For new coach Jason Candle, team building takes shape as the UConn football season draws near
· Yahoo Sports
STORRS — Pulling a total of 87 new players into a football program is hard enough. Getting them to become a building full of old friends, as they become new teammates, is the challenge as Jason Candle puts together his first UConn football team.
“That’s been my favorite part about being here,” said quarterback Jake Merklinger, transfer from Tennessee. “The team. I love my teammates. We hang out a lot, we bond, so I feel like it’s gone really well.”
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The Huskies have been fishing, bowling, attacking each other and the coaches in paintball, as Candle has tried to get players out of their position rooms to get to know each other.
“All of that stuff is great,” Candle said. “You can do all those external things that you want to do, but if guys won’t come into the facility and have lunch with one another, sit over a meal, have authentic conversations with one another in the weight room, you don’t have any chance. So I’ll give our guys a lot of credit, I think this is a connected football team, so many new faces coming together in January. Everything’s new.”
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Some of the Huskies were here before and played for Jim Mora’s staff. Some transferred in from elsewhere. Still others transferred from Toledo, where they played for Candle. The quarterback room is a microcosm, with reps from all three areas: Merklinger, Kalieb Osborne, from Toledo, and Huskies holdover Tucker McDonald.
“It’s been crazy, out of school, out of practice, we go fishing, bowling, having those team-bonding experiences and it really helped us connect,” Osborne said. “Our team, we don’t have certain groups, everybody knows each other, and coach Candle set up things where he mixed up the groups and that allowed us to come together so when we’re on the field, the chemistry is hot.”
McDonald said, “We’ve had a lot of outside-the-building activities. You only know a guy so well if you only spend time with him in the building, you’ve got to go do stuff outside of football, fishing, bowling — K.O.’s a pretty good bowler. We did paintball two weeks ago which was a blast, all the coaches went, it was really competitive.”
Much like the kitchen is often the national gathering place at parties, the weight room is the place where people get to know each other on a team. Brad Bichey came from Toledo with Candle to implement his strength and conditioning program, adapting to UConn’s facilities.
“That’s the most important hire you have, and he’s done an amazing job since day one,” Candle said. “The great support we have here, the resources we’re going to put into that part of the program and will continue to put into that part of the program, it’s only up from here.”
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Team building and bonding has been a focus at UConn since the spring. If some of these things sound familiar, off-the-court activities have also been a part of team-building for basketball coaches Dan Hurley and Geno Auriemma. Hurley, when he walks out of his headquarters across Jim Calhoun Way, likes what he has been seeing.
“You get a sense of what people are about on campus, even if you’re not in the same building but across the street.” Hurley said. “You can get a vibe of their culture and their intensity, just the seriousness of what they’re all about in terms of how he runs the program. The way you see the players carrying themselves. I’m a big fan, I can’t wait to what he does here, can’t wait to be able to get out there and watch a practice.”
Candle will be sorting out his quarterbacks, and assembling the rest of the depth chart over the next couple of weeks. The Huskies will hold a practice open for fans at Rentschler Field next Saturday, and begin the season at home against Lafayette on Sept. 5.
“Hats off to (the players) for believing in (bonding), because in football, it’s going to get hard,” Candle said. “You can’t always pull yourself through, your teammates have got to help you. Without those deep personal connections, I don’t think that comes to light. … We have to play real football, all this stuff that goes on on the summer in shorts, ‘Underwear Olympics,’ you’re not allowed to touch anybody, that’s going to come to a halt here soon.”