In 2025, the UConn Huskies opened the football season with a 1-2 record, losing consecutive heartbreakers in overtime.

Ex-head coach Jim Mora, with his trio of quarterback Joe Fagnano, running back Cam Edwards and All-American receiver Skyler Bell, led the Huskies to an 8-1 record over the rest of the 9-3 regular season.

Those four are gone – Mora to Colorado State, Fagnano and Bell to the NFL, and Connecticut native Edwards to the transfer portal. Edwards chose Michigan State and will miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury.

Mora’s replacement, Jason Candle, also finds his team on a two-game losing streak – again, heartbreakers – and one game under .500 (2-3) nearly halfway through the season and heading into their game Saturday at Temple (3:45 p.m., ESPNU). Candle and his staff have had the unenviable task of bringing in 71 new players, installing their offensive and defensive schemes, and figuring out a who-goes-where depth chart in a short period of time.

Despite a list of successes under Mora in his four seasons on the job – the Huskies won nine games twice, appeared in three bowl games and became relevant for the first time in a long time in his tenure – UConn officials could not have expected an instant duplication of results.

The 2026 Huskies are far from a finished product, but the pieces are there, and it’s easy to see a blueprint of what the Huskies could become under Candle. They have not quite put it all together, especially after losing two games in the past two weeks that they absolutely could have won: 24-21 at Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 26, and 42-41 in overtime against Syracuse last Saturday.

What must frustrate Candle the most? A couple of areas come to mind.

First, allowing the big plays. The Orange converted a fourth-and-23 for a touchdown in the third quarter, and a fourth-and-17 in overtime for the winning score.

Then, there are the 44 total penalties for 409 yards through five games, an average of 81.8 yards per game. The number of penalties and yardage per game are considerably higher than those of the UConn opponents – 26 total penalties for 260 yards, an average of 52 yards per game.

Quarterback Kalieb Osborne lacks the polish of his predecessor, Fagnano, but his play isn’t holding back the Huskies. For much of the 2025 season, Fagnano sat near the top of the NCAA FBS statistics in passing yards and efficiency. While Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft choice Fernando Mendoza of Indiana led the nation in passing efficiency, Fagnano was ninth. And the UConn QB1 tossed only one interception on the season and didn’t lose a fumble.

Osborne’s numbers aren’t nearly that glitzy, but he is moving the Huskies up and down the field.

Fagnano was in his seventh season of college and poised; Osborne is in his first as a starter. Will he break any Fagnano UConn single-season records? Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean he can’t grow into being a fine QB. Including this season, Osborne has three college seasons remaining.

Through the first five games, the offense is generating an average of 441.2 yards per game. Osborne has 10 touchdowns through the air and 1,164 passing yards, good for 39th in the nation. He’s ahead of some ballyhooed quarterbacks, including Rocco Becht of Penn State and Josh Hoover of Indiana, both senior starters ranked 48th and 50th.

Against Syracuse, Osborne set career highs for yards (314), touchdown passes (three) and pass attempts (39).

Mora needed two years to build his program. His first UConn team, in 2022, finished the regular season at 6-6, good enough to play in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The Huskies lost to finish sub-.500.

They were 3-9 the following season before their two nine-win seasons.

Better days soon followed. Just as they will for Jason Candle.