "where everyone is going to be, where I'm lining up or who is lining up at tackle, at tackle or guard. We have all the combinations set, and communication hasn't really changed because the center makes the call [for] everyone to echo it."

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Question Box

How do we judge UConn's statistics?

UConn is 3-5, but it's impossible to gauge the team's performance against half of its games played. Central Connecticut State is a winless FCS team in the Northeast Conference, but three losses came against ranked power conference teams. Syracuse is officially legitimate after nearly beating Clemson. NC State still had Devin Leary. Michigan is, well, Michigan. If those games were all considered outliers, the Huskies would be left with a 2-2 record against Utah State, Fresno State, FIU and Ball State.

The problem is that nobody can delegitimize any performance over the course of the season. UConn's successes and failures in those games fed its growth for the games against Fresno State and FIU, just as the confidence gained from the wins influenced the Ball State game. So while it's easy to throw a "yeah, but…" into any team's season, it's also worth noting how the Huskies grew and developed from each of those results.

Can the UConn defense unbalance BC?

UConn's defensive formation utilizes a traditional 3-4, but the front is a little unorthodox because it isolates its largest body to the side instead of directly over center. Its leading tacklers in the linebacker unit are formationally placed on the opposite side, and the Huskies unbalance their line at a surface level that forces runners away from the left and into the tacklers on the right.

The two players on the weak side - Jackson Mitchell and Brandon Bouyer-Randle - lead the team in takedowns with defensive back Malik Dixon-Williams, and both Mitchell and right side defensive lineman Eric Watts lead the team in sacks, meaning a bulk of the pressure is coming off the right side. Sokoya McDuffie holds the left side of the line as a 318-pound tackle, and Dal'mont Gourdine opens those holes by playing over center.

Can the Eagles avoid a special teams letdown?

BC punter Danny Longman electrified the Wake Forest game with a fourth down sprint for the sticks, but the Eagles' special teams have drawn headlines in recent weeks for all the wrong reasons. They had a shanked punt prior to that run, and kicker Connor Lytton had an extra point blocked by the Demon Deacons.

It's been a struggle to find consistency in the kicking games, and the mistakes threaten to overshadow the genuine performances that existed. Earlier this year, Lytton kicked a 46-yard field goal, and Longman and Sam Candotti dropped 14 punts inside the 20 yard line on opponents. Five of Longman's kicks have been longer than 50-yards, and only one of BC's 30 kickoffs have gone out of bounds.

Bottom line: BC's special teams are good, and the Eagles can flip field position if they can control their consistency a little bit better.

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Meteorology 101

This was an utterly lousy week of weather. It poured almost every day to some degree, and I woke up every morning to a thick fog enveloping the darkness outside my house. I couldn't bring the kids outside to get much fresh air, and even when it hit 60 degrees this week, I was stuck inside because the showers that fell prevented me from even thinking about taking care of the leaves in the yard.

The good news is that all of this is going to break up by the weekend. It's supposed to rain next week, but we're going to have a delightful pause in the wet conditions over the weekend. Saturday's forecast in particular is gorgeous, and Hartford is expected to experience bright sunshine and cool weather for the midday start at Rentschler Field.

Late October is always dicey because the cold can shift into raw, gross conditions pretty quickly, but a sunny day with temperatures pushing 60 in the afternoon before diving down towards freezing at night? Give me that all year round.

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BC-UConn X Factor

The Offensive Lines

Ongoing injury issues have been a running storyline for the Boston College offensive line throughout the season, but entering Saturday with its seventh or eighth different combination makes for an intriguing contrast against UConn's offensive line, which hasn't changed since the start of the season.

Consider the differences between the two units. BC's line entered this week with four different positions receiving "or" designations on the depth chart while UConn has the same exact starting five as the first game of the season. Which player plays which position is a matter of conversation for the Eagles based on which position is available, but the Huskies have two running backs averaging six yards per carry because of a young line built around its ability to foster experience.

"Their o-line is really well-coached," said Jeff Hafley, "and it all starts there with them, but the backs are certainly good players. They're down to two, and I'm assuming they're going to rotate those guys in, but they run really hard and get good speed. They're tough kids, and they have the threat of a quarterback who can run the ball, which always creates issues because it's that third option you have to defend."

It's not ideal, but Saturday represents an opportunity to develop some harmony against a defense ranked in the lower third of the entire football bowl subdivision. Conversely, UConn's inherent issues with throwing the football mean BC should be able to generate synergy among its phases if the defense can stop the Huskies' run game.

To do that, the defensive front seven will need to defeat an offensive line that's exactly the same as the first game of the year. Graduate student Jake Guidone is the lynchpin for the Huskies at center, and he's flanked by a pair of redshirt junior guards. A pair of redshirt sophomores play tackle, and they're all backed up by young players who are absorbing their roles on the depth chart.

It's the polar opposite of whatever term best describes chaotic roster movement, but it stands to reason that the line that generates the biggest surge will control the game flow. In BC's case, it could serve as another building block and foundational stone for a line that's never stopped competing.

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Around College Football

Last week featured a number of big games, but the results didn't exactly match the anticipated drama. The biggest headline at Clemson bench DJ Uiagalelei before mounting a comeback to beat Syracuse, but nothing otherwise changed in the ACC race or the national playoff race.

This week probably changes that outlook, especially in the ACC, where a number of teams with three and four losses are scheduled to play one another. Among them, Florida State, which has lost three straight games since beating Boston College, hosts a 3-4 Georgia Tech team in a game that could seriously damage either team's bowl aspirations with a loss. Elsewhere, 3-4 Miami and 3-4 Virginia are in a similar situation.

Nobody really possesses a grasp on anything comfortable, and even the teams atop the ACC are wobbling a bit, and No. 10 Wake Forest, which beat BC last week, is in Louisville for a sneaky difficult mid-afternoon matchup. Syracuse, meanwhile, dropped to No. 16 nationally after losing to Clemson and now face a teetering position at home with Notre Dame fighting for its bowl eligibility at 4-3.

On the national radar, No. 2 Ohio State is at No. 13 Penn State for the biggest matchup of the afternoon, and No. 1 Georgia plays Florida in the annual matchup on neutral ground in Jacksonville. Later on, No. 9 Oklahoma State is considered an underdog for its road game at No. 22 Kansas State, as is No. 20 Cincinnati for its trip to play a Central Florida team hanging under the surface with its 5-2 overall record. All of this leads to No. 3 Tennessee's game against No. 19 Kentucky, and No. 4 Michigan plays Michigan State in the primetime ABC spot.

Night owls, meanwhile, can rejoice in the Stanford-UCLA game at 10:30 or stay up all night with Hawaii's midnight start on the eastern time zone against Wyoming, while FCS fans have a massive slate of games that includes St. Thomas' Pioneer Conference game against San Diego and Valparaiso's matchup at Dayton, and a pair of undefeated Big Sky teams meet up later when Sacramento State hosts Idaho. More locally, Rhode Island and William & Mary have a must-win matchup against one another in the CAA, while Fordham and Holy Cross kickoff at 1 p.m. in Worcester.

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Dan's Non-Sports Observation of the Week

Moving to MetroWest Massachusetts a few years ago was a weird experience for a guy who grew up along the Orange Line. I spent most of my life along the North Shore and moved to Norfolk County before my wife and I got married, but she was more decisive about wanting to plant our flag by buying property outside of the stretch of Route 128 where she grew up.

Settling out past the Weston Tolls that no longer exist was a new experience for a guy who paid more money in MBTA tokens than he did in toll tickets (shoutout anyone who gets those references), but it created access for me to explore the Central Massachusetts area where dragons used to live. I had never really gone outside the city all that much, let alone to the Worcester area or even out towards the Berkshires, but moving out that way very clearly opened the gates for more frequent trips to the Connecticut border regions.

Having lived out this way for a little under a decade now, I'm still amazed that Hartford is closer to me than the Cape and that I can drive to Connecticut in a little over an hour. It's about the same amount of time to drive to UConn's main campus, and having one of my best friends in the greater Hartford area allowed me to experience the golf courses and restaurant-type establishments of that area without having to travel to Yale, which was the calling card of my initial trips into the state.

I'll argue that Connecticut enjoys superior pizza, and J. Timothy's dirt wings are a cultural experience. I created some serious divots at both Stanley Golf Course in New Britain and Raceway Golf Course in Thompson, and I watched BC basketball play Fairfield at Mohegan Sun with another best friend who was both a Stag and married a fellow Fairfield alum (though I won't talk about the outcome of that one).

The stadium at Rentschler Field now serves as an unofficial home for soccer friendlies for the United States Women's National Team. Dunkin' Donuts Park, a minor league baseball stadium for the Hartford Yard Goats isn't far away, and while I haven't gone to a game, I'm told that the finished product came out nicer than the process of getting it constructed (though I guess I'm trying to get to Polar Park first because it's closer and houses a Boston Red Sox affiliate).

Those of us who remember when the Hartford Whalers left town (cue Brass Bonanza, and no, Carolina, I do not support you wearing those beautiful jerseys) recall a city and region that was once lost between the metropolis megaliths of Boston and New York, and I grew up thinking Connecticut was a pass-through area of New England. Anyone headed to the game will now find a city and region reinvented as a niche for minor league and college sports, though the petty Massachusetts guy in me is considerably happier now that he thinks half of the state has been disappointed by the Yankees getting swept out of the playoffs.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable. -Norman Rockwell

Boston College and Connecticut planted the seeds of a rivalry in the early 2000s after the Huskies transitioned into the Big East, but the plant never grew after the Eagles departed for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005. The tiered divide and the resulting bad blood was too much to overcome, and both programs were in very different spots when they finally played as non-conference opponents in 2016. BC has never lost to Connecticut, but there's a rarity to this matchup's tiered divide between the teams. It's hard to judge the hate, and both teams claim other schools as their chief rivals.

Yet here we sit and prepare for a matchup between two of the three FBS programs in New England. The bad blood still exists, and the UConn-based desire to prove BC's dominance isn't real is matched only by the historical confidence flowing through the Eagles' bloodline. This isn't a rivalry, but it's also not exactly an exchange of pleasantries.

BC needs this win. So does UConn. Doing so at the other's expense is about as close to calling this a rivalry as it gets. For the first time in five years, New England is set to explode between two teams who once carried genuine dislike for one another. If that's not a rivalry, then it sure as heck isn't a family reunion, either.

Boston College and Connecticut kick off on Saturday at 12 p.m. from Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. The game can be seen on CBS Sports Network with streaming available through CBSSports.com. Radio broadcast is also available through the Boston College Sports Network from Learfield, which is on local radio in Boston via WEEI 93.7 FM with satellite options on SiriusXM channel 136 and app channel 964.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Dwayne Allick

Jude Bowry

Sam Candotti

Jack Conley

Drew Kendall

Danny Longman

Connor Lytton

Jason Maitre

Jackson Ness

Nick Thomas

Ozzy Trapilo