Brigham Young @ Connecticut preview
Rentschler Field
New Connecticut coach Bob Diaco won’t have to look very far for inspiration when he makes his coaching debut at home on Friday against Brigham Young. Diaco – a former linebacker at Iowa in the mid-1990s – takes over a program coming off three straight losing seasons since the departure of Randy Edsall, who guided Connecticut to its first-ever BCS bowl game appearance. The Huskies posted their worst record since 2001 last year and went 13-23 under Paul Pasqualoni and T.J. Weist.
Following a successful four-year stint as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, Diaco will have the unenviable task of keeping up with the fast-paced attack of the Cougars, who finished second in plays per game (89.9) last season. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall – a linebacker for Oregon State in the mid-1980s – inherited a team in 2005 that also suffered three consecutive losing campaigns before guiding the Cougars to eight bowl games in as many years. This contest – the first ever between the schools – will mark the first of three games against the American Athletic Conference for BYU this season.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN. LINE: BYU -16.5.
ABOUT BRIGHAM YOUNG (2013: 8-5): Mendenhall has the luxury of one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in junior Taysom Hill, who already has rushed for more yards than any signal-caller in school history (1,678). The school’s single-season and career record-holder for total offense became only the seventh player in NCAA history to throw for more than 400 yards and run for 100 in a win over Houston on Oct. 19. Hill likely will be expected to shoulder even more of the load in 2014 following the graduation of Cody Hoffman, who set a number of school receiving records.
ABOUT CONNECTICUT (2013: 3-9): While BYU has no questions under center, Diaco waited until mid-August before choosing sophomore Casey Cochran over senior Chandler Whitmer. Cochran passed for a school-record 461 yards in the Huskies’ season-ending victory over Memphis and figures to rely heavily on senior receiver Geremy Davis after he became the first player in the school’s FBS history to amass over 1,000 receiving yards in a season. Max DeLorenzo won an open competition at running back to replace Lyle McCombs, who was the fourth leading rusher in Connecticut before Diaco dismissed him from the team in June.
EXTRA POINTS
1. BYU will make three trips to the East Coast and cover 14,956 miles this season. Only Hawaii and Idaho will travel a greater distance.
2. Connecticut scored at least 28 points in every contest during its season-ending three-game winning streak after failing to record more than 21 in any of its nine losses.
3. Hill’s 4,282 total yards in 2013 was the fifth-best mark in school history, trailing only Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Ty Detmer (twice).
PREDICTION: Brigham Young 34, Connecticut 17