UConn All-American receiver Skyler Bell to suit up for final time in Fenway Bowl

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

STORRS – UConn’s star wide receiver Skyler Bell will suit up to play in his final collegiate game as the Huskies look to reach 10 wins for the first time as an FBS program at the Fenway Bowl against Army.

Bell, the program’s first-ever consensus All-American after his historic 2025 regular season, shut down speculation that he may opt out of the game when speaking with local media after practice on Friday.

“I never said I wasn’t playing,” he said. “Being with this team and being with these guys the last two years, I think the brotherhood thing is super real. Just going out there and finishing things with your brothers. I put in so much work with these guys last two years, I’d be remiss to leave here and look back at the last game saying, ‘Why didn’t I suit up with my guys one last time?'”

Bell, a native of The Bronx and a graduate of The Taft School in Watertown, came to UConn from Wisconsin ahead of the 2024 season. He reentered the transfer portal after a successful first campaign in Storrs and received significant offers to transfer back to the power-conference level, but bet on himself when he decided to stay a Husky.

This season, he’s established himself as one of the greatest football players to ever wear a UConn uniform.

A finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, Bell was named UConn’s first-ever AP first-team All-American in addition to first-team recognition from the AFCA and The Sporting News, while also earning second-team honors from the Walter Camp Football Foundation. He set program single-season records for receptions (101) and receiving touchdowns (13), and is second all-time in receiving yards with 1,278, needing only 77 yards in the Fenway Bowl to break the record of 1,354 set before the program’s FBS era by Mark Didio in 1991,

“I didn’t know I was a first-team All-American until when the AP (news) came out, I got a text from (receiver’s coach Kashif Moore). He was like, ‘First Team!’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?'” Bell said. “As soon as I go on Twitter, bang. After that, I was just kind of looking at it for a very long time like, whoa. I called my family and then just took everything in.”

“When I came here, I didn’t have my eyes on setting records, I came here to be the best receiver I could be and that came along with it. That was great and all, but I just want to play football. I just want to go out there with my guys and have fun playing the game I love.”

It is common for NFL Draft prospects like Bell, to opt out of non-playoff bowl games. It has been increasingly popular for players in the portal to do the same, so as not to risk injury or affect their offers to go elsewhere.

Bell played in the Fenway Bowl while he was in the portal last season and has been encouraging the handful players who entered the portal after the departure of head coach Jim Mora to do the same this time around.

“I keep it very real with a lot of my teammates,” he said. “If you’re in the portal and you’re looking to go to a place, it’s just more film you could put on to show what you can do. It’s a two-way street with everything, you could think of it as an opportunity to put on film, or you could think of it as, ‘I don’t want to put a bad game on tape, I don’t want to get hurt, I don’t want to do this and that.’ You could get hurt walking down the street, you could get hit by a car any day. That’s just how I think about things. It’s real, I could’ve got hurt at practice just now, it’s very real.

“If you think about the game that way, you’re kind of doing yourself a disservice. If they want to go out there and show what they can do, it only helps, I feel like it can’t hurt you for going out there. A guy like (running back) Cam Edwards, what is it gonna hurt if you rush for another 200 yards? It can’t hurt you, it’s only gonna show that you are what you say you are.”

UConn hasn’t allowed media into practice and Gordon Sammis, the offensive coordinator named interim head coach after Mora left for Colorado State, who later accepted the OC position at TCU, did not speak on Friday. From speaking with four different players, it seems most are following Bell’s lead and doesn’t appear that there will be mass defections as was feared.

Edwards, the star running back from Norwalk who is in the portal, was at practice. So was “pretty much” the whole defense, according to defensive back Cam Chadwick, and the whole coaching staff, aside from Mora. The only confirmed opt-outs a week ahead of the game are quarterback Joe Fagnano and offensive linemen Ben Murawski and Carsten Casady.

Ty Chan and Toriyan Johnson, who’ve each seen playing time this season, will be tasked with filling the holes on the line. Nick Evers, who played in nine games in 2024, is the logical replacement at quarterback, though the Huskies have options in freshman Ksaan Farrar and redshirt-sophomore Tucker McDonald, who missed most of the season with a hand injury.

“(For Bell to play) it shows a lot about his character, it shows he’s really bought in to what we’ve worked for pretty much since last January,” said Chadwick, who is also in the portal but planning to play at Fenway and keeping his options open for a potential return. “Seeing him talk about it a lot and hearing his good advice… I think I just made a good choice.”

“It shows his leadership, his love for this team, this brotherhood. That shows a lot,” said center Wes Hoeh, who will suit up for his final college game.

Finishing the season out was a “common theme throughout the locker room,” said tight end Louis Hansen, a Massachusetts native in his final year of eligibility.

“There’s a lot of moving parts right now, but the common theme is football. We get to go out and practice and play, and I think that’s kind of keeping everybody together and just focusing on the task at hand which is winning our 10th game,” Hansen said.

“We started this thing as a team and we’re still that same team, so why not go out and finish it together and do things the right way? And end this run that we’ve had, which has been a great run, on a great mark.”

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos