BOSTON – UConn’s shorthanded offense was never able to heat up on a frigid day at the Fenway Bowl, where the 2025 season came to an unceremonious end with a 41-16 loss to Army in the converted baseball stadium on Saturday.
The Huskies, finishing with a 9-4 record for the second year in a row, couldn’t get much going after a pair of big runs early from Cam Edwards, who shined on a day when the team was missing its other two offensive stars. The passing offense was nonexistent in the 22-degree weather as quarterback Joe Fagnano and backup Nick Evers each opted out of the game and All-American receiver Skyler Bell changed into street clothes after the opening drive.
True freshman quarterback Ksaan Farrar made the first start of his college career in a tough spot and had negative passing yards until the second half, finishing the game 11-of-17 for 84 yards.
Army’s option offense, built for weather like Saturday’s, compiled 476 yards to UConn’s 262.
Edwards, idle on the sideline for a disastrous opening drive, was a revelation as he took his first carry for 34 yards and finished the next play in the end zone from from 12 yards out for his 15th rushing touchdown of the season.
The Norwalk native, who moved into a tie for the fourth-most rushing TDs by a UConn running back in a single season, went into halftime with 103 of the team’s 137 total yards on just 10 carries and ran just once more in the second half to finish with 108 yards on the day.
Bell threw the first pass of the game – the first pass of his career – out of bounds for an intentional grounding penalty before exiting and sitting the rest of the game out. After the next play, a pass batted backward before being caught for a loss of 11 yards, the Huskies had -4 passing yards on four attempts before the break.
Army answered Edwards’ score with a 40-yard touchdown connection from Cale Hellums to Noah Short on a deep ball, one of three Black Knights’ pass attempts in the first half, and capped a 90-yard drive in the second quarter with a 43-yard touchdown run up the middle from Godspower Nwawuihe.
UConn cut its deficit to 14-10 at the half with a 49-yard field goal from Chris Freeman, but couldn’t wrap up Nwawuihe as he went 70 yards on the second play after the break to extend the Army lead with his second rushing touchdown of the game.
Hellums took it himself for a 1-yard touchdown to cap off an 11-play drive midway through the third quarter and added another rushing score from six yards out early in the fourth quarter to extend the Black Knights’ lead to 34-10.
Farrar answered with an 11-yard touchdown run on a fourth-down play with just less than six minutes left, but failed to cross the goal line on the ensuing two-point conversion attempt, which would’ve tied the program record for points in a season. Army tacked on another touchdown after a six-yard run from Carson Smith with 1:20 to play.
The loss marks the conclusion of what was a historic campaign for the UConn football program, which reached the nine-win mark in back-to-back years for the first time in its FBS history. Offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis, who served as interim head coach for the bowl game before he departs for the OC job at TCU, led the Huskies’ offense to a record 5,783 total yards as Fagnano, Bell and Edwards became the program’s first trio to record 3,000 passing yards, 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season.
It was the program’s third bowl appearance in four years under head coach Jim Mora, who departed for Colorado State shortly after the final regular season game in November. New head coach Jason Candle took a short break from constructing the 2026 roster and coaching staff to watch Saturday’s game from a stadium suite.