Jason Candle gets his first look at UConn in live action Saturday, when Lafayette comes to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford for a noon kickoff.
It’s a debut that’s been nine months in the making. Candle was hired away from Toledo to replace Jim Mora, and now he finally gets to unveil his offense and defense after taking over a program that finished 9-4 last season and posted its second straight nine-win year.
UConn, though, is not simply picking up where it left off. This is a different roster, and Candle has had to build it quickly.
Mora left for Colorado State, taking 19 players with him, and the turnover around the program forced Candle and his staff to reconstruct the depth chart. Between graduations, the transfer portal and that departure to Fort Collins, the Huskies added 87 players, including 60 from the portal.
Twenty-one of those transfers came from Candle’s Toledo program.
Even with all that movement, one of the biggest decisions remained unresolved late Thursday night: Candle had not yet named a starting quarterback.
Lafayette arrives with its own unusual opening to the season. The Leopards will be in uniform for a second game Saturday, but it will be their first official one after their opener against Georgetown was stopped in the rain. Georgetown led 13-7 at halftime before lightning forced a long delay, and the game was eventually ruled a no-contest with no plans to reschedule.
John Troxell is in his fifth season as Lafayette’s coach. The Leopards finished 8-4 in 2025, and Troxell received a contract extension through the 2031 campaign after the season.
In Other News...
Bill Belichick's UConn Return Suddenly Feels Far Less Certain
UConns November 7 meeting with North Carolina had already taken on an unusual feel, with Bill Belichick potentially making a return to New England as the Tar Heels head coach. For the Huskies, it is the kind of nonconference spotlight game that stands out on a schedule, even as they begin a new era under Jason Candle against Lafayette to open the season.
The backdrop around that game has gotten murkier in recent days, with North Carolina now under investigation and the situation pulling more attention toward the program than anyone expected. The uncertainty has also spilled into the Belichick family picture, leaving plenty of questions about how the coachs next steps could affect a matchup that once looked like a clear reunion date on the calendar. [Read more 🡒]
UConns LSU Matchup Just Got Easier For A Serious Reason
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Kovals departure carries a personal backdrop far beyond basketball, tied to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the toll it has taken close to home. She said the conflict has affected her family and her hometown, and LSU now moves ahead without one of the players it had expected to have, leaving a matchup with UConn a little less certain than it looked just weeks ago. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Football Still Has One Big Question Beyond The Rent Buzz
Last November gave UConn football a rare burst of electricity, the kind of moment the program can point to when it needs a reminder that meaningful Saturdays are still possible in Storrs. The Huskies now move into a new season under Jason Candle, and for a team that has spent years trying to define what success looks like as an independent, the broader questions still linger. In Connecticut, football has to live in the shadow of a basketball culture that measures itself by banners and expectations, so every step forward carries extra weight.
What makes this stretch interesting is that the Huskies are again trying to turn a program into something more than a placeholder on the schedule. The rent buzz around home games may give the place a little more life, but the real test is whether UConn can keep building a football identity that feels sustainable in a state where the sport has never owned the conversation. Candle inherits that challenge immediately, with the season opener serving as the first checkpoint in a year full of them. [Read more 🡒]