The UConn Huskies escaped with the win on Friday night, but many fans are still unhappy with the team's coaching. UConn jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first half against the Pitt Panthers. At that point, Andrew Porter of The UConn Blog tuned in, and watched the Huskies nearly blow the game.
He highlights two particularly bad decisions by the coaches that allowed the game to be competitive. The first one came with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Huskies had the ball on the Pitt 17 yard line and were up by 14. Porter writes:
Any idiot playing Madden would know what to do here: run the ball to bleed clock, because in your worst case scenario you run off two minutes and kick a chip-shot field goal to go up three scores. George DeLeone is apparently not as smart as any idiot playing Madden, as he had Chandler Whitmer throw a pass that was picked, leading to an 80-yard Pitt scoring drive.
Next, the Huskies had the ball with two minutes left and a seven point lead. Pitt was out of timeouts, so three kneels would have ended the game. Instead, UConn opted to run the ball on first and second down, risking a fumble or injury "WHEN ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS KNEEL THE BALL."
To recap: the coaches are idiots and UConn almost blew a 24-0 lead to a team that had no interest in playing the game in the first place. Paul Pasqualoni needs to be fired.