2008 Connecticut NCAA Football Betting Preview

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

NCAA College Football Betting Preview – Connecticut Huskies

No team was doubted as much as the Connecticut Huskies in 2007 and the skepticism has carried over into the offseason. The Huskies finished 9-4 last season (5-2 in the Big East) but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone that picks them as the 2008 Big East winner.



The reason for that is that the Huskies are unspectacular on offense and solid on defense. They don’t have as much pizzazz as West Virginia. Nonetheless, the Huskies should be a tough opponent this season with an outside chance to win the conference.

Offense

UConn’s offense is much like their quarterback Tyler Lorenzen: smart, effective, but not explosive.

He completes his passes, doesn’t make many mistakes and just moves the chains. This offense is based around those principles and is at the other end of the spectrum from Louisville and West Virginia.

The playmakers on this offense are at tailback where Andre Dixon and Donald Brown for one of the best tandems in the conference. They combined for 1649 yards last year and will be around that number again.

But outside of the two tailbacks, UConn has no explosiveness. The passing game is very mild and works in the Chad Pennington range.

Eight starters return, so the unit should be solid but this unit won’t be able to match points with the best of them if the defense can’t hold up.

Defense

UConn’s defense looked fairly solid against a bunch of stiffs but there are some serious concerns about the way they finished the season against quality opponents. UConn lost three of its last four games, all to quality opponents (Cincinnati, West Virginia and Wake Forest) and allowed an average of 39 points per game. That’s quite the disparity from the team that allowed 12.5 points per game in its nine wins.

The Huskies defense is a 4-3 scheme that preyed on turnovers last year. They will have to do the same this year if they want to contend.

On the whole, though, this defense should be classified closer to opportunistic rather than dominant.

Scott Lutrus is a stud at middle linebacker and Darius Butler is the team’s best cornerback, but outside of him there are some questions in the secondary. The other starting cornerback spot and the strong safety spot haven’t been hammered down.

The Huskies return eight starters on this defense but probably won’t be as strong (statistically) as they were last year.

Outlook

The Huskies are a cute team, but they definitely aren’t sexy. They won a share of the Big East title last year but might have a tough time repeating this year. Also, sometimes teams swoon after a breakout season (see: Rutgers).

The Huskies still have to prove they are for real. Their schedule isn’t a Herculean task but unless they can beat a couple of the big boys such as West Virginia, Cincinnati and South Florida, they are going to be doubted.

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