'Best home schedule we've had' awaits UConn as a new coach takes over in 2026

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — The first schedule when UConn left the American Athletic Conference for the uncertain world of life as a Football Bowl Subdivision independent was interesting, to say the least.

The Huskies traveled across the country to Fresno State to begin that 2021 season and the oddball home schedule included dates with Wyoming and Middle Tennessee State.

Fast forward five years and things look much different. UConn's plan to sign home-and-home deals with teams from the ACC and Big Ten rather than playing all the high-profile games on the road is paying dividends.

UConn, coming off back-to-back nine-win seasons, has Power Four conference teams Maryland (Sept. 12), Syracuse (Oct. 3) and North Carolina (Nov. 7) all coming to Rentschler Field, along with a matchup with 2025 College Football Playoff participant James Madison (Nov. 14). The season begins at home against Lafayette on Saturday.

Other than Notre Dame, the last team from outside the power conferences to have three home games against power league teams was BYU in 2019.

“As it relates to a home schedule, since we have gone independent this is far and away, set the competitiveness aside and you just look at brands, this is the best home schedule we've had,” athletic director David Benedict said. “Seven games, four of the seven are very good brands in college football with three Power Fours and James Madison, who has been really good in the last decade. We are excited about it."

The only other FBS independent, Notre Dame, has a scheduling partnership with the ACC and its status as a national brand makes scheduling teams from the top conferences much easier than what UConn has had to deal with in recent seasons.

The Fighting Irish will have six home games against teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC this season. The rest of the teams from the Power FOur conferences will play 10 true road games against non-conference foes — and three of those involve UConn.

New coach embraces the challenging schedule

The timing couldn’t be better for new coach Jason Candle, who left Toledo to take the job with the Huskies after Jim Mora headed to Colorado State. UConn will play more home games against Power Four teams than Candle’s Toledo teams did during his 10 seasons with the Rockets.

“You talk about competitive spirit and ultimately that goes to who you are recruiting and who you are trying to bring into the program,” Candle said. “You want guys who are high achievers and high achievers want to be tested. We want to play a competitive schedule each and every year, we want the guys to be able to showcase their talents. The better it gets, the better we should get.”

Mora took 15 players with him to Colorado State, and Candle and his staff wound up signing more than 60 transfers. The impressive home schedule helped to entice the players to come to Storrs.

“I told the guys that we can do something special here because we have so many home games,” former Toledo linebacker K’Von Sherman said. “It played in my mind. I was like, we play good opponents on this schedule, I can put together a decent year hopefully and go to the next level.”

Rentschler Field no stranger to top games recently

UConn played well in many of its recent games against the ACC and Big Ten teams. The Huskies beat eventual ACC champion Duke in 2025, nearly took down Wake Forest at home in 2024. The Huskies beat Boston College in 2022.

“I think the competitiveness we have shown the last three years especially, I think outside of our game at Maryland a couple of years ago, we really haven’t had a situation where we have been blown out or we haven’t been competitive," Benedict said. "All that plays into our ability to have gotten games and continue to get games in the future.”

Benedict said that Boston College and Syracuse have expressed interest in continuing to play the Huskies. Defending national champion Indiana is slated to come to Rentschler Field to face UConn in 2032.

“We have to keep monitoring the landscape,” Benedict said. “As the world evolves, conferences are making decisions to potentially play more conference games, we are just going to have to continue to do our best to build these types of schedules. Our goal is to have two or three of these Power Four games on our schedule every year.”

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