When Jesse Joseph delayed his professional football aspirations for a year he firmly believed he would be wrapping up his final season at UConn playing in a bowl game.

Never in his wildest dreams did the senior defensive end envision that he would be part of just the second team in UConn football history to open a season 0-8.

"It hurts," said Joseph, who recorded UConn's only sack of Heisman Trophy candidate Teddy Bridgewater. "We were in his face all game and we have to come up with sacks really.

The defense played a pretty solid overall game against a talented Louisville offense.

The first offensive touchdown for Louisville came when cornerback Byron Jones slipped and fell while he was trying to cover DeVante Parker on a crossing route. The other one came when the Cardinals only needed to drive 56 yards before punching it in.

Louisville scored one touchdown on a blocked punt and another on an interception.

"Bottom line is we just have to be better, special teams, offense and defense," Joseph said. "We all have to click as a team. We can’t have one unit fall short and let the other two units pick it up."

So where do the Huskies go from here. There is no chance of playing in a bowl game and one more loss will guarantee a losing record in the first season of the American Athletic Conference.

"Pride, motivation, you can’t just call it a season and put your head down because a lot of people have way too much pride," Joseph said. "We come here to play football, to win games, It is not going our way right now but that is when you become a man. There are (four) games left and we can still pull the season around.

"We all have to stick together, let everybody know we have four more games and the next game is just as big as this game was and limit the mistakes we have made."