Edsall looks to rise to the challenge

He had watched his Huskies play in fits and starts all game long.

Interceptions, missed assignments, poor tackling, incompletions and broken-off receiving routes were the order of the day Saturday as the University of Connecticut football team sputtered and clunked its way into the fourth quarter of its Big East Conference game against Rutgers at Rentschler Field.

But here the Huskies were, just three points shy of catching Rutgers in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter after substitute quarterback Zach Frazer found senior wideout Marcus Easley for a 32-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

The 8-play, 82-yard drive was then punctuated by a little razzle dazzle on the part of the Huskies with Frazer, back-pedaling away from pressure, lofting a little lob for tackle-eligible Mike Ryan to somehow collect and then rumble inside the left pylon with a dive for a 2-point conversion that cut UConn’s deficit down to 21-18 with 10:19 to go.

The announced crowd of 37,045 fans went bonkers.

How did Frazer elude the rush? How did the 6-5, 324-pound Ryan, a red-shirt sophomore left tackle, make like Mikhail Baryshnikov while reaching up with one big ham of a hand, then pulling the ball down and chugging through linebacker Damaso Munoz and defensive back Billy Anderson of Rutgers before pin-wheeling his left arm over the goal line?

Ah yes, the momentum that was just sitting there for either team to grab through 3-plus quarters was now squarely on UConn’s sideline, sitting just a few feet away from Jasper Howard’s No. 6 jersey and helmet.

But hold on a minute now. What’s the delay? Why isn’t Husky place kicker Desi Cullen stepping into the kickoff following the TD and 2-point conversion pass?

The officiating crew had sent the play upstairs for review. The pass from Frazer to Ryan needed to be a lateral but was later ruled, and correctly so, a forward pass to an ineligible receiver.

Husky coach Randy Edsall, already simmering because of his squad’s disjointed play, went ballistic, tearing off his headset and straying some 25 yards onto the field to confront the officials, laying into head linesman Kavin McGrath, blistering umpire Ronald Kumiega and then eventually tearing into referee Thomas Tomczyk.

The two points were taken off the board and kicker David Teggart booted the extra-point try through the uprights - Rutgers 21, UConn 17…….

“I thought it was a backward pass because that’s the way we practice it,” Edsall said after the game. “I lost my cool there. I shouldn’t have done that. And I’m not going to report on any gripes with the officiating. The officiating didn’t lose the ballgame.”

Edsall was right there, too.

Even though his Huskies rallied to take a 24-21 lead on sophomore Jordan Todman’s 2-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal with 38 seconds remaining, an untouched scamper into the right corner of the end zone that capped a 15-play, 87-yard drive, Rutgers had one last answer.

With most of the fans standing and roaring in appreciation of UConn’s incredible come-back victory, the Scarlet Knights sent them home in stunned silence when true freshman quarterback Tom Savage zipped a pass to senior wideout Tim Brown, a close friend of the slain Howard growing up in Miami.

Brown, running a little slant pattern right-to-left, caught the pass in front of senior Husky cornerback Robert McClain, managed to elude red-shirt sophomore safety Aaron Bagsby’s poor technique on his tackle attempt and then out-raced senior safety Robert Vaughn to the end zone to complete an 81-yard catch-and-run TD with 22 ticks on the clock that wrapped up a 28-24 victory.

“We made so many mistakes for three quarters and then we’re in position to win the ballgame,” said Edsall, who leads his Huskies (4-4 overall, 1-3 Big East) into a prime-time Big East match-up on Saturday night at 8 p.m. (ABC, WILI 1400-AM, WTIC 1080-AM) at No. 4 nationally-ranked Cincinnati (8-0, 4-0).

“Every play is important. Every technique is important. I think [his players are] stunned. I’m stunned. That’s what it is, they’re stunned. I’ve got guys who are very, very upset and they should be.”