UConn’s latest rebuild has already produced enough pain to test anyone’s patience. Two straight losses, both in heartbreaking fashion, can make a season feel like it’s slipping away. But that’s not how this story has to end.
Jason Candle is inheriting the same kind of long game Jim Mora once faced, and the early returns suggest UConn has a foundation worth trusting. The Huskies are 2-3 heading into Saturday’s game at Temple at 3:45 p.m. on ESPNU, and Candle’s staff has had to do a lot at once: bring in 71 new players, install both sides of the ball, and sort out the depth chart on the fly.
That kind of reset doesn’t come with instant polish. It comes with growing pains, and UConn has had plenty of them.
The Huskies dropped a 24-21 game at Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 26, then lost 42-41 in overtime to Syracuse last Saturday. Those are the kind of games that sting because they were there to be won.
Two issues have stood out most. The first is the explosion plays UConn has allowed.
Syracuse’s offense cashed in on a fourth-and-23 touchdown in the third quarter, then came through again on a fourth-and-17 in overtime for the winner. The second is the penalty problem: 44 flags for 409 yards through five games, which works out to 81.8 yards a game.
UConn’s opponents have been flagged 26 times for 260 yards, an average of 52 yards per game.
Even so, there’s enough here to see where Candle might be taking this team. The Huskies are averaging 441.2 yards per game on offense, and quarterback Kalieb Osborne has been a big part of that.
He doesn’t have the polish of Joe Fagnano, but he’s moving the offense. Through five games, Osborne has thrown for 1,164 yards and 10 touchdowns, and he ranks 39th in the nation in passing yards.
That’s a solid start for a first-year starter. Osborne’s performance against Syracuse was his best yet, as he set career highs with 314 passing yards, three touchdown passes and 39 attempts. He still has three college seasons left, including this one, so there’s room for the climb to continue.
It’s also worth remembering that UConn’s recent rise under Mora didn’t happen overnight. His first team in 2022 finished 6-6 in the regular season and then lost to end up sub-.500.
The next year, the Huskies went 3-9. After that came the breakout: two nine-win seasons, three bowl trips and a program that finally mattered again.
That’s the backdrop for Candle’s first season. Mora’s 2025 team opened 1-2 and then ripped off an 8-1 run to finish 9-3 in the regular season.
But that roster is gone now. Mora is at Colorado State, Fagnano and Skyler Bell are in the NFL, and Cam Edwards is at Michigan State, though the Connecticut native will miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury.
So UConn is building again. It doesn’t look finished, and it doesn’t have to be. The early frustration is real, but so is the blueprint.
In Other News...
Jim Calhoun Just Sparked A UConn All-Time Lineup Debate
Jim Calhoun spent part of a recent appearance on the Just In Time podcast doing what UConn fans never get tired of doing: sorting through the programs greatest names and trying to fit them into one impossible lineup. The former Huskies coach laid out a hypothetical starting five from his tenure, leaning on players who combined college stardom with long NBA rsums, and he framed the exercise around the kind of versatility that made his teams so hard to matchup with.
The debate starts almost immediately once the names come off the board, because the choices naturally leave out some familiar favorites from those Final Four and championship-era rosters. Calhouns view of the middle of the floor, in particular, says plenty about how he weighed skill and fit, and it gives UConn fans plenty to argue about while wondering where the biggest snubs belong in an all-time Huskies conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Misses On A Recruit With A Surprising Wildcats Connection
Floridas recruiting momentum kept rolling with a major addition in the frontcourt, as Todd Golden landed four-star center Kamsi Awaka, one of the more coveted bigs in the 2027 class. The 247Sports rankings slot Awaka as the No. 5 center in the group, and he backed up that billing on the adidas 3SSB circuit this summer with 13.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.
Awakas decision came down to how the Gators approached his recruitment, with Florida making him a clear priority and selling him on his long-term development. The commitment also closed the door on a strong list of suitors, leaving programs such as UConn, Arizona, Michigan and Michigan State still searching for their next target in the class. [Read more 🡒]
UConn's Early Progress Comes With One Alarming Problem
Through five weeks, UConn has looked like a program making real progress under Jason Candle, even if the record has not fully caught up yet. The Huskies are 2-3, but the offense has shown more life, with Kalieb Osborne giving them production both through the air and on the ground and Cyncir Bowers adding steady work in the run game.
The problem is that the defense has not matched the same upward curve, and the pass coverage issues have been hard to ignore. UConn is scoring enough to stay in games more often than not, but unless the secondary tightens up soon, the Huskies could keep finding themselves in shootouts where the early signs of progress are not enough to cover for what is happening on the other side of the ball. [Read more 🡒]