Something will go wrong for the UConn football team during Saturday's game.

The Huskies may give up a big play. They could commit a turnover. And they'll likely face a deficit as has often been the case in recent years.

What they say is different this season than last is they'll respond to adversity by fighting back.

No matter the deficit.

"This group, specifically, we're not giving in," redshirt junior linebacker Ryan Gilmartin. "It's not going to be like last year when we just let teams blow us out and no one is fighting and no one is trying. That just speaks to the character of our guys. It has been a culture change for the past year, year and a half.

"... I know something is going to go wrong against USF, whether it be a turnover or whatever. We've got to be ready. Don't blink."

UConn (1-3, 0-1) will attempt to end a 19-game losing streak against Football Bowl Subdivision competition on Saturday when American Athletic Conference foe South Florida (1-3, 0-1) visits for a noontime game at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.

The Huskies just completed the toughest portion of their schedule, playing two Big Ten teams in Illinois and Indiana and nationally ranked Central Florida, facing the latter two on the road.

"It was a tough stretch for us," coach Randy Edsall said. "But our kids learned from it and I think we will be better coming out of it. I thought we competed for 60 minutes. Ultimately, you want to win. But with our program and where we're at, we've just got to keep working and keep developing and keep getting these kids better because we're so young.

"Now we've got to take those lessons that we learned in the first four weeks and take them forward with us and continue to get better, play mistake-free for 60 minutes and put ourselves in a position to be able to win. I think our kids will do that and they'll fight and work. ... They understand it's a long season still in front of us."

Now they'll take on USF, which has won six straight in a series that's featured close games. The Bulls opened up with losses to nationally ranked Wisconsin (49-0) and at Georgia Tech (14-10) before beating South Carolina State (55-16) and losing to SMU (48-21).

UConn gained some confidence and momentum from their offensive performance in the second half of Saturday's 56-21 loss at UCF. They scored three touchdowns after intermission against mostly reserves and finished with 426 yards of total offense.

The Huskies look at Saturday's game as a prime opportunity to begin to turn their season around.

"We're back at home now and we have the crowd on our side," Gilmartin said. "We need to win this game and we need to get back over .500 and then eventually to that six-win mark and then keep building off of that."

That will be tough to do considering the Huskies are starting their third quarterback in four games and heavily lean on underclassmen on both sides of the football.

Graduate transfer Michael Beaudry will be at quarterback Saturday, replacing Steven Krajewski who's out six to eight weeks after suffering a shoulder injury versus UCF. It's his first start since the season opener. An injury helped keep Beaudry on the sidelines in recent weeks.

"Mike's experience being in the (Wagner) game helped him," Edsall said. "He's learned things from that game and you hope for him to be better this game."

The Bulls also are desperate for a victory. They've struggled both offensively and defensively, ranking 12th in total offense (305 yards per game) and 10th in total defense (391.8 yards allowed) in the AAC. They've juggled quarterbacks, as senior Blake Barnett and redshirt freshman Jordan McCloud have each appeared in four games. McCloud left the SMU game with a wrist injury. The Bulls allowed a program record 10 sacks last week.

On the plus side, USF has forced 13 turnovers, the second most in the country.

"They're a really talented football team, one that has good athletes," Edsall said. "We're going to have to play well in order to win."

CBS Sports Network will broadcast the game on tape delay at the originally scheduled time of 7 p.m. It also can be seen live on CBSSports.com. Earlier this week, kickoff was moved from 7 p.m. as a safety precaution to avoid any potential exposure to the mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus.

g.keefe@theday.com