On an opening night that saw Kent State escape an upset bid by an FCS opponent, the UConn Huskies were not as fortunate. Towson upset the host Huskies 33-18. UConn was later joined by South Alabama, who lost on the final play of the game to Southern Utah.
UConn opened the scoring in the first half but Towson’s Sterlin Phifer caught one touchdown pass from 23 yards and rushed for a five-yard score to give the Tigers their first lead and they never looked back. Towson shut down the Huskies in the second half and held them to fewer than 100 rushing yards.
Towson is certainly a respectable program in the FCS ranks, ranked 11th in the nation by The Sports Network, and UConn certainly has some rebuilding to go so the upset should not be considered too shocking. But this was hardly the sort of debut the brand new American Athletic Conference (old Big East with some Conference USA mixed in) would have wanted to see. Paul Pasqualoni would have preferred a better outcome as well as the pressure on his job is already elevating before the first college football Saturday. Not too look too far ahead, but Louisville also would have preferred to see a different outcome as well. You know, strength of schedule and conference respectability and all...
Connecticut will have some extra time to let this all sink in before returning to the field against another team from the state of Maryland. The Huskies host the Maryland Terrapins on September 14 after a bye week next week.
There were some other close calls for FBS teams taking on FCS opponents on college football’s opening night. As referenced earlier, Kent State managed to survive a scare from Liberty but had to do so largely without Dri Archer. Illinois State gave Ball State a battle in the first half but Ball State pulled away in the second half for a win.
Other FCS teams did not fare so well. Indiana State was blown out by Indiana, although one Sycamore player did manage to get ejected as a result of the new targeting rules.
UPDATE (11:56 p.m. ET): Southern Utah pulled off a second FCS victory against an FBS program. Colton Cook‘s 28-yard field goal gave the visiting Southern Utah a 29-28 victory at South Alabama as time expired.