UConn football takes to Southern Miss for first road game under Jason Candle: How to watch

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All eyes will be on the state of Mississippi this college football Saturday.

Coach Lane Kiffin will be making his much-anticipated return to Oxford after leaving Ole Miss for LSU while on the verge of a College Football Playoff appearance last season. It is one of the the biggest games of the year thus far; a top-10 matchup with plenty of emotion involved.

And kicking off a half hour earlier, 250 miles south, UConn will take on Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg heat for its first road game under coach Jason Candle.

There won’t be any bad blood – it is the first time the teams have ever met – but there are still plenty of connections between the programs, which both opened their respective seasons under new head coaches with a dominant FCS win, followed by a lopsided power conference loss.

Southern Miss, which plays out of the Sun Belt Conference, opened with a 49-3 win over Alcorn State and followed with a 48-3 loss to Auburn.

Blake Anderson, the Golden Eagles’ head coach, beat UConn twice while he was leading Utah State, first in the first game of the Jim Mora era in 2022 and then a stunner at The Rent in 2023, when the Huskies lost on a last-minute blocked extra point. His history against Candle goes back to his six-year stint at Arkansas State (2014-2020), when he lost all three matchups against Toledo; the first two with Candle as offensive coordinator and the third after he took over as head coach.

Candle is also familiar with Southern Miss defensive coordinator Joe Bolden, who he’ll be calling plays against, as Bolden’s brother, Dan, played linebacker at Toledo and worked with the Rockets as a graduate assistant last season. Dan Bolden is now a defensive analyst at Syracuse and will visit UConn with the Orange on Oct. 3.

“They’ve done a good job in dealing with some of the issues having a program for the first year that we’re going through as well,” Candle said Monday. “I know it’ll be a stiff challenge, they’ll play really hard and we’ve got to go handle a road environment that I think will be a good one.”

Ethan Hampton, the Golden Eagles’ sixth-year quarterback, is no stranger to Candle, either. He played against Toledo as the starter for Northern Illinois in 2022 and lost, 52-32, after throwing four interceptions to eventual first-round NFL Draft pick Quinyon Mitchell; two of which were returned for touchdowns.

Through two games this season, Hampton has completed 31 of 50 passes for 326 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

“I think you can watch some of the tape and see the improvements. I mean, he’s much-improved since those days, and seems like he’s got a good command of what they’re asking him to do,” Candle said. “We’ve got to do a good job to try to affect him, just like we do every week with the QB. We didn’t do a great job of that Saturday (a 38-14 loss). We never really got to the QB from Maryland (Malik Washington) and made him get off the spot and get uncomfortable. And when he did make some uncomfortable throws, I mean, his receivers stepped up and made some huge plays for him.

“So anytime, it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, you want to try to disrupt the rhythm and timing of that passing game.”

Both offenses will be focused on running the ball after not seeing much success in that area last week. Southern Miss ran for six touchdowns in Week 1, including three from Steven Robinson, who went for 132 yards, and a pair from freshman Jamarice Wilder, who went for 90.

“They fly around,” said UConn linebacker Hayden Pegg. “They’re high energy, they’re going to run around, they’re going to make plays, and they’re a really physical team. So it’s gonna be a great challenge for us and I’m really excited because they’re really good.”

UConn’s running game, led by quarterback Kalieb Osborne and running backs Kenji Christian and Cyncir Bowers, will also be looking to make explosive plays against the Golden Eagles’ defense, which gave up 343 yards on the ground against Auburn last week.

“They’re very fast side-to-side, they’ve got a lot of agile linebackers, a good safety (Laquan Robinson). They definitely have a speed aspect,” Bowers said of the opposing defense.

Anderson’s thoughts on UConn

“They’ve kind of been through the same thing we’ve been. I don’t know a lot about Maryland in terms of what they’re capable of, but I know (Jason Candle) and have played against him and watched what he did at Toledo. Jason’s a phenomenal ball coach. They’ve built, I think, a really, really good roster. What we’ve watched, they’re well-coached, they’re playing extremely hard. He’s always had sound football teams, not a lot of crazy mistakes, you gotta earn it. You’ve got to beat them,” Anderson told reporters in Hattiesburg this week.

“I just expect it to be hard. They’re always big. I played UConn twice in the last five years, they’re physically very long and big… We’ve got to play hard, play fast, play out in space better than they do, make some plays in special teams and then really just try to mitigate the size. Size is going to be in their favor in most cases, and you’ve got to do that with effort and great, detailed execution.”

What to know

Site: Carlisle-Faulkner Field in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Time: 7 p.m.

TV: ESPN+ – Jason Baker, Larry Boyd

Friday morning line: UConn by 3.

Radio: UConn Sports Network, Fox Sports 97.9 – Adam Giardino, Wayne Norman, Michael Johnson

Record (2025): UConn: 1-1 (9-4), Southern Miss: 1-1 (7-6)

Series: First-ever meeting.

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