Wasabi Fenway Bowl: UConn Huskies (8-4) vs North Carolina Tar Heels (6-6)
Key Facts: It’s been a long road for UConn football. They haven’t won a bowl game since 2009, so yes they made a Fiesta Bowl more recently than winning a bowl! In fact, there haven’t been many bowl appearances for the Huskies recently. This is their first bowl opponent that isn’t Marshall since playing Oklahoma in that Fiesta bowl, but this is the Huskies best season since that appearance. Bowl games haven’t been kind to North Carolina either. The Tar Heels have lost their last 4 bowls and 7 of their last 8. North Carolina of course made the recent hire of Bill Belichick after firing Mack Brown. It’s going to be very interesting to see how that goes, in the meantime it feels like a lot of UNC fans forget this game is even happening.
Previous Meetings: These programs have played 3 times with North Carolina winning all 3 matchups. The official record books only recognize the 1990 matchup because North Carolina vacated the 2008 and 2009 games. The 2009 game was a wild one where UConn led a ranked North Carolina team the entire game, including being up 10-0 entering the 4th quarter but the Tar Heels rallied and won it with a GAME WINNING SAFETY! Yes! A safety helped them win it 12-10, what was also wild is UConn actually recovered the onside kick after the safety but couldn’t get in FG range.
Motivation Edge: This game being at Fenway is a nice advantage to UConn, decently close to being a home game. If it’s cold I’d expect UConn to embrace it while UNC may not be so thrilled. Either way UConn is definitely excited to be here and have the opportunity. We’ll see if North Carolina is motivated to do anything besides finish the season this is their first game without Mack Brown so are they playing for him? Or not happy with how the administration forced him out?
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-6) vs Boston College Eagles (7-5)
Key Facts: Here it is, the grandaddy of the Northeast! Bad Boy Mowers is one of the best bowl sponsors around. It is well noted that Nebraska is making their first bowl appearance since 2016! An absolutely appalling stat for such a historically dominant program. You’ll have to go a year further in 2015 for their last bowl win, which was a 37-29 San Francisco Bowl win over UCLA. Boston College hasn’t had much bowl luck themselves, they had a stretch where they struggled to reach bowl eligibility and multiple times when they did the games were cancelled, BC suffered one of the few non-covid cancellations I can recall when the 2018 First Responder Bowl was cancelled due to storms. The Eagles won their bowl appearance last year over SMU in Fenway. This game is close to home as well for the Eagles.
Previous Meetings: This is a FIRST TIME MATCHUP!!! For a P4 program it is incredibly rare for Nebraska to have never played them but here we are. The Cornhuskers and Eagles are meeting for the first time. It actually impressive how many other P4 the Huskers have played in their history, in fact following this game there’s only 4 more left on the list for them to play. Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Louisville and Virginia. Not a lot of history in the Commonwealth of Kentucky for Nebraska.
Motivation Edge: This is a very exciting bowl. Nebraska is going to be very excited to FINALLY return to bowling again and you can expect their fans to travel in droves to New York for this one. BC meanwhile would absolutely love to pull off another win over a major brand and finish Bill O’Brien’s first year with 8 wins.
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: TCU Horned Frogs (8-4) vs Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (10-3)
Key Facts: If you want to see a thrilling bowl game make sure you watch TCU’s bowl, the Frogs are addicted to wild games. Outside of the 2022 National Championship loss to Georgia and 2014 Peach Bowl win over Ole Miss every single bowl since 2007 has been a one score game for the Frogs. Louisiana as a program generally has a strong record in bowls, but the Ragin’ Cajuns have lost their last 2 bowl appearances. TCU’s offense vs the Cajuns defense will be interesting, the Frogs mostly move the ball through the air but Louisiana’s pass defense is their strength. TCU can’t run the ball, they haven’t gotten production out of the backs all year and their leading rusher that’s expected to participate in this game is receiver Savion Williams. The Ragin’ Cajuns have a balanced offense and it will be tested against a TCU defense that really improved the last month or so and was the catalyst for the Frogs strong finish.
Previous Meetings: This is a FIRST TIME MATCHUP! Despite these teams being in neighboring states they’ve never matched up before! With all of TCU’s conference affiliations throughout the years it’s hard to find opponents they haven’t played.
Motivation Edge: I’m curious how much the TCU players will hear the noise from their fanbase. Their fanbase is extremely disappointed by this matchup. Louisiana is going to be extremely excited to face off against a Big 12 team from a neighboring state and get the bad taste of the Sun Belt championship out of their mouths.
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