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What's always more interesting than the losing coaches reaction is the winning coaches reaction. And here it is. It's another classic....
On a day when the UConn football team received its first national ranking, the Big East was acknowledging that a mistake by conference officials likely was the cause for a game-turning play in Friday's 21-17 victory over Louisville.
UConn (6-1, 2-0 Big East) made its debut at No. 23 in the BCS standings. The BCS rankings are a combination of the USA Today coaches poll, the Harris Interactive Poll and the average of six computer rankings, excluding the highest and lowest computer rank.
UConn hosts South Florida (6-1, 1-1), ranked 10th in the BCS, on Saturday.
"It is a nice milestone for our program to be included in the BCS standings for the first time," UConn coach Randy Edsall said in a release from the school.
"It speaks well to the dedication of our players, coaches and staff, but right now our focus is entirely on Saturday's game against South Florida."
UConn is 29th in the Harris poll, 28th in the USA Today poll and was tied for 16th in the computer rankings. In the Associated Press media poll, which is not part of the BCS equation, UConn was 29th with 26 points. Rutgers (5-2, 2-1) is 25th with 174 points.
Sunday evening, an official from the Big East said that some sort of action will be taken against a member or members of the officiating crew that worked Friday's game at Rentschler Field, in which UConn's Larry Taylor scored on a controversial 74-yard punt return early in the third quarter that tied the score at 7.
Taylor raised his right arm in what seemed like a signal for a fair catch, then ran with the ball after catching the punt.
"We are acknowledging that an error was made and [Big East commissioner] Mike Tranghese deemed it serious enough to warrant action," Big East spokesman John Paquette said. "We do not make [the action] public."
Edsall would not comment directly on Taylor raising his arm before the catch during a conference call Sunday afternoon.
"I've watched the film and I thought Larry did a nice job of catching the ball and I thought he did a great job of taking the ball down the sideline and playing until the whistle blows," Edsall said. "Other than that, I really have no other comment on it."
******And then a gem by the kid and the reporter...after I'm sure what was exhaustive research.....
Taylor said after the game that he did not call for a fair catch and it seemed, by the letter of the NCAA rule book, that he didn't. The rule book defines a fair catch motion as being "a signal given by a player who has obviously signaled his intention by extending one hand only clearly above his head and waving that hand from side to side of his body more than once."
Pressed on the issue Sunday and asked if the move was coached or talked about before the play, Edsall deferred to Big East protocol on questionable calls.
"I'm not going to make any comments on any part of the officiating in any game, as we have rules and regulations in the Big East," Edsall said.
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