Today, the University of Connecticut Huskies take on the Black Knights of Army in a 12:00 P.M. kick-off.  The Huskies are five point favorites in what is likely the last time in 2006 that the Huskies will be laying points and not getting them.

After last week's South Florida debacle - an embarrasing team effort in combination with five Huskies' dismissal from the team for alcohol-related issues (Can anyone believe football players drinking beer?  The outrage!), I can't confidently delude myself into believing the Huskies can finish the season with three wins.

If you can't stop the run, you can't win.  Period.

Making things more glum is the fact the Huskies can't pass the ball either.  Without WRs who can get behind defensive backs, the field shortens to a de facto red zone defense with all eleven defensive players packed into a 30x53.33 yard area.

To remedy this, Coach Edsall has installed two freshman WRs as starters - the previously blogged Brad Kanuch (Here) and Terence Jeffers.  It cannot hurt, and it will give Huskies fans something to follow for the remainder of this disappointing season.

After four years of inconsistency, senior kicker Matt Nuzie has finally been removed.  Due to learned helplessness, I am not sure I can build confidence in any UCONN kicker for a while, and Graig Vicidomino's, the new kicker, line-drive 19-yard FG from last week doesn't help.

While Army looks to be a very poor passing team, the Huskies haven't been able to stop the run, so I can't spin that fact into something positive.

I know the oddsmakers have the Huskies as 5-point favs, but lower-tier Division 1-A college footbal is very much like micro-cap stock investing - inefficient and not as well covered as its top-tier programs/large-cap stocks.

This makes me prone to beleiving the Huskies could lose on the field despite the line.

For more on the Huskies see their web site or this blog.

For a Big East preview, visit Card Chronicle.

Update [2006-10-14 17:28:34 by Eric Hz]: UCONN won 21-7 in very large part to Army's ability to turnover the ball (three INTs and a fumble) and UCONN's amazing zero turnovers.

With a 98 yard TD run early in the game by Terry Caulley and a 72-yard punt return by Larry Taylor, the UCONN offense didn't do too much more.

With three missed FGs, the UCONN kicking game is in utter disarray.

However, the W is nice and allows us homers just enough rope to hang ourselves with hope every week.