Dom Amore: In heartbreaking loss to Wyoming, UConn’s football players fought back, showed they haven’t quit on each other

UConn didn’t win. The visions of an upset, monumental by Las Vegas standards, died hard, died only when a last frenetic pass from Tyler Phommachanh was batted away with four seconds left.

This is not about the direction of the football program, not about coaches past, present or future. It’s not about the terrible record the last decade and the avalanche of laughably bad statistics. Not about one-liners or conference alignments, mistakes or misfortune.

No, this is for the kids, the players. Remember them?

They’re not numbers, punching bags or punch lines. They are the young men who came to UConn to chase the chance to play high-level football, test themselves against high-level opponents, the ones who stayed when last season was cancelled, the ones Randy Edsall told us last summer he was willing to invest in.

And on Saturday, in a 24-22 loss to Wyoming, a solid program and team, the Huskies showed something of themselves, showed they belonged.

“Above all else,” said junior cornerback Jeremy Lucien, “we’re all fed up with how things have been going. This entire week, at the hotel, bussing over here, in the locker room, the focus was just there.”

Added running back Nate Carter, “We fought today, and I think we put on a show for anybody who was watching the game. We’re not backing down from anybody.”

When Edsall bailed, retired after the second game, UConn’s hierarchy had no choice but to let the rest of the season ride. There will be a whole new coaching staff here next year, a new approach, and many of the players here now are likely to choose the transfer portal. It’s their right.

College football players, at least at the FBS level, get little chance to express themselves, just short, rarely revealing snippets on ZOOM calls during the pandemic. Even in normal times, force fields are erected to keep them from, heaven forbid, straying off message to tell us how they really feel about the situation they’re in.

These players had two choices. They could go through the motions and let the season apathetically run out, or they could take each game as a separate season, each game as another precious opportunity to play college football and show how motivated they remain.

Their only means of expression is on the field, and Saturday they shouted loud and clear that they’ve chosen the latter course, and they deserve credit for it.

“The players respect and care for each other,” interim coach Lou Spanos said. “They understand the value of a teammate. And you see what they’re doing on the field. It’s what college football is supposed to be, they’re playing for each other and having fun. ... It’s special. A locker room is special and it’s special right now.”

Certainly, loss No. 5 stings, but it’s a healthier sting. It wasn’t a first win, even if it sort of felt like it, after losses of 45-0 at Fresno State, 38-28 to FBS Holy Cross, the awkward coaching change, following by losses of 49-0 to Purdue and 52-21 at Army. It felt like a fairy tale when the Huskies, 30 1/2-point underdogs to unbeaten Wyoming, scored three on their first possession, scored a TD when Jay Rose caught a flea-flicker pass and catapulted over the goal line, and led 16-10 until Xazavian Valladay plunged in from a yard out with 4:39 left in the game.

On the play before the touchdown, Myles Bell, who played a spectacular game in the defensive backfield, went down with a foot injury and was lifted onto a golf cart. His teammates rushed out to lift his spirits before he was driven off.

“We were just going over there to make sure he knew we all had his back,” Lucien said, “and we were going to continue to fight for it. He played a hell of a game. We had to do everything we can to keep his spirit up.”

It stung, too, when Phommachanh, who had been avoiding trouble by throwing the ball away all game, forced one and was intercepted on the ensuing drive. Titus Swen scored to give the Cowboys a 24-16 lead.

But Phommachanh, the freshman, led a last-ditch march, helped with three pass interference calls. Carter swept in from the 2-yard line with four seconds left, but the chance for OT ended when the conversion pass was rejected by Rome Weber.

But the group that walked from an appreciative crowd and off to the locker room was not the same, dispirited bunch we saw earlier in the season. There will yet be blowout losses, but these Huskies showed, at least, that humiliation is not a foregone conclusion.

“It stings,” Lucien said. “Considering how the game was going for the majority of the game, this one definitely hurt not to come away with the win. With that being said, this should definitely give everyone a ton of confidence, because when we’re firing on all cylinders and everybody’s doing their jobs, we can compete with anybody. That’s what we need to take into this next game.”

UConn’s recent past can’t be sent out like so much dirty laundry to come back clean and fresh, and its future is well beyond the control of the players who are wearing the jersey now. What they own is the moment, the next game at Vanderbilt and six to follow, to tell us more of who they are.

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com