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One Really Positive Development For UConn Football in Week 3
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- One Really Positive Development For UConn Football in Week 3
(David Butler II-Imagn Images)
The UConn Huskies football team moved to 2-1 in the Jason Candle era on Saturday night with a 48-20 win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss.
It was a great win for a Huskies team that was playing its first road game of the season and UConn was in control from the start.
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The entire box score was filled with successes: Quarterback Kalieb Osborne went 16-of-22 for 214 yards and two touchdowns, the team ran for 213 total yards, 10 different players caught passes, the Huskies were 8-of-14 on 3rd-down and they committed no turnovers.
It was the kind of complementary football that coaches often talk about, but aren't able to get their teams to execute, and Candle did.
If you're looking for a sign that the team is buying into Candle's vision, this game was a good indicator of it.
Again, lots of things went really well in this game, but there was a really positive development: The emergence of running back Cyncir Bowers, who had 11 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown.
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Bowers touchdown run was from 42 yards, and if you remove that, he still averaged more than four yards per carry on the remaining 10 carries.
We already knew that running back Kenji Christian was a home run threat, and we have seen that Osborne is a threat as well. If Candle's offense can get Bowers going too, that's a whole other layer for defenses to think about.
And, as we mentioned last week, if the Huskies can really get the run game humming, then that opens up the pass game more. Defenses will start to creep down into the box, and once they do? Osborne will have opportunities for more advantageous matchups on the back end.
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So far, Bowers has 24 carries for 180 yards this season. He scored a touchdown in the season opener against Lafayette as well.
A transfer from West Virginia, Bowers had 63 carries for 249 yards last season. He also added eight catches out of the backfield and had three total touchdowns.
Up next
The Huskies will be back in action on Saturday with a road game at Miami (OH) of the Mid-American Conference. Kickoff time is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET and the game can be watched on ESPN+.
The Redhawks are 1-2 on the season, and they are coming off a disappointing loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. They led by 21 points before losing 35-31.
