What should be expected of UConn’s offense when football season starts Saturday?

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

STORRS – There is a lot to be learned about the UConn football team, its 87 new players and almost 40 new staff members, once the Huskies take to Rentschler Field to begin the Jason Candle era on Saturday afternoon.

What is known is that Candle will be calling offensive plays and leaving the defensive play-calling duties to defensive coordinator Ryan Manalac.

“I’m an offensive coach and I’ve done this my whole career, so that’s my forte,” said Candle, who played receiver at Mount Union before spending his first 13 years in coaching on the offensive side of the ball prior to being promoted to the head job at Toledo in 2016. “I’m not going to mess with Manalac and what he does, that’s why he was hired, for him to come in and do a really good job of getting that unit ready to go, be an aggressive style of defense that’s going to cause havoc and make disruptive plays. I’m looking forward to watching those guys go.”

Dom Amore: Jason Candle is a coaching presence to suit the place and times at UConn

So what should be expected of Candle’s offense once it suits up to take on Lafayette, an FCS opponent that went 8-4 last year and also lost a number of key pieces this offseason?

Lead running back Kenji Christian said to expect explosive plays. One of several playmakers who came with Candle from Toledo, the head coach described Christian as a player who “feels like it’s his time” after dealing with injuries and adversity in his career to this point.

“He’s one of a couple guys in that room that can score a 70- or 80-yard touchdown, we’ve got to make sure we get a hat on a hat to allow them to have the room, the space and the creases to go do that, but yeah, he should expect to go play well,” Candle said of the senior. “(West Virginia transfer) Cyncir Bowers should go play well as well. I mean, those guys have had a lot of work in games, they’ve had a lot of at-bats. And there’s a couple other guys in there, too, that are up and coming that I think we’ll continue to push. That’s one of the rooms I think is pretty strong.”

UConn’s offensive line, with returner and team captain Ty Chan at the heart of it, has started to build the required chemistry up front in order to create those explosive opportunities. No depth chart has been released, though there is a good chance that Chan will be joined in the trenches by three Toledo transfers in center Terrence Moore, guard Raphael Greene-Nyarko and tackle Isiah Switzer with Christian Richter, a Marshall transfer, at the other tackle position.

The season opener is just days away, and UConn still hasn’t announced a starting QB

It isn’t clear yet who will man the quarterback position as Jake Merklinger, Kalieb Osborne and Tucker McDonald wrap up their competition this week, but whoever wins should expect to have a number of quality pass-catching options.

Shamar Porter, who’s beginning his third season in Storrs after transferring in from Kentucky, said the receiver room is as deep and as fast as he’s seen, with four or five players who run over 22 miles per hour. Fans should expect to see plenty of Ryder Treadway, who emerged a few games into his freshman season at Toledo and finished the year with 176 yards on 13 catches. Other names to watch include Zy’Marion Lang, JD Willoughby, Javon Brown, Cam Abshire and Ky “Flash” Wilson, who has missed time with an injury but should near return a few games into the season, among others.

“I think preseason camp, some of those competitive spring practices that we had, that really sets the table for what the foundation looks like,” Candle said. “But again, I’ll go back to the point: We’ve not been in a fight together yet. We’re going to get in one on Saturday, so we’ve got to make sure that our communication is key. We’re gonna have some moments of great success, I’m sure, and we’re gonna have some moments of failure, and the communication’s got to be consistent through both of those storms.”

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos