The UConn Huskies hosted a formal introduction of their new football coach on Monday afternoon at Rentschler Field, with donors and university leadership present for Jason Candle’s first public remarks as UConn head coach.
UConn Radio’s Adam Giardino emceed the event, which started with remarks from university president Rakenka Maric before athletic director David Benedict introduced Candle.
“UConn football has momentum, and Coach Candle will build on that momentum in the years ahead,” Maric said. “There is true and unmistakable excitement about our football.”
Benedict shared that Candle was his top choice for the vacancy. He demonstrated a strong commitment to hiring the former Toledo head coach by heading to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to watch Candle’s Rockets end their season against Western Michigan.
“Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our story. It’s a new chapter for UConn football,” Benedict said. “We have unbelievable momentum that’s been built over the last four years, and we needed to find the next leader that was going to harness that momentum and take us to the next level, and we certainly have found that in Coach Candle.”
UConn’s AD also called out the contributions of Mike Burton, the former Husky player who Benedict said “has been the tip of the spear” since the onset of NIL. “We could not be more appreciative of his passion for this program, his desire to jump in and help us with anything we possibly need.”
Benedict joked that he took Candle and his wife, Nicole, in his car “for 10 hours” to show them “as much territory in Connecticut as we possibly could,” during a visit to campus last week, later clarifying the trip essentially went to West Hartford and back. He added that a dinner with Geno Auriemma may have helped close the deal.
“I like to be around winners, nobody’s done it as good as he’s done it,” said Candle, who played and coached at a Division III football program that enjoyed similar dominance as Geno’s Huskies. Candle was part of five national championship teams there as a player and coach from 2000-2008.
After taking the stage, Candle expressed his appreciation for this new opportunity and for the people who helped him succeed at Toledo. He also thanked Jim Mora for leaving behind a good situation.
“There’s coaches doing the same thing I’m doing today, and the program that they’re walking into is not very good. This is not the case here,” he said.
Candle went on to say he was impressed by UConn’s interest and the way Benedict engaged in the interview process, noting strong support from the school and state.
“I keep coming back to the alignment and the stability of what that looks like from the top down, and how a football coach or any coach can really parlay that success into success on the field,” he said.
He added that in the changing landscape of college sports, alignment and stability help breed success. But one thing Candle says remains intact is the commitment to young men and their families. Maric complimented the academic performance of Candle’s Toledo teams, and Candle said he was impressed by the opportunities available for student-athletes in Storrs.
“Winning’s hard, recruiting’s hard, retention has become incredibly difficult…it drives me crazy when I hear, ‘kids are different,’ or ‘kids have changed,’ I don’t believe that,” he said. “I think sometimes the traditionalists, they change… at the end of the day, kids want structure, they want support, they want a vision, they want to be able to stay connected to that vision.”
Candle’s first priorities are putting together his staff and getting in touch with current UConn players who intend to put their names in the transfer portal.
“I gotta hit the ground running around here, hire a coaching staff, we got to be able to get some relationships going with the current players, and we’ve got to be ready to roll when the transfer portal opens up in January,” he said.
Candle also expressed a commitment to high school recruiting, noting that retention has been a strength of his staff over the years.
“When you have that luxury, you’re able to retain them that way, it’s really easy to continue to cycle that high school player after high school player and really put raw energy into their development,” he explained.
While the long game is to keep pushing the UConn program to great heights, UConn’s new football leader also has his sights set on putting out a quality product next season.
“We have to be able to put a team on the field next year that’s highly competitive, yet not sacrifice what growth and development looks like for a four- or five-year run,” he said.
On the recruiting front, Candle said he wants to build “from the inside out,” meaning he wants to focus on the players available in the region and expand from there as needed.
He also added that his roots in Ohio may help him with recruiting players to Connecticut from that area. UConn has not had a ton of players from Ohio over the years, but has had many from neighboring regions in Western New York and Pennsylvania. Candle still plans to maintain a local focus.
“I think there’s underrated talent here [in Connecticut],” he said. “I think there’s untapped potential.”
One point many have been wondering about, related to this coaching search, is UConn’s future conference membership. Being independent has made sense, but it also has its drawbacks, including a lack of bowl ties, a less clear path to the College Football Playoff, 12 games that need to be individually scheduled each year, and fewer rivalries and opportunities for individual accolades. The MAC is one of the lowest-resourced conferences in FBS, but still offers some of those things.
“I don’t know what the future looks like for any of that,” Candle said. “I wanna be at a place where you can recruit young people that do it for the right reasons, have the resources to move forward, and if we have the success we think we’re going to have, we’ll know from there.”
Candle also shared that he does intend to bring in some guys from his previous Toledo staff.
He also re-emphasized how much of a priority it is to retain players who may be thinking of going elsewhere.
“We’ve got to earn those players’ trust. This is not my program. This is their program. They’ve put a lot of time and energy and sweat equity into building that,” he said. “We want to provide a vision and create an idea of what it looks like that would want them to stay, some will, some won’t, and then we’ve got to fill the holes that we lose.”
Candle’s recruiting was a strength of his at Toledo, and something he expects to continue as part of his formula for success at UConn. He had 11 NFL Draft picks as head coach of Toledo, and the team had six All-MAC first team selections this season, with eight players on the second or third team.
“We’ve had a lot of guys that developed through our program that weren’t very highly recruited players, really from all over the country,” he said. “I’d love to build it inside-out…we’ll tap into those relationships and try to build the best roster we can.”
