Joe Fagnano kept telling his tight end, “stick with me.” Sooner or later, the big plays UConn has been making on offense would include Juice Vereen, too.
On Saturday, Fagnano found Vereen, a transfer from NC State, four times for 82 yards and two touchdowns, including a 50-yarder. The Huskies put a meaningful pelt on the wall, beating Boston College, 38-25, in Chestnut Hill and Fagnano’s slow heartbeat, unflappable confidence was once again pivotal to that success. It has never looked wiser to stick with Joe Fagnano.
“He did a great job,” BC coach Bill O’Brien said. “He was very calm, he knows where to go with the ball, give him a lot of credit.”
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Fagnano, by the eye test, isn’t especially tall or imposing at 6-foot-4 and 225 lbs., not especially fast or athletic, nor does he possess a rocket arm or pinpoint accuracy. Maybe the “measurables” look ordinary, but his stat lines would be the envy of nearly every quarterback in college football, because he is noteworthy for what he doesn’t do — panic or make mistakes. And it’s also noteworthy that, in his seventh year of college football, he still seems to be getting better each week.
“Joe’s playing at a high level right now,” UConn coach Jim Mora said, “and it’s because of the work he does, confidence he has, repetition he has gotten in college football and this system.”
Fagnano completed 23 of 31 passes at Boston College for 362 yards and four TDs and, naturally, zero interceptions. Over the last two games, he has thrown for 717 yards and eight touchdowns, zero picks. You get the pattern. Fagnano is the only quarterback in the country with as many yards as he’s amassed, 1,918, without an interception all season, and he’s thrown for 15 total TDs and been sacked only eight times in seven games. Efficiency rating: 161.3.
Ordinary Joes don’t have numbers like that, against any opponent, power conference or otherwise. This Joe avoids the extraordinarily negative plays, and that makes the proficiency all the more extraordinary.
“He’s a really good quarterback,” O’Brien said during the week. “He’s got great command of his offense, he knows the offense, he gets them into the right play, he’s got good instincts for the position.”
Fagnano, who was at Maine, an FCS program, for four years before coming to UConn, has not had a consistent quarterback guru in college. Nick Charlton, who coached him at Maine, was UConn’s offensive coordinator and QB coach when Fagnano came aboard, though he missed most of the 2023 season with an injury. Gordon Sammis took over as coordinator, with Brad Robbins as quarterbacks coach in ’24, as Fagnano took over during the season and led UConn to nine wins, including the Fenway Bowl.
This season, Pryce Tracy, who has coached in a variety of roles, including at Alabama and Georgia, came to UConn as QB coach. The constants for Fagnano, who learned after last season he had another year of eligibility, have been Mora and, obviously, himself. Three seasons, 35 touchdown passes, five interceptions.
“I’ve always been comfortable in the offense,” Fagnano said. “Getting to play another year with Skyler (Bell), Cam (Edwards), Victor (Rosa), and guys like Juice coming in, it’s just the offense coming together, not just me. I just get the stats.”
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That’s the way quarterbacks, leaders, talk, but offenses don’t come together unless the quarterback brings them together and shows consistency, in both performance and demeanor.
It helps to be 25 years old, older than some NFL starting quarterbacks, in the middle of a college huddle. Like a veteran, Fagnano knows when to tuck and run for what he can, when to throw it away, knows one busted play does not sink a drive, one stalled drive does not sink a game, one bad game does not sink the season.
“Bad things are going to happen,” Fagnano said. “There are going to be calls that put us behind the chains. It’s a next-play mentality. Just being able to go to the next play is the biggest thing.”
He’s really had only had one bad stretch during this season, the second half at Syracuse when the Huskies couldn’t move the ball and run time off the clock with an 11-point lead and lost in overtime. Otherwise, he has moved the ball consistently, and UConn has more plays of 25 or more yards than any team in the country, and is averaging 37 points per game (which ranks 21st nationally).
Since it’s Joe Fagnano we’re writing about here, let’s not go overboard. Of course, Boston College (1-6) is having less than a vintage year and didn’t generate much pass-rush. Of course, UConn’s independent schedule, made up mostly of group-of-six conference teams, carries only so much weight in the national conversation, even if they have not lost a game in regulation. What Fagnano and the Huskies are doing is taking what is given, and a little more, getting what’s gettable, then moving on. He was excited to look at the stat sheet Saturday and see he had 26 yards rushing because — guess what? — those yards meant something.
“It’s cool to look at these stats,” Fagnano said, “but at the end of the day all I care about is the win.”
So where will all these wins and mistake-free yards and points lead? UConn (5-2) needs one more win to be bowl eligible for the third time in four years, and could be favored in four of their remaining five games. It could lead to a huge crowd when Duke comes to Rentschler Field Nov. 8, the next big game.
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The folks at Fenway Sports Group dealt to get UConn to Boston last year, and profited with 27,000 in the ballpark. Perhaps a higher-profile bowl would do the same to get a more impressive, entertaining UConn team this time.
Exciting things are becoming possible for UConn football, and it starts with a seemingly ordinary Joe who keeps doing extraordinary things. Mora and O’Brien both have vast NFL experience, and pro coaches do like measurables, but also like quarterbacks who make good decisions under duress. You stick with someone like that.
“I would not write Joe off as a guy who will finish his career at UConn,” Mora said earlier this year. “I think Joe is pretty special, there are some real qualities. He’ s going to be a mature player when he gets done here, and he has a lot of value, not just at this level, but at the next level, whether it’s the NFL, USFL or Canada, I think he can continue to play.”
