UConn is going Bowling > Wasabi Fenway Bowl v. Army (Saturday 12/27/25 @2:15 on ESPN) | Page 7 | The Boneyard
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UConn is going Bowling > Wasabi Fenway Bowl v. Army (Saturday 12/27/25 @2:15 on ESPN)

Everyone complaining forgets the years of not going bowling, which was a yearly outcome way too long. It is not the best opponent for our defense, but the 4-2-5 is what they did to win against Air Force.

They don't have the size running backs, and the quarterback is the leading runner.

Again, remember the years without a bowl game.
 
NHUConnfan said:
On the face of what you said, I agree. But it's kind of hard to not look at this as being yet another consequence of conference realignment and how UConn got screwed. Someone on X just pointed out that we are in the Fenway Bowl in the ACC slot because ND declined.

If anything, this just tells us that CFB is in a really really bad spot. And there's no winning for us. Either folks like me are disappointed that we didn't get a better bowl, which I think we deserved. Or folks like you think this is a great bowl because we would be treated like crud if we played another P4 team because they hold such a low opinion of us.

That's bad either way! It's just that some folks are happy enough with Fenway. Ok, fine. But I find it weird folks aren't wishing for something better. At least the start time isn't at 11am this year.
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I totally hear what you are saying.

I am just coming from the reality of the situation as far as this being about as best as we can possibly hope for. Better bowl than this is just about unattainable. But if you know the landscape it is not a bad bowl. The payout tells you that. The ACC is tied to it. Notre Dame turned it down? They were probably turning down any bowl as a protest to what happened with the playoff and I don't blame them. Their hearts wouldn't have been in it.

Now there are people who live in the south near certain locations, and don't care if we play some sunbelt st. team in an empty high school size stadium who might not be happy. And there are those who think if we have an exceptional year we should be in the Rose bowl or something. I had to go back and forth with a few that thought we had a shot with even the pinstripe not long ago, we had no shot. Certain bowls pay too much money for the p4 to give up. That's the reality of our situation or any g5 for that matter. Check the g5 bowl payouts.
If we are getting the ACC payout on this its 2 million, way more than most other g5 bowls. I'm not sure if the Liberty is actually a guarantee AAC tie but that would be about the only other big g5 payout if so.

The idea is to win every year, win these bowls, and get that elusive p4 invite, and then we get the more attractive and higher paying alternatives What's funny about all this?. If we got an ACC invite tomorrow, they would stick us in this Fenway Bowl every year. Or at least alternate us with BCU if they are bowl eligible. Think about that!
 
Hogoff said:
My favorite part about all the complaining about who our opponent is that we are bowling for the second year in a row. I bears complaining about how bad we suck.
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Yup, not like we've been to so many. Also, the P4 teams go to the same bowls over and over. Hazard that comes with winning so much.

A week ago we were debating which G5 opponent we were going to play in Alabama, Conway, SC, or Boca Raton.

Army at Fenway is leaps beyond Troy or Kenwsaw State in the Cure Bowl.

Wake would have been better but Wake isn't selling tickets to play us in Boston in December. This is the reason the Fenway Bowl was created in the first place. UConn was one of the target schools when we were in the AAC, no?
 
Seems pretty apparent Fenway must have had some input that they'd rather have us filling the stadium again instead of having a team that won't bring fans like UNC last year. Maybe they throw a few bones to the ACC to accommodate their request, but when you're trying to get into a power conference and prove how much reach you have in your region and that you're serious about football, having Boston jockeying for you isn't a bad thing. It gives Yormark another bargaining chip to promote us to the Big12. You thought you were going to get to plant a Big12 flag in NYC with us? We can give you Boston too.
 
Woof 101 said:
As well as we should also JMHO....

Army will bring an army for sure. With so many veterans across local proximity. That along with an entire section of cadets all in uniform and jumping up and down with coordinated chants. Not sure if they are allowed to have a chopper fly over with trooper parachuting in with the game ball.
City's flying limits flights over stadiums. At West Point the chopper makes a few low passes over the stadium, rises to a higher altitude and chuters jump out with American flag flying behind and presenting the game ball landing at mid-field.
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Yep. Busses will be running cadets to Boston, I’m sure. Should be a good crowd

This will be Army's 12th bowl appearance in program history. The Black Knights hold an 8–3 mark all-time, including a 5–1 record under head coach Jeff Monken. Army's most recent bowl outing resulted in a 27–6 victory over Louisiana Tech in the 2024 Independence Bowl.

Notably, this is the first within driving distance of West Point, giving the Corps and Army fans a unique opportunity to attend.

goarmywestpoint.com

Army Football Accepts Invitation to Wasabi Fenway Bowl - Army West Point

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point Black Knights have accepted an invitation to the Wasabi Fenway Bowl and will face the UConn Huskies.
goarmywestpoint.com goarmywestpoint.com
 
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You know what shows that a school is serious about football?
It prepares for a bowl game for its 10th win with as close to a full squad as possible.
Its fans pack the venue and are loud.
Said team wins the game because it has pride and a solid culture.
It is reasonable to expect all 3.
 
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uconnbill said:
Everyone complaining forgets the years of not going bowling, which was a yearly outcome way too long. It is not the best opponent for our defense, but the 4-2-5 is what they did to win against Air Force.

They don't have the size running backs, and the quarterback is the leading runner.

Again, remember the years without a bowl game.
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You’re right and logically I agree, but I still would rather play any other team than a service academies team.

Pittsburgh I Dont Know GIF by Mike Hitt
 
businesslawyer said:
WTF are you rambling about? If you mean you want to be back in the form we were in during HCRE1, we have in the last four years clearly moved a long way in that direction. We’re not there yet, but we are getting there. If you mean that because we went 9-3, beating 8 crappy teams and even giving us a pass for Syracuse losing to 2 G5 teams not in the top 80 or so, you thought the world would treat us like we were still in a Big East league whose champions was guaranteed a slot in one of the biggest five bowls, you’re friggin high. What you want will take success in the field and selling tickets over a prolonged period of time.
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Oh it's now very clear to me that you hold a much much much lower opinion of UConn football (the entire enterprise, not just this season) than even I thought. Wow.
 
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I watch a little Army. Most of the Temple game. Army 14 - Temple 13. They are not impressive. They beat Air Force 20-17. We should score against them. If we win the TO battle we should do well.
 
king conn said:
When you nudged the goalpost you became clearer. If you don't think the opponent is as "prominent" good for you, I don't really care

But to say the bowl itself is less prominent because we took the ACC slot like you did, just shows a lack of knowing how these things work and quite frankly a shot at our program

Let me ask you, why should a p4 team agree to play us in a bowl when that would be met with utter disdain from their fans like you?
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No one is moving the goal posts. You just made the wrong assumption of what I meant and now are trying to take a holier than thou attitude.

I think it's fair to say that people can be disappointed that the prize for winning 9 games in the regular season is going to the same bowl as last season against a worse opponent than last season.
 
If you were told Fenway could be like Boise's Potato Bowl, providing an annual showcase pitting UConn against name programs until such time as we are attractive to larger games, you'd sign up, right?

UConn poaching a P4 bowl slot is a good thing. Playing Sun Belt or other whoday teams is a bad thing, your sunburn be dammed.
 
Palatine said:
I watch a little Army. Most of the Temple game. Army 14 - Temple 13. They are not impressive. They beat Air Force 20-17. We should score against them. If we win the TO battle we should do well.
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Are they uptempo like FAU I take it they like to run clock. So long as we score we'll be good so long as our D isn't FAU game bad. Would like to see us beat Army at their own game too running the ball hopefully with Cam and Mel Brown and I would like to see us use Smith more.

I wanna believe a number of factors contribute our D getting torched against FAU, I do wonder how much of a factor it had on Mora being distracted that week along with dealing with the heat.
 
Did UConn play a triple option team a couple weeks ago and beat them? The answer is kinda complicated, isn't it? Air Force plays the Flexbone (more spread) version of the triple option but had done its homework well. It saw film that showed UConn had trouble stopping runs up the gut, so many times that is where the handoff went, to the B back or fullback (Owen Allen, 22 carries 122 yards). And it was very successful. They did run wide on occasion and a couple times pitched it wide. But overall they ran mostly between the tackles. I did not see Delaware so I can't comment. I am told Army runs a more classic triple option (tighter backfield) less spread on the LoS. The overall effect may be the same against UConn (running between the tackles) but may look slightly different prior to the snap. In any event, it looks like another day with a four man front for the DL. Almost three weeks to prepare. This is doable.
 
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uconnbill said:
Everyone complaining forgets the years of not going bowling, which was a yearly outcome way too long. It is not the best opponent for our defense, but the 4-2-5 is what they did to win against Air Force.

They don't have the size running backs, and the quarterback is the leading runner.

Again, remember the years without a bowl game.
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I can assure you, no, I haven't forgotten winning 3 games or less for a decade +
 
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i have nothing but respect for army football.
so, i have no problem playing army.

but for a bowl? army's a game we can schedule any time. A bowl should have been against someone we wouldn't normally play. would have loved to see us vs. Washington, LSU, Nebraska, Northwestern... or another midling p4. etc.

I hear the pros about it, but to me this feels like a zombie game.

the press interest went out the window with jim mora.


Also - i remember the bad years, but that doesn't matter. every year is its own organism. This was too good of a year to end w/ friggin Army. I'm sure UConn itself feels the same, but wat are u gonna do. we're not at the point yet of declining bowl invites... so army it is. Go UConn
 
NHUConnfan said:
Because that means that our program has not improved standing despite all of the evidence to the contrary. Going to the same bowl two years in a row means this program
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You need to dial it back chicken little. First it was the supposed poor attendance and now this blip on a screen full of data points. A better measure of our progress is the positive press we got from the just-concluded coaching search and the end of the year award attention our quarterback and wide receiver garnered.
 
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