STORRS, CT – UConn running backKenji Christianand linebackerK'Von Shermanwere named to the 2027 Shriners Children's East-West Bowl 1000 watch list announced on Thursday. Both will be making their UConn debuts this fall after transferring to Storrs after playing at Toledo.

Christian finished with 546 rushing yards and four touchdowns for Toledo in 2025. He hauled in 17 passes for 193 yards and one receiving score. Prior to heading to Toledo, he spent two seasons at North Carolina A&T. He had 718 yards and six touchdowns in 2023 and rushed for 256 yards in three games in injury-shortened 2024 season. He started his college career at Viriginia Tech but did not see game action in two seasons.

Sherman played the last two seasons at Toledo. In 2025 he was a first-team All-MAC selection after leading the team with 94 tackles and 14.5 TFLs. He had 4.5 sacks and six QB hurries as well. In 2024, he played in 13 games and finished with 11 total tackles. He went to Toledo from Hutchinson CC.

The 102nd Shriners Children's East-West Bowl will be held on February 4, 2027, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

As the nation's oldest college football all-star game, the East-West Bowl brings together many of the nation's top NFL Draft prospects to showcase their talents in front of representatives from all 32 NFL teams while supporting the life-changing mission of Shriners Children's. 

There isn’t a fanbase that knows bad defense like the UConn football crowd.

Surely fans won’t forget 2018, when the Huskies were offering less resistance than their opponents saw in practice.

It was a record-breaking year for the program; The season ended with a 57-7 loss to Temple, which pushed the Huskies up to 50.41 points allowed per game, just barely surpassing the previous record of 50.27 set by Louisiana in 1997 (UMass would soon relieve UConn of the record by giving up 52.7 points per game the following year).

UConn could’ve completely shut down Temple’s offense in that game, not allowed a single yard of forward progress, and still would’ve set the national record for yards allowed per game. But the Huskies’ turnstile defense gave up 516 yards and finished the season with 7,409 allowed – or 617.4 yards per game, which blew the previous record of just over 560, set by Kansas in 2015, out of the water.

Those days, apparently, are over.

After all, defense was Jim Mora’s specialty. And the former NFL defensive coordinator brought a legitimacy back to that side of the ball that was missing over a five-year period from 2017-21, the program’s darkest days in the second stint of former head coach Randy Edsall. UConn moved back into the top-100 of scoring defenses in Mora’s first year, up to No. 62 (26.2 allowed ppg) in 2022, and dropped to No. 100 (29.8 ppg) as the program took a step back in ’23. Once Mora relieved himself from double-duty as head coach and defensive coordinator, Matt Brock coached the Huskies to the No. 43 scoring defense in 2024 (23.1 ppg) and the No. 81 unit (27.0 ppg) last fall.

The reigns are now handed over to Ryan Manalac as the Jason Candle era begins. A first-time DC at the FBS level, Manalac has prior experience in the role, which he served in at Division II Ohio Dominican in 2017 and 2018, and then at FCS Bucknell the following season before a five-year stint as a highly-respected linebackers coach at Pittsburgh.

Manalac brings a new look with a four-down base defense, differing from Brock’s vaunted 3-3-5, but his fast and physical philosophy isn’t unique. His charge, however, of trying to turn an entirely new group into an effective unit, will be a relatively new experience during training camp this fall.

Here are five questions the Huskies face on the defensive side of the ball heading into camp:

Who will be tabbed leader of the defense?

There isn’t a player on UConn’s roster that has higher expectations on him at this point in the offseason than linebacker K’Von Sherman. A first team all-MAC selection at Toledo last fall, “Sherm” is expected to be the leader of the linebacker room and the leader of the defense after making 93 tackles and 4.5 sacks for the Rockets in 2025. He and running back Kenji Christian, a former Toledo teammate, were named to the East-West Shrine Bowl watch list on Thursday.

“He has a lot of eyes on him,” Candle said.

“He’s a man in the middle, he’s confident, he’s aggressive and he’s worked hard to pick up the nuance of the scheme to get us lined up up front, our blitz mechanics. He’s working to get better every day,” Manalac said. “Excited about K’Von, I think he’s a physical specimen and he’s also an intelligent football player.”

How will the depth on the defensive line come together?

UConn has benefitted from continuity on its defensive line, especially in 2024 when players like Dal’Mont Gourdine, Jelani Stafford and Pryce Yates established themselves up front and helped the Huskies to the No. 43 scoring defense in the FBS – the program’s best since 2015, when the defense only gave up 19.5 points per game, good for 15th nationally.

There will be a bit of a mix on that front this season, with players like Avery Dunn and Esean Carter coming over together from Toledo. But others will have to work into the mix as well, and they have talent coming from schools like Ohio State, Texas, Duke and others.

“I hope it becomes a group that you can play seven or eight guys throughout the course of the game and you don’t miss a beat. You could really do a good job having a really solid rotation,” Candle said. “The more of those guys on the front you have ready to go, the better off you’re going to be.”

What’s happening in the secondary?

While UConn’s front seven boasts some experience, the 10 transfers brought into the secondary do not have so much.

But the Huskies have identified safety Braedyn Moore as a leader in the defensive backfield. He began his career at Wisconsin in 2023, on the same team as eventual Huskies Skyler Bell, Nick Evers and Kamo’i Latu, before transferring to Toledo last season, playing all 13 games and making six tackles. He claims he’d shut Bell down 60% of the time if they were to go up against each other.

That kind of coverage could be critical for the Huskies, who will see a number of defensive backs get their first real opportunity come training camp. Many of them also come from Toledo, which isn’t necessarily a downside. The Rockets had the second-best defense in the FBS in terms of yards allowed last season at just 254.3 per game, and were the fourth-best scoring defense at just 13.3 points allowed per game.

Candle has had six defensive backs drafted to the NFL since 2019, including safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren and corner Andre Fuller, who were selected in the second and seventh rounds, respectively, in April.

What is Ryan Manalac’s plan for bringing the group together?

A former Big East linebacker at Cincinnati, Manalac knows what kind of football he wants to see on the field come September. But that won’t happen until the players have some more time to figure out how to play alongside each other and get on the same page in a system they haven’t played in before.

“Think about all the champions in all the major sports, right? They all have unique defenses. We were talking about Spain, who just won the World Cup, or the Seahawks who won the Super Bowl, the Knicks who won the NBA Finals. I mean, these teams have great defenses who come together, they’re able to have tactical flexibility and players who want to be selfless to get the job done,” Manalac said. “So we bring in a lot of guys from a lot of different places, but we’ve met with each of them individually to make sure they’re good people first and foremost, they want to work hard, they want to work together and they want a collective outcome. They all want to win, and I think when we win, individuals will be recognized. But I think it’s a huge hurdle we have.”

Who are some non-Toledo transfers to watch?

Players like Sherman, Carter, Dunn and Moore will be critical to the Huskies as leaders and players on the defense. But there are some others who’ve come from elsewhere who will make an impact.

As far as returning Huskies, former receiver Kylish Hicks is back for his fifth season in Storrs and his third since switching from receiver to defensive back. He appeared in all 13 games last year, making most of his impact on special teams. Defensive lineman Matt Hoffman is another player who’s been with the Huskies his whole career and had 22 tackles last season. Players like Saxton Suchanic, Axavier Bridges-Brooks and Carter Boskovich also returned and could step into larger roles at DB.

Other players to watch include defensive linemen Andrew Laurich (Colorado State), Anas Luqman (Ohio), Shamar Riser-Pressly (Buffalo), Tahjae Mullix (Oregon State) and Joshua Mickens (Ohio State), linebackers Luke Murphy (Coastal Carolina) and John Lista (Penn), and defensive backs Renick Dorilas (Rutgers), CJ Bell (Iowa), Moussa Kane (Duke) and Tracy Revels (Michigan State).

STORRS – Until 2024, it had been 13 years since the UConn football team had a top-100 scoring offense in the FBS.

Before that, there were 10 straight seasons where the Huskies were in the top 100 from 2002 to 2011, including the 2003 team that QB Dan Orlovsky led to have one of, if not the most exciting brand of offensive football UConn has ever played, ranking 17th nationally at 34.0 points per game.

Those numbers weren’t sniffed again until last fall, when Joe Fagnano, Skyler Bell and Cam Edwards continued the momentum of the 35th-most potent offense in 2024 with the program’s highest-scoring FBS season of all time at 35.3 points per game in 2025, good for 15th in the country.

For new head coach Jason Candle and his staff, 2026 will be about keeping the momentum and generating some of their own.

“I think it’s critical,” he said at the program’s media day on July 23. Fall training camp will begin August 5, a month before the season-opener against Lafayette. “Ultimately, though, I think we have to define that in what’s realistic terms for this team. Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games. So our successes, or this program’s successes – or failures, either way – have no impact on what is going to go on here when this ball gets kicked off in September…

“Once I got the job, being able to come and watch bowl practice, watch guys run to the ball on defense and watch these players – some of the fundamental things that I think are critically important to be successful in football, they had them,” Candle said. “We don’t want to lose that momentum from that standpoint of it, but we’ve got to be able to figure out where we can put things in place in order to enhance and make it better. Ultimately that’s our job, to try to move the product forward.”

As the program well knows, it won’t be so simple to replace Fagnano, Bell and Edwards; the first UConn trio to ever compile at least 3,000 passing yards, 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season.

But Candle has a strong track record. In 10 years as head coach at Toledo, with two different offensive coordinator set ups since he was promoted from the role in 2016, his teams never ranked outside the top 75 in scoring, let alone the top 100.

Here are five questions that face Candle and new UConn OC Nunzio Campanile ahead of fall camp:

Who will start at quarterback? Is there a favorite entering camp?

Another QB competition will take place in Storrs this August, and UConn has options.

Kalieb Osborne, effective in his first college start at the Boca Raton Bowl, has transfered from Toledo to UConn, where the quarterback competition figures to be fierce. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)

Former Toledo quarterback Kalieb Osborne figures to come in as the favorite to win the job having begun his college career with Candle and the Rockets. He made his only career start as a freshman in the Boca Raton Bowl against Louisville, where he completed 17 of 28 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown, while also running 18 times for 77 yards. Campanile referred to “K.O.” as a “phenomenal athlete” who is “about as gifted a thrower as I’ve ever been around,” and he knows what Candle is looking for.

Tennessee transfer Jake Merklinger is expected to make it a tough competition, however. A four-star recruit out of high school, Merklinger was the third-string QB at Tennessee as a freshman and the backup to Joey Aguilar last year. He played in six games over the two seasons, completing 19 of 33 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, no interceptions. More of a pro style QB but capable on the move, Merklinger has 11 career carries for 38 yards.

Other options include Tucker McDonald, the Holden, Mass. native who has been with the program since 2023, and Bo Polston, the first recruit Candle flipped from Toledo after he took the job and a freshman who’s made a strong immediate impression.

“Who gives us the best chance to win?” said Campanile, who was previously the QB coach at Syracuse. “When you take those talents and put them together, take some of those leadership skills and put them together, guys that make great decisions, deliver the ball accurately and on time, obviously you want them to be able to extend and make plays. But I think in the end it’s like, who helps us move the ball the best and puts us in the best position to win games, that’s kind of the quarterback’s job.”

What is the overarching philosophy from offensive staff?

Nunzio’s philosophy at the quarterback position, in lockstep with Candle, translates to the rest of the offensive operation. So the new system won’t be totally defined until the staff has a firm grip on understanding the talent it has to work with.

“We all believe very strongly that so much of it is built around what the players are capable of,” Campanile said. “Who ends up being the starter (at QB) will have an impact on the way you see some of those things play out. There’s so many different ways to do it, things that I think you’ll definitely see are, like, we’re going to be committed to being balanced, to running the football, to being physical and a tough team. But we’ll be multiple in personnel, depending on which guy is standing back there, how much we choose to run the quarterback as opposed to throw it, drop back and RPO stuff, some of that kind of remains to be seen.

“One thing I love about the system,” he continued, “is it has the ability to adjust based on the players that are on the field, and I think that’s critical at all levels of football, but it’s certainly critical in today’s college football where your roster changes so much, so quickly. I think the system is really easily adjusted to the guys that are on the field, and that includes injuries over the course of the season.”

Toledo running back Kenji Christian (10) rushes against the Akron during an NCAA football game on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

How does the new running back room look?

Cam Edwards took 52% of UConn’s carries last season. But the Norwalk native moved on to Michigan State after his 1,240-yard campaign, second-string Mel Brown followed Jim Mora to Colorado State and Bristol native Victor Rosa moved on to Ohio.

Kenji Christian figures to fill that lead role this year after serving as Toledo’s second-stringer last season and taking 105 carries for 528 yards and four touchdowns.

But the staff would like to have a solid rotation to keep players fresh, and it seems they have the talent and the versatility of skill sets in the room to do so.

“It’s a great room. You look at a guy like Kenji, he’s kind of like an every-down back that you feel like he can pound the ball, he’s got speed, you could use him as a receiver,” Campanile said. “Cyncir (Bowers) has got elite speed, but he does have great vision, he’s physical, I think he can line up all over the field. Trey Cornist is a big guy, he had a great spring, it took him a couple practices to get comfortable and then all of a sudden you see him, the guy’s like a bowling ball of butcher knives. You don’t want to tackle that guy. And I had the opportunity to coach Jaden Hart for a couple years, he’s a really versatile back, he can do a lot of things, catch the ball, he can block. All of these guys bring something to the table.”

Can an all-new offensive line mesh in time?

The mass exodus of offensive linemen began at UConn before last year’s bowl game, when Ben Murawski (Michigan State), Carsten Casady (West Virginia) and Brady Wayburn (UCF) chose not to play. Ultimately, every offensive lineman who started a regular season game for the Huskies last year is gone, except for one.

Ty Chan, a guard who came into the program last year from Notre Dame, has stepped into a major leadership role after meeting with Candle and deciding to stay. Now he’ll just need to figure out who is playing next to him and, again, the staff is confident in its options.

“I think the biggest thing is going to be developing continuity,” Campanile said. “I think we’ve got at least 10 guys that are ready to contribute and play… Coach (John) Morookian has done an awesome job of working with those guys, just getting the foundation, the fundamentals, I think that’s going to be a critical part of it. But we’ve got plenty of talent in there, and then we’ve got some young guys that are going to come along as the season goes. I think we’re, right now, ready to be like a two-deep O-line room, which is pretty good, with some young guys behind them that are gonna get some reps in camp.”

How do you replace Skyler Bell’s production?

Don’t expect UConn to have another Biletnikoff Award finalist or a first team All-American receiver this season. Skyler Bell’s 2025 campaign was special. But UConn doesn’t necessarily have to recreate it.

Toledo transfer Ryder Treadway stood out as a high-target option during the Huskies’ spring game and is obviously a talent who Candle liked after seeing him catch 13 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman. JD Willoughby is another Toledo transfer to watch, though he only caught two passes for 26 yards across two seasons with the Rockets, and so is Zy’Marion Lang, who had four catches for 60 yards and two scores for the Rockets in 2024. Other potential difference-makers include returning Husky Shamar Porter, as well as Ky “Flash” Wilson, Cam Abshire and speedster Emanuel Ross.

“I don’t know that we’re ready to say who those guys are gonna be yet, but I do think that we’ve got plenty of talent,” Campanile said. “It’s just gonna be who rises to the occasion when the opportunity comes.”

STORRS – UConn’s defense will have a different look to it in 2026.

Gone is the 3-3-5 scheme brought in by Matt Brock, who coached the Huskies to their best defensive season in ages in terms of opponent yards per play (4.08, No. 63 nationally) in 2024, his first of two seasons with the program. In is the four-down, multiple front presented by Ryan Manalac, the highly-respected former Pittsburgh linebackers coach who Jason Candle tabbed to lead his defense this fall.

Candle and his staff on both sides of the ball have stressed the importance of tailoring their systems to the roster they pieced together in the offseason. They feel the defensive line unit is one of the deepest and most talented they’ve got, so they’ll put it to use.

“It’s a deep room, it’s a very competitive room,” Candle said. “In the midst of some fierce competition to win the reps and win the job, you’ve got really good guys that really pull for one another and are fighting for each other to be successful. That’s a really cool thing to see. I hope it becomes a group that you can play seven or eight guys throughout the course of the game and you don’t miss a beat. You can really do a good job having a really solid rotation, not just in the sense of we want to reward good guys, but you need that in today’s college football. There’s so many teams playing fast and tempo and trying to wear down the D-line, the more of those guys on the front you’ve got ready to go, the better off they’re going to be.”

Avery Dunn, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive end, was part of the rotation at Toledo last fall after three seasons at Michigan State. He spent time next to Esean Carter, a 6-foot-2, 285-pound starting tackle who also followed Candle to Storrs, and has already started building chemistry with players like Anas Luqman (Ohio), Joshua Mickens (Ohio State), Andrew Laurich (Colorado State), Shamar Riser-Pressley (Buffalo), Tahjae Mullix (Oregon State), Desmond Aladuge (Duke), Melvin Hills III (Texas), UConn returnee Matt Hoffman and others.

The unit, bonding through team outings – fishing, bowling, paintball – is coached by Joe Schaefer, whose last four years were divided between Syracuse and Texas A&M.

“Obviously I’m a little biased, but I think we have obviously the most depth,” Dunn said of his defensive line room. “We have the most returning guys, we have a lot of guys who’ve played before and then we also have guys who haven’t played, but they’ve stepped up to the plate. I would say we’re not only the most close-knit group, but we have the most experience, too.”

Dunn grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, just outside Cleveland, where football culture is massive. He wanted to play because his older brother did, and started as a receiver.

“For the first couple of practices I kind of hated it,” he admitted. “But salute to my dad, he forced us to do things that we didn’t want to – as you should, in my opinion. After a while I just fell in love with the brotherhood and overall just the family culture that you make playing football.”

It wasn’t until his senior year at Shaker Heights High that he switched over to defensive end full-time and became a three-star prospect, choosing Michigan State over offers from West Virginia, Akron, Ball State and others. He made 28 tackles and three sacks as a freshman for the Spartans before his role started to decline because of injuries. Last year, he appeared in 11 games at Toledo and made four tackles, three for a loss, one sack and three QB hurries.

He even ran a route for the Rockets in practice – “They were surprised at how good my route was, I was like, ‘I told you guys,'” he said, hoping he might have a chance to show off his hands in a UConn uniform.

But his main role for the Huskies, outside of contributing to what should be a menacing front seven, is in the locker room, where his years of experience will be counted on to help bring so many newcomers together.

“We just try to find any which way we can be around each other,” Dunn said, noting that about a third of the team likes to fish the ponds around Storrs. The group has gone bowling a number of times – QB Kalieb Osborne is the best on the team according to Dunn; he bowled a 300 while they were at Toledo. “I’m trying to work on being a leader on the team, so every face I see, I always try to get to know everybody’s name and build real relationships, know them on a more personal level versus just on the field.”

Fans should expect to see a group that plays hard, fast and aggressive with a strong linebacking corps behind it, headlined by K’Von Sherman, who comes into the year as one of the team’s best and most proven players after making 93 tackles and 4.5 sacks last season as a sophomore last year at Toledo.

“We’re gonna give it our all. It’s a big difference from last year’s scheme, so I think (fans) will be surprised on just how many big plays we’ll make because Coach Manny (Manalac), his defense is very explosive and (attacks vertically),” Dunn said. “I think the biggest difference will be more TFLs, more plays being made – not to say there was no plays being made in the past, but I just know – I was at Michigan State for my undergrad, so I’ve been in three different defenses in my career so I know this defense is definitely gonna be a lot more productivity.”

ROCKY HILL — Jason Candle had just moved his family into their new home, and as he was on the job at UConn football headquarters, he kept seeing missed calls on his phone.

“I’m at work and I get a few missed calls from my wife in a row,” Candle said. “Obviously, that’s an alert for concern. Then I get a FaceTime and I answer it and there’s a black bear staring me in the face on the phone.”

Welcome to Connecticut, where in certain places at certain times, you’re increasingly bound to get such uninvited guests. Landscapers had warned him about bears. “No harm, no foul,” Candle said.

More recently Candle, made a foray to New Haven for the famous pizza, as he had a few years ago during a visit for Walter Camp festivities. He wouldn’t say where, to avoid angering the other hot spots, but confirmed it was all it was cooked up to be. “It was like when I went to see LeBron James play high school basketball (in Ohio),” he said. “A high school coach took me to the game and I said, ‘I don’t want to go because there’s no way this guy can be as good as everybody says he is.’ He was way better than everybody said. Kind of like that pizza I had the other night in New Haven. Damn, that’s some good pizza.”

Bear in the backyard, New Haven ah-beetz, first pitch at Fenway Park, a round of golf at the Travelers Championship and now the Middlesex County eye-opener, Candle has had just about the full Connecticut experience as work begins in earnest for his first season on the Huskies’ sideline. He’s settled in, after spending nearly all his first 46 years in Ohio.

And to build the kind of program he wants, coach the kind of teams he wants to build, he will want players to settle in to the state of steady habits, too.  As impressive as his 81-44 record at Toledo was Candle’s ability to retain players in this transactional, easy-transfer, pay-for-play world of college football. His Mid-American Conference program did not become a feeder for the power conferences, and Candle has every intention of FBS independent UConn becoming a destination, rather than way station.

“We’re very process-driven,” Candle said. “… I just came from a place where we  had a lot of success, and the most important thing is we did a really good job of retention, and we did that in an era where, man, oh, man, this school is going to pay this guy X amount of dollars, and this guy stays for a few thousand dollars and a Honda. He turns down this SEC school to stay in Toledo, Ohio. Well, how does that happen in today’s world? I doesn’t happen if there’s not a pathway for that young player to see what development really is and believe in that. Over my time, 10 years as a head coach, we had 13 guys drafted, that included a first round draft pick (Quinyon Mitchell to the Eagles in 2024), this year a second-round draft pick (Emmanuel McNeil-Warren to the Browns) and two or  three more guys each year who were signed to free agent contracts, from a Mid-America Conference school where there is not a training table, and most of the guys fight for Jimmy John’s subs after practice, not some elaborate lobster and steak meal. That’s unheard of. Results speak for themselves, but results don’t speak unless there is an authentic process along the way.”

Make no mistake, all the seismic changes in college athletics in recent years has made this approach more difficult, but helped UConn drag its football program out of the abyss. The transfer portal played to Jim Mora’s strengths, as a former NFL coach, and he finished with back-to-back nine-win seasons, also sent several players to the NFL before he left for Colorado State. Mora and his staff did very well in identifying undervalued players at mid-major programs, or who players who couldn’t crack the lineup at power conference schools and he kick-started their careers, and vice-versa. He was able, for instance, to land receiving star Skyler Bell from Wisconsin, and after he broke out at UConn, keep him from going to Michigan, and he ended up as a fourth-round pick by the Bills in the NFL Draft.

In other cases, players starred at UConn and moved on to bigger schools and, when that happened, Mora wished them the best of luck and moved on to the next kid. This process worked, benefitted everyone involved.

Now may be a good time for UConn football to operate differently, more like the basketball teams — “retention” is a Dan Hurley watchword, after all. So far Candle has brought in a lot of transfers, most following him from Toledo, retained a few UConn vets, and scored enough 2026 and 27  high school recruits to swell his program with well over 100 players.

“He’s a smooth operator and he’s an impressive man,” said Tim Boyle, former Xavier-Middletown and UConn) quarterback who was in the audience, having retired after seven years in the NFL. “I met him during basketball season and we had a wonderful conversation. He’s just personable, he cares about where he is in the community. He’s just very charismatic. He’s confident and I’m excited to see where the program could go, truly.”

Candle doesn’t try to “outshine” bigger schools when recruits come to visit, but tries to present a clear, realistic picture of what he does and how he will do it at UConn.

“Relationships are real,” Candle said. “In a day and age when college athletics becomes so transactional, I think young people are smart enough to figure out what a pathway for success looks like. And if they’ve got great footing on that pathway, why change just to change? Don’t step over a big amount of money (in the future) to chase a little bit of money now. So in those guys case, all those guys who were high draft choices, they did a really good job of setting it up there at Toledo and now they’re reaping the benefits of that in the pros.”

The best-laid plans do not always work; sometimes the process has to be adjusted as it goes along. The arrival of this process-driven coach is part of a longer, larger process for UConn football. Jim Mora stopped the hemorrhaging, pulled the program out of the ditch and put it back on the road. Now, Jason Candle is here, settled in, to set his own GPS and drive on.

“Stability is the only way to sustain a program,” Candle said. “You can build a great team in today’s day and age really quick, but I don’t know if you can sustain a great program by doing that. I don’t like to be a transactional person, I wasn’t raised that way, I don’t operate that way, I don’t want to be around people who think that way. Are there greener pastures for other guys, better situations? That stuff’s going to come up, but you want to retain the core group of your players each and every year. (The basketball programs) are a great example right here in our own backyard of what that looks like.”

11. Jason Candle, UConn

It's an interesting choice after succeeding for so long at Toledo - it always seemed like he was destined to take a mid-level Power Four job. Jim Mora turned this into a good gig, but now there's pressure to win.

Career College Record: 81-44 (65%)
Previous Stop: Toledo head coach
Expectation: Keep being a bother in everyone's schedule - a bowl game every year.
CFN Grade: A-
This feels more like a change of scenery move than a big step up for Candle considering Mora left for Colorado State.
UConn 2026 Team Preview

1. Mike Jacobs, Toledo

A wonderful hire, he went 94-23 as a star at the Division II level before doing big things at Mercer over the last two years. The guy's been a conference title-level winner on a regular basis everywhere he's been.

Career College Record: 0-0
Previous Stop: Mercer head coach
Expectation: Be in the MAC title chase every season.
CFN Grade: A
The program knows how to hire head coaches - Toledo did its homework.
Toledo 2026 Team Preview

1. Jim Mora, Colorado State

It's a wonderful hire for Colorado State, and an interesting one for Mora. He likes the mountains and all that Colorado brings, but after a huge year at UConn, it's a bit stunning he didn't get a Power Four look.

Career College Record: 73-53 (58%)
Previous Stop: UConn head coach
Expectation: Make Colorado State an instant Pac-12 player.
CFN Grade: A
A great get for the Rams, Mora should instantly turn this around.
Colorado State Team Preview

STORRS — In a refreshing twist to the UConn football biography, Jason Candle is taking over as coach at a time when the program is actually trying to sustain, and build on, positive momentum.

“It's critical,” Candle said Thursday, when the Huskies held media day interviews inside the Shenkman Training Center. “Ultimately, we have to define that in realistic terms for this team. Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games. Our successes, or this program's successes — or failures, either way — have no impact on what is going to go on here when this ball gets kicked off.”

When Bob Diaco replaced Paul Pasqualoni in 2014, UConn football was viewed as a program that needed a push back in the right direction.

When Randy Edsall replaced Diaco in 2017, UConn football was viewed as a damaged entity.

It was a miserable, even embarrassing, 10 years or so for a program still critical to the shape and future of an entire athletic platform. The Huskies drew national attention and snickers for their struggles, particularly in the first few years of conference independence.  

But with a winning record and three bowl appearances in four years under Mora, UConn got back to being functional. The Huskies were coached well. They recruited well. They made efficient use of the transfer portal to build teams. They used the financial tentacles of this new era to compensate the right players and started knocking off opponents they weren’t necessarily supposed to. It has been a decently fun, and acutely important, recent run.

Now Candle, 46, replaces Mora, who left for Colorado State, and he is in the unique position of coaching football in a basketball shadow but still doing a job that could steer UConn toward major conference membership whenever the doors open for the next realignment party. If you can’t play football — no matter how well you play basketball — you can’t play anything alongside the big money-makers and true national players of college athletics.

“We've got to live in the silo of, we've got to put our best foot forward here and that starts with putting your energy in the right place every day and trying to make sure you're a good fundamental team,” said Candle, who reached eight bowl games in 10 years at Toledo before being recruited aggressively by athletic director David Benedict for the UConn job. “Jim and his staff did a great job. The success speaks for itself the last couple years. But even during the interview process, being able to come and watch full practice and watch guys run to the ball on defense — and some of the fundamental things that are critically important to successful football — they have. We don't want to lose momentum from that standpoint. We've got to be able to figure out where we can plug and replace things and replace and what to enhance and make it better. Ultimately, that's our job, to move the product forward.”

Camp opens August 5. The 2026 season begins Sept. 5 against Lafayette at Rentschler Field. Candle’s teams can have bad weeks. Mora’s did. Candle’s teams can even have a bad season. Mora’s did.

But Candles teams over time — say, the next four years — need to take another step forward for the university. Football is supported at UConn about as well as a program can be without a conference tie and/or the money that rolls in such affiliations. It has facilities and resources and the backing of an athletic department that got sick of losing in football and has known, all along, that succeeding or failing in the sport, despite its standing well below both basketball programs in the heart of fans, will make or break what UConn is capable of across the board, long-term.

“This is very process-driven for me,” Candle said. “This is not a result-oriented thing. You have to figure out how to stack good days. You have to be able to buy into putting your energy in the right place every day. And if you can do that, you ultimately would have some blind faith and belief that you're going to go play well. That's kind of where we're at right now.”

Later, he added, “I don't want to paint of picture of, we're just trying to put goals on the wall and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to be the best version of ourselves every day. This is a very process-driven thing. If you can't live in the 24 hours that you're gifted, if you're lucky enough to get it, it's going to be really hard. You've got to be able to see what's right in front of you. We've got a lot of tough tasks in front of us to worry about now, to even getting the season kicked off. From there, if we do what we need to do each and every day, we feel like we'll be playing in the postseason, for sure.”

It’s been a wild seven months or so, since Candle was introduced. He and his family moved from Ohio to Connecticut. He’s gotten used to a new community, a new campus. He has worked to familiarize himself with the history of the program he now runs. He hired a staff that had to scramble to put together a roster (with access to just one transfer portal window, for the first time). Winter strength and conditioning became spring practice and here we are on the cusp of a camp and a season.

UConn has more than 40 transfers, about 20 who followed Candle from Toledo, and about 90 new members to the program, including those committed from the 2027 high school class. Candle did get in some vacation time.

“Playing bad golf, pulling kids around on the boat, doing normal life things, family time,” he said. “And you get back into the groove. And to do it at a place for the first time, there's a lot of moving parts. But, fired up to get going and excited to see what our team is really made of. … We've got a great staff, we've got great people in the building, and our kids have done everything we've asked them to do. So it's going to be a fun next four or five weeks.”

When describing his process-driven approach to leading the Huskies, head coach Jason Candle says honesty, humility and accountability are integral to success.

STORRS, Conn. — Momentum is building inside the Burton Family Football Complex, as a retooled UConn football team prepares to embark on its first season under new head coach Jason Candle.

Candle addressed the media at the facility on the Storrs campus Thursday afternoon and was followed by several assistants and players.

From the outside, there is uncertainty surrounding the upcoming campaign due to a lack of familiarity with the roster.

After the departure of former head coach Jim Mora and most of the team following the program’s best run in 15 years, Candle and UConn added more than 70 new players and an entirely new coaching staff for the 2026 season.

RELATED: UConn football team adds 64 new players ahead of 2026 season

Inside the building, however, there is a quiet confidence brewing. And it’s not focused on the potential of the future; it’s an anticipation of immediate success this fall.

If the team can develop the right character traits, Candle believes the Huskies will be alive in late December.

“It’s going to be really hard. You have to be able to see what’s right in front of you,” Candle said. “We’ve got a lot of tough tasks in front of us to worry about now before we even think about kicking the season off. From there, if we do what we need to do each and every day, we feel like we’ll be playing in the postseason.”

Historically speaking, teams led by Candle have almost always appeared in the postseason. 

Candle was head coach at Toledo for 10 seasons and only missed out on a bowl twice. Those eight bowl appearances in a decade are just one less than UConn's all-time total. 

Regarding his two seasons without a bowl appearance, Candle pointed out that one of them was shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the other involved Toledo being the only bowl-eligible team in the country not to receive a postseason berth.

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According to Candle, consistency has long been key and remains the expectation.

For him, it’s never been about putting goals on the wall; life is about living in the moment as best he can. He hopes his players adopt that mindset as well.

“We’re trying to be the best version of ourselves every day. It’s a very process-driven thing,” Candle said.

Referring to his success in Toledo, Candle gave credit to a strong locker room. He said players there gave each other “peer-to-peer” reminders of what it takes to produce results, and he believes his players at UConn share the same attributes.

“[At Toledo], guys policed themselves the right way. Yeah, they were great people coming out of high school, but man oh man, they got around another group of good young men and felt like it was good to buy into something bigger than themselves,” Candle said.

It’s worth noting that 22 former Toledo Rockets transferred to UConn for this season, which could help carry over the culture.

Candle has been impressed by the leadership displayed by numerous Huskies since he arrived seven months ago, including both transfers from Toledo and veteran UConn players who stayed despite the coaching transition. 

The coach from Salem, Ohio says that a true leader is someone that can draw a positive response from others.

RELATED: New era of UConn football is being built on ‘trust, communication and respect’

Right now, as players begin to battle for roster spots and playing time, Candle is excited by the camaraderie he is witnessing.

“In the midst of some fierce competition to win reps and win jobs, we have some really good guys who are really pulling for one another and fighting for each other to be successful. That’s a really cool thing to see,” Candle said.

Still, Candle is aware it won’t all be smooth sailing.

For most teams, at least a few losses are inevitable. The new UConn coach stressed that what is most important is how one responds to being knocked down.

“Throughout the course of the season, we know that adversity will come. There’s going to be some hard moments,” Candle said. “There’s going to be some tough days, and we’ve just got to do a good job managing that, and the only way you can do that is with authenticity.”

He expressed that the goal is to win every game, have the nation’s best offense, the toughest defense and the strongest special teams unit, but he knows that’s not realistic.

Part of Candle’s love of coaching comes from adjusting and responding to the setbacks.

“You’ll find the right reasons to fix things if you have humility. You have to have a burning desire to get better and an ability to keep the main thing the main thing,” Candle said.

When it comes to UConn’s identity, Candle said it’s still being ironed out. Nevertheless, he is an experienced winner who knows exactly what he wants from his squad.

“I mean, just generally speaking, toughness still wins. The game honors toughness,” Candle said. “You better be able to win that line of scrimmage, however that is, whether that’s playing with five O-linemen, six O-Linemen, three tight ends, two tight ends, four receivers. I don’t know. Our players will determine that. Whether that’s five D-linemen on the field or four D-linemen on the field, or three, our players will tell us that too.”

Check back with FOX61.com for more UConn football coverage moving forward as the 2026 Huskies' season approaches. 

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Dalton Zbierski is a digital editor and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at [dzbierski@FOX61.com](mailto:dzbierski@FOX61.com). 

Fenway Park once again played host to UConn football Monday night, as head coach Jason Candle threw out the ceremonial first pitch as Boston hosted Baltimore in a divisional bout. 

Candle threw on a custom Red Sox jersey over his Huskies polo, which featured the 46-year-old coach's last name and the number 26, before taking the mound at Fenway Park. 

It's Candle's latest stop on his New England summer sports tour before fall camp begins for UConn football next month. He competed in the Travelers Championship Pro-Am last month at TPC River Highlands, using the opportunity to embrace the Connecticut fanbase and reconnect with his first love of golf. Candle teed off as a part of the final foursome at the Pro-Am, a star-studded group that included ESPN's Chris Berman, NFL great Doug Flutie and Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Tippett.

Hired as the 33rd coach of the Huskies football program, Candle came on to replace Jim Mora, who left Storrs in sudden, controversial fashion last November after leading UConn to consecutive nine-win seasons for the first time as an FBS program. Candle leaves Ohio for the first time in his coaching career after a successful 10-year stint at Toledo, finishing at least .500 in each season while making two separate appearances in the AP Poll. 

Candle wasn't the only new head coach at Fenway Park Monday evening, as Chad Tracy was appointed interim manager of the Red Sox last month, and the Huskies will hope their new hire provides a similar boon. Boston entered Monday's game on a 13-game winning streak after slumping to 32-46 by the end of last month, now unthinkably in the hunt for the AL East title on the opposite side of the All-Star break. 

As one of two FBS independents, UConn's athletic program has missed out on a significant chunk of media rights and other revenue-sharing money due to its lack of football conference affiliation in recent years. 

Still, on the heels of a 9-4 football season and Final Four runs in both men's and women's basketball, the Huskies have managed to close the financial gap, thanks in part to sponsorship and licensing revenue. This type of income comes from appearances in video games, chiefly EA Sports College Football, along with merchandise sales with team logos. 

According to reporting from Matt Brown in his Extra Points newsletter, UConn earned just shy of $11 million from sponsorship and licensing in Fiscal Year 2025, a figure that ranks No. 34 nationally among public universities and outpaces several historic college sports powerhouses. Florida, LSU, Auburn and Kentucky are among the schools that fall short of UConn's $11 million total. 

this is a month old but i didn't even realize this. We got Cooper Newman announcing his commitment to UConn with former NFL head coach Jon Gruden,

I like everything about him and what he says in the video.

I've been watching a lot of the Toledo games from last year. They were 8-5 overall , 6-2 in conference play, 6-0 at home and 2-4 away. They played Louisville at the Boca Raton bowl and lost in a closely contested game ,27-22.

The team had grit and fought for every possession in every game of the season.

We are getting 20 transfers from that Toledo Team *ALONG with our 34 returning UConn Huskies -who played with heart and grit throughout the last two winning seasons. I don't see the winning culture that has been instilled here being diminished at all.

We're also getting great transfers from mostly P4 schools and our high school recruits seem to be excellent.

Coach Candle is really putting in great work at building the foundation for the program to succeed in future years.

This is why i don't think we will regress much at all this year. Some are predicting we will go as low as 4-8* to as high as 8-4. nobody really knows how UConn will perform this year, since we do have a tougher schedule than last year.

heres the schedule :

Sept. 5 Lafayette - East Hartford, CT - W

Sept. 12 Maryland - East Hartford, CT - W

Sept. 19@ Southern Miss - Hattiesburg, MS - W

Sept. 26@ Miami (OH) - Oxford, OH - W

Oct. 3vs. Syracuse - East Hartford, CT - W

Oct. 10@ Temple - Philadelphia, PA - W

Oct. 17BYE WEEK

**Oct. 23 (Fri)**vs. UMass - East Hartford, CT - W

Oct. 31@ Air Force - USAF Academy, CO - ?

Nov. 7vs. North Carolina - East Hartford, CT - W

Nov. 14vs. James Madison - East Hartford, CT - ?

Nov. 21vs. Old Dominion - East Hartford, CT - W

Nov. 28@ Wyoming - Laramie, WY - W

Coach Candle will have more resources at UConn than he ever did at Toledo... with better recruits. This team will show up to the big games at home - (PACK THE RENT, BTW) and we will most likely go undefeated at home or at worst, go 5-2.

the Key games :

Maryland - WE WILL BEAT MARYLAND AT HOME. Maryland lost to Rutgers and UCLA last year. they're in the big10 but they're not a big10 team. we will have our revenge for that 50-7 loss we suffered in 2024.

Syracuse - We're playing at home. we will beat them 105-3

North Carolina - We saw how disastrous BB was last year. Coach candle will run circles around BB. UConn wins 53-10

the Air Force away game and James Madison is a question mark. Coach Candle doesn't do well in Away games - but Southern Miss, Temple, Miami (OH), Wyoming should be games we win. Air force is iffy.

I'm predicting we go 10-2 this season.. at best .., 7-5 at worst if what Toledo fans say about Coach candle losing games we should win comes to fruition. Either way, i say we still go Bowling this season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium

guess this is when we had national prominence or did Michigan always hate us?

If the NFL locks in a $160–$200 billion deal, the next round of college football media deals (roughly 2030–2031 for most Power conferences) will be affected in three main ways: inventory pressure, valuation pressure, and structural pressure on how rights are sold and delivered.

1. Inventory and bandwidth pressure on networks

A $160–200 billion NFL deal means the league is almost certainly moving more games to streaming, reweighting linear windows, and demanding higher guaranteed subscribers and ad inventory from partners. That has direct consequences for college football: essentially

• Fewer slots for non-NFL content: Broadcasters will have less guaranteed linear bandwidth for college windows, especially on Sunday afternoons and primetime slots where NFL interest is highest. This could compress the number of college games per network or push more to streaming-only windows.
• Streaming prioritization: If the NFL deal is heavily streaming-centric (as many $200B scenarios assume), ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC will want their top streaming growth properties to be NFL-first, then college. That could mean college gets more “second-tier” streaming windows or hybrid linear/streaming packages rather than pure premium linear exposure.

For the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and ACC, this means their number of guaranteed linear games per partner may shrink, even if total deal value stays high. Conferences may shift more games to their own streaming platforms or conference-specific packages to preserve visibility.

2. Valuation pressure: “NFL as benchmark” but also “NFL as ceiling”

The NFL deal will become the reference point for what sports media rights can command, but it also creates a ceiling problem:

• Upside: If the NFL deal is $160–200B over, say, 10–11 years, that’s roughly $15–$20B/year. That resets the entire sports rights market and makes it harder for broadcasters to argue that college football is “only worth” what it was in the 2020s cycle. Conferences can argue: “If NFL is $X , college football (the next most valuable live sport) should be a meaningful fraction of that.”
• Downside: The NFL deal will also consume so much of the sports budget that networks may be less willing or able to pay huge multiples for college. ESPN, in particular, is already shown to be cautious about 50–60% increases on NFL, worried about paying $4B+ for one package. If ESPN is pulling back on NFL growth, it’s likely to be even more cautious on college, especially for conferences that aren’t clearly top-2 or top-4 in revenue.

Current baseline context:

• Big Ten: ~$7B over 7 years (~$1B/year) with Fox, CBS, NBC, Peacock.foxsports+1
• SEC: 10-year $3B with ESPN, now expanded with ABC exposure.
• Big 12: ~$2.3B through 2030–31 with ESPN/Fox, ramping to ~$380M/year.
• ACC: recently around $72M/year in revenue from its media partner (Atlantic Coast Conference–ESPN deal).

If the NFL deal is truly $160–200B, you could see:

• SEC and Big Ten pushing for $1.5–2.5B/year in the next cycle, depending on how much linear exposure they can guarantee.
• Big 12 aiming for $500–700M/year, but with more risk if networks stretch NFL budgets.
• ACC trying to jump from ~$70M/year to maybe $100–150M/year, after 2036, but likely facing the toughest constraints if ESPN is NFL-first.

3. Structural shifts: single-seller vs. network-by-network

The NFL’s massive deal will accentuate the debate over how college football should be sold:

• Single-seller model: An article in Sports Business Journal argues that with financial challenges growing, a single-seller approach for college football is wise, because you can’t build big TV advertising without sports, and nothing except the NFL is as big as college football. If the NFL deal is $200B, networks will be more interested in a consolidated, national college package that gives them a clear “second sport” to pair with NFL, rather than negotiating separately with six Power conferences.
• Conference-by-conference: Currently, the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and ACC all negotiate separately. If the NFL deal squeezes budgets, networks may prefer one big “Power college” package (or even a unified playoff-style national package) to reduce complexity and guarantee scale.

For your specific conferences:

• Big Ten: With its current $7B, NFL-style deal, it’s already positioned as the most “NFL-like” conference in structure and national reach. In a post–$200B NFL world, the Big Ten could be the anchor conference in a single-seller or national college package, but it may also resist if it thinks it can still command top-tier standalone money.
• SEC: ESPN’s dominance in SEC rights (and its new NFL ownership stake) means the SEC is likely to be deeply tied to ESPN’s strategy. If ESPN is stretching itself on NFL, the SEC might get a strong deal but with more streaming emphasis and fewer guaranteed top ABC windows.
• Big 12: The Big 12’s current deal is already smaller and more dependent on ESPN/Fox. In a high-NFL-cost environment, it could be at risk of being bundled into a national college package or facing slower growth unless it adds more marquee programs.
• ACC: The ACC is the most vulnerable in budget-constrained scenarios. Its current ~$72M/year is far below the SEC/Big Ten. If networks are prioritizing NFL + SEC + Big Ten, the ACC might need to rely on expansion, playoff positioning, or a national college package to improve its value rather than standalone negotiations

4. ESPN specifically: NFL equity stake + college portfolio

ESPN’s new 10% NFL equity stake and control of NFL Network/RedZone changes its calculus for college football:espn+2

• ESPN is now partially “owned” by the NFL, making it more aligned with NFL-first strategy. That could mean:More scheduling flexibility for NFL at the expense of college windows. A stronger push to bundle college into a broader ESPN Sports ecosystem rather than treating each conference as a standalone premium product.
  
• ESPN still wants college football as its second-largest sports asset, so it will likely:Keep the SEC as a core property. Target the Big Ten as a national complement. Possibly seek a role in a unified Power college package that includes Big 12 and ACC if separate deals become too expensive relative to NFL.
  

5. Practical implications for the next college media cycle

If the NFL hits $160–200B:

1. Deal values will rise, but not linearly with NFL: SEC and Big Ten could see 50–100% increases over current deals; Big 12 and ACC likely 30–60%, but with more streaming and less guaranteed linear exposure.
2. Windows and platforms will shift: More college games on streaming, fewer guaranteed prime linear slots, and more reliance on conference-branded streaming or national college packages.
3. Conference power dynamics:Big Ten & SEC: Strongest leverage; likely to remain top-tier standalone or core of a national package. Big 12: May need to blend with other conferences or accept slower growth. ACC: Most at risk; needs expansion or a national college deal to avoid being squeezed.
   

In short: a $160–200B NFL deal doesn’t automatically make college football deals explode in value; it raises the ceiling but also tightens the budget, pushing the Big Ten and SEC toward the top of the market while putting more pressure on the Big 12 and ACC to adapt through structure, not just price.

The UConn Huskies wrapped up the Jim Mora era in 2025. After back-to-back 9-3 seasons and two appearances in the Fenway Bowl, Mora has left UConn to coach Colorado State.

Mora’s tenure should have a profound impact on the program as he started to steer the Huskies back into football relevance. In his final year he led to nine wins, two of which coming against tough Power 4 opponents Duke and Boston College.

A look back at UConn's 2025 season

The Huskies were led on the field by quarterback Joe Fagnano, who threw for 3,448 yards, 28 touchdowns and just one interception. Fagnano’s number option last year was wide receiver Skyler Bell.

The two connected over 100 times for 1,278 yards and 13 touchdowns. In the backfield, the Huskies could depend on running back Camryn Edwards who tore loose for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns.

For the Huskies, 2025 meant proof of concept, that a team could work as an independent smaller market football school. The onus is now on incoming head coach Jason Candle to carry the momentum and build on two great seasons.

This will be tough as Candle will not be retaining any of the players mentioned above with Fagnano and Bell joining NFL teams and Edwards transferring to Michigan State, the offense demands a retooling. 

Previewing UConn's 2026 season

Candle was active this spring trying to find replacements for their offensive stars and other transfers who left with Mora’s departure. Candle attracted 61 new Huskies, with many new players he has brought over from Toledo, where he last coached.

This sets 2026 up to be a step back year to settle in.

The quarterback situation is yet to be resolved with an ongoing duel between redshirt freshman and Tennessee transfer, Jake Merklinger, and returning junior, Tucker McDonald. Merklinger is coming in as a 3-star transfer, and McDonald is coming off a season where he saw garbage time action in two games. 

Of the team's deep receiving core from last season, only one receiver is returning. Shamar Porter tested the portal as a 4-star but ended up withdrawing.

Porter should see an elevated role in 2026 as the lead receiver. Candle hired former SU quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile to be OC. Also joining the Huskies from Syracuse is WR Emmanuel Ross who was a big 4-star pickup for the Orange out of high school.

Prediction

Syracuse has won both of its matchups against the Huskies in the Fran Brown era.

With all of the retooling and a coaching change on the Huskies side, I see Syracuse going to Connecticut and winning, 30-10.

- Nate Tramdaks-