Now we know.

We know that the UCONN football team is not only bowl eligible but is also bowl worthy. On Monday December 19th the Huskies will face Marshall in the Myrtle Beach Bowl in Conway, South Carolina, the first bowl appearance for UCONN since losing to Marshall in the St. Petersburgh Bowl at Tropicana Field in 2015.

With a win over the Thundering Herd at Coastal Carolina’s Brooks Stadium the 6-6 Huskies would claim their first winning season in over a decade, a major milestone for a team that as recently as last season was ranked last among 131 FBS institutions.

As further evidence of the growing respect for UCONN under first year head coach Jim Mora, Jr. they go into the game ranked 88th among all FBS teams. Few programs have shown more improvement in one year than UCONN but don’t look for Mora in the national Coach of the Year balloting. That award is contested among the coaches who have the horses. Mora, handed the reins of a lightly regarded division one independent, created his magic at UCONN with smoke, mirrors and the transfer portal, an indication that better days are likely to come.

Marshall enters the Myrtle Beach Bowl with an 8-4 record, ranked 57th in FBS. UCONN is obviously the underdog, but they’ve already taken one giant step this season. Who’s to say they can’t take another?

Now we know.

We know what it takes to beat the UCONN women’s basketball team and, as it turns out, it’s a relatively simple equation. Just take the Huskies top two players and their top recruit out of the lineup and send them on the road with a nine player roster to face a top ten team.
The, then, third ranked Huskies went to South Bend, Indiana last Sunday to face the, then, seventh ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. With their top player, Paige Bueckers, and their top freshman, Ice Brady, already sidelined for the season the Huskies lost Player of the Year candidate Azzi Fudd to a right knee injury late in the first period. She came back in the second only to be removed again by coach Geno Auriemma, believing discretion is the better part of valor. The stage was set for Irish point guard and Player of the Year candidate Olivia Miles to dominate the stage, taking the game from a back and forth first quarter affair to a 14 point win with long range shooting and scoring drives to the hoop.

UCONN was undefeated heading into the game. Monday they fell to number six in the national rankings with Notre Dame moving up to fifth. Auriemma optimistically said the injury to Fudd appeared to be minor, saying he expects her back for the next game, Thursday at Gampel Pavilion against Princeton.

All it took to beat the UCONN women was to put them on the road against a top ten team without their top two players and their top recruit. It may not be that simple but it certainly tips the odds. Now the whole nation knows.