UNC football barely qualified for a bowl game this year. Where will the Tar Heels play?

North Carolina has its bowl destination and opponent: the Fenway Bowl against Connecticut.

UNC will face UConn on Dec. 28 at iconic Fenway Park in Boston, home of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. The Huskies finished 8-4, winning four of their last five games.

The Tar Heels will be in their sixth consecutive bowl, but will not be coached by Mack Brown, who was fired Nov. 26 by Bubba Cunningham. Assistant coach Freddie Kitchens later was named interim head coach and will head the Heels’ bowl preparations.

Cunningham continues his search for a new head coach and could have one shortly. Cunningham has talked with Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots but is 72 and has never coached in a college football program.

Other speculation has included Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell and Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann.

The Tar Heels finished the regular season 6-6 after losses to Boston College and N.C. State in their final two games. Bowl wins have been elusive for UNC – the last victory came in 2019 when the Heels ripped Temple 55-13 in the Military Bowl.

The Tar Heels could be without running back Omarion Hampton, the ACC’s leading rusher with 1,660 yards. The junior from Clayton is expected to declare for the 2025 NFL Draft and could opt out of the bowl game.

A year ago, quarterback Drake Maye was one of the UNC players who opted out of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl as West Virginia won the game in Charlotte, 30-10.

The Huskies lost to Duke and Wake Forest this season, both in tight games. UConn led 21-17 entering the fourth quarter of its game at Duke on Sept. 14 before taking a 26-21 loss. Wake Forest squeezed out a 23-20 victory on Oct. 19 in East Hartford.

UConn, coached by Jim Mora, won three straight after the loss to Wake. Its only loss in its final five games was a 31-24 defeat at Syracuse.

Boston College topped SMU, 23-14, in last year’s Fenway Bowl, and Louisville beat Cincinnati in the 2022 game.

This year’s game will have an 11 a.m. start and will he shown on ESPN.

Kitchens, in a statement, said UNC is “incredibly excited” to play a bowl game in Fenway Park, which he called “one of the most legendary venues in sports.”