STORRS – Until 2024, it had been 13 years since the UConn football team had a top-100 scoring offense in the FBS.
Before that, there were 10 straight seasons where the Huskies were in the top 100 from 2002 to 2011, including the 2003 team that QB Dan Orlovsky led to have one of, if not the most exciting brand of offensive football UConn has ever played, ranking 17th nationally at 34.0 points per game.
Those numbers weren’t sniffed again until last fall, when Joe Fagnano, Skyler Bell and Cam Edwards continued the momentum of the 35th-most potent offense in 2024 with the program’s highest-scoring FBS season of all time at 35.3 points per game in 2025, good for 15th in the country.
For new head coach Jason Candle and his staff, 2026 will be about keeping the momentum and generating some of their own.
“I think it’s critical,” he said at the program’s media day on July 23. Fall training camp will begin August 5, a month before the season-opener against Lafayette. “Ultimately, though, I think we have to define that in what’s realistic terms for this team. Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games. So our successes, or this program’s successes – or failures, either way – have no impact on what is going to go on here when this ball gets kicked off in September…
“Once I got the job, being able to come and watch bowl practice, watch guys run to the ball on defense and watch these players – some of the fundamental things that I think are critically important to be successful in football, they had them,” Candle said. “We don’t want to lose that momentum from that standpoint of it, but we’ve got to be able to figure out where we can put things in place in order to enhance and make it better. Ultimately that’s our job, to try to move the product forward.”
As the program well knows, it won’t be so simple to replace Fagnano, Bell and Edwards; the first UConn trio to ever compile at least 3,000 passing yards, 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 rushing yards in the same season.
But Candle has a strong track record. In 10 years as head coach at Toledo, with two different offensive coordinator set ups since he was promoted from the role in 2016, his teams never ranked outside the top 75 in scoring, let alone the top 100.
Here are five questions that face Candle and new UConn OC Nunzio Campanile ahead of fall camp:
Who will start at quarterback? Is there a favorite entering camp?
Another QB competition will take place in Storrs this August, and UConn has options.
Kalieb Osborne, effective in his first college start at the Boca Raton Bowl, has transfered from Toledo to UConn, where the quarterback competition figures to be fierce. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
Former Toledo quarterback Kalieb Osborne figures to come in as the favorite to win the job having begun his college career with Candle and the Rockets. He made his only career start as a freshman in the Boca Raton Bowl against Louisville, where he completed 17 of 28 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown, while also running 18 times for 77 yards. Campanile referred to “K.O.” as a “phenomenal athlete” who is “about as gifted a thrower as I’ve ever been around,” and he knows what Candle is looking for.
Tennessee transfer Jake Merklinger is expected to make it a tough competition, however. A four-star recruit out of high school, Merklinger was the third-string QB at Tennessee as a freshman and the backup to Joey Aguilar last year. He played in six games over the two seasons, completing 19 of 33 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, no interceptions. More of a pro style QB but capable on the move, Merklinger has 11 career carries for 38 yards.
Other options include Tucker McDonald, the Holden, Mass. native who has been with the program since 2023, and Bo Polston, the first recruit Candle flipped from Toledo after he took the job and a freshman who’s made a strong immediate impression.
“Who gives us the best chance to win?” said Campanile, who was previously the QB coach at Syracuse. “When you take those talents and put them together, take some of those leadership skills and put them together, guys that make great decisions, deliver the ball accurately and on time, obviously you want them to be able to extend and make plays. But I think in the end it’s like, who helps us move the ball the best and puts us in the best position to win games, that’s kind of the quarterback’s job.”
What is the overarching philosophy from offensive staff?
Nunzio’s philosophy at the quarterback position, in lockstep with Candle, translates to the rest of the offensive operation. So the new system won’t be totally defined until the staff has a firm grip on understanding the talent it has to work with.
“We all believe very strongly that so much of it is built around what the players are capable of,” Campanile said. “Who ends up being the starter (at QB) will have an impact on the way you see some of those things play out. There’s so many different ways to do it, things that I think you’ll definitely see are, like, we’re going to be committed to being balanced, to running the football, to being physical and a tough team. But we’ll be multiple in personnel, depending on which guy is standing back there, how much we choose to run the quarterback as opposed to throw it, drop back and RPO stuff, some of that kind of remains to be seen.
“One thing I love about the system,” he continued, “is it has the ability to adjust based on the players that are on the field, and I think that’s critical at all levels of football, but it’s certainly critical in today’s college football where your roster changes so much, so quickly. I think the system is really easily adjusted to the guys that are on the field, and that includes injuries over the course of the season.”
Toledo running back Kenji Christian (10) rushes against the Akron during an NCAA football game on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)
How does the new running back room look?
Cam Edwards took 52% of UConn’s carries last season. But the Norwalk native moved on to Michigan State after his 1,240-yard campaign, second-string Mel Brown followed Jim Mora to Colorado State and Bristol native Victor Rosa moved on to Ohio.
Kenji Christian figures to fill that lead role this year after serving as Toledo’s second-stringer last season and taking 105 carries for 528 yards and four touchdowns.
But the staff would like to have a solid rotation to keep players fresh, and it seems they have the talent and the versatility of skill sets in the room to do so.
“It’s a great room. You look at a guy like Kenji, he’s kind of like an every-down back that you feel like he can pound the ball, he’s got speed, you could use him as a receiver,” Campanile said. “Cyncir (Bowers) has got elite speed, but he does have great vision, he’s physical, I think he can line up all over the field. Trey Cornist is a big guy, he had a great spring, it took him a couple practices to get comfortable and then all of a sudden you see him, the guy’s like a bowling ball of butcher knives. You don’t want to tackle that guy. And I had the opportunity to coach Jaden Hart for a couple years, he’s a really versatile back, he can do a lot of things, catch the ball, he can block. All of these guys bring something to the table.”
Can an all-new offensive line mesh in time?
The mass exodus of offensive linemen began at UConn before last year’s bowl game, when Ben Murawski (Michigan State), Carsten Casady (West Virginia) and Brady Wayburn (UCF) chose not to play. Ultimately, every offensive lineman who started a regular season game for the Huskies last year is gone, except for one.
Ty Chan, a guard who came into the program last year from Notre Dame, has stepped into a major leadership role after meeting with Candle and deciding to stay. Now he’ll just need to figure out who is playing next to him and, again, the staff is confident in its options.
“I think the biggest thing is going to be developing continuity,” Campanile said. “I think we’ve got at least 10 guys that are ready to contribute and play… Coach (John) Morookian has done an awesome job of working with those guys, just getting the foundation, the fundamentals, I think that’s going to be a critical part of it. But we’ve got plenty of talent in there, and then we’ve got some young guys that are going to come along as the season goes. I think we’re, right now, ready to be like a two-deep O-line room, which is pretty good, with some young guys behind them that are gonna get some reps in camp.”
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How do you replace Skyler Bell’s production?
Don’t expect UConn to have another Biletnikoff Award finalist or a first team All-American receiver this season. Skyler Bell’s 2025 campaign was special. But UConn doesn’t necessarily have to recreate it.
Toledo transfer Ryder Treadway stood out as a high-target option during the Huskies’ spring game and is obviously a talent who Candle liked after seeing him catch 13 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman. JD Willoughby is another Toledo transfer to watch, though he only caught two passes for 26 yards across two seasons with the Rockets, and so is Zy’Marion Lang, who had four catches for 60 yards and two scores for the Rockets in 2024. Other potential difference-makers include returning Husky Shamar Porter, as well as Ky “Flash” Wilson, Cam Abshire and speedster Emanuel Ross.
“I don’t know that we’re ready to say who those guys are gonna be yet, but I do think that we’ve got plenty of talent,” Campanile said. “It’s just gonna be who rises to the occasion when the opportunity comes.”