Albany native Deion Branch coaches Louisville to Fenway Bowl victory

Albany native Deion Branch returned to Boston, where he starred with the NFL’s New England Patriots, and posted a head coaching victory Saturday.

Branch served as Louisville’s interim head football coach in a 24-7 victory over Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl. Both teams played under interim coaches — Kerry Coombs for Cincinnati as a fill-in for Luke Fickell, who departed for Wisconsin. Branch served due to Scott Satterfield leaving for the Bearcats’ job.

Jeff Brohm, recently of Purdue, has returned to his alma mater as Louisville’s new coach.

Maurice Turner rushed for 160 yards and Jawhar Jordan added 115 yards on the ground with two long touchdown runs to help Louisville in the win.

Brock Domann started at quarterback in place of Malik Cunningham (opt out) and completed 10 of 18 passes for 92 yards, one touchdown and one interception for the Cardinals. Marshon Ford caught a touchdown pass and Louisville recorded seven sacks while claiming the Keg of Nails trophy in the first battle since 2013 between schools, located roughly 100 miles apart.

Yasir Abdullah and YaYa Diaby each had 1.5 sacks as the Cardinals outgained the Bearcats in yards 419-138.

“The game didn’t start the way that we anticipated. Offensively, we had some struggles early on,” said Branch, who returned to Louisville, where he played college football, as director of player development in January. “The defense held us in, doing the normal deal that they’ve been doing all season. The bright spot we did have in first half was the rushing yards and we controlled the line of scrimmage. I think that was the most important part about the game. I mentioned to the guys that this game will be won or lost on the frontline, the offensive and defensive line. And that’s exactly what happened. Second half we came out and it wasn’t the second half I thought we would play. There were only three points scored but we didn’t allow anything on their behalf. I take that with a grain of salt. But, overall great performance by our team.

“Great job establishing the line of scrimmage in the run game. We didn’t throw the ball as well as I thought we could of, being that there was a lot of man coverage. Overall, I thought it was a decent game plan and Coach (Josh) Stepp and the offensive staff did a great job the entire week game planning. And clearly we know what Coach (Mark) Ivey and the defensive staff has done all season. Pretty much what it has been all year and I think these guys are looking forward to next season.”

Branch, a Monroe grad, won two Super Bowls with the Patriots and was named MVP of Super Bowl 39 after making 11 catches for 133 to help lead New England to its third title in four years. In two separate stints with the team, he caught 328 passes and scored 24 touchdowns.

In his head coaching debut Saturday, his team led 21-7 at halftime after Jordan’s two long scoring runs. James Turner booted a 48-yard field goal with 3:49 left in the third quarter to boost Louisville’s lead to 17.

This was the first Fenway Bowl actually to be played. The inaugural 2020 bowl was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s game between Virginia and SMU was wiped out when the Cavaliers had a COVID-19 outbreak.