Countdown to Gametime On as UConn Launches New Era

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Jason Candle
will lead UConn onto the football field for the first time on Saturday when Lafayette visits the Huskies at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field
in East Hartford.

Game time is at
noon.

It’s a debut
that has been nine months in the making since Candle was hired
away from Toledo to replace the departed Jim Mora. The Huskies finished 9-4
last season, their second consecutive nine-win campaign.

But this is a new
Huskies team that will take the field on Saturday.

Gone to the NFL
are quarterback
Joe Fagnano and All-American wide
receiver Skyler Bell.

Leading rusher
Cam Edwards, a Connecticut native, took his 2,690 yards and 27 touchdowns amassed
in 36 games at UConn to Michigan State and the Power 4 spotlight.

And Mora, the
architect of a team that qualified for a bowl game in three of his four seasons
at UConn, is now walking the sideline at Colorado State.

New faces

Mora left the
program in much better shape, in general, than how he found it . But he didn’t leave Candle with a ready-made roster, giving
the new coach a chance to put his stamp on the program immediately.

Between
graduations, the transfer portal and the exodus of players – 19 of them — who
joined Mora in Fort Collins, Colo., Candle and his coaching staff needed to add
dozens of players to the roster and brought in 87. Among those additions are 60
players who came through the transfer portal, including 21 of them from Candle’s
Toledo program.

Offensive
lineman Ty Chan, named one
of four UConn captains, is the only starter returning from the 2025 team.

As of late
Thursday night, Candle had yet to name a starting quarterback.

About Lafayette

Players from the
small Easton, Pa., school traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to meet
Georgetown in a Week
0 opener for each.

The Leopards
will put their uniforms on for a second game on Saturday, but play in their
first game. How?

The Hoyas took a
13-7 lead at halftime in the rain,  but the game couldn’t restart because of lightning.
After a lengthy delay, the game was ruled a no-contest, with no current plans to
reschedule.

The Leopards are
coached by John Troxell, who is entering his fifth season with the school. The team finished 8-4 in 2025, and after the season, Troxell received a contract
extension through the 2031 campaign.

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