Wasabi Fenway Bowl Game Post Game | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Wasabi Fenway Bowl Game Post Game

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Husky pride said:
Hard to reconcile what he said before the game about “finishing what he started”, practicing with the team and going to Boston …..and then only playing one play.
Can’t help but wonder what Skyler has to say about the reason for his decision.
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Do you think he realized, after learning that Evers wasn’t playing and seeing the new QB practicing, that we didn't have a chance? So he figured he’d keep his word and “participate,” but not risk injury by playing more?
 
After the first quarter the outcome was inevitable.
Thanks to the coaches, staff and players for a helluva roller coaster ride season which was more fun or interesting than most of us expected.

Change is already in progress.

On to 2026.
 
UConnDan97 said:
I think Notre Dame was the brunt of a lot of jokes for opting out this year, but they probably got it right. I expect that next year will have a lot more universities following suit...
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In general, bowl games are a measure of the health of your program. Healthy programs use bowl games positively and unhealthy programs tend to make a mess of things. A healthy UConn with a returning coach looked very different than the current UConn program without a returning coach.

It was a meaningless exhibition game made more meaningless by the lack of continuity between this year's team and next year's team. Move on, nothing to see here.
 
ec33 said:
In general, bowl games are a measure of the health of your program. Healthy programs use bowl games positively and unhealthy programs tend to make a mess of things. A healthy UConn with a returning coach looked very different than the current UConn program without a returning coach.

It was a meaningless exhibition game made more meaningless by the lack of continuity between this year's team and next year's team. Move on, nothing to see here.
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It was a competitive game where our best players made a choice to not participate.
 
Purple Stein said:
A lot of people are going to say a lot of things because this was an ugly loss and a bad way to end a season that had so many good things in it.

We are going to remember this season fondly -- Fagnano, Bell, Edwards, and Parham. Momentum got sideways when Mora left, but we have a great hire in Candle and some great recruits coming in.

This season was a step forward for this program. The game sucked, but there's a lot better coming.
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No one is going to say anything about this team. That was a UConn team that was there for one game. Coaching staff, QB, some defensive players…no QB. Impossible spot. It’s a one day team, let’s be honest. That didn’t resemble the team that went 9-3, and it won’t resemble the team that hit the first game next year. This team was 0-1. That’s it.
 
RitzLuce1 said:
It was a competitive game where our best players made a choice to not participate.
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And that is their choice. That's the current landscape of the game and if you can't accept that then maybe CFB ain't for you anymore.
 
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All the goodwill Skyler Bell built vanished with the hypocrisy exhibited today. At least Fagnano was upfront and honest.
 
NHUConnfan said:
Take a look at what's happening with BYU right now...a team that was a borderline playoff team. This will absolutely be the trend moving forward and I don't think the conferences can do much to stop it.
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BYU won today so I’m not sure what to look at.
 
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NHUConnfan said:
And that is their choice. That's the current landscape of the game and if you can't accept that then maybe CFB ain't for you anymore.
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Then the team shouldn’t participate in the bowl. Simple as that.
 
If the players don't care about the bowls, then I don't care about the bowls. The bowls have been ridiculous, with the Clemson/Penn State game one of the silliest exhibitions of half-assery I have ever seen in a college football game.

End the bowl games, and make the playoffs games with real stakes. Then make an "NIT' bracket with real dollars for each win. That would get player buy in.
 
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RitzLuce1 said:
There’s really nothing to discuss with the game because it wasn’t a game and the result was baked in the cake a month ago. A tragic ending to a great season. It should have never happened.

UConn never never never ever again should participate in a bowl game if our players do not want to go. Players made personal choices to put us in a position where we couldn’t win this game. And sorry this is competition. It’s about winning and losing. If we don’t want to compete. Don’t show up. And how is it that our program, in the precarious state it is in as an independent, thinks it’s too good for a bowl? Including a backup qb who fleeced Mike Burton out of 6 figures. Too good to showcase the best of the program on a Saturday on ESPN? Likely the biggest audience that saw us all year. We don’t play for a conference championship. So what are we playing for? What are the fans supposed to be invested in? Well I hope for starters we start holding UConn’s feet to the fire about getting into either the ACC or Big 12. I mean things are clearly going well for us as we feel comfortable enough to forfeit a bowl game and get worked by Army for 3 and half hours on ESPN. If the bowl doesn’t matter, something better for the fans to justify the support. Only getting us into a power 4 conference does so that should be the minimum expectation of the administration going forward. And no excuses on it this time.

Well let’s forget the fans for a second because we know us poor saps are not the focus during these times. How about what we did to our players?

Skyler Bell was trotted out to tell us he was playing and was trying to get others in the portal to play. Wall him! A hero! People wanted to build a statute for him over this news. The new Locked On UConn host gushed “this means UConn is going all in for win #10.” Well, That was never the case. Bell played one series and took his pads off. Was it done to rube fans to pay for tickets or throw off the opponent? Regardless, It was deceitful and he looks bad because of it.

Because of Bell’s warrior like decision to tell us he was playing (not true) Joe Fagano got smeared online (still going on today) as the sole quitter for 2 weeks while Bell got the statue built for him. He abandoned the team! I’m so mad at Joe! Turns out they both quit. Joe was just more up front about it.

The Candle era begins today and all will be forgotten with news of new hires and recruits. But it’s gonna be hard to forget about some of the selfishness and lies of the last month that robbed the fanbase from a proper send off for this worthy team. The fans and the team deserved better. It did not have to end this poorly.
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You seem to be taking this very “personally.”

Sorry, but I just think this is the current “reality” of college footbaall. Players are much more “independent” than previously: they're being paid, they're able to transfer, and they're not interested in jeopardizing their future earnings (whether it’s NIL money or NFL money) for dear old “State U.” For all intents and purposes, they're a cross between gladiators and mercenaries. So I doubt that UConn “trotted out” Bell to suck you in.

I get that fans can get shortchanged, but, again, that’s just college football today, IMO.
 
CTBasketball said:
Reset button. At least the school made money. Only positive.
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Please supply info on what the school may have made. We have lost money on most bowls and the crowd looked very sparse on this one. The school has to sell an allotment of tickets or eat them. This looked like another game of eating. Just saying...
 
The decision to have Bell run that trick play looked pre planned and selfish. I'm not saying Skyler Bell is selfish but I felt that decision took away from Farrar's moment. You either play or you don't. Not to mention it was right after a 6 yard Rosa run.

I know it wouldn't have made a difference and yes we did take a 7-0 lead which we got a bit lucky on that 4th and 1 stop. The mentality instead of telling our guys we're gonna be in a battle with Army instead the message was we have to cater to Skyler Bell who only played as a gimmick.
 
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How Sway?! said:
Who here wouldn't take $2.5 million to get embarrassed on national tv? /s

In all seriousness, there was too much smoke about the players not being happy about the bowl selection for it to not ultimately affect our performance. It is what it is. Back to back 9 win seasons is still nothing to sneeze at.

Looks like Monday will be a big day for us recruiting wise, so we only have to bear with it for 36 hours.
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Where is the 2.5 million figure coming from?
 
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RitzLuce1 said:
There’s really nothing to discuss with the game because it wasn’t a game and the result was baked in the cake a month ago. A tragic ending to a great season. It should have never happened.

UConn never never never ever again should participate in a bowl game if our players do not want to go. Players made personal choices to put us in a position where we couldn’t win this game. And sorry this is competition. It’s about winning and losing. If we don’t want to compete. Don’t show up. And how is it that our program, in the precarious state it is in as an independent, thinks it’s too good for a bowl? Including a backup qb who fleeced Mike Burton out of 6 figures. Too good to showcase the best of the program on a Saturday on ESPN? Likely the biggest audience that saw us all year. We don’t play for a conference championship. So what are we playing for? What are the fans supposed to be invested in? Well I hope for starters we start holding UConn’s feet to the fire about getting into either the ACC or Big 12. I mean things are clearly going well for us as we feel comfortable enough to forfeit a bowl game and get worked by Army for 3 and half hours on ESPN. If the bowl doesn’t matter, something better for the fans to justify the support. Only getting us into a power 4 conference does so that should be the minimum expectation of the administration going forward. And no excuses on it this time.

Well let’s forget the fans for a second because we know us poor saps are not the focus during these times. How about what we did to our players?
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Sorry, but I dont think any school considers what the players want when it accepts a bowl bid. Instead, they consider the exposure (regardless of eventual outcome) and the projected revenue. Even if they took the players wishes into account, at the time of the offer no one knows whether guys like Fagnano, Evers, and Bell are going to play.

How do fans start holding UConn’s feet to the fire about getting into a Power 4 conference? I was under the impression that it’s the conferences that are delaying this, not UConn.

Finally, I don’t think you need to be very concerned about Fagnano, Bell, etc., being hurt by what’s said about them on The Boneyard and other social media. They made decisions that are very common these days, especially since they know that they put their potential futures at risk every time they suit up, and they're being asked to play in one of the meaningless bowl games, not the CFP.
 
Scoe said:
This was gonna be a tough game even with Joe and Skyler and everyone else playing and Monken is a better coach than Mora. Gotta give credit to Army they wanted it more we'll move on from this.

The only thing that sucked was paying the money for tickets to this game and sitting in the cold while Army's entire team went all out. This loss doesn't bother me, I understand today's circumstances and it's a it's a "meaningless " bowl game but if you went to the game you would have a different perspective.
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We win by 20 with Fagnano and Bell. We couldn’t score or move the ball without Edwards.
 
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How Sway?! said:
You expect us to score 60? Cause the defense wasn't stopping them.
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We weren’t going to stop their scoring. This would have been another game where our offense would have out scored the opponent
 
Scrutineer said:
I'll be writing a note to Sammis thanking him for staying on, for the great job he did with this year's offense and complimenting him on how much he grew as a coach at UConn.
I think he's a future star (Parcells reborn....at least in body type) and let's hope his legacy of excellent line play can be maintained.
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lmao Sammis won’t last more than 2 years in Fort Worth. There’s plenty of reasons why he didn’t get a sniff at the HC job. Bell and Edwards bailed him out with raw talent so much this season.
 
How Sway?! said:
You expect us to score 60? Cause the defense wasn't stopping them.
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If we got a solid lead, which would have happened, we would have closed them down. Worst case we would have scored 48. Their d wasn’t good. We just were horrible on that side of the ball without Edwards on the field.
 
I am wondering if Bell had some sort of clause in his NIL contract where he got more for playing in a bowl game. These days you never know.
 
amishboy said:
You seem to be taking this very “personally.”

Sorry, but I just think this is the current “reality” of college footbaall. Players are much more “independent” than previously: they're being paid, they're able to transfer, and they're not interested in jeopardizing their future earnings (whether it’s NIL money or NFL money) for dear old “State U.” For all intents and purposes, they're a cross between gladiators and mercenaries. So I doubt that UConn “trotted out” Bell to suck you in.

I get that fans can get shortchanged, but, again, that’s just college football today, IMO.
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UConn is not in the reality of college football. We are an independent. One of two. Our “independent” player who chose to sit out was the difference between us being 9-3 and being UMass.

Most of these teams who have players sitting out are power 4 team who have a depth of extremely capable players to take their spot (UConn clearly did not) and have a secure conference with a championship to play for and tv money to fill their coffers (again UConn does not).
 
freescooter said:
We win by 20 with Fagnano and Bell. We couldn’t score or move the ball without Edwards.
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Assuming our D holds Army under 40. Ok I just ran a simulation we win 44-10.
 
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