Humbug!

It's four days until Christmas and all the UConn players were already thinking of home and the holidays. So, for the final practice what did UConn do? Took it light, right? Had a Christmas Party?

Bah! Humbug! Christmas spirit! Not when there is a football game to play in a couple of weeks.

Randy "Scrooge" Edsall wasn't about to let a practice just melt away like Frosty. Instead the Huskies put in part of their game plan for the Jan. 3 International Bowl game against Buffalo. Always working.

"They thought we were going to out here without pads," Scrooge Edsall said. "Not when we are putting the game plan in."

That was the gist of Monday's practice before the Huskies went home for the holidays. Edsall was fired up. The rest of the players? Xs and Os perhaps in their head, not sugar plums.

The players will be return to campus Dec. 26 and resume practice on Saturday.

Here are some news and notes from today and then I have to pay the bills:.

* Darius Butler is back at practice and is "good to go." It's 8 weeks since the knee injury and he is playing with a brace on, but the injury has pretty much healed. He will only play defense. The International Bowl will be a good test for Butler. After the game he is headed back to Connecticut for a couple of days then he will head to Dallas for a two week training course with Deion Sanders in preparation of the Senior Bowl game in Hawaii. The name of the camp is "Prime U" and Sanders likes to get the best college corners in the country and train them. Butler is going to be in Dallas a lot prior to the NFL combine. Sanders invited him down during the season before he got hurt and nothing has changed.

"It's like training with Jordan for basketball," Butler said.

*C.J. Marck has transferred as first reported by Fat White Guy (Rob Lunn). Marck decided to not play in the bowl game because he felt it was unfair since he wasn't going to stick around. Edsall said that he invited Marck to play. Marck has some personal reason to leave, but he was blocked at LB as more athletic players were ahead of him. He is likely headed to an FCS school (D I-AA) so he doesn't have to sit out a year.

*Count Edsall as surprised about hearing that Donald Brown will come back. Nothing will change however. Edsall will do his diligence and present Brown and his family with all the info for the NFL Draft. The rookie salary cap isn't going to be an issue according to Edsall. It's just agent scare tactics to get players to come out.

*Desi Cullen is expected to punt despite having an appendectomy last week. Kickoffs will likely be handled by Dave Teggart or Tony C.

*Rob Ambrose wasn't at practice and is down at Townson interviewing for the Townson head job, his alma mater where he also played quarterback.

*Tickets to the bowl game have gone VERY slow. Right now about 3,000 tickets have been purchased meaning that UConn is going to have to pick up the difference. If 5,000 are sold, Huskies would still be on the hook for 5,000 tickets at $45 per ticket. That's a $225,000 outlay. The Huskies promised 10,000 tickets sold.

Update 7:21.

*Terry Baltimore is not with team. "Personal reasons," which happened to happen around the same time grades came out. Tony C is in the lead for kickoffs. Greg Lloyd will be starting at linebacker. Lastly, Alex LaMagdelaine is going to take a shot at playing center in the spring.