NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Paul Pasqualoni has an impressive running back in Lyle McCombs. The Connecticut coach needs a quarterback of his own to step up quickly.
The Huskies’ first road trip with their new coach ended in a 24-21 loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday night despite McCombs rushing for 118 yards and the defense coming up with seven sacks.
The problem for UConn was that the Huskies gave up five sacks of their own, and Johnny McEntee was intercepted three times and lost a fumble.
Pasqualoni played three quarterbacks for a second straight week with McEntee getting most of the work. Mike Nebrich also got in, while Scott McCummings rushed five times for minus-5 yards for the Huskies (1-1).
“As the game went, I stayed with Johnny just to have some continuity,” Pasqualoni said. “We put Mike in, and put him in at the start of the second quarter, which we did a week ago. But it’s just hard to get into the flow of the thing with what they were doing.”
UConn led 21-14 when McEntee had his final turnover. Casey Hayward picked off his pass at midfield and ran it back 50 yards for a touchdown that tied up the game with 6:45 left.
“I read it out wrong and threw a bad ball,” McEntee said. “That’s what happens sometimes.”
Casey Spear kicked a 31-yard field goal with 2:56 left to lift Vanderbilt to the victory and its first 2-0 start since 2008.
The Huskies had a chance to try and tie the game, but couldn’t get it done. Rob Lohr sacked McEntee on third down and McEntee overthrew Isiah Moore on fourth down, giving the ball back to Vandy. The Commodores ran out the clock and started celebrating a rare winning start.
This is the Huskies’ second straight season to open with a loss on the road. They rebounded well enough a year ago after losing to Michigan, going on to win the Big East championship and play in the Fiesta Bowl.
McCombs picked up where he left off last week, when he rushed for 141 yards, but he couldn’t do it all. He ran 10 times for 74 yards in the first quarter before Vandy started smothering him. Dave Teggert kicked two field goals, and Byron Jones blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a TD.
Huskies linebacker Sio Moore had 3 1/2 sacks and forced a fumble that Yawin Smallwood picked up and returned 64 yards for a touchdown that put UConn up 21-14 after McEntee found Ryan Griffin for the 2-point conversion with 10:34 left.
UConn hit Larry Smith repeatedly and even knocked him out of the game briefly. But the senior kept returning, and he threw for 140 yards and one TD. He also had only two turnovers as Vandy outgained UConn 259-193 in total offense.
Safety Kenny Ladler set up Vandy’s first TD, diving in front of Kashif Moore to pick off a pass by McEntee at the Huskies 42. Vanderbilt went for the end zone on the next play with Smith finding Chris Boyd in stride for a 42-yard TD pass down the left sideline for a 7-3 lead with 5:54 left.
The Huskies seemed to turn the game in the second half as they hit Smith so hard he left the game for a few plays, replaced by Jordan Rodgers. That helped back Vanderbilt up near its own goal line, and Jones blocked Richard Kent’s punt and recovered it in the end zone for the touchdown that pulled UConn within 14-13 midway through the third quarter. It was the first blocked punt for a TD by the Huskies since 2002.
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