Posts Tagged ‘connecticut’

The Big East takes center stage tonight when Paul Chryst's Pittsburgh team visits Paul Pasqualoni and Connecticut at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

After a very slow start to his tenure at Pittsburgh, a 31-17 loss to Youngstown State followed by a 34-10 loss to Cincinnati to open the season, Chryst's Panthers have won four of their last six and came within a hair of upsetting Notre Dame last week. Pittsburgh must win two of their last three games to achieve bowl eligibility, and considering they still have 7-1 Rutgers on the schedule, tonight is a game they need to win. 

Panthers running back Ray Graham is heating up with two straight 100-yard games, rushing for 109 yards against Temple and 172 yards versus Notre Dame. Coupled with an efficient passing game, the Panthers place 12th nationally with 14 touchdowns against two interceptions, and it's clear where Pittsburgh's turnaround has come from. 

Connecticut has dropped all four Big East games thus far, and scoring has been a major struggle for the Huskies. Connecticut has scored 3, 14, 10 and 6 points in four consecutive losses. The other side of the ball, however, has performed well throughout the year. The Huskies' defense ranks first in the Big East and ninth nationally with just over 290 yards allowed per game, first in the Big East in pass efficiency defense (112.1 opposing quarterback rating), and second in the conference in rushing defense (114.2 yards per game) and scoring defense (18.6 points per game). 

The home team has won the last three games in this series and to keep that trend alive Connecticut must find a way to reverse its Big East-worst turnover margin, convert turnovers into points, and use its attacking defensive front (2.67 sacks per game, 7.22 TFL per game) to stifle the Panthers' offense. 

We saw an interesting note earlier today from the Norwich Bulletin that the state of Connecticut has a rule that discourages coaches from winning by a 50 point margin.

The rule, which has been in place since 2006 and has evolved over the past few years, states that any victory by 50 or more points is automatically reviewed by a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference panel, and the head coach is subject to a one game suspension if they rule that he acted in an unsportsmanlike manner.

In two recent instances, the CIAC has not even needed to get involved because the head coach, or schools themselves, self imposed a suspension. The most recent of those cases include Norwich Free Academy, whose head coach, Jemal Davis agreed to step down for a game following a 51-0 win.

Immediately following the victory, Davis said that he thought about his next step.

“Directly after the game in terms of the score, I contemplated what would be the next step We felt as a staff, as an athletic department, as a school, that what would be appropriate in this manner is to follow the letter of the law in terms of penalty and move on, and so that’s where we are."

Davis used his suspension as a teaching moment for his team.

“Based on our score, 51-0, we didn’t demonstrate score management, and therefore we are liable for those actions. I explained to the guys that we respect and honor the CIAC and its policies and because of that we felt it was important to self-impose the penalty" Davis said, adding that it wouldn't be appropriate to drag out an appeals process when it was clear to him that they could have done more in dealing with the situation.

"I wanted to ensure the kids that they did everything in their power appropriately, however, because the score became, 51-0, we need to re-evaluate as a coaching staff and me personally, what could I have done differently?”

It takes a coach who is pretty comfortable with himself to step back and instead of pointing fingers, to look inward and make that type of evaluation.

Whether you agree with the rule or not, it's hard to argue the with a classy move by coach Davis to first step down for a game on his own, and then reflect on that moment and use it as a life lesson for high school aged kids.

The Orange take on the Huskies tonight on ESPN, and there's also a handful of high school games on.

Eastern time listed.

NFL:

No games

College:

Connecticut at Syracuse - 8 - ESPN

High School: 

Brentwood (TN) at Ensworth (TN) - 8 - ESPNU

Mission Veijo (CA) at Tesoro (CA)- 10:30 - Fox Sports South