UConn football vs. Fresno State: Time, TV info, betting line, game notes

The UConn football team welcomes Fresno State into Rentschler Field on Saturday, hoping to improve from last year’s 45-0 Bulldog beatdown in the season opener.

This year, of course, the game will look a lot different.

UConn’s roster has been depleted by injuries and has around 40 new names, the staff is completely different and Fresno State starting quarterback Jake Haener will not play. Haener was carted off the field in the third quarter of the Bulldogs’ 45-17 loss to USC with a high ankle sprain. In last year’s season-opener, Haener completed 20 of 26 passes for 331 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Logan Fife, a sophomore, has filled in at the position and completed 11 of his 12 passes for 140 yards. When he came in for Haener to get some reps during last year’s blowout, Fife completed 7 of 13 passes for 51 yards, a touchdown and also threw an interception.

“Of course we have a chip on our shoulder as we all know, last year was a tough loss, it’s pretty much the same as every week. You know, just going out there competing. We want to win. But we do have the extra chip on our shoulder from last year. So just we’re going to bring a little extra and come out on top,” defensive back Malik Dixon-Williams said.

The injury to Haener doesn’t change much of the game plan for UConn head coach Jim Mora and the rest of the staff.

“You typically prepare for a scheme rather than a player, unless there’s a particular receiver maybe you have to key on in coverage or a back that’s just spectacular that you really have to crowd the line of scrimmage with, but you’re usually preparing for a scheme,” Mora said. “We just have to, regardless of who we’re playing, we have to go out, we have to execute and that’s always our mindset.”

Site: Rentschler Field, East Hartford

Line: Fresno State by 23.5

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Weather: Cloudy, 67 degrees

TV: CBS Sports Network – Meghan McPeak, Christian Fauria, Justin Walters

Radio: UConn Sports Network from Learfield, ESPN 97.9

Online: The Varsity Network App – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman, Adam Giardino

Current record (2021 result): UConn: 1-4 (1-11), Fresno State: 1-2 (10-3, beat UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl)

Series: Fresno State leads 1-0

Last meeting: August 28, 2021 – Fresno State 45, UConn 0

Notes:

‘White Out Cancer’: The UConn football team will honor those in and around the program who have been affected by cancer with special helmet decals in Saturday’s game.

Players will be able to choose from a number of ribbon colors which reflect specific types of cancer, based on what they have been affected by. While Mora won’t wear a helmet (Editor’s Note: we think), he’ll be wearing pink and purple in honor of his late grandmother who died of breast cancer, his mom who beat the same disease three times, his wife’s father who died of pancreatic cancer and his sister-in-law currently battling.

Nate Carter appears to be out for the season: Mora said Tuesday that whether star running back Nate Carter returns to the field this season after he separated his shoulder in the game against Michigan will be his choice.

“It doesn’t look promising right now, but it’s really a decision that is a very personal decision,” Mora said. “So we’ll let him come to the decision as he feels he needs to.”

On social media Thursday, it appeared Carter’s decision was to have surgery and sit out the remainder of the year.

His father, Darryl, tweeted, “He’ll be back – better than ever – 2023!!! Some may not know his passion, his drive, his dedication, his toughness & his desire… all I can say is STAY TUNED!!! I know my boy.” His post included the hashtags “BleedBlue” and “UConnHuskies,” much to the relief of UConn fans who feared the transfer portal.

Carter was among the nation’s rushing leaders in nearly every statistic before he went down on Sept. 14. On 65 rushing attempts this season, Carter ran for 405 yards and a touchdown – an impressive average of 6.2 yards per carry. His biggest game, the season-opener against Utah State, saw him gain 200 total yards (190 rushing).

A religious person with a podcast titled “The Carter Effect”, Carter made an Instagram post Thursday that referenced several bible verses about choices.

“In addition to that I’ve also learned that sometimes things in our life get taken away. Things that you truly cared about. Things that you’ve worked hard for, and at a time, the work you were putting in was being rewarded ... until it wasn’t. And in the blink of an eye that one thing for which you worked so hard for, was now the one thing you had to momentarily live without,” the post read, in part.

Zion Turner trusting relationship with offensive coordinator Nick Charlton: Almost halfway through his first season as a starting college quarterback, Zion Turner has played better than the statistics show. Against NC State Sept. 24, Turner completed 10 of 12 passes for just 39 yards – reflecting the offensive strategy Charlton has employed to this point in the season.

Turner has rarely been able to let loose and get aggressive down the field. As the schedule gets more manageable toward the end of the season, the ability to take those shots could come, but for now, his receivers aren’t getting open. Still, as much as the strategy has been questioned, Turner trusts in Charlton’s “offensive genius,” he said.

“We’ve definitely gotten closer, like I’ve said, I do extra meetings with Coach Charlton. Anything I can do to help us get an edge on winning, just anything I can do to prepare better as well,” Turner said Wednesday. “Me and him, we’re just just really obsessed with winning. Really obsessed with winning. I hate losing just as well as he does. And, you know, we’ve been battling through these weeks, but we’re looking forward to having a great game this weekend.”

The quarterback-coach relationship between Turner and Charlton is a symbiotic one – they bounce ideas off each other rather than Turner being the student and Charlton the lecturer.

“It’s definitely a two-sided relationship. He asks me a lot of things, asks me what I like, he’s always telling me if I don’t like it I don’t have to lie to him. Just be totally plain honest, if I don’t like the play, we won’t run it.”

Don’t expect to see 300-pound defensive lineman Jelani Stafford at running back... yet: Social media was sent into a frenzy on Tuesday after Mora mentioned the staff considered 6-foot, 300-pound defensive lineman Jelani Stafford as a fill-in at the depleted running back position. With Carter and Brian Brewton out, and Devontae Houston battling a shoulder injury, true freshman Victor Rosa and Robert Burns are the only two left healthy.

In response to the idea of handing the ball off to Stafford, Turner belly laughed and said, “He really thinks he’s the man now walking around the building... If we need to, we could put him back there but I don’t think that’s on Coach Charlton’s mind right now.”