Jason Candle’s first fall camp at UConn opens this week, and the new Huskies head coach arrives with a lot already in motion.
Since being hired in December, Candle has pieced together his first FBS staff, brought in roughly 100 players to build out the roster and watched that group start to come together through winter workouts and spring ball. Now the real test begins: four weeks of camp to get this revamped team ready for its Sept. 5 opener against Lafayette at Rentschler Field.
Candle inherits a program that has spent the last two seasons showing it can handle business and stay in games that once would have spiraled. UConn is coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons under Jim Mora, and Candle’s job is to keep that momentum rolling after a decade at Toledo without a losing season.
The schedule will demand it. Phil Steele rated UConn’s slate 111th-most difficult among 138 FBS teams, and the Huskies face a clear jump in degree of difficulty.
Maryland comes to East Hartford in Week 2, the first of three power-conference opponents on the schedule. Syracuse visits on Oct.
3, North Carolina comes in on Nov. 7, and James Madison - fresh off a trip to the College Football Playoff - is set to visit on Nov. 14.
UConn also has road trips to Miami (Ohio), Southern Miss and Wyoming.
Before any of that matters, though, the Huskies have to settle a handful of major questions on both sides of the ball.
The biggest one sits at quarterback, where the race is expected to come down to Toledo transfer Kalieb Osborne and Tennessee transfer Jake Merklinger. Returning Husky Tucker McDonald is still in the mix, and freshman Bo Polston has also turned heads, according to offensive coordinator Nunzio Campanile.
Osborne may have a slight edge because he already knows Candle’s system. The sophomore’s only career start came in Toledo’s bowl game against Louisville, a game Candle did not coach, but he did appear in six games before that and finished his freshman year 32 of 52 for 427 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. He also brings real value as a runner, with 51 carries for 282 yards and two scores.
Merklinger offers a different look. The former four-star recruit is more of a pro-style quarterback and spent his first two seasons at Tennessee buried on the depth chart before backing up Joey Aguilar last fall. The Savannah, Georgia, native has completed 19 of 33 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns in his career and added 11 rushing attempts for 38 yards.
The backfield is another spot that still needs sorting out, though Toledo transfer Kenji Christian is expected to lead the running back group. UConn also has to firm up its offensive line, while the receiver room has room for impact production, with Toledo transfer Ryder Treadway projected as a high-volume target.
Defensively, the front seven looks like a real foundation piece. UConn has the most FBS-level experience on the line and at linebacker, where K’Von Sherman stands out as the leader after posting 93 tackles last season at Toledo.
There will be plenty of competition in the secondary, especially with the Huskies moving to a 3-3-5 under defensive coordinator Ryan Manalac. Ten transfers are in the mix for playing time back there. Safety Braedyn Moore is one of them; he was on the same Wisconsin roster in 2023 as former Huskies Skyler Bell, Nick Evers and others, and last season at Toledo he recorded six tackles in five appearances.
Those battles start getting sorted out this week when UConn opens camp on the newly resurfaced practice fields in Storrs and finally puts the pads on.
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