Its game day for the UConn Huskies football team as they are in South Bend, IN to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Game time is 2:30 p.m. and can be seen nationally on NBC. If you missed my game preview, be sure to check that out.

UConn Football links

Huskies size up college footballs big stage [Chip Malafronte – New Haven Register]

Tomorrow Will Be One Fine Day For Huskies Parents [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

See You In The Joyce Lot? [Desmond Conner – Hartford Courant]

UConn, Notre Dame alike only in desperation [Big East Blog – ESPN.com]

Greetings from Chicago [John Silver – Journal Inquirer]

A few words on Notre Dame [TheUConnBlog.com]

UConn, ND have much in common these days [Connecticut Post]

Frazer could play big role in ending Weis ND run [Connecticut Post]

Husky kickoff: UConn at Notre Dame [Connecticut Post]

Man pleads not guilty for role in UConn case [Connecticut Post]

Football Arrives In South Bend [UConnHuskies.com]

UConn-Notre Dame: Two Struggling Teams Set For A Fight [Hartford Courant]

Jacobs: Of Course They Have A Prayer [Hartford Courant]

UConn not at Notre Dame for ‘tour of the campus’ [New Haven Register]

Teams find winning hard to do [Norwich Bulletin]

Stabbing suspect pleads not guilty [Norwich Bulletin]

Huskies trying to make history at historic ND [The Day]

UConn must remember: Its just a game [The Republican-American]

Win over historied Notre Dame would be new chapter for Huskies [Mansfield Today]

Minimal pep present during final Irish football rally [South Bend Tribune]

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For the last five years, Ron Johnson has been giving the good news of a promotion to the Boston Red Sox.

And now according to Joe McDonald of the the Providence Journal, the Pawtucket Red Sox manager finally gets his call to the big leagues as he is heading up I-95 to Boston to join Terry Francona’s coaching staff.

While Johnson won’t take over for Brad Mills, who was named the Houston Astros manager in October, he will have some sort of role with the Boston Red Sox.

It’s likely that either DeMarlo Hale or Tim Bogar will take over as bench coach. If it’s Hale, Bogar could shift over to coach third base with Johnson taking over at first. And if it’s Bogar, he could be the first base coach. No official announcement has been made yet.

Johnson has spent the last 10 years as a manager in the Red Sox minor leagues including the last five with the PawSox. This will be the first big league job for Johnson.

Red Sox call PawSox manager Johnson up [Providence Journal]

Here is the press release from the Boston Red Sox concerning the waiver claim they made on Robert Manuel of the Seattle Mariners on Friday.

BOSTON, MA – The Boston Red Sox today claimed right-handed pitcher Robert Manuel off waivers from the Seattle Mariners. The club’s 40-man roster is now at 32.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Manuel, 26, made his Major League debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2009, tossing 4.1 innings of scoreless relief over three games. He began the season with Cincinnati’s Triple-A Louisville affiliate, going 3-4 with 10 saves and a 2.70 ERA (14 ER/46.2 IP) in 36 relief outings over two stints with the Bats. Manuel was traded to Seattle on July 29 in exchange for outfielder Wladimir Balentien and finished the season with Triple-A Tacoma, going 1-1 with four saves and a 3.32 ERA (7 ER/19.0 IP) in 15 appearances. His .207 combined opponent batting average between Louisville and Tacoma was eighth-best among all Triple-A relievers.

Originally signed by the New York Mets as a non-drafted free agent on June 17, 2005, Manuel has combined for a 24-17 record with 19 saves and a 2.88 ERA (118 ER/368.1 IP) in 169 minor league games (23 starts) over five seasons in the Mets, Reds and Mariners systems. The right-hander has compiled 339 strikeouts compared to 66 walks.

UConn Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma picked up his 699th career win on Friday night as his Huskies easily took care of the Holy Cross Crusaders 87-34 in front of 2,412 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass.

With the win, the Huskies move to 3-0 on the young season and now have won 41 straight regular season games. The Crusaders drop to 2-2.

All ten healthy Huskies played in the game with Jacquie Fernandes the only one who didn’t score a point. Point guard Lorin Dixon is still out dealing with a hamstring injury.

Maya Moore led the way with 21 points in just 23 minutes. She also had seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Tina Charles had 18 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Caroline Doty was the only other member of the Huskies in double digits with 11 points and a game-high seven assists.

Bethany O’Dell paced the Crusaders with 11 points. Briana McFadden had 8 points while Whitney Fremeau had 7 points and six rebounds.

With the score 4-3 in favor of UConn, the Huskies went on a 12-0 run and never looked back. A 17-0 run by the Huskies over a span of just over three minutes late in the first half pushed the lead to 32 points at 46-14. At this point, Moore was outscoring the Crusaders 15-14.

The Huskies are off until next Friday when they will host the WBCA Classic at Gampel Pavilion. Also participating are Hofstra, Richmond and Clemson. The teams will all play each other over the course of three days in a round-robin format.

UConn will take on Hofstra Friday night at 7:30 p.m., Richmond Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and Clemson Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. All three games will be televised locally on CPTV and will be available for a fee on Hoop Streams.

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This week:

The UConn Huskies travel to South Bend, IN to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium this Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Here are the rosters for the Huskies and the Fighting Irish.

The Line/Prediction:

According to Rivals.com, Notre Dame is favored by six points. The over/under is 57 points. My prediction for the game  is UConn 31 Notre Dame 27.

Tickets:

While the game notes for Notre Dame says the game is a sellout, I was able to find tickets on Notre Dame’s ticket website.

Getting To The Game:

Here is some information about Notre Dame Stadium. Here are directions to the stadium, information about parking and a parking map. Here is the weather report for the game.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television:

Saturday’s game will be televised live nationally by NBC Sports. Tom Hammond is on play-by-play while Pat Haden is on color and Alex Flanagan is on sidelines.

Radio:

For the 18th consecutive season, WTIC 1080-AM in Hartford serves as the flagship station for the UConn Radio Network. WTIC is the state’s only 50,000 watt signal and can be heard in 23 states and parts of Canada. Veteran UConn announcers Joe D’Ambrosio (play-by-play) and Wayne Norman (color commentary) return to call the action with Kevin Nathan on the side lines and Eric Davis on production.

The UConn pregame show begins 90 minutes prior to kickoff, while home games, the UConn Tailgate Show will air two and a half hours prior to the game with Arnold Dean. UConn football games are also broadcast over the internet at WTIC.com. For a full list of stations on the WTIC/UCONN radio network, click here.

Notre Dame Radio

ISP Sports is the exclusive national rights-holder for Notre Dame football radio broadcasts. ISP manages, produces and syndicates the Irish national football radio network. Games are broadcast by Don Criqui (play-by-play), Allen Pinkett (analysis) and Jeff Jeffers (sideline). This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 159) and XM Satellite Radio (channel 117).

All Notre Dame games may be heard in South Bend on Sunny 101.5 FM and NewsTalk 960 WSBT-AM.

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It’s game day for the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team as they make the relatively short trip up to the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass to take on the Holy Cross Crusaders. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast locally here in Connecticut on CPTV. The game is also available on the internet for a fee through Hoop Streams. If you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can listen to the game on the WTIC/UConn Radio Network.

UConn Football links

The UConn football news will be coming up shortly in the UConn-Notre Dame preview in the other news section.

UConn Women’s Basketball links

i want everything that i can’t have [Alysa Auriemma]

WICC bails out [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register]

How Tina Charles Could Wind Up With The Connecticut Sun [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Heather Buck Says Bad Practice Led To Reduced Minutes [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

Video From ESPNU’s Road To The Final Four Banquet [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant]

No Change For Dixon/No Worries For Hayes [Rich Elliott – Connecticut Post]

Hayes still adapating as Huskies’ point guard [Roger Cleaveland – The Republican-American]

UConn’s Doty working hard in comeback [Connecticut Post]

UConn women’s game day [Connecticut Post]

UConn Women Know The Goal [Hartford Courant]

Summitt ‘Not Saying Never’ On Renewing Series With UConn [Hartford Courant]

Holy Cross Vs. No. 1 UConn [Hartford Courant]

UConn women: Cross gets a look at No. 1 [Journal Inquirer]

Hayes still trying to adjust [New Haven Register]

Top-ranked UConn women visit Holy Cross tonight [The Day]

Huskies’ role players battle for more time [The Republican-American]

Charles Learning to Meet Big Expectations [Fanhouse]

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