Saturday morning update> Sources tell FootballScoop Candle has accepted the UConn head coaching job. The deal is in place. Big win for UConn securing their man in the face of a competing offer from Tulane.
This wild coaching cycle has featured linchpin figures that have turned the carousel for multiple college football programs.
Candle, the veteran Toledo coach and Ohio coaching lifer, is the latest to step into the trench.
Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Candle is the focus of UConn’s search to replace the departed Jim Mora Jr., who left days ago to accept the head coaching position at Colorado State after Mora nearly landed the Stanford job, per several sources.
But Candle, whom sources told FootballScoop has interviewed in person this week with UConn officials, isn’t just the Huskies’ top target.
Well, Candle interviewed Thursday with Tulane for its head coaching vacancy, several sources told FootballScoop.
Additionally, while LSU defensive coordinator and former Tulane standout linebacker Blake Baker is the Green Wave’s top choice, sources tell FootballScoop that there is not a ton of separation between Candle and Baker, should Baker elect to remain at LSU as Lane Kiffin’s defensive coordinator.
Sources indicated that LSU has been aggressive in seeking to retain Baker and would revamp his current contract that pays Baker approximately $2.5 million annually.
Candle, meanwhile, has remained steadfastly loyal to Toledo since he ascended to the top job after Matt Campbell departed for the Iowa State head coaching job.
Campbell, as FootballScoop first reported Thursday, became the central focus of the Penn State search and will be introduced as the Nittany Lions’s new head coach in the coming days, per several sources.
So, Candle — a Salem, Ohio, native who played collegiate at NCAA Division III powerhouse Mount Union — might also be poised to leave a comfort zone he’s curated with an 81-44 overall mark atop the Toledo Rockets program.
That resumè also includes Candle being twice named the Mid-American Conference’s coach of the year, as well as three MAC West Division titles and two overall MAC championship-game victories.
Toledo has averaged nine wins per seasons the last four years under Candle, and it has never posted a losing season in Candle’s 10 full campaigns atop the Rockets program.
While Baker looms large in the Tulane search, and that job is considered a more premium position within the industry per coaches than the head job at UConn, Candle is right there as well as current Green Wave offensive coordinator Will Hall, the former Southern Miss head coach, and current Southern Miss head coach Charles Huff, who’s also a top candidate at Memphis.
At UConn, if the Huskies cannot close the deal with Candle, sources tell FootballScoop that Andy Kotelnicki, most recently Penn State’s offensive coordinator who rose to acclaim at Kansas, Lehigh head coach Kevin Cahill, who’s won 21 games the past two years at the school, and UConn offensive coordinator Gordie Sammis have been involved in UConn’s search.
Sources indicated that both Tulane and UConn sought to wrap up their searches by the end of this weekend, if possible.
