UConn’s first season under Jason Candle is still weeks away from kicking off at Rentschler Field against Lafayette, but the virtual version of the Huskies is already out in the wild.
EA Sports College Football 27, released earlier this month, gives UConn a 71 overall rating, with the offense and defense each sitting at the same mark. That’s the same number the Huskies carried in last year’s game before players like Joe Fagnano, Skyler Bell and Cam Edwards took off over the course of the real season.
The game has become part of the routine in college team rooms since CFB 25 brought the series back, and Storrs is no exception. UConn student-athletes across sports have been playing as the Huskies, and the men’s basketball team and its managers even built a long-running league of their own, run by Alec Millender and ruled for a stretch by Alex Karaban’s Northwestern dynasty.
For anyone willing to take over UConn in dynasty mode, the challenge is steep. The Huskies come with a smaller pool of dynasty points - or, in the game’s terms, a smaller NIL budget - and are labeled “very high” difficulty. Still, the setup offers a useful window into how the game sees Candle’s debut season.
The first thing that jumps out is Candle himself. He starts with a C+ rating, is tagged as a “Talent Developer,” and opens at level 34 of 100. The game’s expectations are clear: reach a bowl game within four seasons, beat UMass by three or more points and sign at least one recruit ranked three stars or better.
The roster is loaded with turnover, including nearly 70 new players Candle brought in this offseason. Only two Huskies are rated 80 or better: linebacker K’Von Sherman, an 84, and running back Kenji Christian, an 81.
Both followed Candle from Toledo. After that, the top end includes defensive tackle Esean Carter at 79, center Terrence Moore at 79, returning guard Ty Chan at 78, receiver Shamar Porter at 77 and MIKE linebacker Luke Murphy at 77.
To see where the game thinks this team is headed, a simulation of the 2026 season was run 10 times on Heisman difficulty. The best outcome came right away, when UConn went 10-3 and beat UTEP in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In that run, Tennessee transfer Jake Merklinger, rated 75 overall, completed 58% of his passes for 3,550 yards, 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
The low point came in the final simulation, when the Huskies lost to FCS East - the game’s stand-in for FCS teams like Lafayette - and finished 4-8. That was only the second time UConn missed a bowl in the 10-season sample. The other came in the fifth simulation, when the Huskies started 1-5, finished 6-6 and still got left out of the postseason.
Most of the results landed much closer to the middle. UConn averaged 7.6 wins across the 10 simulations, a slight bump from the 7.2 average in last year’s game. The Huskies reached eight bowls in the sample, including four trips to the Fenway Bowl and three to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
The game also had some clear trouble spots for UConn. Maryland beat the Huskies in all 10 simulations, Syracuse did it eight times, and North Carolina and Wyoming also showed up as tough outs.
Christian was the biggest individual force in the simulations, topping 1,000 rushing yards six times. Merklinger cleared 3,000 passing yards in six runs, with Ryder Treadway, Shamar Porter and Emmanuel Ross as his main targets.
In real life, Merklinger might not even be the starter when UConn opens the season on Sept. 5.
Candle and his staff will get a better read on the depth chart once training camp begins in August. But if the game is any guide, a season somewhere around seven wins - with 10 as the ceiling and four as the floor - would be a solid first step in Storrs.
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UConn Is Finally Reaching Jason Candles First Real Checkpoint
The first real checkpoint of Jason Candles UConn era is almost here, with the Huskies set to hold a media day on July 23 before the new coachs first season opener on Sept. 5 against Lafayette. Since UConn is not part of a conference-sanctioned media day, this will be the first public look at Candle and several of the newest roster additions, giving the program a chance to start shaping the conversation around a team that is still very much under construction.
There are plenty of early questions for a roster trying to find its footing in camp, from how the backfield shakes out to who steps into the production left behind at receiver. The July 23 session will not answer everything, but it should at least offer a clearer sense of where Candle thinks this team stands before the real work begins in earnest. [Read more 🡒]
Purdue Just Set Up A Brutal Test Before Visiting Hilton
Purdue has finished piecing together a nonconference schedule that should give it plenty of early pressure before Big Ten play starts, and the list is loaded with the kind of name-brand opponents that tend to tell you a lot about a team by December. Gonzaga, Iowa State, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Colorado are all on the slate, part of a lineup that includes eight teams that finished in the top 100 of last seasons NET rankings.
For UConn, the most relevant piece is the exhibition tie-in, since Purdue is coming to Connecticut before the regular season begins. The matchup adds another high-profile measuring stick to a program that has spent the last year setting the standard, and it also gives the Huskies a familiar kind of early test: a chance to see how they stack up against a major conference contender before the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]