Making it look easy

Marcus Easley - once just a walk-on - has quickly become a household name, establishing himself as the Huskies' most dominant receiving threat in the short, medium and long passing game.

Easley has strung together three 100-yard receiving games, reaching exactly the century mark against Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, making six catches for 108 yards Oct. 17 against Louisville and hauling in five catches for 157 yards, a career-high, against West Virginia on Saturday. Easley is the first Husky to have three straight 100-yard games since Carl Bond in 1998. Prior to the Pittsburgh game, Easley had just 130 career receiving yards.

"I just know that Marcus was always a guy that had some height, weight and speed but didn't have that consistency that we wanted to see for him to be able to be in there and doing the things that we thought that he could do," said coach Randy Edsall. "Also, I think sometimes with a player, it's a sense of urgency with them, in terms of he knew that this was his last year and he knew that there was just one more opportunity, one year left."

Easley, a local product from Stratford, earned a scholarship after his impressive performance this past spring. He has recorded touchdown scores of 88 and 79 yards this season, showing his ability to break a pass for a long gain with his unique combination of strength and speed.

Teggart shanks two

Dave Teggart, normally known for his reliability in the kicking game, missed field goals of 27 and 44 yards in UConn's 28-24 loss on Saturday. Teggart inherited the starting kicker job from Tony Ciaravino last season after the then-senior missed three field goals apiece in UConn's games against Temple and Rutgers last season. In 2008, Teggart was 13-of-15 on field goals for an impressive 87 percent conversion rate.

Despite the uncharacteristic misses, Edsall wasn't worried.

"He's really just like any other guy," Edsall said. "We showed him. You can see it. It's a technique thing. I know everybody never wants to hear all these execution and technique things but it's just a matter of his execution. He's proven that he can kick, that's not the problem. I think the big thing of it is more technical than the mental part."

Special teams snafus,

successes

Despite giving up a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the opening play of the game, the Huskies had some success in special teams. Robbie Frey returned five kickoffs for 136 yards including a key return to set up the Huskies in Mountaineer territory with less than two minutes to go in the first half.

"We made corrections on the kickoff coverage," Edsall said. "That was a couple of guys that didn't read the return the right way and went the wrong way. We had a young guy that we put in for the first time that didn't go down and properly squeeze the ball and put it where he should have."

As for Frey, he is currently third in the Big East averaging 25.4 yards per kickoff return.

Lutrus out,

Johnson holding his own

Scott Lutrus was once again out of the West Virignia game, suffering recurring symptoms of the stinger he incurred Sept. 5 in UConn's season opener against Ohio. Starting in place of Lutrus the past two weeks has been redshirt freshman Jory Johnson.

"I thought Jory came up and made some pretty good plays last week," Edsall said. "The one thing you take to work with, with some injuries and the other things that have taken place, there are a lot of guys that are getting on the field and gaining the experience through playing, which is beneficial."

Quick hits

Rutgers leads the alltime series against UConn 19-9 but the Huskies have won four of the last seven … Last season Rutgers beat the Huskies 12-10 in a game where Tony Ciaravino missed three field goals … Saturday's game is the first game the Huskies will play at Rentschler Field without Jasper Howard … The Huskies will wear JH on the their helmets for the rest of the season and the players will wear No. 6 T-shirts during the Husky Walk. There will be a moment of silence before the game.