Bowl aftermath

I have a lot of good stuff I will get to later, but the Huskies were fired up after the win here today.

UConn has the core returning, 18 starters or one time starters, roughly on the team and this game is a spring board for the 2010 season. They should get Top 25 preseason votes next year if anyone is paying attention.

On the defense, the Huskies switched things up if you haven't noticed. The Huskies were a much more pressure team and brought the linebackers on zone blitzes with regularity. South Carolina couldn't adapt. The front 4 was terrific with Kendall Reyes and Jesse Joseph having monster games. Lutrus was aggressive at linebacker and Garcia never really had time to throw and exploit UConn's secondary.

This isn't going to be a temporary thing. Edsall said that they looked at the personnel and decided that is the type of defense they need to be. UConn can't sit back and stifle teams with their front four and they were much more aggressive today.

Here's Lawrence Wilson

"It felt good to finally play well," Wilson said. "They all palyed hard and we got pressure on the quarterback all day. That is one of the main reasons we won.This is the most complete game we played this year."

Wilson played well and had a sack, perhaps it was the homemade BBQ that his father snuck into his hotel room last night.

As far as Dixon and the offense, Dixon was the workhorse. He earned that MVP honors by grinding the ball on the ground. USC's defense is terrific, but the Huskies were almost stubborn with running the ball and wore them down just enough.

Edsall was emotional talking about Dixon after the game.

"When you have a guy like Andre, 33 carries, 126 yards, What a way for him to go out. He gets over 1,000. All week long I watched him practice and he had a bounce in his step. He was ready to go. And when you get a guy like this and you get a big offensive line like we have, and you keep pounding it, you wear people down."

I have a lot more that I will hash out late.


The Huskies have a bowl win, are 8-5, and have a ton coming back. This could be the start of something special in 2010.

Happy New Year, time to pay the bills