EAST HARTFORD — It was a giddy, exuberant night to be a UConn football player.
Rentschler Field was full, with more than 36,000 fannies in the seats, not just tickets distributed, the Huskies were hanging in there against an ACC opponent that had crushed them last season.
And Victor Rosa, the kid from Bristol, busted loose through a big hole on the left side, and upshifted, racing 71 yards to the end zone. Who could blame Rosa for his somersault over the goal line?
Well, the officials could, and did, flagging Rosa for excessive celebration.
“We’ve just got to make better decisions there,” coach Jim Mora said. “They’re going to call it. It is a rule.”
It was a rule that helped spoil the Huskies’ night, as well as what could have been a special night for Rosa. The TD, his second of the game, pulled the Huskies within three points late in the third quarter. The penalty, one of several “self-inflicted wounds,” to borrow the phrase of the night, squelched the momentum and forced them to kick off from the 25-yard line. After a good return and a late hit along the sidelines, NC State was set up to take back that score and did. The Wolfpack won, 24-14.
Rosa’s a sophomore, and if the somersault was sophomoric, his response was admirably mature and professional.
“You’ll never see that again from me,” Rosa said. “Diving into the end zone like that, that killed us. I wasn’t aware of the situation, playing fast, but diving into the end zone, it was foolish of me to do, and selfish. I take full responsibility.”
It’s the kind of crazy stuff, Rosa said, he’d do in high school. “That’s high school, not this level,” he said. “I’ve got to stay disciplined and never do that again.”
Mora stressed that the penalty was not “the play” that cost the Huskies, two-touchdown underdogs, the chance to send that big crowd home doing somersaults in the parking lot. No, there was more than that. The late hit out of bounds on the ensuing kickoff by freshman Isaiah Davis hurt. There were six penalties for 61 yards, including two pass interference calls on an earlier NC State touchdown drive. And there were missed tackles galore, as elusive Wolfpack runners averaged 4.5 yards per rush.
These mistakes are fixable, of course, and not every opponent on UConn’s independent schedule has NC State’s ability to make a team pay for such things. The day is coming for the Huskies when just being competitive in a game like this will simply not be enough. But for this exuberant night, it’s allowable to take a step back and take note that UConn didn’t belong on the field against NC State a year ago, trailing 31-0 at halftime and losing 41-10. Two years ago? The pre-Mora Huskies might’ve given up 90 points and never crossed midfield.
“I do take something from that, but I hate to talk about it,” Mora said, “because it sounds like an excuse, and it sounds like I’m compromising. But if I take a step back and say, ‘Where are we as compared to a year ago?’ I do see the progress. What’s discouraging is when you see the progress, but you know the problems that caused you to lose the game were all within our control.
“So as a coach, I look at it as a failure on my part when any of our players make mistakes like we made tonight. You are encouraged, but you’re discouraged at the same time.”
This was exactly that kind of night. Postcard Connecticut late-summer weather, it was, just right. The parking lot was loaded with tailgaters, including more than 300 football alums who came from far and wide to honor Andy Baylock for his six decades of service. A respectable percentile of the largest crowd here in 10 years even managed to get into Rentschler in time for the opening kickoff, in time to see UConn move 75 yards in 12 plays, with quarterback Joe Fagnano completing his three passes and rushing for 26 more yards. Then Rosa, who netted 99 yards on nine carries, broke loose around the right side and scored on an 18-yard run.
How was everyone enjoying the football season so far?
“Wow, UConn football, we’re back,” Rosa said. “It’s a new year, new team, we got beat pretty bad last year by them, and we’ve come for a big win this time. That was the feeling.”
It was fleeting. Brennan Armstrong, NC State’s scampering lefty quarterback, led his team right down the field and scored himself to tie it. UConn’s defense was stretched and created no turnovers, but contained NC State and Rosa’s 71-yarder gave UConn a chance with 2:04 left in the third quarter.
But … self-inflicted wounds.
“Excuse my language, but dumb penalties,” defensive back Durante Jones said. “Like, we hurt ourselves. Like, things that we know we’re not supposed to do, we did it. The extra things. The late hits, excessive celebration, stuff that we usually don’t do as a team. And it showed. You can’t do things like that in the heat of the moment. Eventually, it’s going to play a part in the game.
“It’s frustrating because it was a game all the way to the end, we should’ve won that ballgame. That’s stuff we don’t do. Excessive celebration, that’s not the type of team we are. Like, not to single anybody out, but when have you seen somebody diving in the end zone? That ain’t stuff we do. Coach don’t teach that.”
OK, so on this heady, exuberant night to be UConn football player, the Huskies got a little too exuberant for their own good, a little ahead of themselves. Rosa, who rose from fifth on the depth chart to an important backfield role as a freshman due to a rash of injuries, is rising again on merit. Bulked up to 205 pounds, he had surprising afterburners, just disappeared in the distance and the ACC-level defenders could not catch him.
And it’s easy to love all of that, easy to love a lot of what we saw Thursday night. Just don’t go head over heels … it’s a rule.
