IU to be first opponent in new UConn stadium

STORRS, Conn. -- The countdown started after the final game of the 2002 season: 265 days.\nNow Connecticut is just four days from kicking off a new era in the 40,000-seat Rentschler Field and the players, to put it mildly, are pumped up.\n"We're actually going to have to try to bring people down on Saturday," senior wide receiver Shaun Feldeisen said Tuesday. "If you get too excited you could lose your head. There's going to be a lot of emotion on the field that day."\nThe $90 million stadium was built after years of politicking with a combination of public and private money.\nIts opening marks a major milestone in fifth-year head coach Randy Edsall's effort to build a competitive I-A program from scratch. The team's 6-6 finish last year was its most successful since the upgrade.\nWhen UConn plays host to Indiana Saturday, it will be the school's first game against a Big 10 opponent.\n"This is a great event for the state of Connecticut," Edsall said Tuesday. "It really legitimizes to me what the Division-IA process is all about."\nOne of Edsall's tasks on Saturday is to keep the players focused on the game and not the inaugural atmosphere. Some 24,000 season tickets have already been sold.\n"I know they'll be pumped up. The think I'll keep reminding them is that we've been to the stadium, we've seen the stadium. When they walk out of that tunnel, yeah, there's going to be a great feeling and a great environment and the reason we're here is to play the game between the white lines and get a win."\nWhen the Huskies open Saturday, they will be riding a four-game win streak that included the season-ending road upset of bowl-bound Iowa State. That memory was enough to sustain the players over the long offseason.\n"The days are kind of long in the winter and you just think about that feeling when we came off the field that Saturday and it kind of gets you pumped back up again," Feldeisen said.\nFueling the big expectations this year is the return of sophomore tailback Terry Caulley, who led all freshmen last year, averaging 124.7 rushing yards and 145.2 all purpose yards a game.\nTo stay focused amid the hoopla, Caulley turns to his closest support system -- his family. He said he talks to his parents in Maryland every night.\n"They don't want me to get stressed out about what's going on," Caulley said. "My mom calms me down, my father, he does too. There's a lot of media covering the new stadium and fans expecting big things from the team, so I just got to get away from that and talk to people back home."\nJunior quarterback Dan Orlovsky, the program's first blue chip recruit from Connecticut said it will be an honor to take the first snap at Rentschler Field on Saturday.\n"Being from the state of Connecticut and knowing that this is really a Connecticut stadium and a Connecticut team, it's really a privilege to play," said Orlovsky, a former Shelton High School standout.\nThe potential of off-the-chart exuberance doesn't faze senior co-captain Sean Mulcahy, a 292-pound defensive tackle.\n"The more excitement, the better you are," Mulcahy said.\nBesides, he said, there's plenty of time to wind down.\n"I'll settle down on Sunday," he said.