East Hartford - At this early stage of a rebuilding process, this is what UConn considers progress, barely beating a Football Championship Subdivision football team.

So the Huskies happily celebrated their first victory of the season despite an underwhelming performance.

They held on for a 19-16 victory against Stony Brook before 23,543 Rentschler Field fans. It was also Bob Diaco's first head coaching win.

"The team today showed a lot of grit and grind," Diaco said. "Our brotherhood shined through and our culture shined through. They were able to play hard for four quarters and give it all they had and finish strong."

"… They showed great, great fight."

The Huskies (1-1) did show some improvement, especially on defense and special teams.

But this was a Stony Brook team that scored only seven points in its season-opening loss to Bryant. The Seawolves (0-2) held a 300-223 edge in total yards.

A couple of big plays in an otherwise anemic attack propelled the Huskies to victory. Quarterback Chandler Whitmer threw a beautiful 30-yard scoring strike to receiver Geremy Davis to hand UConn the lead for good, 12-10, late in the second quarter.

Senior Deshon Foxx's electrifying 72-yard punt return for a touchdown early in the third quarter extended the lead to 19-10. Foxx watched the long punt sail over his head, retreated to pick it up on a bounce and used his speed to outrun the coverage.

"It was a boomer," Foxx said. "He definitely kicked that one deeper than I expected. But he out-kicked his coverage, so I was able to get back there and I got a lucky bounce. … I noticed that I had a whole lot of field to work with, so I just did what I could and I had great blockers. They opened up the middle perfectly and I just had to make one guy miss and (got) to the end zone."

UConn allowed a late touchdown, but recovered an onside kick and made one last defensive stand to close out the game.

"It feels great," Davis said. "Thank God, we got this win early. It took us 10 weeks last year just to get one. … A win is a win. These guys fought hard."

If not for two first-half turnovers that resulted in 10 points by Stony Brook, UConn likely would have won by a more lopsided margin.

Starting a drive from the UConn 1, redshirt freshman tailback Josh Marriner found resistance and coughed up the football, which rolled back into the end zone where Naim Cheeseboro recovered for a touchdown for a 7-3 Stony Brook lead.

Later in the first quarter, Whitmer dropped back to pass and lost the ball without getting hit. Stony Brook cashed in with Przemyslaw Popek's 33-yard field goal for a 10-3 edge.

"It was a hot day and the ball slipped out of my hands," Whitmer said. "One of those unfortunate silly errors."

UConn climbed back into the lead by halftime but it was bumpy road for the offense. A rebuilt offense line created little room for the running game and Whitmer misfired at times. For the second straight game, the Huskies failed to rush for 100 yards, finishing with 81 yards.

Whitmer was the team's leading rusher with 29. He won his first game as a starter since 2012, replacing Casey Cochran, who suffered a concussion in last week's loss to Brigham Young. Whitmer finished 12-for-27 for 142 yards.

Davis, a superb receiver, rescued the Huskies, catching six passes for 113 yards (UConn had only 223 total yards).

The win gives the Huskies a shot of confidence heading into Saturday's game against Boise State.

"I feel like, as a team, we got better, and we got more confidence and we'll just keep moving forward from here," Foxx said.

News and notes

It was the third smallest crowd ever to attend UConn football game at the Rent. … Davis moved into seventh on UConn's all-time receiving yards list with 1,980. … Diaco on Cochran's status: "I don't have any update right now that I want to publicly share for consumption." … Foxx's score was the first punt return for a TD for UConn since Nick Williams went 58 yards against Maryland on Sept. 15, 2012.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @gavinkeefe