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EAST HARTFORD — Jason Candle and Geno Auriemma, as far apart in age as a father and son, drawn together by their love of coaching college students, sat across the table last Thursday night to get the measure of each other. Candle, who’d coached football with consistent success at Toledo, had not yet found the job that would get him out of his native state.

Could this be the place? UConn pulled out the stops to convince him it was; AD David Benedict went to Toledo’s last game to see the coach he had atop his list when Jim Mora left for Colorado State on Nov. 26., to see him in person, in action. Then Candle came to Connecticut and got the tour from the AD.

The day wound down at Benedict’s home, where the prospective successor to Jim Mora

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