If everything goes according to plan for Jim Mora, Saturday’s three-point loss to Wake Forest will be nothing more than a blip on the radar on the way to a seven or eight-win season.
With questionable officiating down the stretch not helping the situation, UConn dropped a 23-20 heartbreaker to move to 4-3 while suffering its first home loss of the season against the Demon Deacons. Now, the Rice Owns come to The Rent in the fifth of six straight home games for UConn, a stretch that the Huskies are currently 3-1 in.
The loss to Wake has the chance to be a springboard of sorts into the stretch run. The Huskies are still just two wins away from being bowl eligible again, with games against Georgia State, UAB, Syracuse and UMass following this one. But, the only way it becomes a positive is if Mora’s squad uses it correctly.
He felt like there was a good start to that process during the final 10 minutes of the game.
“Listen, you’re going to get into some tough games,” Mora said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Football is a tough sport and not every week is going to be a blowout or easy. You’re not always going to move the ball or play great defense. If you watch every game on Saturday and there’s some games that are tough. What impressed me initially is the way we fought back, especially offensively late in the game in the fourth quarter. Right from the 10-minute mark on, as a team how we fought back. That showed maturity to me because things were not going well…they had been going pretty good for us and they weren’t. Guys didn’t blink.
“That impressed me and then, just in the locker room, their reaction to the loss impressed me. There was obvious disappointment, but there was also a sense of resolve. I felt that when we came in Sunday, I felt that Monday and I felt it when we practiced today. As a coach, that’s encouraging. When you don’t always feel like you have to be the impetuous or the voice, or the guy that’s pointing out ‘hey, let’s get more out of ourselves,’ we have a lot of guys that do that. It’s that peer-to-peer accountability that’s the strongest and we have a really good sense of that on this team.”
After the game, Mora was brief in his postgame press conference, going off on the ACC crew that had the assignment. On Tuesday, he acknowledged that his frustration level after the game was one he hasn’t experienced in a long time, which he believes could also a good sign.
“I had to gather myself. I told David Benedict yesterday, that was probably one of the more frustrating losses I can remember in my career as a head coach,” he said. “Just, the way I felt after that game. I haven’t felt that way in a long, long time. I think that’s an indicator of where this program is going.”
The arrow continues to point up for UConn despite the result last weekend. Now, if the Huskies are going to continue ascending, beating a 2-5 Rice team soundly at home would be the best possible step forward.