As part of what the calls the “craziest college coaching cycle” he can remember, UConn athletic director David Benedict found himself in the swirling wind and snow of Mount Pleasant, Michigan on Nov. 29, just days after head coach Jim Mora announced he was leaving UConn.
Benedict liked what he saw of Toledo head coach Jason Candle during the Rockets’ 21-3 shutdown of Central Michigan. About a week later, Candle, 46, is the new coach at UConn.
“What I saw (at Central Michigan) was everything that I expected,” said Benedict at a Rentschler Field press conference to introduce Candle. “A well-organized sideline, coaches, student athletes completing; a physical team; a team that’s capable of scoring and shutting people down.”
He says Candle is a fierce competitor, a trait that Benedict admires in other UConn coaches like Geno Auriemma and Dan Hurley.
Candle, coming off 10 years at Toledo where he built a record of 81-44, said he appreciates taking over a program that’s on the rise, as opposed to one that’s rebuilding.
“A lot of places, there’s coaches doing the same thing I’m doing today, and the program that they’re walking into is not very good,” said Candle. “This is not the case here. The team has done wonders in the last 24 months. Now, it’s a challenge of how you can take that and take it to the next step.”
UConn has a 9-3 record this season, and heads into the Fenway Bowl against Army on Dec. 27. Interim coach Gordon Sammis will be in charge for that game. (8-4 Toledo will play Louisville in the Boca Raton Bowl.)
Candle brought in strong recruiting classes at Toledo, and he expects to do the same at UConn, with a focus on building strong relationships with high school coaches and players in Connecticut. He says those relationships will be the “lifeblood of the program.”
“I think that (recruiting locally) goes a long way,” said Candle, “That creates a lot of buzz locally about your team. It puts people in the stands to watch their favorite high school player from their local cities.”
Candle’s teams at Toledo were heavily Ohio-oriented. Eleven NFL draftees on those teams included running back Kareem Hunt of Elyria, Ohio, a current star for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
The coach says he’s also been successful in retaining players, an increasingly difficult task in the days of NIL money and the transfer portal:
“We (at Toledo) were able to do an unbelievable job and as good a job as anybody in the country in retaining our athletes… Our guys don’t leave.”
He’ll get an early challenge in that regard as at least ten Huskies have announced their intention to enter the portal since Mora departed for Colorado State, according to Sports Illustrated—a typical move after a coaching change.