What do we have returning for '26? | Page 7 | The Boneyard
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What do we have returning for '26?

zmart said:
It doesn't appear that Candle is making much of an effort to retain our players in the portal. Only Tucker and Hicks have come back, backups at best. This may be his philosophy, if you aren't sure you want to be here then you are dead to me. Values loyalty. Could explain why he rarely lost a lot of Toledo players to the portal.
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Could be. Imagine if you’re spending money on players, might like others better or feel they are a better value.
 
zmart said:
It doesn't appear that Candle is making much of an effort to retain our players in the portal. Only Tucker and Hicks have come back, backups at best. This may be his philosophy, if you aren't sure you want to be here then you are dead to me. Values loyalty. Could explain why he rarely lost a lot of Toledo players to the portal.
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Merely a guess on my part, but I imagine he gathered as much information as he could from game film, the limited amount of practice time he was able to observe and what he could gather from conversations with coaches (from the 25 staff), he prioritized which players to make the effort to retain (he couldn't realistically try to retain all of them). From there, he makes whatever effort he views as sufficient to the player and his representatives.
 
zmart said:
It doesn't appear that Candle is making much of an effort to retain our players in the portal. Only Tucker and Hicks have come back, backups at best. This may be his philosophy, if you aren't sure you want to be here then you are dead to me. Values loyalty. Could explain why he rarely lost a lot of Toledo players to the portal.
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I would assume Candle would have preferred to retain more of the offensive players than the defensive players. But, as has been mentioned in other threads, many of the offensive players have moved to CSU or P4 schools. Not as much demand for the defensive players.
 
zmart said:
It doesn't appear that Candle is making much of an effort to retain our players in the portal. Only Tucker and Hicks have come back, backups at best. This may be his philosophy, if you aren't sure you want to be here then you are dead to me. Values loyalty. Could explain why he rarely lost a lot of Toledo players to the portal.
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If that was the philosophy with Murawski and Cam it's short-sighted and stubborn. I'd like to think it wasn't because these guys earned it here. Especially a local guy who was miscast at the beginning of his career and carried the team at times.
 
Jimdish255 said:
If that was the philosophy with Murawski and Cam it's short-sighted and stubborn. I'd like to think it wasn't because these guys earned it here. Especially a local guy who was miscast at the beginning of his career and carried the team at times.
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From what was written very early on, both Murawski and Casady were looking to move on not long after the regular season was over. I don't know what effort Candle may have put into trying to retain them, but I doubt he could have been successful.

I don't know what Cam was thinking but I do believe that he is the ideal back for the type of offense Fitzgerald prefers and it wouldn't surprise me if MSU just came after him too strong for him to consider anything else.
 
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So I have a feeling we'll be leaving a little room for players that may fall through the cracks last minute. Possibly a QB or an outstanding guy who gets nudged out of what he thought was a great opportunity initially. The momentum is good and we're going to find out a lot about Coach's previous evaluations at Toledo and how that translates here. It hasn't been spectacular weather but I think most of them are going to love it here once we get past the January chill. Happy we've been stacking the OL and it looks like there's more than a few highly rated guys coming in.
 
Remaining portal uncommitted + transfers + HS signees + withdrew + known retainees(Chan, McLaughlin) gives me 66. Don’t know about eligible to return from 2025 roster(like Chan). Anybody else got a guess for current roster size?
 
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For me, Porter coming back is huge for 2 reasons:

1) He's a really talented player and he's made the decision to stay with the new-look Huskies

2) Candle recognizes him as a really talented player, without him being "one of his guys", and did the work to keep him

Great signs all around!!!
 
Sitting here in Cape May listening to the wind howl while working on my quest to catch Husky Medic in posting volume. Noticed a header labeled Benedict and Mora which was this post. Not bad if I do say so myself!

[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]AllHusky​

Final Mora post for me:

We all were surprised when AD Dave was able to hire a coach as competent as Jim mora.

Jim mora was surprised at how well he actually was able to do here.

That success opened the door for him to get his “next last job”. You know, like the country song “give me just one more last chance🎶”

I for one will not be surprised if AD Dave is able to one up Jim Mora in his next hire. No, it will not be Joe Moorehead or Nick Saban.
 
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5000 players in the portal. If you can land them you don't need to worry about the ones you inherited unless you like them as players.

This season's portal is not the same as previous seasons. Programs aren't losing 4-5 players, they are losing 50.
 
We all criticized the Deion Sanders approach…I guess he was ahead of his time..lol. Of course the difference is that he pushed them out, but we all thought it was crazy to turn over a roster in one year.
 
ShakyTheMohel said:
We all criticized the Deion Sanders approach…I guess he was ahead of his time..lol. Of course the difference is that he pushed them out, but we all thought it was crazy to turn over a roster in one year.
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Inquiring minds still want to know what led to Portal entry for close to 50 of 2025 UConn roster. How much of it was Candles desire for his "own" team vs Mora offering a home or a desire to test the waters.
 
DawgEnjoyer said:
Let’s not forget we have several guys who were decently well regarded prospects that redshirted in 2025 (I think) and should be ready to contribute next year as well.

Aubrey Melvin and Saxton Suchanic are two names I’ll be on the lookout for.
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Great, who else you got?
 
I still think a few of these guys still have an opportunity to have a big impact on our program:

DBs - Axavier Bridges-Brooks, Kylie Hicks, Paxton Suchanic

DL - Cooper Ackerman, Nykobi Brown, Delano Brown, Aubrey Melvin

LB - Ethan Hogg, Charles Johnson, Lewenski Ydore

OL - Hill Greenlee, Jie McGann

TE - Clemens Richter, Xavier Watson

Other than Kylish Hicks, who i think will provide support moreso on special teams in hisblast season, the rest if these guys were redshirt guys basically, that stuck around, abd, hopefully, by all accounts are still developing... We had high hopes for a few of these guys. My hope is that they make an impact. The primary guys that I sure hope stick Aretha DBs Bridges-Brooks and Suchanic along with the Brown brothers along with Melvin on the Defensive line. Lastly, rooting hard for past catching TE Xavier Watson to develop.
 
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