Two teams with strong defenses faced off in the St. Petersburg Bowl Saturday. The game lived up to that billing, as Marshall beat UConn 16-10 in a tightly contested game.
Marshall beats UConn in St. Petersburg Bowl, clinches 3rd straight 10-win season
The turf was still bad.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Marshall took the lead in the first quarter on a touchdown pass from Chase Litton, but UConn tied it up before the quarter was over on a touchdown run. From that point on, the scoring happened entirely via field goal: three for the Thundering Herd, one for the Huskies.
Trailing 16-10 with just less than two minutes left on the clock, UConn got the ball back with a chance to win the game. One completion brought the Huskies near midfield, but a sack and some great pass defense from Marshall resulted in a turnover on downs.
It’s a happy ending to the season for Marshall, but UConn has plenty of positives to take away as well.
Marshall’s consistency is remarkable.
In 2009, Doc Holliday took over a Thundering Herd program that had struggled since moving to Conference USA from the MAC. Marshall didn’t have a single losing season in eight years in its old conference, with five double-digit win seasons and an undefeated top-10 finish in 1999; in C-USA, it had gone 22-37 with one bowl appearance in five years under Mark Snyder.
In six years, Holliday is now 4-0 in bowl games, and the Thundering Herd have now won three bowl games in three seasons (and five in a row dating back to 2009). That’s a first for the program since winning five in a row from 1998-02.
Inconsistency stopped Marshall from reaching the heights of last year’s 13-1 campaign, but a win against UConn guaranteed a third straight double-digit win campaign. That’s nothing to scoff at.
Bob Diaco’s doing *work* at UConn.
Winning in Storrs is not easy. After Randy Edsall built the program up to the point where the Huskies won at least eight games in four straight seasons, UConn kind of collapsed following his departure to Maryland. Under Paul Pasqualoni and interim TJ Weist, the Huskies won a combined 13 games over the next three years.
When the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Diaco took the job in 2014, he focused on changing the culture of the program. But after a 2-10 debut season, the Huskies were still expected to be a few years away. Yet here they are, making their first bowl game since 2010 (a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma).
UConn's still a bit away from competing for an AAC crown, and with the kind of coaching talent the league has brought in, it's looking like it's going to continue to be a tough place to find conference wins. But in a conference filled with explosive offensive coaches, Diaco's built a strong defensive presence in Storrs. And while UConn didn't quite live up to Diaco's bold preseason prediction it's a season to be proud of.
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