{"id":251841,"date":"2026-09-03T07:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=251841"},"modified":"2026-09-02T13:42:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:42:58","slug":"a-drive-to-be-successful-a-conversation-with-coach-jason-candle-and-provost-pamir-alpay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/09\/a-drive-to-be-successful-a-conversation-with-coach-jason-candle-and-provost-pamir-alpay\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Drive to be Successful\u2019 \u2013 A Conversation with Coach Jason Candle and Provost Pamir Alpay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Academic success and extracurricular excellence go hand-in-hand, according to Jason Candle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that whether you\u2019re on campus, and whatever other extracurricular activity you\u2019re involved in \u2013 if it\u2019s athletics or something else,\u201d Candle says, \u201cyou 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you would have the understanding that you can\u2019t have one without the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
Coach Candle (UConn Athletics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a mentality that Candle is carrying with him to UConn in his first season as head coach of UConn football at Connecticut\u2019s flagship R1 public research university<\/a>, where student-athlete success is an integral piece<\/a> of its Division 1 athletic programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Candle brings with him 10 seasons as head coach at Toledo, 81 career victories, two Mid-American Conference championship titles, seven bowl game appearances \u2013 and an open mind after relocating to Connecticut with his family in June.<\/p>\n

Beyond a career of on-field success, Candle\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Success, Candle notes, is as much about mindset as it is about wins and losses \u2013 which he says aren\u2019t his primary focus as he takes the helm of UConn\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh achievement starts from how you wake up, what your process and what your routine is each and every day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not, \u2018Man I got an A on that test.\u2019 It\u2019s not, \u2018We won that game.\u2019 Because the next day is going to challenge you, there\u2019s going to be the next task, just like in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think there\u2019s 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\u2019s a real reason why we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Pamir Alpay<\/a> for a conversation about student-athlete success, recruitment, and expectations for the coming football season.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Alpay: <\/strong>You\u2019re new to Connecticut, right? How easy or difficult has it been for your family relocating here and joining the UConn community from Ohio?<\/p>\n

Candle<\/strong>: I think change, first of all, can be an intimidating thing, especially when you\u2019re in a place for a long time. But what has been such a pleasant surprise, and made for a smooth transition, is just the people. Everywhere you turn, whether it\u2019s in our community where we live, whether it\u2019s on campus, whether it\u2019s other people in the athletic department, there\u2019s strong support for this institution and a drive to be successful. And for anyone who is new to that, they want to help and engage, and it\u2019s been awesome for my family to feel that.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> That\u2019s excellent. That\u2019s great to know. You\u2019re originally from Ohio, and came here from Toledo, where you had tremendous success. What was your interest in joining UConn? What did you see here that made you think, “Hey, I want to be a part of that”?<\/p>\n

Candle:<\/strong> In college athletics, there\u2019s so many variables going on right now. I think the main thing is to find alignment, from administration to coaching staff to then, ultimately, student-athletes. We have a unique opportunity to represent the institution on a lot of platforms that many don\u2019t get to. We have the opportunity to take a place that\u2019s had some recent success and then try to make it even better.<\/p>\n

But I think what I found through the process is really \u2013 and I said this when I first got here \u2013 that this is a place that has a lot of highly intelligent people who are really passionate.<\/p>\n

Alpay: <\/strong>I remember your first interview.<\/p>\n

Candle:<\/strong> And I think if that\u2019s the starting point? Man, you can really do some special things if that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

So, in a world where the winds of change of college athletics can go a lot of different ways, you have the ability to steady the ship when there\u2019s great alignment and there are people who are passionate about their place on it.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> The changes within college athletics in terms of recruitment, your engagement with the transfer portal \u2013 how does that change from how thing were five or six years ago?<\/p>\n

Candle:<\/strong> It\u2019s very different, but I also do believe that you have to understand who you are and what you\u2019re trying to bring into your program. For us, we\u2019re still going to recruit really high-character people who value what a free college education can do for somebody in today\u2019s day and age.<\/p>\n

And then, ultimately, we want guys on our team who are really passionate about the sport of football, and love to go to work, and really love what I always say are the 353 days out of the year when there\u2019s not a game. We have to find people who are really, really good at that, because this is a long process to play only 12 guaranteed opportunities a year.<\/p>\n

So many sports play 30, 40, 50 contests in their season. We play 12.<\/p>\n

You really have to buy into that process, and I think that process is really reflective of what your future is when you start a career as a young graduate and, ultimately, what you want your life to be someday.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for in the recruiting process, and whether it\u2019s the transfer portal or whether it\u2019s bringing high school kids onto our campus, we really try to stick to that. We try to find like-minded people, like the people in our building and the people that we go to work with each and every day.<\/p>\n

Because I think, in football, adversity is going to show up, and it\u2019s going to show up often. The trick is that you don\u2019t know when it\u2019s coming. So, you want guys who really believe that this is the opportunity to grow, in those moments. Those tough situations aren\u2019t an indictment of their character, who they are, what they\u2019ve been, that they\u2019ve been going through. And they have the ability to rebound.<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019re looking for high-character individuals who are serious about their academics and who really love football. That\u2019s a starting point for us.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> I\u2019m glad that\u2019s the thought process you have in mind. I don\u2019t want to put you on the spot, but what should we expect for the first season? How do you see it playing out? And I\u2019m not talking about wins and losses, more about what you want to see on the field as you\u2019re putting this football team together.<\/p>\n

Candle:<\/strong> I think that the outside perspective would be that goals should be reflective of wins and losses. But I think that\u2019s a fixed mindset. And we can\u2019t talk about the process, we can\u2019t think about a growth mindset internally here if we start to approach things inside out, if you would.<\/p>\n

So, can we wake up every day and put our energy in the right place? Can we really keep the main thing the main thing and, at the end of the day, really have a burning desire for improvement?<\/p>\n

If we can master that process, and do a really good job with that, the days will stack, the weeks will start to fall into place, you\u2019ll have really good months, and then all of the sudden, you\u2019ll start to have a really good season. And those 12 opportunities that you get to go out there and compete in front of your fanbase will be a byproduct of a really good process. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re after.<\/p>\n

We want to keep that growth mindset and not fall into the “we want to win.” We don\u2019t want to fall into that trap of an ultimatum, where if you don\u2019t do these three things then you\u2019re viewed as a failure. That\u2019s never been my thought process. Because in college athletics, there\u2019s so many things that can go wrong, many of which are out of your control.<\/p>\n

So, we have to pay attention to, and put energy into, the responses to the moments, rather than it\u2019s either really good or really low, when it comes to what happened. That\u2019s been our thought process since we got here in January. You have the off season, you have spring practice, you have summer workouts, and now you have fall camp, and that leads into the season. I think our guys have done a good job understanding that the days do count.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> Excellent. So, you\u2019re working with student-athletes, and you\u2019re a role model to them on the field and off the field. How do you view academic success and success on the field? How do they correlate to each other in your mind as you\u2019re shaping the futures of our student-athletes?<\/p>\n

Candle:<\/strong> Great question. I\u2019m a firm believer that how you do one thing is how you do everything. I think most student-athletes aren\u2019t going sit here and tell you that they love school right off the start. They understand the importance of an education. They understand the importance of commitment to the process that allows them to have a meaningful degree. They understand that once their general elective classes get out of the way, then they can streamline into what they really want to be in their career, and their energy probably picks up, and their academics would reflect that.<\/p>\n

I think that whether you\u2019re on campus, and whatever other extracurricular activity you\u2019re involved in \u2013 if it\u2019s athletics or something else \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

And you would have the understanding that you can\u2019t have one without the other.<\/p>\n

High achievement starts from how you wake up, what your process and what your routine is each and every day. It\u2019s not, “Man I got an A on that test.” It\u2019s not, “We won that game.” Because the next day is going to challenge you, there\u2019s going to be the next task, just like in life.<\/p>\n

So, I think there\u2019s 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\u2019s a real reason why we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> One last question, and this is a recruiting question, actually. What advice would you give to students who are thinking about playing football at UConn? What is it that makes this place unique? What advice do you have for students who want to be getting involved more with athletics at this University?<\/p>\n

Candle: <\/strong>I think we\u2019re in a unique time. College athletics have just caught fire, and it has such a massive impact on a college campus. It draws attention in a lot of ways, and I think that you can really understand and use that platform in a positive way to impact the entire campus community, no matter what sport you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we have a ton of responsibility to put a great product on the field in those 12 opportunities that we have. But I think it\u2019s bigger than that. I think it\u2019s: can you leave Connecticut a better place than you found it? Can you consistently live by it? Do you always give more than you take? And can you really, at the end of the day, be who you said you were going to be?<\/p>\n

If you can follow those things, I think you\u2019ll be really successful in our program. And I think you\u2019ll be really successful on campus, because you\u2019ll leave a legacy here that will be remembered for way more than just what you did on a Saturday afternoon at 2:00.<\/p>\n

Alpay:<\/strong> I really appreciate the way you articulated that. Thank you, and welcome to UConn. Welcome to Connecticut. I know you\u2019ll be super successful here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn’s new head football coach says the foundation of achievement is built day by day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":251877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1712,2235,2225,2227,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2168],"class_list":["post-251841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 12:59:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251841"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252562,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251841\/revisions\/252562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/251877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251841"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=251841"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=251841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}