UConn football still has a long way to go

The opportunity was there, right there in front of them. The chance to be relevant, not again, but for the first time.

And the University of Connecticut dropped the ball. Or threw it to the other team.

The Huskies entered Saturday hoping that with a win at Virginia, they might join the top 25 for the first time in the history of the program. But the Cavaliers marched right down field to take the lead after giving it up for a short period of time and then gave UConn quarterback Tyler Lorenzen no chance to bring his team back.

UVA 17, UConn 16

They played a real team on the road and that real team held them to season lows in nearly every offensive category. The message was clear: Charlottesville sure as heck isn’t Durham. The Cavaliers aren’t Maine. And the Huskies just aren’t that good.

The fact is the only two Division 1-A college football programs in New England entered last weekend with similar unbeaten records, but they didn’t need to play each other to prove that Boston College belongs near the top of the polls and the Huskies belong somewhere outside of “teams receiving votes.”

A victory would have given UConn a significant recruiting pitch, and would have helped them move on from the Dan Orlovsky era, which hasn’t even helped the Huskies keep the best in-state high school players.

Instead they lost, and now, at 5-1, they’ll be large underdogs in five of their final six games.

Some things never change.