Temple coach to face his mentor as Owls meet UConn

That was in the mid-1980s, when Pasqualoni was the head coach at Western Connecticut and hired Addazio to his first assistant coaching job.

"His guys always played hard," Pasqualoni said. "You didn't have to worry about his position not knowing what to do or not playing hard or not acting the right way. He took great pride in that and you could see that certainly at every stop he's made. It was clear the Steve was going to be a very good coach."

Addazio, a Connecticut native who also worked for Pasqualoni at Syracuse and coached his former high school team in Cheshire, will meet his mentor on the field for the first time as a head coach Saturday when he brings the Owls (2-2, 1-0 Big East) into East Hartford to face the Huskies (3-3, 0-1).

"Much of the way I approach things came from Coach Pasqualoni," Addazio said this week. "Obviously we are two different people, but fundamentally there are some real core beliefs in there that I learned and adapted from him."

It is homecoming week at UConn, but Addazio said he's not spending a lot of time reminiscing. Temple is coming off a big win over South Florida in its first game since returning to the Big East. A win at UConn would give the Owls their first road win of the season and its first ever back-to-back wins in conference play.

"I don't care who we're playing, I don't care where we are playing," Addazio said. "I want to win a football game. I want our program to be 2-0 in the Big East. That's what I want, and I can't see anything but that right now."

Connecticut is looking to stay above .500 and get its offense untracked after a disappointing 19-3 loss at Rutgers. The Huskies are ranked sixth in the nation in total defense, giving up just over 82 yards per game on the ground and 166 through the air. But they're putting up just under 20 points a game, and are ranked 110th in the nation in offense.