HOLY CROSS at UCONN
Thursday, Aug. 31 • 7 p.m. • SNY
Pratt & Whitney Stadium (40,000/Natural Grass)
East Hartford, Connecticut
Television
SNY
Radio
WTIC-AM 1080 (UConn flagship)
THE GAME
Thursday’s game renews an old New England rivalry as UConn and Holy Cross meet for the 29th time in a series that dates to 1916 … The Crusaders hold a 19-8-1 series lead though the schools have not met since 1985 … The game will be the first for Holy Cross against an NCAA FBS opponent since a 30-21 win against Army in 2002.
HOLY CROSS
0-0, 0-0 Patriot League
Head Coach
Tom Gilmore (Penn ’86)
70-76, 14th season
Notes
Holy Cross went 4-7 overall and 2-4 in the Patriot League last season … The Crusaders were picked fourth in the 2017 Patriot League’s preseason coaches’ poll, behing Lehigh, Fordham and Colgate … LB Nick McBeath was named to the preseason All-Patriot League team after he led the conference with 106 tackles last season … WR Richie DeNicola had 49 catches for 513 yards and four touchdowns last season, while RB Diquan Walker rushed for 411 yards on 78 carries … QB Peter Pujals was limited to four games due to injuy last season and completed 63.4 percent of his passes (111 of 175) for 1,110 yards and 10 touchdowns with five interceptions … Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore was the 1985 Ivy League Player of the Year as an All-America linebacker at Penn as an undergraduate.
UCONN
0-0, 0-0 American
Head Coach
Randy Edsall (Syracuse ’80)
74-70, 13th season at UConn
96-104, 18th season as collegiate head coach
Notes
UConn looks to rebound from a 3-9 season that ended with a six-game slide … Randy Edsall, who previously served as the Huskies’ head coach from 1999-2010, returns for his second stint on the UConn sideline … Edsall won shares of two Big East championships and brought UConn to four straight bowl games between 2007 and 2010 … The Huskies, who did not score a first-quarter touchdown last season, promise to be more dynamic under former Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee … QB David Pindell, a junior college transfer, has been named as the Opening Day starter … Pindell threw for 2,424 yards and 31 TDs at Lackawanna College (Pa.) last season … CB Jamar Summers has registered 10 interceptions in the last two seasons.