The Bull Run Inquisition: "The UConn Blog"

Any week Buffalo plays a team with an active Blog Bull run set's up an appointment between our opponents fans and the Inquisitioner.

This week Bull Run talked with "The UCon Blog", a fellow traveler on the SBNation mothership.

1) So what's your take on Warde Manual? He's had to replace basketball royalty and, at the same time, preside over a team in America's second most troubled football conference (WAC Rules!).

I'll say cautiously optimistic. I'm generally in favor of how he handled the Calhoun situation, but the real test there is going to come a year from now when he has to decide if he's going to keep Kevin Ollie on board or launch a national search. Football is also going to have a very interesting year ahead. There is a lot of fan discontent with Paul Pasqualoni and while Manuel has offered his support, it's been quite tepid. I'm interested to see if he makes a move to get his own guy in there.

2) Speaking of Big East football what do you think of the new conference and the loss of AQ status? With two looses to MAC teams, the loss of a Big Money Bowl, and the risk of losing a school like Louisville how much more can the Big East Absorb and still be considered above the mid majors.

I think you might be overstating the misery of the Big East. It has certainly taken more than its fair share of hits, but it still is much better placed than any other non-bigtime conference. The new Bowl structure makes it likely that the BE champ will play its way in in most years. They're also in line for a TV contract that, while smaller than the Big Five, will still give its schools sizeable resource advantages over everyone else. That said, if and when the ACC wants a 16th member UConn is packed and ready to go.

Editorial Note: Can one really overstate how bad it is to lose your best football teams, some of your best basketball teams, and have to backfill with a Temple program that you kicked out for under performance six years ago?

3) What happened against WMU? Specifically how did the Bronco's throw your offense off of its game.

Actually, WMU is where UConn's offense finally found its game -- albeit a bit too late to pull out the win. The Huskies had struggled all season with a very conservative attack, and a porous offense line has only exacerbated the situation. However, down three scores UConn started to open up the passing game and viola! there was offense. QB Chandler Whitmer is still in his first year and can be mistake prone, but I'd expect UConn to rely on him spreading the ball around pretty heavily.

4) Where is your defense most vulnerable. The Bulls may have Oliver ready by game time but they are down to just one reliable receiver.

The defense is vulnerable if you can effectively run a spread passing attack, which is what WMU did. UConn's defense is focused on its trio of very talented linebackers and when they're facing four or five receivers they wind up dropping back into coverage. The linebackers are awesome, but they're not "match a WR for speed awesome." The D-Line is also a little shallow and has been hit by injuries, but DE Trevardo Williams is an absolute beast.

5) If you end up losing this game what will the headline be on The UConn Blog the next day? This is one of those fun questions we fans of pretty bad football teams get to ask you folks from the right side of the tracks.

They'll be no headline as I will have found a tall structure to jump off of in the mean