The UConn football team is headed back to the Fenway Bowl.
It was announced Sunday that the Huskies (9-3) will play at Fenway Park for the second year in a row, this time meeting Army with their first-ever 10-win season as an FBS team on the line.
The game will take place at 2:15 p.m. on Dec. 27.
It will be the program’s ninth-ever bowl appearance and its third in four years under coach Jim Mora, who departed for Colorado State just before Thanksgiving. UConn announced that offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis would serve as interim head coach for the bowl game while Jason Candle, the former Toledo coach, prepares the program for the future. Candle will be officially introduced as the Huskies’ next head coach at a press conference Monday afternoon.
“We’re honored to accept the invitation to return to the Wasabi Fenway Bowl,” Sammis said in a team release. “Last year’s experience was memorable—our victory over North Carolina, combined with our incredible fanbase helping set a Fenway Bowl attendance record, showed what UConn football is all about. We’re excited to build on that success and create more special memories at historic Fenway Park.
“Playing at such an iconic venue is a unique opportunity and our players have worked exceptionally hard this season to put themselves in position for a 10th win and what would be a historic season for UConn football. They’ve earned the chance to return to Boston and compete on this special stage once again.”
It will be the fourth time UConn has played football at Fenway Park, where it took down North Carolina, 27-14, last winter for its fourth bowl win all-time. With an announced crowd of 27,900, it was the highest-attended game in the history of the Fenway Bowl, which began in 2022.
Army (6-5) will finish its regular season in the Army-Navy game next weekend. It will be the second time UConn has met the Black Knights in the last four years, having lost at West Point, 34-17, in the final regular season game of 2022, Mora’s first season.
UConn has seen at least 13 players express their desire to enter the transfer portal since Mora’s departure, but there are plenty of Huskies who are in their final year of eligibility and would like to finish out the historic season strong. Players in the portal are still allowed to play in the bowl game, as star receiver Skyler Bell did last season before ultimately returning to Storrs.
Dominant defense leads UConn football to 27-14 win over North Carolina in Fenway Bowl
Seventh-year quarterback Joe Fagnano, who was named Offensive MVP of last year’s Fenway Bowl, led the Huskies’ offense to one of its best statistical seasons ever as it enters the postseason as the 12th-best scoring team in the FBS (36.9 points per game). UConn, joining No. 1 Indiana as the only two teams in the FBS without a loss in regulation (three losses in overtime), ranks sixth in the nation in passing yards per game (301.1) behind Fagnano’s 3,441 passing yards on the season, second-most in program history.
Completing 68.9% of his passes, Fagnano threw 28 touchdowns (third all-time) to just one interception, which came in the final home game against Air Force.
Bell, a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award and likely to be the program’s first offensive skill player taken in the NFL Draft since Geremy Davis (sixth round, 2015), has already set records for receptions (101) and receiving touchdowns (13) and is 78 yards from the program’s receiving yards record with 1,276.
It was the first year UConn ever had a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard receiver and a 1,000-yard rusher in the same season as Norwalk native Cam Edwards ran 199 times for 1,132 yards and 14 touchdowns.
The Huskies had national standouts on the defensive side of the ball, too, as linebacker Bryun Parham, a graduate transfer, enters the postseason ranked eighth in the nation in sacks with 10.5 on the year, 0.88 per game. Parham is also 13th-nationally in tackles per game (9.7), just above teammate Oumar Diomande, who is 15th.