Huskies throttle Lafayette in season opening rout, 56-7

UConn’s Kalieb Osborne (7) celebrates with his teammates after rushing for a touchdown in Saturday’s 56-7 season opening win over Lafayette in East Hartford. (Photo courtesy Scott Kerr)

Just two days ago, Rutgers was a 29½-point favorite over visiting UMass, who went 0-12 a year ago and had lost their last 16 games. But the Minutemen stunned Rutgers on Thursday night with a 37-21 upset victory.

In the first game of the Jason Candle era at Connecticut, the Huskies didn’t allow visiting Lafayette College to even consider a potential upset with a dominating 56-7 opening day win before more than 31,000 fans at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.

UConn (1-0) had a school-record 671 yards in the game as new starting QB Kaleib Osborne, a transfer from Toledo, completed 19-of-26 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 90 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. Kenji Christian scored on an 18-yard TD reception from Osborne and also scored on a 25-yard run.

UConn scored the first 56 points in the contest.

“Obviously proud of our guys to come out and get off to the start that we’re able to get off to and I think that kind of set the table for the course of the whole football game,” Candle said. “We played complimentary football in all three phases, got good special teams play from the jump and got a couple early defensive stops and then we had great rhythm offensively when it came to pre-snap operation and what that looks like. So, we’re able to to build a nice little lead there and we got a lot of guys in the football game.

Kenji Christian (3) celebrates with his teammates during Saturday’s season-opening win over Lafayette in East Hartford. (Photo courtesy Scott Kerr)

UConn got off to a fast start with three TDs on their first three possessions in the first quarter. The Huskies moved 75 yards on their first drive with Osborne hitting Javon Brown for a 24-yard across for the first score of the game.

After Lafayette’s first drive ended with a punt, Osborne broke a 30-yard run and later converted on fourth-and-five from the Lafayette 18 with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Kenji Christian, extending the Huskies’ lead to 14-0. Later in the quarter, Osborne added to UConn’s lead with his legs, rushing in a 9-yard score at 1:43 to make it 21-0.

The Huskies first scoring drive of the second quarter overcame an early holding penalty, leading to a Cyncir Bowers 16-yard touchdown run at 9:14, pushing the lead to 28-0. With just under three minutes remaining in the first half, Christian ran in his second touchdown of the game from 25 yards out, adding to UConn’s lead, 35-0 lead.

UConn head coach Jason Candle steps onto the turf for his first game leading the Huskies at Rentschler Field. UConn beat Lafayette, 56-7. (Photo courtesy Scott Kerr)

UConn opened the second half with an 80-yard, seven play drive capped by another rushing touchdown from Osborn at 10:37 to make it 42-0.

UConn hosts Maryland (1-0) next Saturday at Rentschler Field at 3 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. The Terrapins routed Hampton on Saturday, 62-0.