UConn Football: Former Head Coach Comes Back to Division I Coaching

Former UConn Huskies head football coach Paul Pasqualoni is coming back to the Division I ranks at the age of 77 years old.

According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, Pasqualoni is set to become a defensive analyst at Florida State. The Seminoles recently fired head coach Mike Norvell, which left openings in the staff.

There's no guarantee that Pasqualoni will be on staff moving forward into 2027 since whoever gets the job will have an idea of who they want on their first staff, but for now, it's just another chapter in a wild career for Pasqualoni.

He started out as an assistant coach at Cheshire High School (1972) before moving onto Division II Southern Connecticut State as an assistant. He was the head coach at Division III Western Connecticut State from 1982-86 and then left the Nutmeg State for a linebackers coach job at Syracuse in 1987.

He then got promoted with the Orange, serving as the head coach at SU from 1991-04. While in Central New York, he had immense success, going to nine bowl games (6-3) in 14 years and developing 17 NFL players that were drafted in just the first three rounds of the NFL Draft.

He coached some of the best players in Syracuse history, including Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney. After leaving Syracuse, he then coached in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. He served as the defensive coordinator in Miami before coming back to college and taking over Connecticut for three years (2011-13).

He's had stints with the Chicago Bears, Houston Texans, Boston College, Detroit Lions, University of Florida and Carolina Panthers since then. He also has worked in the United Football League (2024) and in high school again (2025). And now, he back at the Division I level with one of the most storied programs in the sport.

Randy Edsall ran the Huskies program from 2000-2010, earning six winning seasons and five bowl game appearances. He even took UConn to the Fiesta Bowl in 2010 before leaving following that season.

Pasqualoni took over and wasn't able to replicate the success that Edsall had, or that he had at Syracuse. The Huskies went 5-7 in both 2011 and 2012, and then they started out 0-4 in 2013 before he was let go. That 0-4 season coincided with a move from the Big East to the American. UConn didn't have a winning season from the time that Pasqualoni was hired until 2024 under Jim Mora.

Now coached by Jason Candle, UConn is 4-4. They'll take on North Carolina this weekend in East Hartford. This marks the first return to New England for Bill Belichick since he was fired by the Patriots after the 2023 NFL season.