Tyler Lorenzen shook off his past two performances and was perfect passing the ball in the 1st half while Donald Brown scored 3 more touchdowns to lead the UConn Huskies to a 45-10 rout of the Virginia Cavaliers in front of a sold-out Rentschler Field. The win for the Huskies avenges a 17-16 loss to the Cavaliers last season in Charlottesville.
Lorenzen had a great game overall as he didn’t have any turnovers today. The offensive line was huge tonight as well as they opened up huge holes for Brown and Jordan Todman. The Huskies had 502 yards of total offense with 382 of those coming on the ground. They were highly effective on 3rd downs as they were 6-of-11.
The UConn defense finally gave up a touchdown this season and that didn’t come until the 4th quarter. They only allowed 219 yards and only allowed 31 of those yards on the ground.
Tonight marked the debut of Darius Butler on the offensive side of the ball. He played both ways tonight and had 2 catches for 40 yards and 1 run for 13 yards and a touchdown.
Tonight also marked the debut of true freshman running back Jordan Todman, who may be the fastest player on the UConn Huskies. Todman jumped onto the scene 13 rushes for 81 yards and his first collegiate touchdown. The emergence of Todman now gives the Huskies 4 running backs, once Andre Dixon is healthy, who can do damage to any team.
I have to wonder if you might hear Brown’s name in the Heisman candidates. He’s got the numbers right now that rank right up there with anyone in the country. I highly doubt he’d win it but it would be a great thing to see and would be huge for the program for him to even be mentioned.
A great team win for the Huskies tonight as both the offense and defense looked good.
Scoring:
1st quarter
Donald Brown had 206 yards and 3 touchdowns for the UConn Huskies.
CON – Donald Brown 3-yard run – Tony Ciaravino PAT – UConn 7 Virginia 0
2nd quarter
CON – Tyler Lorenzen 3-yard pass to Anthony Davis – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 14 Virginia 0
CON – Darius Butler 13-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 21 Virginia 0
CON – Brown 8-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 28 Virginia 0
3rd quarter
UVA – Yannick Reyering 43-yard field goal – UConn 28 Virginia 3
CON – Brown 63-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 35 Virginia 3
CON – Jordan Todman 14-yard run – Ciaravino PAT – UConn 42 Virginia 3
4th quarter
CON – Ciaravino 29-yard field goal – UConn 45 Virginia 3
UVA – Cedric Peerman 1-yard run – Reyering PAT – UConn 45 Virginia 10
Offensive Player of the Game:
I am going with co-players of the game today. Tyler Lorenzen was 13-of-15 for 124 yards and 1 touchdown. Donald Brown rushed 20 times for 206 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also had 5 catches for 32 yards
Defensive Player of the Game:
Lawrence Wilson had 2 tackles, an interception and pass breakup.
Turning Point(s) of the Game:
I’m not sure there really was a turning point in the game as UConn dominated from the opening kickoff to the end of the game.
Offensive Notes:
1st qtr – 2nd & 5 UConn 47 – Lorenzen runs for 13 yards
1st qtr – 3rd & 2 UVA 32 – Lorenzen runs for 9 yards
1st qtr – UConn scoring drive – 11 plays 66 yards. Drive took 6:16
1st qtr – 3rd & 6 UConn 27 – Lorenzen hits Darius Butler for 11 yards
1st qtr – 2nd & 5 UVA 33 – Lorenzen hits Steve Brouse for 18 yards
1st/2nd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 13 plays 77 yards. Drive took 7:04
2nd qtr – 1st & 10 UConn 14 – Brown rushes for 63 yards
2nd qtr – 2nd & 13 UVA 26 – Lorenzen passes for 18 yards to Kashif Moore
Darius Butler breaks free for his first offensive touchdown.
2nd qtr – 2nd & 11 UVA 13 – Butler rushes 13 yards for TD
2nd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 5 plays 86 yards. Drive took 2:14
2nd qtr – 3rd & 14 UConn 31 – Lorenzen hits Butler for 19 yards
2nd qtr – 1st & 10 UVA 40 – Lorenzen rushes for 10 yards
2nd qtr – 2nd & 9 UVA 29 – Lorenzen passes to Brown for 19 yards
2nd qtr – 2nd & goal UVA 8 – Brown rushes for TD
2nd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 8 plays 75 yards. Drive took 4:00
3rd qtr – 1st & 10 UConn 37 – Brown runs for 25 yards
3rd qtr – 1st & 10 UConn 37 – Brown runs 63 yards for touchdown
3rd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 1 play 63 yards. Drive took 0:10
3rd qtr – 2nd & 9 UVA 14 – Todman rushes for TD
3rd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 4 plays 40 yards. Drive took 1:40
3rd qtr – 3rd & 5 UConn 42 – Todman breaks one for 48 yards
3rd qtr – UConn scoring drive – 7 plays 51 yards. Drive took 3:11
4th qtr – 3rd & 12 UConn 41 – Robbie Frey rushes for 13 yards
Defensive Notes:
1st qtr – 3rd & 5 UVA 37 – Cody Brown stops Cedric Peerman for no gain on a completed pass
Julius Williams forces Marc Verica into a bad pass for the Cavaliers.
2nd qtr – 1st & 10 UVA 32 – Julius Williams and Darius Butler combine for 3-yard loss on completed pass to Kevin Ogletree
3rd qtr – 2nd & goal UConn 5 – Cody Brown sacks Marc Verica for 9 yard loss
3rd qtr – 3rd & goal UConn 25 – Jasper Howard tips pass away in end zone
3rd qtr – Held Virginia to field goal after they started 1st & goal at UConn 5
3rd qtr – 2nd & 10 UVA 12 – Scott Lutrus stops Mikell Simpson for no gain on pass completion
3rd qtr – 1st & 10 UVA 40 – Lawrence Wilson picks off Verica and returns it 14 yards to UVA 30
4th qtr – 1st & 10 UVA 40 – C.J. Marck picks off a Scott Deke pass with no return
Special Teams Notes:
3rd qtr – Virginia roughs Desi Cullen on a punt to give UConn a 1st down
UConn punts for the first time in game in the 3rd qtr.
Injuries:
2nd qtr – Virginia WR Kevin Ogletree limped off field with foot injury. He did return.
Officials:
The officials had no bearing on the outcome of the game. They made the right call when Jordan Todman was taken down with a horse collar tackle.
Game Notes:
RB Andre Dixon and DE Lindsey Witten did not dress for the game due to injury.
Will Webb, the Executive Director for the Meineke Car Care Bowl, was on hand for tonight’s game. He was given a Big East Championship ring along with Meineke CEO Ken Walker in a ceremony during the 1st quarter.
The Huskies honored 30 years of UConn women’s soccer during the game as well as the 50 year anniversary of the 1958 Yankee Conference Football championship team.
Former defensive lineman Dan Davis was at the game tonight. He accepted an injury buyout from the Indianapolis Colts and will have surgery soon to clean his knee out. The Colts and Eagles have expressed interest in Davis once he’s healthy.
UConn had 10 first downs in the 1st qtr.
UConn had 307 total yards in 1st half.
Lorenzen went 11-for-11 for 122 yards in 1st half. Lorenzen also finished with 52 yards rushing.
Brown now has three 200 yard rushing games in his career. It was his second consecutive No other Husky had more than 1 in their career. He also has 8 touchdowns this season which matches his total from all of last year. Brown has also rushed for 581 yards on 79 carries this season (7.2 ypc).
Donald Brown’s 23 career touchdowns rank in a tie for seventh place on the UConn career rushing TD list – tied with Vinny Clements (1968-70).
Donald Brown’s career rushing total of 2,283 marks the fifth highest career rushing total in UConn history – 44 yards (2,327) shy of Vinny Clements (1968-70) for fourth place overall.
UConn only had 2 penalties for 10 yards and 1 of them was meaningless delay of game penalty in the 4th quarter.
The Huskies dominated the time of possession as they held the ball for 36:37 of the game.
The Huskies are 3-0 for the second straight season.
The win is the 9th straight at home for the Huskies. UConn has won its last five night games at Rentschler Field.
The touchdown on their opening drive was a first for the Huskies this season.
Big East Games and Results:
9/11 – North Carolina 44 Rutgers 12
9/12 – (19) South Florida 37 (13) Kansas 34
9/13 – (17) Penn State 55 Syracuse 13
Things to Work On:
One thing I’d like to see is Desi Cullen getting more distance on his kickoffs. Of course when he kicked off 8 times in the game, he may have gotten a little tired. But of those 8 kickoffs, none of them were touchbacks. That being said, the Huskies need to work on their kickoff coverage as the Cavaliers had 209 yards of returns on the 8 kickoffs.
Tyler Lorenzen needs to continue to work on his reads. His hard work was evident in the game tonight as he really didn’t make a bad decision. I’d like to see that continue as I’m sure he and Randy Edsall would too.
Get Andre Dixon and Lindsey Witten healthy. A little more depth wouldn’t hurt at this point.
Up Next:
The Huskies stay at home to take on the Baylor Bears on Friday, September 19th at 8:00 PM on ESPN2.
