The Post-Game Spread: UConn bullied the Minutemen

It's no doubt been a frustrating year for the Huskies, but they end it with a win.

Nov 25, 2023

UConn held strong defensively in its season finale at UMass, taking home the third win of the season, 31-18.

Jim Mora’s squad was in control throughout thanks to three early UMass turnovers. The Huskies posted 240 rushing yards and only committed one turnover on the day while dominating time of possession.

The Huskies were up 19-0 by halftime. They weren’t highly proficient at turning those three turnovers into points, getting just nine out of it, but keeping the Minutemen off the board was key and eventually, UConn’s offense found the end zone. The first Husky touchdown came on a pick-six from Mumu Bin-Wahad.

UMass did try to make it interesting in the second half, scoring three touchdowns and getting to within two scores at multiple points. But after each of their first two touchdowns, UConn responded with a 70+ yard drive capped off by a Cam Edwards touchdown. The biggest struggle for both teams was converting the PAT/two-point conversion, as only one was converted the whole game out of seven attempts between the two teams.

Critical penalties haunted UConn throughout the game and prevented them from making it a blowout. They found themselves in 3rd and long far too often due to a slew of different penalties. They ended the day with nine penalties for 93 yards. This showed on special teams especially, as UConn would end up with three separate penalties in punt or punt return formation.

Coming into this game, UMass was favored by 2.5 points, and all credit goes to the Huskies for pulling this win off late in the season and really dominating on the defensive side of the ball. Holding Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams, who had 234 rushing yards previously against Army, to only 51 yards on 18 attempts is pretty impressive, despite his two touchdowns.

Freshman QB Tucker McDonald came in with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter so he could see some reps and sophomore RB Hunter Clark had the same chance, ripping off a 26-yard rush on his first play.

UConn head coach Jim Mora postgame spoke about the future of the program: “Thankfully we have a president, a board of trustees, an athletic director, and a support group that are working as hard as they can to push for the things that we need to push for to be able to compete at the level that everyone that's associated with this program, inside and outside this building, wants to see.”

Win Probability

Stats & Facts

UConn ended the day with a whopping seven tackles for loss, as well as four pass deflections and a sack
The RBs were great. Cam Edwards had 19 rushes for 102 yards (5.4 per carry) and two touchdowns while Victor Rosa had 15 rushes for 71 yards (4.7 per carry) and one touchdown.
Despite an apparent injury late in the game, Justin Joly had six receptions for 36 yards. He will end the season as the team’s leading receiver, with 578 yards, just beating out Cam Ross with 552. Those two are also tied for the team lead in touchdown receptions (two each) with Brett Buckman.
Neither team was exceptional on 3rd or 4th down, with a combined 5-for-21 on third down attempts and 0-for-2 on fourth down attempts.
Punter George Caratan had a quality performance, punting three times for 129 yards (43.0 yards per punt) with all three landing inside the 20-yard line.
Jackson Mitchell will end the season as the team’s leading tackler, racking up 113 tackles total (56 solo to 57 assisted).
Taquan Roberson ends the season with 197 completions on 338 attempts (58.3% completion rate) for 12 touchdowns and six interceptions, as well as 46 rushing attempts for 120 yards.
With this win, UConn pulls within one game of the all-time matchup record between UMass, which now sits at 38-37 in favor of UMass. UConn also holds a two-game win streak in this matchup.