University of Connecticut Athletics
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Jason Candle becomes the 33rd head football coach in University of Connecticut history, poised to lead the Huskies into a new era of UConn football. Candle agreed to a six-year contract that will keep him at the helm through the 2031 season.
Candle concluded his 10th season as Toledo's head coach, guiding the Rockets to an 8-4 record in 2025. With 81 career victories, he was the winningest coach in school history, surpassing Gary Pinkel (1991-2000). Under his leadership, the Rockets won two Mid-American Conference Championship titles (2017, 2022), three MAC West Division crowns, and made seven bowl appearances.
No MAC team won more games than Toledo during Candle's tenure, and the program did not have a losing season in any of his ten years at the helm. He earned MAC Coach of the Year honors in both 2017 and 2023.
Candle's recent seasons were particularly impressive. In 2023, Toledo went 11-3 with an 8-0 MAC record—the first time in school history—and earned a Top 25 ranking for the first time since 2015. The following year, the Rockets defeated two Power Four opponents, including a 41-17 victory at Mississippi State and a thrilling six-overtime win over Pitt. In 2022, Toledo won both the MAC Championship and the Boca Raton Bowl, becoming the first Rocket team since 2001 to capture a conference title and bowl game in the same season.
His 2021 squad nearly added a signature win over Notre Dame, building a 29-24 lead in the final two minutes before falling to the seventh-ranked Fighting Irish, 32-29 — part of a season that still ended in a Bahamas Bowl appearance, Toledo's fifth bowl trip under Candle. Two years earlier, in 2019, Toledo notched non-conference wins over both BYU and Colorado State, while the 2018 squad rode a balanced attack — three 500-yard rushers and three 500-yard receivers — to a Bahamas Bowl berth of its own, with wide receiver Diontae Johnson earning MAC Special Teams Player of the Year honors before being drafted by Pittsburgh the following spring.
Candle's debut as head coach in 2015 was a memorable one in its own right: with only a partial coaching staff and less than three weeks to prepare, he led Toledo to a 32-17 win over No. 24 Temple in the Boca Raton Bowl. The following year, in his first full season, the Rockets won nine games and fielded one of the nation's most explosive offenses, setting a school record with 517.8 yards per game and sending quarterback Logan Woodside — the nation's leader with 45 touchdown passes that season — on to a seventh-round NFL Draft selection. That 2016 team also saw running back Kareem Hunt close out his career as Toledo's all-time leading rusher with 4,945 yards and tight end Michael Roberts lead the nation's tight ends with 16 touchdown catches; both were drafted in 2017, alongside defensive lineman Treyvon Hester.
Candle's rise through the offensive coordinator ranks from 2012-15 was equally productive, with Toledo ranking among the MAC's top offenses each season — including a conference-leading 490.5 yards per game in 2014, when center Greg Mancz won the league's Vern Smith Leadership Award as its top player. Running back David Fluellen earned first-team All-MAC honors twice during that stretch, and Toledo closed out the 2011 season, Candle's second as receivers coach, with a 42-41 Military Bowl win over Air Force — the program's first bowl victory in six years — as receiver Bernard Reedy took home game MVP honors.
Candle excelled at developing NFL talent, with 10 Toledo players selected in the NFL Draft during his tenure as head coach and 34 Rockets reaching the league overall under his leadership. Most notably, cornerback Quinyon Mitchell became the first Toledo player drafted in the first round in 31 years when Philadelphia selected him 22nd overall in 2024. Other notable NFL players included Kareem Hunt, who led the NFL in rushing as a rookie, and Diontae Johnson, a 2021 Pro Bowler who has over 4,300 career receiving yards.
Beyond on-field success, Candle built a culture of academic excellence and elite recruiting. The program surpassed a 3.0 GPA in nine seasons under his leadership, including a program-record mark in the spring of 2023, and earned a 94 percent Graduation Success Rate in each of the past two years. Toledo also ranked among MAC leaders in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate for seven of the past ten years the data was released, and was one of only seven schools nationally to earn the American Football Coaches Association's Academic Achievement Award in 2022.
Toledo recruited the No. 1 MAC class seven times during his tenure, including the 2024 class, which received the highest rating in MAC history and ranked ahead of several Power Four programs.
Before becoming head coach in December 2015, Candle spent six years as Toledo's offensive coordinator, helping build one of the nation's most productive offenses. His recruiting instincts were evident well before he took the top job — he was recognized nationally by Rivals in 2010 as one of the top recruiters among Group of Five conferences, and was named the MAC's Recruiter of the Year by Scout.com in both 2011 and 2012.
Candle's roots at Toledo traced back to 2009, when he joined the staff as slot receivers and tight ends coach. Among his early pupils was freshman Eric Page, who would go on to set a Division I-BCS record with 306 career receptions. Candle later coached the Rockets' wide receivers before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2012.
A 2003 Mount Union graduate, Candle played wide receiver collegiately at Geneva College before transferring to Mount Union, where he was a first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference selection and a member of national championship teams in 2000 and 2001. He began his coaching career at Mount Union in 2003 as receivers coach before being elevated to offensive coordinator in 2007, winning three Division III national championships across his six years on staff. His receivers room during that stretch produced two future NFL players: Pierre Garçon, who went on to an 11-year NFL career with over 600 career receptions, and Cecil Shorts, a fourth-round NFL Draft pick who caught 229 passes over six pro seasons.
His 15-year tenure at Toledo, first as an assistant and then as head coach, established him as the most successful coach in program history.
Candle, a native of Salem, Ohio, and a graduate of West Branch High School, and his wife, Nicole, have a daughter, Avery, and two sons, Cameron and Colton.
