UConn's new head football coach says the foundation of achievement is built day by day
UConn Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay, right, and UConn Football Coach Jason Candle pose for a photo in Candle's office in the Burton Family Football Complex on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo)
Academic success and extracurricular excellence go hand-in-hand, according to Jason Candle.
"I think that whether you're on campus, and whatever other extracurricular activity you're involved in - if it's athletics or something else," Candle says, "you would understand that what you really love doing, coupled with the process of getting in and obtaining a degree that is really going to help you lay the foundation and give you the platform for what you want to be in your career someday, is critically important.
"And you would have the understanding that you can't have one without the other."
It's a mentality that Candle is carrying with him to UConn in his first season as head coach of UConn football at Connecticut's flagship R1 public research university, where student-athlete success is an integral piece of its Division 1 athletic programs.
Candle brings with him 10 seasons as head coach at Toledo, 81 career victories, two Mid-American Conference championship titles, seven bowl game appearances - and an open mind after relocating to Connecticut with his family in June.
Beyond a career of on-field success, Candle's culture of academic excellence on his rosters is nothing short of impressive. At Toledo, the football program surpassed a 3.0 GPA in nine seasons under his leadership and ranked among conference leaders in academic progress assessments.
Success, Candle notes, is as much about mindset as it is about wins and losses - which he says aren't his primary focus as he takes the helm of UConn's program.
"High achievement starts from how you wake up, what your process and what your routine is each and every day," he says. "It's not, 'Man I got an A on that test.' It's not, 'We won that game.' Because the next day is going to challenge you, there's going to be the next task, just like in life.
"So, I think there's a balancing act of, hey, I really have to be dialed into the details of what my particular sport or extracurricular activity is going to ask of me. But I also understand that there's a real reason why we're here. Because these cleats are going to come off someday and, ultimately, at the end of the day, this is an opportunity for you to pave a way to your future."
On a recent August morning, while his team did yoga on the indoor practice field at the Burton Family Football Complex in Storrs, Candle joined UConn's Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay for a conversation about student-athlete success, recruitment, and expectations for the coming football season.
