Dom Amore: Time for UConn football to show up or shut up as October arrives with visit from Syracuse

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The getting-to-know-your-team period is coming to an end, the newness and shininess of the new coaching era is fading away. Those were the September storylines for UConn football.

It’s October. We’re in it now.

“And all across the country,” coach Jason Candle said this week. “This is contenders vs pretenders.”

That’s an old phrase, and very apt for UConn’s fifth game of the season, with Syracuse coming to Rentschler Field to pose another power-conference test for the Huskies on Saturday at noon. A large crowd is expected, with about 30,000 tickets gone by Friday morning, decent weather on tap and, though it’s an early start, a full and full-throated student section should convene, stoked for the old rival Orange.

And for UConn (2-2), coming off a loss at Miami of Ohio in a game it seemed to have in hand, it’s a week to show up, or shut up. This may be harsh, but it’s life in the UConn football world of 2026. There are only so many opportunities to make a season meaningful, so it’s vital for the Huskies to make the most of this one.

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UConn has lost three times to Syracuse in recent years: a blowout at Rentschler, a somewhat competitive loss and then an OT loss last season at The Dome. The Huskies have been scheduling a lot of ACC teams, and have slowly proven the program could compete in that conference, if given the opportunity. That puts outsized importance on this game, and the one next month against North Carolina, as the victories over Boston College and Duke gave the 2025 season its luster.

To review, UConn began the season with a resounding win over FCS Lafayette, taking care of its business. Then the Huskies fell flat against the Big Ten’s Maryland, 38-14. The Terps have since lost two in a row at home, including 56-3 to UCLA. In the third game, UConn won impressively at Southern Miss, which is 1-3.

At Miami, where the Huskies were mild underdogs, an early 14-0 lead really raised hopes out in cyberspace that something special was brewing in Candle’s first year. That momentum turned on a dime and the Huskies missed their chances to put the game away, stem the tide, or pull it out on the last possession, losing 24-21.

So we’re here, first weekend of October, to find out: Are the Huskies’ pretenders or contenders — for what is another matter. The low bar is bowl eligibility, the higher bar is nine wins, cleared in 2024 and ’25. Last season, after discouraging losses at Syracuse and Delaware, the Huskies came home 1-2, but beat Ball State and began running off victories. The season before, UConn was beaten at Maryland and Duke, was also 1-2, then came home and turned the season around.

Candle noted that his team, with dozens of newcomers and a dynamic, if inexperienced Kalieb Osborne at quarterback, has to learn to bounce back from a bad play, not carry it into the huddle and turn one mishap into two or three.

“That’s on me to fix that,” Candle said. In the larger picture, the loss at Miami was frustrating, but it doesn’t have to define UConn’s season — unless it is followed up with a dud at home this week.

A third loss through five games makes a nine-win season highly unlikely and puts UConn on the bowl-eligibility bubble. With UMass off to a 4-0 start, this is not the season, for appearances sake, for the Huskies to take a big step back. If these sound like intangible, overly nuanced takes, so be it. This the nature of being an FBS independent fishing for a major conference invitation, games create perceptions for better or worse. Contender vs. Pretender, it’s relevance that hangs in the balance.

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The Orange, like UConn, is at its crossroads. Since the obligatory FCS rout, over New Hampshire in the season opener, Syracuse lost at home to Cal by three, and at Pitt by two TDs. There is nothing nuanced about the stakes for the Orange, or what a loss to UConn would mean for their season. It’s not likely the Huskies will see even a tad of complacency.

“We’re going to have to be at our best,” Candle said. “We’ve got to really grow from last Saturday.”

Self-inflicted setbacks have held the Huskies back so far, holding and pass interference penalties in particular, have negated big plays on both sides of the ball. Osborne’s ability to tuck the ball and make plays with his legs is a weapon that can make a difference for the Huskies in any game, including this one, but as Candle pointed out, UConn can’t live off their quarterback running.

As his experience builds, Osborne will have to speed up to match the speed of the game, make his decisions quicker, especially against this caliber of opponent. UConn fans were a bit spoiled watching Joe Fagnano and Skyler Bell operate the last couple of years; a quarterback’s development takes time, something that needs to be baked into expectations for UConn football in 2026.

No, the football season will not end if UConn loses today, even if its a bad, one-sided loss. Let’s not push that button just yet. But what kind of October and November can be expected? We’ll have a clearer picture by 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2.

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