With all due respect to UAB, that wasn’t really the world’s most difficult environment for UConn a couple weeks ago.

The Huskies mounted a major comeback to take down Trent Dilfer’s team and move to 7-3 with two games left in the regular season. Now, after a bye week, Jim Mora’s crew will make a relatively short trip to Syracuse for a very big test against the Orange this Saturday.

Given the quirky schedule and the fact that the Huskies were home for two straight months, dealing with the atmosphere in The Dome will provide some challenges that UConn simply hasn’t faced much this season.

With an almost guaranteed win against UMass looming to close out the regular season next week, stealing a win against a very good but very beatable Syracuse team on the road would add to what’s been an incredible story already so far this season and set the program up for a remarkable 9-3 finish.

One thing at a time though. This will be the first legitimate road test for the Huskies since the loss to Duke on September 14th.

“I think it’s going to be a heckuva challenge for us to go up there in that environment,” Mora said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning. “We haven’t worked in front of a crowd with noise on offense in quite a while. So, we have to be able to handle that environment. I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge. They had the bye week and got the chance to recover a little bit.

“But, they jumped right back into preparations when we started on Syracuse. We all had a chance to watch the Cal game on Saturday, which was a very impressive win. It’s tough to go all the way across the country and perform the way they did…we’ve just got to go play to the best of our ability, hope we can create a couple breaks and see what happens.”

These types of games always have a little bit more intrigue because of the recruiting aspect as well. Syracuse and UConn regularly compete with schools like BC for the best of the best in the Northeast. Having bragging rights heading into what’s sure to be another topsy turvy recruiting cycle can only help those pitches when the staff goes to sit down in a kid’s living room.

“If you want to be good at recruiting in the Northeast, then you’ve got to be competitive on the field in the Northeast,” Mora said bluntly. “That’s our objective.”

Whether the Huskies finish with eight or nine wins this year – or possibly 10 or 11 depending on where they head to a bowl game and who they face – 2024 has been one of the best seasons in a decade-plus for this program. Mora was asked if there was a point in the season where he felt like this team went from ‘I think we can,’ to ‘I know we can.’

In typical Mora fashion, it was all about Tuesday.

Which is probably why his team is having his second successful campaign in the three years he’s been here.

“I don’t know. Ask them,” he added with a shrug. “My focus is on what do we do today that can help us be ready for Saturday? I just try to keep a narrow focus and I want the team to keep a narrow focus. I don’t want the message to get too big. But, I think human nature would tell you that when you have success doing something or you overcome some adversity, or you win a game like the Temple game or some of the others, it’s ‘aw, we’ve done it before in that situation, we’re experienced at it, we know we can do it.’ But, you still have to do it. You still have to perform. You still have to make the plays. We don’t go back and talk about that stuff. You try to build on what you’ve accomplished and you try to correct the things you’re not doing well.

“You just try…I know it’s cliche, I know it’s the ultimate coach cliche, but it honestly, truly is about what do we do today to get ourselves more prepared, better prepared and a step closer to going out there and performing well on Saturday.”