STORRS — Jason Candle has come up for air, appearing at UConn men’s and women’s basketball games this week, settling in on campus. His first two months as football coach were, well, let’s say they were something else, a whirlwind of work.
“To get here, get moving, get rolling in a very challenging time in college athletics,” Candle said Wednesday, in his first meeting with state reporters since his introduction. “You have so many moving parts you have to get in place, having to put together a roster in a short amount of time. … I made the joke the other day, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever had to do this, and it’s the last time I’ll have to do it, too.’”
Just 58 days after arrived, Candle has signed 71 players– the last six incoming freshman were announced Wednesday– and hired 32 assistant coaches and staffers. He mined the transfer portal, migrated a number of coaches, players and recruits from Toledo, where he coached for a decade, and added new ones. Those numbers would usually suggest a demolition-down-to-the-studs rebuild, but the task of replacing Jim Mora didn’t require sledge hammers or dynamite. The job is to rebuild, reload, replace on the fly, keeping the momentum of back-to-back 9-win seasons going without a drop-off.
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There’s no way of knowing this frigid February how all these players and coaches will work out, but to get this much done in this short a time certainly shows high-level energy, high-level organization, unfathomable relentlessness. Where would one find a template for such a task?
“Roster construction is more an art than a science,” Candle said. “(Just because) something works at one particular place does not necessarily mean it’s going to work for another. There are some clear examples in college football of how people have done it the last two years, but there is another element to this in that these are uncharted waters. There is only one portal window, one crack at this. There is no going back, this is our team, there is no going back, so you have to be super-intentional in the month of January, keep your eyes focused on what you need to be focused on.”
So Candle, 46, couldn’t afford a flat-footed start. He figured out a blueprint and immersed in it, and he and UConn emerged with a staff and a roster that erased the uncertainty of a successful coach’s departure and provided a fresh blast of excitement and anticipation for the new season. And that’s as good a sign as one could see at this moment in time.
“You are who you are, if there is one portal (window), two portals, eight portals, none of it matters.” he said. “Ultimately, this is a job for you, this is a passion of yours, and when it stops being a passion of mine I won’t be doing it. You get up every day and try to add value, put value and energy in the right place. I’m just a firm believer, whatever you’re chasing, if you continue to add value to it, it can’t be kept from you. ”
You’ve probably gathered by now, there’s not much about Candle that is performative. This is a straightforward college football coach. He didn’t grab the mic and make a speech at PeoplesBank Arena, he just watched as the UConn men survived overtime and beat Villanova, the women broke out of a halftime tie to blow out Tennessee, the kind of moments he’d like to create across the river at Rentschler Field.
“There are some things I have a high level of respect for that I’ve come across,” Candle said. “Inside out on this campus, there are a bunch of highly intelligent people who are very passionate about their place, really want to be successful. You go through our athletic department, there are coaches who expect greatness out of their individual sport. That’s encouraging to be around. You want to surround yourself with winners, be around a place where nobody wants to be the weakest link. We have that kind of mentality. It’s reassuring that everybody’s moving in the right direction here.”
At Toledo, Candle operated with high school prospects, retention and development. The transfer portal will be more important going forward at UConn, it was the main procurement vehicle for Mora. The new coach jumped right in with 57 players coming to UConn from the portal, 21 from Power Four programs. Quarterbacks Jake Merklinger, from Tennessee, and Kalieb Osborne, from Toledo, figure to fight it out for the first string job.
Candle was willing to go outside his circle for coordinators for coordinators Nunzio Campanile, most recently from Syracuse, on offense and Ryan Manalac, from Pitt, for the defense.
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When he says he doesn’t plan to do this again, that could mean a few things. Candle, who spent his entire coaching career in his home state of Ohio, does not have a job-jumping reputation, but he was likely referring to his commitment to keeping and developing young talent working behind the more experienced players that will form the core of his first UConn team, so that future rosters are not a revolving door.
Like a human buzzsaw, Jason Candle has cut through his first task as UConn football coach, an impressive beginning, but only a beginning.
“Can you win big yet remain small? Can we stay humble enough to stay in our lane and do our thing?” he said. “… We’re trying to create a championship culture, championship team here. We did a good job, but I learned a long time ago, the easiest path to failure is to be impressed by your successes.”