The Cincinnati Bearcats took care of the hapless Huskies of Connecticut in a bruising 48-3 win on homecoming.
The Huskies (2-8, 0-6) suffered their 17th straight American Athletic Conference loss.
Meanwhile, the Bearcats (8-1, 5-0) put together its seventh straight win since a 42-0 loss to Ohio State in the second game of the season.
Desmond Ridder connected with Josiah DeGuara for a pair of touchdowns of 18 and 15 yards, the first multi touchdown game of DeGuara's career. Michael Warren scored from six yards out and one yard out as UC took a 38-0 halftime lead.
"It makes a lot of difference in matchup issues. Josiah has grown into doing a lot of different things. It doesn’t give people the ability to pinpoint what’s going on with him. He’s come along way, his ability to be a complete player," Luke Fickell said.
"In the second half, the idea was to go out and play our best so a lot of other guys could get an opportunity. It was really great for us to be able to get those guys in there," DeGuara said.
Ridder completed 13 of 23 passes for 136 yards, He ran for 94 yards. Gerrid Doaks was the Bearcats' leading rusher with 123 yards on 13 carries. He scored on a one-yard run.
Connecticut's longest and deepest drive was 34 yards to the Cincinnati 31. Darrick Forrest stopped that drive by intercepting Jack Zergiotus. All of the other eight possessions ended on UConn's side of the field in the first half.
The Bearcats added 10 points in the second half.
Graduate student, Mike Beaudry led the Huskiies deep into Cincinnati territory twice in the second half. One ended at the UC seven yardline on downs. The Huskies got on the scoreboard with a 32-yard field goal by Clayton Harris with 5:37 left in the game.
Freshman Jack Zegiotis was 4-for-14 with an interception and -12 yards rushing.
Coach Randy Edsell replaced him with graduate student Mike Beaudry, who played Divison II before going to UConn.
"I told Jack at halftime, you're like a starting pitcher in baseball today," Edsall said. "You just didn't have it. It's like you gave up five home runs. Guess what you have to put the other guy in.. You didn't have it today,. Next start it might be a lot better.. If he's struggling like that. Get him out. Let him relax. Get someone else in and see what they could do."
Beaudry led the team deep into Cincinnati territory twice in the second half.
The Huskies lone bright spot was the third consecutive 100-plus yard rushing performance by Kevin Mensah, who finished with 115 yards on 24 carries.
The Huskies wanted to run the ball but UC's front seven was too tough.
"We wanted to be able to run the ball, so we could run play action and do those things but we just got Whipped," Edsall said. "We got whipped by a better team. We have a lot of young guys on the perimeter. Kevin Mensah, Artie Tompson, give you everything they've got. We didn't match their physicality upfront."
Mensah is the ninth UConn rusher to gain over 2,000 yards in a career. In a dismal season in a blow out game, Mensah was running hard.
"Pride." Mensah said. "Just go out there and give it all you got; try to motivate the guys; try to motivate the team. Show them to keep going and if we play like a team, good things can happen."
The Huskies had two defensive starter disqualified for targeting. The press box consensus that neither was justified.
"I thought the first one (call) was very poor," Edsall said. "On the second one from what I saw, he put his nose right in there. If they are going to be throwing people out of the game for playing football. We might as well stop playing football. The two calls they gave if that's targeting. Let's stop playing. I don't know how to teach my guys any more."
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