The Fenway Bowl pitted two programs, the UConn Huskies and North Carolina Tar Heels, that would be more likely to face each other in the Final Four in March instead of a bowl game.\u00a0 Ironically, the game was played at historic Fenway Park, a baseball stadium.\u00a0 In the end, UConn hits a home run in the Fenway Bowl, beating UNC 27-14.<\/p>\n
UConn started this season with a record of 1-2.\u00a0 However, the Huskies went 7-2 after that point to finish the regular season 8-4.\u00a0 With the Fenway Bowl win, this year’s UConn team became only the fourth in the school’s 128-year football history to win nine games.\u00a0 Following a 3-9 season in 2023, the Huskies made great strides on both sides of the ball.\u00a0 For his efforts in building the program, it was announced before the game that head coach Jim Mora was rewarded with a two-year contract extension that will take him through 2028.\u00a0 The continuity at the top will help the program continue to grow moving forward.\u00a0 After the game, Mora said of his players, “I’m so proud of them and couldn’t be happier for them and this program.”<\/p>\n
On the other side of the coin are the North Carolina Tar Heels, who finish the season 6-7.\u00a0 There is a lot of work for the newly hired Bill Belichick to do to get the program back to respectability.\u00a0 UNC was greatly impacted by players sitting out for NFL draft preparation as well as entering the transfer portal.\u00a0 Of most importance, the Tar Heels were missing an All-American offensive lineman and the running back who set the school record for all-purpose yards in a season this year.\u00a0 The most excitement for UNC in this game was a 98-yard kickoff return by Chris Culliver<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>However, UNC has made a big investment in rebuilding the program, in the form of Belichick.\u00a0 Time will tell how successful the hire will be, but it is apparent that the team will look very different next season.<\/p>\n The Fenway Bowl saw the UConn Huskies defend their New England home turf.\u00a0 As Jim Mora said during the game “There are a lot of UConn fans here.\u00a0 It’s a special day for us.”\u00a0 The weather was not great in Boston.\u00a0 Rain made the field wet, which further deteriorated the conditions that came from snow and ice over the past week.\u00a0 Consequently, divots had to be replaced at one point, and play was stopped.\u00a0 Additionally, both teams strangely shared the same sideline.<\/p>\n The UConn offense did more than enough to win the Fenway Bowl.\u00a0 Of course, when the opposition plays as poorly as UNC did in this game, the game plan becomes more of a “don’t break anything” mentality.\u00a0 As expected<\/a>, Joe Fagnano<\/a> did well in managing the game.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, the Huskies used a run-heavy attack.\u00a0 However, Fagnano delivered through the air when needed.\u00a0 During an in-game interview, Mora credited Fagnano for how he was executing, saying simply “I like the way we’re moving the ball.”<\/p>\n Coming into the Fenway Bowl, the UConn offense averaged 32.3 points per game.\u00a0 Given the weather in Boston on gameday, it should have been a challenge for either team to reach that mark.\u00a0 However, UConn was able to deliver 27 points.\u00a0 Fagnano did well in delivering the ball on time and on target.\u00a0 He also contributed on the ground, running when necessary.\u00a0 He was only sacked three times this season coming into the Fenway Bowl, though UNC produced two sacks in this game.<\/p>\n Fagnano, in his sixth season, brings his veteran presence to the huddle on each play.\u00a0 He worked hard to come back after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in the second game of the 2023 season.\u00a0 Despite losing the starting job to Nick Evers<\/a>, Fagnano stayed ready and took advantage of his opportunity when Evers was injured.\u00a0 Fagnano was able to end his college career on a high note at Fenway.<\/p>\n As impressive as the UConn offense was, the North Carolina offense was the opposite.\u00a0 The Tar Heels struggled up front on the offensive line.\u00a0 Some of the challenges were driven by players’ choices to skip the game, either to get ready for the draft or enter the transfer portal.\u00a0 The most important opt-out was from All-American right guard Willie Lampkin<\/a>, which was announced the day before the game.\u00a0 With Lampkin opting out, the game of musical chairs on the offensive line continued for UNC after others were already out after entering the transfer portal.\u00a0 The lack of continuity and experience on the line showed in the stats, as well as through multiple false start, delay of game, and ineligible player downfield penalties.<\/span><\/p>\n Starting at quarterback for UNC was Jacolby Criswell<\/a>.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he did not last very long as he was injured on a first-quarter scramble and did not return to the game.\u00a0 Conner Harrell, the backup quarterback, was not available after entering the transfer portal.\u00a0 So, the offense was turned over to freshman Michael Merdinger<\/a>, who made his college football debut.\u00a0 The game went about as expected given these circumstances, though Merdinger did begin settling in late.\u00a0 The Tar Heels finally picked up a first down with less than 30 seconds left in the first half.<\/p>\n Other than Lampkin, the most notable opt-out was running back Omarion Hampton<\/a>.\u00a0 Hampton set a single-season team record with 2,033 all-purpose yards.\u00a0 Davion Gause<\/a> was given the first opportunity to show what the team’s running back future could be.\u00a0 However, he had nowhere to run behind the patchwork offensive line.\u00a0 UNC also used the Wildcat with Caleb Hood<\/a>.\u00a0 Initially, that did not produce much success but Hood did throw a touchdown pass out of the Wildcat for the first UNC offensive score (with under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Passing:\u00a0<\/strong>UConn threw for 151 yards, compared to 110 for UNC.\u00a0 Fagnano completed 16 of 23 for 151 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.\u00a0 Evers thew an incompletion in his only pass attempt.\u00a0 For UNC, Merdinger completed nine of 12 for 86 yards, with no touchdowns and one interception.\u00a0 Criswell completed his only pass attempt, for seven yards.\u00a0 Hood completed his only pass attempt for a 17-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n Rushing:\u00a0<\/strong>UConn had 210 yards, compared to 96 yards for UNC.\u00a0 Mel Brown<\/a> led UConn, and all players, with 96 rushing yards on 11 carries.\u00a0 Cam Edwards<\/a> added 74 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown.\u00a0 UNC was led by Hood, who had 78 yards on 11 carries.\u00a0 Darwin Barlow rushed five times, gaining 37 yards.<\/p>\n Receiving: <\/strong>Skyler Bell<\/a> led UConn with a game-high 77 yards on three catches with a touchdown.\u00a0 Alex Honig scored the other UConn receiving touchdown.\u00a0 For UNC, John Copenhaver<\/a> led the team with 44 yards on four receptions with one touchdown.<\/p>\n Defense: <\/strong>Pryce Yates<\/a>, Jayden McDonald<\/a>, and Malik Dixon-Williams<\/a> each had six tackles to lead UConn.\u00a0 Yates, Aaron Key, Donovan Branch, and Matt Hoffman each had a sack.\u00a0 Tui Faumuina-Brown<\/a> had the UConn interception.\u00a0 Caleb LaVallee<\/a> led UNC with a game-high nine tackles.\u00a0 Beau Atkinson and Cade Law added one sack each.<\/p>\n Special Teams:\u00a0<\/strong>For UConn, Chris Freeman<\/a> converted two of three field goal attempts.\u00a0 He made all three of his extra-point attempts.\u00a0 Connor Stutz<\/a> punted four times, averaging 43.8 yards per punt.\u00a0 For UNC, both Noah Burnette<\/a> and Lucas Osada<\/a> did not attempt any field goals but converted one extra-point try each.\u00a0 Tom Maginness<\/a> punted six times, averaging 38.3 yards per punt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fenway Bowl pitted two programs, the UConn Huskies and North Carolina Tar Heels, that would be more likely to face each other in the Final Four in March instead of a bowl game.\u00a0 Ironically, the game was played at historic Fenway Park, a baseball stadium.\u00a0 In the end, UConn hits a home run in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":71109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7361,7,11],"tags":[34683,34682,34686,9102,34687,34680,34681,34684,34597,720,34685,33703,5024,33049],"class_list":["post-71076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bowl-games","category-acc","category-independents","tag-aaron-key","tag-alex-honig","tag-beau-atkinson","tag-bill-belichick","tag-cade-law","tag-conner-harrell","tag-darwin-barlow","tag-donovan-branch","tag-freddie-kitchens","tag-jim-mora","tag-matt-hoffman","tag-uconn","tag-unc","tag-wasabi-fenway-bowl"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71076"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71111,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71076\/revisions\/71111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Key Takeaways: UConn Hits Homerun in the Fenway Bowl, Beating UNC<\/h2>\n
Joe Knows<\/h3>\n
Offensive Offense<\/span><\/h3>\n
By the Numbers: UConn Hits Homerun in the Fenway Bowl, Beating UNC<\/h3>\n
Offense<\/h3>\n
Defense\/Special Teams<\/h3>\n