Injury or curveball?

I didn't touch on this last night, but the whole Hofstra changing its starting quarterback due to an injury just before kickoff smells funny.

Allegedly, starter Bryan Savage twisted or tweaked something in his back stepping off the team bus when it arrived at Rentschler Field Thursday. Then 16 minutes -- yes, 16 minutes -- before kickoff, Pride coach Dave Cohen is told Savage can't go and Cory Christopher would have to step in.

“Sixteen minutes before kickoff? No – I’ve never had that happen to me before," Cohen said. "Something was bothering him. It was brought to the attention from the trainer to the doctor and it was in his best interest not to play. No [it didn’t change our offense], Cory can throw the ball, he has rifle. The difference is that Bryan took 75% of the reps – that would be the only difference. We did highlight some different quarterback runs that we might not have and I think you saw [Cory’s] ability athletically and physically to make some plays. He showed a lot of courage and a lot of leadership.”

The thing is as much as Cohen says playing Christopher didn't change the offense, which is true, it did change the plays within the offense that would be called. Playing Savage over Christopher would be like playing Ben Roethlisberger over, say, Kordell Stewart. Stewart was more prone to running. As is Christopher.

This is what Christopher had to say:

“To find out 16 minutes before the game [that I was starting QB], of course, I was shocked but I felt that I was prepared and I was ready to take on the challenge. After the first drive, I felt like everything was on for us. After that, when we got it all out, I felt like our timing was back on point. I was pumped and I was ready. I was very frustrated last year [sitting on the bench], so I was ready to prove that I was ready to play this year and be a leader for my team. I hope Bryan is OK, but to have the opportunity to play, I was pumped.”

My feeling is that Hofstra knew it had close to zero chance of winning this one. There had been so much talk of Appalachian State upsetting Michigan last season and if this was a similar game that Cohen wanted to throw the Huskies for a loop. Maybe he thought the Huskies weren't as good as their record showed a year ago. Who knows? But the thinking that the Huskies spent two weeks focused on Savage and then pull the plug at the last minute seems suspicious to me.

Hey, good for Hofstra for trying; even better for them if it worked.

What the Pride found out is Donald Brown is a beast and the Huskies defense is good. Furthermore, when you replace a passing quarterback with a running quarterback, it doesn't take a coaching staff and its defense very long to figure out that 90% of the time you can gamble on run and hit the jackpot.

UConn was afforded the luxury of spreading its secondary while pinching in with the linebackers to help contain Christopher, who carried the ball 21 times for 25 yards.

The only issue here for UConn is it can't use that approach again this year. Even Temple and Baylor will find a way to take advantage of that scheme.