UConn's new head football coach says the foundation of achievement is built day by day

Academic success and extracurricular excellence go hand-in-hand, according to Jason Candle.

“I think that whether you’re on campus, and whatever other extracurricular activity you’re involved in – if it’s athletics or something else,” Candle says, “you would understand that what you really love doing, coupled with the process of getting in and obtaining a degree that is really going to help you lay the foundation and give you the platform for what you want to be in your career someday, is critically important.

“And you would have the understanding that you can’t have one without the other.”

Coach Candle (UConn Athletics)

It’s a mentality that Candle is carrying with him to UConn in his first season as head coach of UConn football at Connecticut’s flagship R1 public research university, where student-athlete success is an integral piece of its Division 1 athletic programs.

Candle brings with him 10 seasons as head coach at Toledo, 81 career victories, two Mid-American Conference championship titles, seven bowl game appearances – and an open mind after relocating to Connecticut with his family in June.

Beyond a career of on-field success, Candle’s culture of academic excellence on his rosters is nothing short of impressive. At Toledo, the football program surpassed a 3.0 GPA in nine seasons under his leadership and ranked among conference leaders in academic progress assessments.

Success, Candle notes, is as much about mindset as it is about wins and losses – which he says aren’t his primary focus as he takes the helm of UConn’s program.

“High achievement starts from how you wake up, what your process and what your routine is each and every day,” he says. “It’s not, ‘Man I got an A on that test.’ It’s not, ‘We won that game.’ Because the next day is going to challenge you, there’s going to be the next task, just like in life.

“So, I think there’s a balancing act of, hey, I really have to be dialed into the details of what my particular sport or extracurricular activity is going to ask of me. But I also understand that there’s a real reason why we’re here. Because these cleats are going to come off someday and, ultimately, at the end of the day, this is an opportunity for you to pave a way to your future.”

On a recent August morning, while his team did yoga on the indoor practice field at the Burton Family Football Complex in Storrs, Candle joined UConn’s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay for a conversation about student-athlete success, recruitment, and expectations for the coming football season.

*****

Alpay: You’re new to Connecticut, right? How easy or difficult has it been for your family relocating here and joining the UConn community from Ohio?

Candle: I think change, first of all, can be an intimidating thing, especially when you’re in a place for a long time. But what has been such a pleasant surprise, and made for a smooth transition, is just the people. Everywhere you turn, whether it’s in our community where we live, whether it’s on campus, whether it’s other people in the athletic department, there’s strong support for this institution and a drive to be successful. And for anyone who is new to that, they want to help and engage, and it’s been awesome for my family to feel that.

Alpay: That’s excellent. That’s great to know. You’re originally from Ohio, and came here from Toledo, where you had tremendous success. What was your interest in joining UConn? What did you see here that made you think, “Hey, I want to be a part of that”?

Candle: In college athletics, there’s so many variables going on right now. I think the main thing is to find alignment, from administration to coaching staff to then, ultimately, student-athletes. We have a unique opportunity to represent the institution on a lot of platforms that many don’t get to. We have the opportunity to take a place that’s had some recent success and then try to make it even better.

But I think what I found through the process is really – and I said this when I first got here – that this is a place that has a lot of highly intelligent people who are really passionate.

Alpay: I remember your first interview.

Candle: And I think if that’s the starting point? Man, you can really do some special things if that’s the case.

So, in a world where the winds of change of college athletics can go a lot of different ways, you have the ability to steady the ship when there’s great alignment and there are people who are passionate about their place on it.

Alpay: The changes within college athletics in terms of recruitment, your engagement with the transfer portal – how does that change from how thing were five or six years ago?

Candle: It’s very different, but I also do believe that you have to understand who you are and what you’re trying to bring into your program. For us, we’re still going to recruit really high-character people who value what a free college education can do for somebody in today’s day and age.

And then, ultimately, we want guys on our team who are really passionate about the sport of football, and love to go to work, and really love what I always say are the 353 days out of the year when there’s not a game. We have to find people who are really, really good at that, because this is a long process to play only 12 guaranteed opportunities a year.

So many sports play 30, 40, 50 contests in their season. We play 12.

You really have to buy into that process, and I think that process is really reflective of what your future is when you start a career as a young graduate and, ultimately, what you want your life to be someday.

So, that’s what we’re looking for in the recruiting process, and whether it’s the transfer portal or whether it’s bringing high school kids onto our campus, we really try to stick to that. We try to find like-minded people, like the people in our building and the people that we go to work with each and every day.

Because I think, in football, adversity is going to show up, and it’s going to show up often. The trick is that you don’t know when it’s coming. So, you want guys who really believe that this is the opportunity to grow, in those moments. Those tough situations aren’t an indictment of their character, who they are, what they’ve been, that they’ve been going through. And they have the ability to rebound.

So, we’re looking for high-character individuals who are serious about their academics and who really love football. That’s a starting point for us.

Alpay: I’m glad that’s the thought process you have in mind. I don’t want to put you on the spot, but what should we expect for the first season? How do you see it playing out? And I’m not talking about wins and losses, more about what you want to see on the field as you’re putting this football team together.

Candle: I think that the outside perspective would be that goals should be reflective of wins and losses. But I think that’s a fixed mindset. And we can’t talk about the process, we can’t think about a growth mindset internally here if we start to approach things inside out, if you would.

So, can we wake up every day and put our energy in the right place? Can we really keep the main thing the main thing and, at the end of the day, really have a burning desire for improvement?

If we can master that process, and do a really good job with that, the days will stack, the weeks will start to fall into place, you’ll have really good months, and then all of the sudden, you’ll start to have a really good season. And those 12 opportunities that you get to go out there and compete in front of your fanbase will be a byproduct of a really good process. I think that’s what we’re after.

We want to keep that growth mindset and not fall into the “we want to win.” We don’t want to fall into that trap of an ultimatum, where if you don’t do these three things then you’re viewed as a failure. That’s never been my thought process. Because in college athletics, there’s so many things that can go wrong, many of which are out of your control.

So, we have to pay attention to, and put energy into, the responses to the moments, rather than it’s either really good or really low, when it comes to what happened. That’s been our thought process since we got here in January. You have the off season, you have spring practice, you have summer workouts, and now you have fall camp, and that leads into the season. I think our guys have done a good job understanding that the days do count.

Alpay: Excellent. So, you’re working with student-athletes, and you’re a role model to them on the field and off the field. How do you view academic success and success on the field? How do they correlate to each other in your mind as you’re shaping the futures of our student-athletes?

Candle: Great question. I’m a firm believer that how you do one thing is how you do everything. I think most student-athletes aren’t going sit here and tell you that they love school right off the start. They understand the importance of an education. They understand the importance of commitment to the process that allows them to have a meaningful degree. They understand that once their general elective classes get out of the way, then they can streamline into what they really want to be in their career, and their energy probably picks up, and their academics would reflect that.

I think that whether you’re on campus, and whatever other extracurricular activity you’re involved in – if it’s athletics or something else – you would understand that what you really love doing, coupled with the process of getting in and obtaining a degree that is really going to help you lay the foundation and give you the platform for what you want to be in your career someday, is critically important.

And you would have the understanding that you can’t have one without the other.

High achievement starts from how you wake up, what your process and what your routine is each and every day. It’s not, “Man I got an A on that test.” It’s not, “We won that game.” Because the next day is going to challenge you, there’s going to be the next task, just like in life.

So, I think there’s a balancing act of, hey, I really have to be dialed into the details of what my particular sport or extracurricular activity is going to ask of me. But I also understand that there’s a real reason why we’re here. Because these cleats are going to come off someday and, ultimately, at the end of the day, this is an opportunity for you to pave a way to your future.

Alpay: One last question, and this is a recruiting question, actually. What advice would you give to students who are thinking about playing football at UConn? What is it that makes this place unique? What advice do you have for students who want to be getting involved more with athletics at this University?

Candle: I think we’re in a unique time. College athletics have just caught fire, and it has such a massive impact on a college campus. It draws attention in a lot of ways, and I think that you can really understand and use that platform in a positive way to impact the entire campus community, no matter what sport you’re in.

Ultimately, we have a ton of responsibility to put a great product on the field in those 12 opportunities that we have. But I think it’s bigger than that. I think it’s: can you leave Connecticut a better place than you found it? Can you consistently live by it? Do you always give more than you take? And can you really, at the end of the day, be who you said you were going to be?

If you can follow those things, I think you’ll be really successful in our program. And I think you’ll be really successful on campus, because you’ll leave a legacy here that will be remembered for way more than just what you did on a Saturday afternoon at 2:00.

Alpay: I really appreciate the way you articulated that. Thank you, and welcome to UConn. Welcome to Connecticut. I know you’ll be super successful here.

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — The first schedule when UConn left the American Athletic Conference for the uncertain world of life as a Football Bowl Subdivision independent was interesting, to say the least.

The Huskies traveled across the country to Fresno State to begin that 2021 season and the oddball home schedule included dates with Wyoming and Middle Tennessee State.

Fast forward five years and things look much different. UConn's plan to sign home-and-home deals with teams from the ACC and Big Ten rather than playing all the high-profile games on the road is paying dividends.

UConn, coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons, has Power Four conference teams Maryland (Sept. 12), Syracuse (Oct. 3) and North Carolina (Nov. 7) all coming to Rentschler Field, along with a matchup with 2025 College Football Playoff participant James Madison (Nov. 14). The season begins at home against Lafayette on Saturday.

Other than Notre Dame, the last team from outside the power conferences to have three home games against power league teams was BYU in 2019.

“As it relates to a home schedule, since we have gone independent this is far and away, set the competitiveness aside and you just look at brands, this is the best home schedule we've had,” athletic director David Benedict said. “Seven games, four of the seven are very good brands in college football with three Power Fours and James Madison, who has been really good in the last decade. We are excited about it."

The only other FBS independent, Notre Dame, has a scheduling partnership with the ACC and its status as a national brand makes scheduling teams from the top conferences much easier than what UConn has had to deal with in recent seasons.

The Fighting Irish will have six home games against teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC this season. The rest of the teams from the Power FOur conferences will play 10 true road games against non-conference foes — and three of those involve UConn.

New coach embraces the challenging schedule

The timing couldn’t be better for new coach Jason Candle, who left Toledo to take the job with the Huskies after Jim Mora headed to Colorado State. UConn will play more home games against Power Four teams than Candle’s Toledo teams did during his 10 seasons with the Rockets.

“You talk about competitive spirit and ultimately that goes to who you are recruiting and who you are trying to bring into the program,” Candle said. “You want guys who are high achievers and high achievers want to be tested. We want to play a competitive schedule each and every year, we want the guys to be able to showcase their talents. The better it gets, the better we should get.”

Mora took 15 players with him to Colorado State, and Candle and his staff wound up signing more than 60 transfers. The impressive home schedule helped to entice the players to come to Storrs.

“I told the guys that we can do something special here because we have so many home games,” former Toledo linebacker K’Von Sherman said. “It played in my mind. I was like, we play good opponents on this schedule, I can put together a decent year hopefully and go to the next level.”

Rentschler Field no stranger to top games recently

UConn played well in many of its recent games against the ACC and Big Ten teams. The Huskies beat eventual ACC champion Duke in 2025, nearly took down Wake Forest at home in 2024. The Huskies beat Boston College in 2022.

“I think the competitiveness we have shown the last three years especially, I think outside of our game at Maryland a couple of years ago, we really haven’t had a situation where we have been blown out or we haven’t been competitive," Benedict said. "All that plays into our ability to have gotten games and continue to get games in the future.”

Benedict said that Boston College and Syracuse have expressed interest in continuing to play the Huskies. Defending national champion Indiana is slated to come to Rentschler Field to face UConn in 2032.

“We have to keep monitoring the landscape,” Benedict said. “As the world evolves, conferences are making decisions to potentially play more conference games, we are just going to have to continue to do our best to build these types of schedules. Our goal is to have two or three of these Power Four games on our schedule every year.

STORRS — Last week, Jason Candle’s wife, Nicole, asked for his thoughts on a family vacation to follow his debut season as UConn football coach.

On Monday, during his first game-week press conference, Candle was asked what he’d view as success in 2026.

He can’t, or won’t allow himself to, consider either situation.

“I don’t know when the hell vacation is,” Candle said at the Burton Family Football Complex. “So can we just get to Saturday and play Saturday before we worry about what a successful year looks like, where we’re going on vacation, or all the things that lie ahead? There are so many hurdles in today’s landscape of college athletics that you have to jump over, that you see down the road. And there are equally as many that you don’t even know they’re coming. So what weeks and months look like, honestly, I really don’t care. We’ll worry about how this works this week.”

The Huskies play Lafayette Saturday at Rentschler Field, the kickoff to a new era, the chance to lay some more yellow bricks for both a program actually gaining traction and, therefore, an athletic department that relies on that program as a vehicle to the best competitive platform for, oh, decades to come.

UConn football continues to be, in some ways, the most important thing going on in Storrs. Basketball is basketball. It is king. The programs run by Geno Auriemma and Dan Hurley are the front-facing identity for the university, having pushed the Husky logo deep into the American conscience one Final Four appearance after another.

But those programs need functional partners, of course, particularly in football, the sport that drives conversation and money and futures across the land even if it is secondary in stature around here. If UConn wants to join a power conference in, say, a few years, it can’t expect to do so with a football team in shambles. Jim Mora fixed things. Candle now replaces him, charged with advancing the project.

The best way to go about this? Forget or ignore it all. Just make sure you take one little step forward in that first week of September.

“I think it starts off by winning our first game,” Candle said. “After that, you figure out what it looks like after that. What it looks like in December …”

UConn could wind up 10-2 or 2-10 or somewhere in between, of course, and who knows what the 2026 ride will look like. Who even plays for this team, many might wonder, and it would be a fair question for any casual fan. And there are a lot of casual fans.

The Huskies have 87 new players, 60 transfers. If you have certain expectations based on personnel alone, I’d question it. Each season can be just about a complete start-over in the age of revenue-sharing and the transfer portal, particular when there is a change at the top.

Candle was previously the coach at Toledo for 10 years and he has a proven track record. Now he’s in charge of something that UConn takes very seriously, increasingly so, and he’ll have every opportunity to build teams that should represent the brand well. I don’t know what the Huskies spent on football. They aren’t interested in sharing how much money is spread around. But I know it is a healthy amount. There will be a few million dollars on that football field on Saturday. UConn is doing enough to make sure it can do enough, positioning itself as a model independent program, at the top of the group-of-six pyramid, with the ability to knock off power conferences teams – as it has done several times over the past two years. Maryland comes to East Hartford in Week 2, the first chance for a 2026 statement.

Candle, of course, won’t be thinking about that one until Saturday night or Sunday morning.

“It really doesn’t matter who the opponent is,” he said. “We talk an awful lot about the walls of this building being inside-out rather than outside-in. So there’s going to be the pressures of every game. Game No. 1. Some opponents look way better than others as the season progresses, but your first pressure is Game 1. Not being out there and being in pads and playing in front of the fans for months at a time, you get back and everybody feels the same anxiety. We’ve got to handle that part of it. All 12 opponents we have on our schedule, we’ve got to respect them the same.”

Candle was hired in December. Nine months of work have preceded this game week. He’s adjusted to a new part of the country. He’s brought his way to doing things to the football facility and been introduced to UConn’s way of doing things in various areas. It’s been, without a win or loss yet documented, a healthy relationship.

“It’s been really good from the administration all the way down to the students and their commitment to wanting to be involved,” Candle said. “So we’ve got to do our part to put a great product on the field. But so far, so good.”

Now we get after it, for real. UConn has been to three bowl games in four years, puffing its chest out a little after spending 10 or so years as a college football laughingstock. Big 12 Conference presidents didn’t see enough in the football program’s potential a few years back to take UConn seriously as a member. There will be more board rooms to try to impress in the coming years.

All Candle can do, for now, is beat Lafayette. Do that and more people might show up for the Maryland game. Win that one and … well … let’s not get ahead of ourselves. UConn has a new football coach and it’s about to start playing football again. It’s important. Know that. Whether you actually get emotionally invested in these games, it’s really important.

Candle sounds prepared.

He does not sound nervous.

“Coaches don’t win games,” he said. “You’re going to write that they ultimately lose them some day. But they don’t win games. Players do. You want to do a great job making sure those guys are prepared for those moments the best you can. … I wouldn’t say butterflies. I would say anxious to watch our team gel together and see what we have.”

Sep 1, 2026

Welcome to the NFL, Joe Fagnano.

Officially.

Multiple outlets reported Sunday evening that the former UConn quarterback made the initial 53-manroster of the Baltimore Ravens, who signed Fagnano to a three-year, $3.1million contract after he went unselected in the 2026 NFL Draft in April.

According to Spotrac, the contract didn't pay a signing bonus or include any guaranteed money. Turns out, he didn't need money to motivate him.

Fagnano spent seven years in college between Maine and UConn due to injuries and the extra-COVID season granted by the NCAA. But he never gave up, and he had a truly impressive preseason.

Fagnano's stats were stellar. In three preseason games, he completed 56 of his 75 pass attempts for 509 yards and four total touchdowns.

His third-down numbers were tops among AFC quarterbacks as he was 13-of-17 passing (76.5%) for129 yards and two touchdowns. Joe Milton of the Dallas Cowboys, a sixth-round draft pick in 2024, was the best in the NFL, completing 80% of his passes, just ahead of Fagnano.

He just needed a chance

After he stated his case on the field for the final time in a 41-3 preseason win over the Washington Commanders, he expressed his gratitude about having a chance to show what hecan do.

"My goal coming in was just to make the most of my opportunities," Fagnano said after the game."What I can control is what I want to control. The stuff that is out of my hands is out of my hands. I think I have done a nice job to put myself in a good position. I can put my head on the pillow tonight and sleep well knowing that I gave all I had."

And first-year Ravens head coach Jesse Minter didn't discount the undrafted free agent QB. He watched intently.

"To his credit, he's put it on tape and he's put it out there," Minter said Friday night. "He's been really consistent. He's played a certain way almost all three games, and so that's definitely something we'll have to take a look at."

What will Fagnano's role be?

That is still to be determined. Minter and his staff clearly saw value in the UConn product, but the Ravens do have a logjam at the position. Two-time league MVP Lamar Jackson is entrenched as the starting quarterback in Baltimore, and Tyler Huntley is a strong veteran backup. 

A defined role probably doesn't matter to Fagnano. He's on the team, and he can keep proving himself.

The news Sunday was just another great thing to happen to Fagnano this summer. Last month, before training camp, he married high school sweetheart Lydia Smith in their hometown of Williamsport, Pa.

And for any Williamsport-area fans who want to go to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to see the Orioles play, the drive is just a little over three hours.

you can SOMEWHAT hear the questions asked by the reporters in this version uploaded by Storrs Central.

Skyler Bell and Joe Fagnano are turning heads for the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens, respectively. The two most recent NFL Combine invitees from UConn are having a great preseason so far.

A groin injury delayed Bell’s debut until the final week of the preseason. But his performance in that game has Bills fans thinking about another similarly sized receiver who was a huge playmaker for them a few years ago, Stefon Diggs.

On Thursday night against the Steelers, the fourth-round pick caught seven passes for 49 yards and took a jet sweep 28 yards to the house. It was a very familiar experience for UConn fans, but still a tremendous joy to see in an NFL uniform.

“Once the ball got in his hands, you felt the speed and he made the most of it,” Bills head coach Joe Brady said, according to the team site.

Bell is all-but a lock to make the final 53-man roster and should have a chance to break out on a team with a great quarterback in Josh Allen that’s looking for a top target.

Fagnano is his team’s leading preseason passer, with starter Lamar Jackson sitting the entire way and backup Tyler Huntley getting light action. He has looked sharp since his debut against the Eagles two weeks ago and has been over 75 percent completion with a touchdown in each of his two outings.

Fagnano will have his final shot to lock up a roster spot or practice squad QB3 role tonight at 6 p.m. against Washington.

“Joe came in, second week in a row, and managed the offense really well,” Ravens head coach Jesse Minter said, according to Sports Illustrated’s Jason La Confora. “He got us down there a few times, and he made some key plays throwing the ball. Guys made some nice catches for him. I just like the way we played in the second half.”

La Confora heaped praise on the undrafted rookie, saying the third QB job is likely his.

“[Fagnano] had stellar film from thrashing the Eagles a week ago and coming out of nowhere to do so. Vikings aggressive defensive mastermind Brian Flores treats the preseason closer to the real thing than most who call plays on defense, and Fagnano entered this road game at a time when Baltimore’s offense was lifeless and suspect with No. 2 quarterback [Tyler] Huntley at the helm.”

Randy Edsall was the Defensive Coordinator at Georgia Tech before he was named head coach of the UConn Huskies in 1998.

Paul Pasqualoni was fired as Miami Dolphin's defensive coordinator in 2010 and was unemployed for a year before he was named head coach of the UConn Huskies in 2011.

Bob Diaco was the defensive coordinator for Notre Dame before he was named head coach of the UConn Huskies in 2013.

then.. Edsall returned when he was working as the Director of Football research for the Detroit Lions in 2017.

Jim Mora was working *as an ESPN analyst when he was named head coach of the UConn Huskies in 2022.

Jason Candle is the ONLY one who was a Head Coach at his previous institution , who brought over his staff and his players from that institution.

this is somewhat surprising.

Since we're a non-con still and won't have to deal with that, at least this year, could we go after a pro who didn't make an NFL roster and wants to return to NCAA for a 5th year?

Personally, I don't like the idea of it and hope we don't. Just wondering if it might be something we do to fill a roster spot or two.

For the first time in a decade, UConn football is getting an alternate jersey. On Wednesday, the team revealed a new red top that is expected to debut during the 2026 season.

“20 yards of pressure. A place where the fans are the loudest, the stakes are the highest but the reward is the greatest,” a voice says in the reveal video, referencing last 20 yards on a football field before the end zone. “Getting there is one thing. Coming out alive is another. Because once you cross that line, there’s no room for distraction. The noise disappears and when everything else fades, you don’t see the crowd. You don’t see the scoreboard. All you see is red.”

It appears to be a standalone jersey, meaning there won’t be red helmets or pants to complete the set. It’s the exact same design as the white away jersey, just with red as the primary color and white trim around the numbers instead of gray.

This is believed to be the first time a UConn team has ever worn a red jersey. Most other programs on campus feature it as a secondary or tertiary color. UConn football hasn’t featured any red on its uniforms since 2019.

The Huskies last donned an alternate uniform during the 2016 campaign, when they wore their gray sets with chromatic red trim in week four vs. Syracuse and week 10 against Temple. They famously wore the look when they knocked off undefeated No. 19 Houston at Rentschler Field in week 11 of the 2015 season and secured bowl eligibility for the first time since 2010.

UConn moved to its current uniforms in 2021. The look is plain, featuring just national flag blue and white, and doesn’t have much in the way of design. The Huskies typically mix up the color combinations of the helmet, face mask, jersey and pants.

During the Jim Mora era, UConn got creative with its helmet decals. In weeks five through seven during the 2022 season, players could choose from 12 different colored ribbons that represented various cancers that have affected their family. The Huskies did the same in week six of both the 2025 and 2026 campaigns. During week seven in 2023, they had a similar initiative except the Block C logo was colored to represent the different types of cancer.

During week nine of the 2022 season and week 10 of the 2025 campaign, the Huskies featured an American flag inside the Block C logo for its military appreciation game. In 2023, they wore a military-themed decal. The next season, UConn’s players picked the emblem of one of the six branches of the US Military.

The Huskies teased the new red jerseys on Friday with a video that read, “It’s not April Fools [sic] anymore,” referencing two uniform releases that proved to be April Fools’ jokes recently. Earlier this year, UConn showcased a light-blue uniform and in 2023, it revealed a helmet and jersey featuring the 1959 Husky — the one that looks sad.

Now, for the first time in a long line, the Huskies finally have a new look.

STORRS – Back in January, Jason Candle promised UConn’s quarterback group a fair shake.

And, with the competition still ongoing less than two weeks before the Huskies’ season-opener against Lafayette, the new head coach is keeping his word.

“I think all three guys have done a great job competing very well, doing what they need to do, operating the offense at a high level,” Candle said after Tuesday’s practice.

It remains a three-horse race to determine the Huskies’ signal-caller.

Jake Merklinger, a transfer from Tennessee with a pocket presence and a powerful arm, was impressive the last time UConn’s practice was open for viewing. Kalieb Osborne, more of a dual-threat option with a strong arm and a body built to withstand contact outside of the pocket, came over with some familiarity from Toledo where he was Candle’s backup last season. Tucker McDonald remains in the mix, too, as he enters his fourth season in Storrs.

“In fairness to all of those guys, that was the plan back in January to say, ‘Hey look, we’re gonna run this thing out as long as we possibly can’ to make sure that all three of them feel like they had an authentic opportunity to go win the job, and that was my commitment to them,” Candle said. “They’ve embraced that, they’ve owned that, and we’re gonna hold true to that and we’re gonna let them finish it up. So we’ve got some time here.”

There isn’t that much time.

UConn’s Sept. 5 season-opener is creeping up quickly after a whirlwind of an offseason for Candle and his all-new coaching staff. The Huskies plan to use the rest of this week to continue figuring out what they have on both sides of the ball, but at some point soon the focus will shift to preparing for Week One against Lafayette – and knowing the starting quarterback, even if the decision is kept in-house, is an important part of that.

“We’ve done as good as we can do to try to figure out what we have. Now it’s time, we’ve got to go get our hands in the fight, put our hands on somebody else to see how it goes and see what happens. That’s where we’re at, that’s the next step,” Candle said. “From there, you hope to see great growth in your team from Week One to Week Two, I think great teams are able to figure out what went wrong and what were the highlighted success points and address both.”

Chaos reaches CFB

The mess around pros returning to college has moved from the basketball courts to the football fields with NFL training camp cuts coming and rookies seeking a return for a fifth year given the latest rule changes.

Candle, like men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, is focused on the roster he’s assembled.

“I’ve got a lot of thoughts,” Candle said. “But I think, first of all, I don’t know the particular cases individually to sit and comment on them, but I think that we’re in a very unique time and we better be careful on the standards that we set. I’ve just been pouring my time and energy into this team and what we have to get accomplished. So not getting too down in the weeds on what’s going on with everybody else, but yeah, I think it’s a slippery slope with all the decisions that are made to protect our great game and I hope that there’s an integrity piece of that.

“There’s never a wrong time to do the right thing, so hopefully adults can get in the room and figure out what is right and continue to do the right thing for these student-athletes and their organizations.”

Offensive line bonding over the culinary arts

Nothing goes together quite like offensive linemen and good food.

UConn’s new front line started bonding over barbecue as soon as the weather complied. Nathan Pahanich, a sophomore who transferred in from Wake Forest, was tabbed “best chef” by returning guard and veteran leader Ty Chan after “throwing down on the grill” when the group first started bonding. Pahanich brought a Weber charcoal grill with him and has treated the group to burgers, hot dogs and potato salad – a “really simple, but very effective” menu.

Chan isn’t a stranger to the kitchen himself with his Asian and Greek family background.

“Got to learn a lot of cooking methods from my parents, so being able to cook and spread the love with my friends and family is definitely something I take pride in,” he said. “I’ve definitely ventured out more into the Asian cooking, I think I’m getting the hang of more like curry, but also like Cambodian style pho, which is called Ka’thiew, it’s basically a noodle dish. I can (also) make a decent chicken adobo rice.”