University of New Hampshire Athletics
Quarterback Bret Edwards has the Wildcats off to a 3-0 start. (Gil Talbot photo)
9/19/2021 3:23:00 PM | Football, UNH Insider
Defense Impresses Again, Edwards Teams with Espanet for 2 More TDs
DURHAM, N.H. – The defense turned in another stellar performance to lead the No. 23 University of New Hampshire football team to a 19-13 triumph at Lafayette on Saturday.
The Wildcats are off and running – and passing – to a 3-0 start and are getting impressive play from sophomore starting quarterback Bret Edwards as well. He has passed for seven touchdowns and has not thrown an interception and has used his scrambling ability to avoid pressure and keep the offense mostly out of difficult situations.
The tests continue ahead: UNH plays its FBS game on Saturday at Pittsburgh of the ACC. The Panthers went on the road to knock off Tennessee last week, but had the tables turned on them Saturday in a 44-41 upset loss at home to Western Michigan.
After Pittsburgh, the Wildcats return home to face FCS power James Madison in their Homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. at 3:30 p.m. Season and single game tickets for UNH football are available by calling 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.
The defense allowed only a couple of field goals – Lafayette returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for its only touchdown - to pace the Wildcats to their third straight win to open the season.
Edwards made good use of his feet to keep a couple of plays in particular alive on Saturday, both turning into touchdown throws to junior Brian Espanet.
"You've always got to stay alive with Bret, even if you're the last option," Espanet said. "On those plays, I wasn't supposed to get the ball at all. Those balls weren't supposed to come to me. We just have a good feel for each other and he's so good at extending plays and giving the play a chance if it doesn't develop. He played hard and he played smart and that's why we're 3-0 and 1-0 on a Saturday night."
Four of those touchdown passes thrown by Edwards have been to Espanet. They also connected twice in the season-opening win at Stony Brook.
"They've got a good feel for each other," said head coach Sean McDonnell. "Brian's done that his whole career here. . . . He has great hands and he's got a good feel for trying to find spots in the end zone."
Espanet was quick to divert the credit.
"That's all Bret," he said. "It could have been anyone in my spot. He just buys time. We work the scramble drill all the time. I just found myself in the right spot and that's how I ended up in the end zone. Great play by the O-line. Great play by Bret to buy time. On both of them."
When training camp for this season began in early August, the thinking was that Max Brosmer would be the quarterback throwing to Espanet and junior Sean Coyne and rest of the Wildcat receiving corps. But Brosmer, the incumbent starter, went down with a season ending knee injury early and Edwards took his place.
He's taken advantage of the opportunity. Edwards has completed 63 of his 94 passes (67 percent) for 743 yards.
"Bret keeps doing the things that I think make him a good quarterback," McDonnell said. "He gets the ball and distributes it and again he distributed it to a lot of different people today. He puts the ball on people and he does it when he's on the run."
The second touchdown pass on Saturday covered 14 yards. It came on 3rd down with 8-yards to go for a first down, capped a drive to open the second half and gave UNH its first lead of the game, a lead it would not relinquish.
Edwards and Espanet improvised for the TD.
"We had a play designed for a quick hit to the flat that we thought was going to be there all week in practice," McDonnell said. "It doesn't happen and he just buys time and then he feathers the thing in to Brian in the end zone. Those are the things his legs can help him create. We've got to keep building on them. I'm really proud of the way the kid's playing."
Edwards has the benefit of having a pretty good mentor.
McDonnell regularly mentions the nice work associate head coach and quarterbacks coach Ricky Santos has been doing with Edwards.
Santos was a master at scrambling and innovating and making good things happen as the Wildcat record-busting quarterback from 2004-2007, leading the team into the FCS playoffs each of those years to start a playoff streak that eventually stretched through 14 seasons until 2017.
HOME AGAIN
NEXT UP
NOTEWORTHY
QUOTABLE
"All of us in this program have seen Joey Eichman flying around in practice and scrimmages and workouts and stuff like that. The kid is just something else doing that and today he went out there and played a very good game. Kept the ball in front. Made some nice tackles in open space. Really happy for Joey. He got an opportunity."
Sean McDonnell on Joe Eichman, who made his first start at safety
"We're all about the next one. 3-0 is great, but 1-0 on a Saturday night is best."
Junior Gunner Gibson on the 3-0 start
"We're going to enjoy it for 24 hours and we've got a tough, tough opponent next week. We always say we can fix anything but a loss. We know we could have played better. We've got to clean some things up and then get ready for next week."
Junior Brian Espanet
UNH BY THE NUMBERS
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
The Wildcats are off and running – and passing – to a 3-0 start and are getting impressive play from sophomore starting quarterback Bret Edwards as well. He has passed for seven touchdowns and has not thrown an interception and has used his scrambling ability to avoid pressure and keep the offense mostly out of difficult situations.
The tests continue ahead: UNH plays its FBS game on Saturday at Pittsburgh of the ACC. The Panthers went on the road to knock off Tennessee last week, but had the tables turned on them Saturday in a 44-41 upset loss at home to Western Michigan.
After Pittsburgh, the Wildcats return home to face FCS power James Madison in their Homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. at 3:30 p.m. Season and single game tickets for UNH football are available by calling 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.
The defense allowed only a couple of field goals – Lafayette returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for its only touchdown - to pace the Wildcats to their third straight win to open the season.
Edwards made good use of his feet to keep a couple of plays in particular alive on Saturday, both turning into touchdown throws to junior Brian Espanet.
"You've always got to stay alive with Bret, even if you're the last option," Espanet said. "On those plays, I wasn't supposed to get the ball at all. Those balls weren't supposed to come to me. We just have a good feel for each other and he's so good at extending plays and giving the play a chance if it doesn't develop. He played hard and he played smart and that's why we're 3-0 and 1-0 on a Saturday night."
Four of those touchdown passes thrown by Edwards have been to Espanet. They also connected twice in the season-opening win at Stony Brook.
"They've got a good feel for each other," said head coach Sean McDonnell. "Brian's done that his whole career here. . . . He has great hands and he's got a good feel for trying to find spots in the end zone."
Espanet was quick to divert the credit.
"That's all Bret," he said. "It could have been anyone in my spot. He just buys time. We work the scramble drill all the time. I just found myself in the right spot and that's how I ended up in the end zone. Great play by the O-line. Great play by Bret to buy time. On both of them."
When training camp for this season began in early August, the thinking was that Max Brosmer would be the quarterback throwing to Espanet and junior Sean Coyne and rest of the Wildcat receiving corps. But Brosmer, the incumbent starter, went down with a season ending knee injury early and Edwards took his place.
He's taken advantage of the opportunity. Edwards has completed 63 of his 94 passes (67 percent) for 743 yards.
"Bret keeps doing the things that I think make him a good quarterback," McDonnell said. "He gets the ball and distributes it and again he distributed it to a lot of different people today. He puts the ball on people and he does it when he's on the run."
The second touchdown pass on Saturday covered 14 yards. It came on 3rd down with 8-yards to go for a first down, capped a drive to open the second half and gave UNH its first lead of the game, a lead it would not relinquish.
Edwards and Espanet improvised for the TD.
"We had a play designed for a quick hit to the flat that we thought was going to be there all week in practice," McDonnell said. "It doesn't happen and he just buys time and then he feathers the thing in to Brian in the end zone. Those are the things his legs can help him create. We've got to keep building on them. I'm really proud of the way the kid's playing."
Edwards has the benefit of having a pretty good mentor.
McDonnell regularly mentions the nice work associate head coach and quarterbacks coach Ricky Santos has been doing with Edwards.
Santos was a master at scrambling and innovating and making good things happen as the Wildcat record-busting quarterback from 2004-2007, leading the team into the FCS playoffs each of those years to start a playoff streak that eventually stretched through 14 seasons until 2017.
HOME AGAIN
- UNH's next game in Wildcat Stadium is Homecoming vs. James Madison on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 3:30 p.m.
- Season and single game tickets for home games are available by calling the UNH Box Office at 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.
- The Wildcats have an off date on Oct. 9 and then play Dartmouth at home on Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. for Family Weekend.
- The Wildcats play Richmond at home on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. for Halloweekend.
- They take on Maine in the Border Battle for the Brice-Cowell Musket at home on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m.
NEXT UP
- The Wildcats play their FBS game at Pittsburgh at Heinz Field on Saturday at noon.
- The Panthers of the ACC lost a shootout, 44-41, to Western Michigan on Saturday at home to fall to 2-1.
- They beat Massachusetts, 51-7, in their opener and won at Tennessee, 41-34, in their first two games.
- They had 490 yards of total offense, but Western Michigan had 517 yards.
- Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett passed for six touchdowns to tie a school record.
- He completed 23 of his 31 passes for 382 yards and passed Dan Marino to take over the No. 2 spot on the school's all-time passing yardage list.
- Jordan Addison had six catches for 124 yards and three scores.
- Lucas Krull caught three passes for 36 yards and two TDs.
- Pat Narduzzi is in his seventh season as head coach.
- Two former UNH assistant coaches are coordinators at Pittsburgh.
- Mark Whipple is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
- He was the OC at UNH in 1986 and 1987.
- Randy Bates is the defensive coordinator.
- He coached linebackers at UNH from 1992-97.
NOTEWORTHY
- The Wildcats played at Pittsburgh and fell, 38-16, in 2010.
- That game stopped a streak of five straight wins over FBS opponents.
- UNH had beaten Rutgers, Northwestern, Marshall, Army and Ball State in succession.
- Santos engineered the wins over Rutgers, Northwestern and Marshall.
QUOTABLE
"All of us in this program have seen Joey Eichman flying around in practice and scrimmages and workouts and stuff like that. The kid is just something else doing that and today he went out there and played a very good game. Kept the ball in front. Made some nice tackles in open space. Really happy for Joey. He got an opportunity."
Sean McDonnell on Joe Eichman, who made his first start at safety
"We're all about the next one. 3-0 is great, but 1-0 on a Saturday night is best."
Junior Gunner Gibson on the 3-0 start
"We're going to enjoy it for 24 hours and we've got a tough, tough opponent next week. We always say we can fix anything but a loss. We know we could have played better. We've got to clean some things up and then get ready for next week."
Junior Brian Espanet
UNH BY THE NUMBERS
- Junior Dylan Laube had a big, balanced game.
- He matched his 79 rushing yards with 79 yards in kickoff returns and also had 64 receiving yards.
- His 222 all-purpose yards raised his all-purpose average to 169 yards a game.
- The defense allowed only a pair of Lafayette field goals.
- The Leopards returned the opening kick of the game 93 yards for their only touchdown.
- Eichman replaced senior safety Pop Bush, who was out with an injury, in the starting lineup.
- He had a couple of tackles and broke up a pass.
- Gibson had a sack and a half and leads the team with 3.5 sacks.
- He also forced a fumble that grad student defensive tackle Duval Paul recovered.
- Redshirt freshman safety Noah Stansbury had his second interception in as many games.
- The defense gave up only 41 rushing yards and 233 total yards of offense.
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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