Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban was a star witness in hearings before the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Tuesday and urged congress to “bring order” back to college sports. Among the rules the bill tries to establish are limiting athletes to transferring only one time without penalty; limiting athlete eligibility to a maximum of five years; prohibiting former professional athletes from playing in college, and prohibiting schools from hiring a coach from another school during a season.

“We’re fixing it? Man, that’s great news, that’s good to hear,” said Jason Candle, new UConn football coach, sounding a big skeptical, after the Coaches Road Show on Tuesday night.  “… Obviously, there’s change on the horizon, change coming. Any speculation on what that looks like would be foolish. Anybody in the business, from the coaching standpoint of it, knows this is not a sustainable model for institutions, conferences or student athletes, so we’ve got to put our heads together and make sure we do what’s right for the student athletes and what’s right to to preserve our great game.”

Last November, UConn lost its football coach, Jim Mora, to Colorado State, and hired Candle, who was at Toledo, with bowl games still to be played. There are also references in the bill to power conferences and pooling revenue, capping revenue sharing and name-image-likeness payments to athletes.

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“There’s obviously a lot of good things in there,” UConn AD David Benedict said. “My concern is, what is the real appetite, federally, to get involved? It’s nice that it is a bipartisan bill. I do think there are some things that are beneficial, but it’s interesting that college athletics, if you look at Division I and especially the power four (conferences), they’re not aligned on it. It’s clear the SEC, the Big Ten, are not supportive of it.”

For generations, the NCAA enforced a thick rule book with iron fists, but athletes won the right to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness, won the right to share in the revenue they help generate, and the courts have continued hacking away at virtually any rule, for eligibility or otherwise, that is imposed.

Various recent cases have ruled athletes who have played professionally to return to play in college, for example. If new laws prohibit players who have played professionally overseas to play college basketball or hockey in the U.S., that could certainly change UConn’s recruiting and rosters going forward. The NCAA is considering a rule that limits eligibility to five years within a five-year window following high school graduation.

“How do you define a pro player?” Benedict said. “The current age-based eligibility model that is current being discussed and should be voted on by the NCAA Board of Governors is a very good step. Until it’s passed, I’m not sure how a pro would be defined, but with the age-based model you’re defining when a clock starts from an eligibility standpoint, so even if you are playing in some sort of club organization where you’re getting paid, if you have been doing that for three or four years, there’s a good chance those individuals wouldn’t have any eligibility left.”

Stronger antitrust exemptions would protect the NCAA from lawsuits and allow it to enforce its rules. The power conferences, which have expanded to as many as 20 teams, have been raking in billions in TV revenue. UConn, left out in the various rounds of conference realignment, is playing in the Big East in most sports, but operating as an FBS independent in football. Its programs have sustained, for the last several years, at least, extraordinary success, particularly in men’s and women’s basketball, despite the vast disadvantage in revenue coming in. Getting the power conferences to go along with sharing of TV money does not figure to be easy.

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“Let’s pool all our media rights, in what world do you think that’s going to happen?” UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said. “That the SEC and Big Ten will say, ‘yeah, we’re going to put (all the money) in together.’ That’s just one example. If they address unlimited transfers, and they address some sort of transparency in the salary cap, not that you’d want to call it a cap, there are legit things that are really at the heart of all this. And at the heart of all this is unlimited free agency all year round and the disparity in what people can spend relative to other people. That exists everywhere, I get that, but there should be some guard rails on that.”

Auriemma, too, supports age restrictions and the age-based “five-in-five” rule, which the NCAA is debating separate from congress.

“But whatever they do, it’s got to be judge-proof,” Auriemma said. “The only thing a lot of coaches in the country do today better than recruit good players is recruit good judges. So as long as that’s allowed you’re going to have problems.”

There have been several bills before congress to address college athletics. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) has been an advocate for student-athletes rights, and was skeptical of the Protect College Sports Act. “Its primary effect seems to be to limit the compensation of athletes while protecting the huge salaries of all the adults — coaches, ADs, sports industry executives — who are getting rich off the performance of the players,” Murphy said in a statement  issued May 27. “And it gives the NCAA an antitrust exemption that no other industry gets just so they can keep underpaying the athletes. Sure, there are some good things for players in this bill, but this seems like a great deal for the NCAA and the rich guys who run college sports, and a bad deal for athletes.”

Saban, in his testimony, noted the bill is “not perfect,” but Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who co-sponsored the bill with Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) and Chris Coons (D-Delaware) told ESPN he is confident he can get the 60 votes necessary to pass the PCSA.

“I think it’s important we continue to try,” Benedict said. “It addresses some things, but it doesn’t go as far as addressing employment. The question is, is a half measure better than no measure?”

The Huskies’ season, the first under new head coach Jason Candle, will begin at Noon on Sept. 5 with a matchup against FCS opponent Lafayette that will air on WFSB Channel 3 throughout Connecticut as well as UConn+.

The rest of the Huskies’ home games will air on CBS Sports Network, beginning with a major Week Two matchup against Maryland, which is set to kickoff at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 12. UConn will travel to Southern Miss. for a 7 p.m. kickoff (ESPN+) on Sept. 19 before visiting Miami (OH) on Sept. 26, with that game time still to be announced.

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Syracuse will visit East Hartford for the first time since 2022 with a Noon kickoff on Oct. 3 before the Huskies visit Temple (kickoff time and TV info TBA) on Oct. 10, and have a bye week before hosting UMass under the lights for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Oct. 23.

UConn’s trip to Air Force on Oct. 31 is set for a 3 p.m. kickoff airing on Mountain West+.

The Huskies will then host a three-game home stand beginning with a visit from Bill Belichick and North Carolina at Noon on Nov. 7. The Nov. 14 game against mid-major power James Madison will also kick off at Noon, followed by a 3:30 game against Old Dominion.

The 2026 regular season will conclude at Wyoming on Nov. 28, with a kickoff time and TV info still to be announced.

UConn is looking to continue the momentum built over the last two seasons under coach Jim Mora, who moved on to Colorado State. Candle, who had 10 consecutive winning seasons at Toledo, takes over after back-to-back 9-4 campaigns that both ended in the Fenway Bowl.

His first season as coach is three months away, and while it is clear Candle, who came from a long, successful tenure at Toledo to replace Jim Mora, will apply his own shades to the Huskies’ canvas, it’s still too early for the outsider to imagine what that will look like. What we do know is that after losing the coach who dragged the program up from the depths of 1-11 in 2021 to back-to-back bowl games, UConn football does not seem to have lost momentum, a win in and of itself.

The optimism of the last two seasons also wafts in the air at Shenkman Training Center.

“When you look around here, what the visual part of this looks like is, it screams ‘alignment,'” Candle said, sipping a green smoothie during a 30-minute sit-down with The Courant. “To be successful in any collegiate program today, you have to have alignment from the top down. We are so successful in so many sports, and football has been so successful the last couple of years as well, it’s a good, comfortable feeling to be around other people that expect success and expects to win. When I came here, what jumped out at me, the bricks and mortar are great, but if you have great campus alignment with the athletic department, then you have a chance to reach the potential of the program.”

UConn is going into its fifth season as an independent program, a path that seemed like a road to nowhere in 2021. Now that only UConn and Notre Dame are operating as FBS independents, it could be harder still to schedule opponents and sustain it. So the program’s ultimate goal remains the same — to get into one of the four remaining power conferences and access the TV revenue only that level of FBS football offers. When UConn appeared close, but was jilted by the Big 12 in August of 2023, it had a deflating effect on the program. But the success of the last two football seasons, paired with continued success in basketball, figures to put UConn in conversations when the next round of shuffling begins.

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And this may be the most complicated part of a UConn football coach’s task, to focus on the schedule assembled while hoping and preparing for the possibility of the move that could change the trajectory of the program.

“Let’s not sugarcoat this thing, we want to be in a Power Four league,” Candle said. “There’s no dancing around that. But that’s global thinking. You can think globally, but act locally. You have to understand in college athletics, you learn from the past, you prepare for what lies ahead in the future, but, damn, if you don’t produce in the present, you have no shot. So if we don’t continue to stack good days and turn them into good weeks, it doesn’t matter where we end up, we’re not going to be ready for it. So, yeah, we want to be there. Yes, we’re preparing that way, yes, we recruit that way. We may even talk like that, but at the end of the day, whatever task is in front of us, big or small, we’ve got to handle those things with the right attention to detail.”

When UConn was looking for a coach in 2021, the hierarchy did have a conversation with Candle, who was in the midst of a string of winning seasons and bowl appearances at Toledo. In the end, Mora, who had NFL and UCLA experience proved the perfect fit to kick-start UConn while rejuvenating his career. After doing both, he moved on to Colorado State last November, leaving behind a job that had become far more attractive than before in Storrs.

Candle, 81-46 with eight bowl appearances, had spent nearly his entire life playing and coaching in the state of Ohio. At 46, he decided now was the time to move his wife, Nicole, and their three children to a new place. They are about to close on a new house in the area, the children to move when their school year ends in Ohio. Candle’s wife, Nicole, has run the Boston Marathon several times and he has this in common with roughly half the UConn base: he’s a Red Sox fan. Went to a game at Fenway years ago and hooked.

At UConn, it was the “alignment” to which he alluded, more than bricks and mortar, that resonated and he accepted the job, with a six-year, $15 million contract.

“There comes a point in time where you’re looking for a new challenge,” Candle said. “Where you would do something different. Toledo was very good to me, gave me an opportunity to be a head coach at a very young age. We had a lot of young men who reached their full potential in our program.”

Building his way

As Mora relied heavily on the transfer portal to bring in experienced players and turn UConn around quickly, Candle was sticking to his philosophy of recruiting high school players and developing them. Most of the additions he had made to the Huskies roster, during a whirlwind period, are players who followed him from Toledo.

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“I thought we had done as good a job as anybody at the place I just come from of managing the portal,” Candle said. “The approach of the portal is always going to be to supplement the roster. I felt like if we ever got into a situation where the portal had to save the roster, then ‘man, oh, man, we are in trouble.’ We were able to retain some great players, two draft picks this year, three years in a row where Toledo had a top 65 pick in the draft, so our good players stayed. Coming into a new environment where everyone is trying to their go separate way to ‘see what’s out there for me,’ because that’s a young person’s thought process, that was a very difficult five, six weeks for us. You have to put together a coaching staff, take your time that way, hire great teachers, good character people themselves. From there, you want to build the locker room. The locker room is the most critical part of this thing, because if it’s not the most critical part of it, then you will be using the portal to save your back side. So I know that formula works.”

With new rules creating one portal period, new coaches had to work fast. Within a few weeks, Candle hired 34 coaches and staffers and brought in over 70 transfers and recruits.

In discussions of power conferences, the focus is on the things UConn does not have, At or near the top of that list is an on-campus stadium, with Rentschler Field 23 miles away in East Hartford. Candle sighs, gives a little eye-roll at the mention of that. Unlike most of his predecessors, Candle does not come from a background of NFL or power conference experience, and he is more focused on what UConn has, than what others have.

“Sometimes, it’s human nature to try to find the warts, try to find what’s wrong,” Candle said. “It’s low-hanging fruit for a conversation piece. There are so many good things to worry about and focus on. You’re at the stadium this year, for the first time, seven times. Usually, it’s six games. What is the day-to-day routine, what does the day-to-day operation look like for every kid? ‘Well, coach, I want to go be a pro football player.’ … Well, you don’t sleep next to the stadium when you play for the Cleveland Browns. You GO to the stadium. When the game is over, you GO home. You don’t go to the stadium to lift weights, you go to the facility.

“Look, we’re in a unique spot. The campus is not next to a metropolitan area. All the people live in a metropolitan area. Why wouldn’t the stadium be where it is. To me, logistically, it makes a lot of sense. Now., can we create the best game-day environment there? … We are going to put a great product on the field.”

Mentors

Candle is a student of football history. When asked what coaches he would most like to meet, he noted that most of them are long gone. His main inspiration came from his coach at Division III Mount Union, where Larry Kehres won 92.9 percent of his games across 27 seasons.

“I started coaching in 2002, made my mind up this was going to be a career, you start watching the Bob Stoops of the world, the Urban Meyers, the guys who had a ton of success at the college level at that time. For me, I had Larry Kehres as a college coach (at Mount Union), more so as a man than a coach, a guy I could see, be around each and every day and be such a positive influence on me at that age, that was the motivation for me to get into coaching. It always goes back to your foundation, and Coach Kehres was the foundation for me.”

From afar, Candle came to admire Jon Gruden’s offensive designs and charismatic presence in the NFL and on ESPN. Now a media personality, Gruden has become a mentor and sounding board, he and Candle talk frequently.

“If you would say, ‘hey, who’s a coach you could pick up the phone and call and really value his opinion,” Candle said. “From a schematic standpoint and offensive perspective, when I was growing up, that was the guy. He was doing it at the NFL level as good as anybody, the commitment to being great was always visible, infectious personality, the people gravitate toward him. He did it the right way, impact the player at the pro level. You hear guys talking about his impact today and they’re very thankful for that. I don’t know if you always get that from NFL coaches.

“… So I reached out to him a few years ago to sit down with him and talk a little football, and I had very specific questions and he took the time to give me very specific answers. I really gravitated toward that and thought, ‘this is a guy that maybe isn’t doing what he wants to do, coaching football anymore, but man, oh, man he still feels like he has a lot to give to the game because he has a lot of respect for what the game has given him and uses his platform to do what he can for young coaches.”

‘They’re still kids’

Everything but the goalposts is ever-shifting in college football. With UConn bringing in a fraction of what power conference schools get in revenue, its national brand tied to men’s and women’s basketball, the future is not clear, though that has been true for quite some time. More conference shifts are possible, expanded playoffs that could give even an independent UConn program a chance to compete for a spot, are possible. Revenue sharing is changing the game.

“You’re at the mercy of how everything is going on the outside,” Candle said. “Everybody wants to play in the biggest league, everybody wants to have the biggest budget, everybody wants to have the best players. You put yourself in a position where you play the long game a little bit, where you can position yourself to be where you want to be. I don’t know what conference championships look like in 24 months, what college football looks like in 18 to 24 months. It’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.”

Coaching, however, is still coaching for Jason Candle, whatever the future of college football brings. And to the task of coaching college students and football players, he is anchored.

“As a parent, your children force you to adapt in a lot of ways,” he said. “Some things are non-negotiable, they’re hard lines you will never give up on as a parent. But there are other things where the world does change, and as much resistance as you may want to put toward that, you have to change and mold to what’s going on. If you’re able and willing to do that as a parent, why would you not be able to do that in a career? Because these are still kids, people say, ‘they’re pros, they get paid.’ They’re not. They don’t think like they’re 35 or 27, they think like an 18 or 19 year old. So the human element of this, even though all the other things going around college athletics right now, this is still a very young influenced mind that has to be influenced the right way. You’re here to get a college education, you’re here to be an NFL draft pick, it’s possible to do both those things at the same time, but it requires elite behavior.”

How does he want players to remember their Candle experience?

“That he was real,” Candle said. “That he never asked us to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself, that he was in the fight with us and not fighting against us, he was a  guy who fought for his players when it was time to do that.”

Williams, who works as a pit crew member for Hendrick Motorsports, reportedly jumped in front of Fox Sports NASCAR reporter Amanda Busick as a 4,000-pound runaway pit cart barreled towards her, after a NASCAR Truck Series qualifier in Dover, Delaware.

Busick was reportedly walking along the back of pit road when the cart started careening towards her. Williams reacted immediately and jumped in front of Busick to shield her as both hit the ground.

Williams suffered “a laceration to his right buttock that was so deep it was squirting blood, which caused him to feel lightheaded, along with severe road rash to his right hand,” The Athletic reported. He was released from the hospital on Friday night and is expected to make a full recovery.

“You see it all happening in slow motion, but super-fast,” Busick told The Athletic. “I could see the cart coming; I could see, who I now know is Donovan Williams, trying to brace the cart, but it just had so much speed. There was no way that he could keep up with it.

“This all happened in probably less than half a second, maybe a second. And Donovan, in his attempt to shield me, we kind of got collected and then would have been pushed, I don’t know, I’d say probably five to 10 feet together with the cart behind him and him on me.

“That guy saved my life.”

“What happened (Friday) was really traumatic,” Williams told The Athletic. “Definitely one of the scariest moments of my life, just because I didn’t know exactly what the outcome was. When I was there after all the chaos kind of settled, I definitely felt some of the worst pain I’d ever felt.”

Williams played three seasons at UConn, first as a quarterback before moving to wide receiver and tight end. He started the final three games of the 2016 season, completing 36 of 76 passes for a touchdown.

A Virginia native, he transferred to Elon University in 2020, where he played as a tight end.

The Road Show is set for Wednesday, June 3 at Kinsmen Brewing Company in Southington, from 6-8 p.m.

The show provides the chance for fans to connect and interact with coaches and administrators. Auriemma and Candle will be joined by men’s basketball general manager Tom Moore, and head softball coach Laura Valentino.

The event will include a panel interview session, as well as appetizers, a pizza buffet and a cash bar. It is open to the public, with a $40 registration fee, which is required. Fans can register on the UConn website.

“The Coaches Road Show is back,” athletic director David Benedict said. “After a year away, we’re excited to get our coaches out this June and reconnect with UConn Nation. Our fans deserve to be celebrated, and we can’t wait to do exactly that.”

Fagnano had been considered a possible day three pick in last weekend’s NFL Draft but went unchosen. He joins a Baltimore team that has two-time MVP Lamar Jackson as the starter and Tyler Huntley currently the backup.

The Ravens also signed former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia to a three-year contract on Tuesday. The two will likely compete for a spot on the roster.

Because NFL contracts are not guaranteed, the multi-year deals don’t mean either is sure to be with the team come the start of the season. Terms of the deals, or any guaranteed money, were not available.

In three seasons at UConn, the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Fagnano played in 24 games and completed 423 of 654 passes for 5,252 yards, 48 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He led the Huskies to the Fenway Bowl in back-to-back seasons, a win over North Carolina in 2024 and a loss to Army in ’25.

Fagnano and Pavia were two of the most productive quarterbacks in the country last season, with the 25-year-old Fagnano racking up the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the country (28 to 1) and being named a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top QB. Pavia, 24, finished second in Heisman Trophy voting.

Ravens rookie minicamp is reportedly scheduled to begin May 2.

Olson will join former UConn receiver Skyler Bell, picked in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, at the team’s training facility in Orchard Park, N.Y., May 9-10.

Olson, 6 feet 4 and 200, a Massachusetts native, transferred from UMass and became the Blue Devils’ starter in 2024. Last season, he completed 59.2 percent of his passes for 3,132 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions. CCSU won 11 of 13 conference games with Olson under center, losing close FCS first-round playoff game at Rhode Island both years.

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One of Olson’s predecessors as Central quarterback, Jake Dolegala, had NFL opportunities with the Bengals, Patriots, Packers and Dolphins in  2019, ’20 and ’21, and has been playing in the CFL the last several years.

Buffalo has an established star, Josh Allen, at quarterback, with Kyle Alllen, who has been in the league since 2018, and Shane Buechele, who has been a pro since ’21, also on their current roster.

UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano was invited to Ravens rookie came, which is this weekend.

Immediately following the seventh round, Fagnano accepted an invitation to compete at the Baltimore Ravens rookie camp next weekend, according to multiple reports.

After gaining national attention in leading UConn to nine wins and a second consecutive bowl berth, Fagnano began appearing on draft analysts’ lists as a late-round pick, or undrafted free agent. Though after seven years in college he is older than a typical NFL draft pick, his game experience at that position and his mature decision interested scouts, and he was invited to the NFL Combine in February.

Off to Buffalo: UConn wide receiver Skyler Bell taken in fourth round of NFL Draft

Fagnano completed 69.2 percent of his passes for 3,448 passes, 28 touchdowns and only one interception. The MVP  of the Huskies’ victory over North Carolina in the 2024 Fenway Bowl, he opted out of UConn’s return trip in December.

Ten quarterbacks were drafted, including No.1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza by the Raiders, most in the later rounds, some with higher profiles and scouting grades than Fagnano (6.31) on NFL.com also went undrafted, others with lower grades were picked.

As an undrafted free agent, Fagnano had the option of joining a team where he might have the best opportunity to compete for a roster spot. The Ravens have an undisputed starter in Lamar Jackson, but newly acquired Tyler Huntley is the only other quarterback on their roster at the moment. Rookie camp begins May 2 in Owings Mills, Md.

The only UConn player drafted was Faganano’s favorite target, wide receiver Skyler Bell, chosen by Buffalo in the fourth round. Fagnano is one of several Huskies and Connecticut players to hook on as free agents so far, with more figuring to come Sunday.

Linebacker Donovan Branch, punter Connor Stutz, and tight end Louis Hansen will all get opportunities with the Kansas City Chiefs, kicker Chris Freeman will be at the Texans camp, defensive back Devin Pringle with the Bears. Former Huskies edge rusher Nathan Voorhis, who finished at Ball State, will try to make it with the Jets, and former UConn receiver Keelan Marion, who played for Miami in the national championship game, signed with the Falcons.

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Yale captain and running back Josh Pitsenberger signed with the Texas, and Bulldogs teammates Ben Mann, long-snapper, with the Giants and linebacker Inumidun Ayo-Durojaiye with the Ravens.

Noe Ruelas of West Hartford, who began his college kicking career at UConn and ended at Central Florida, is going to Colts minicamp.

Former Husky tight end Justin Joly, who finished at NC State, was drafted by the Broncos in the fifth round,  center Matt Gulbin, from Wilton High, who played at Wake Forest and Michigan State, was picked by the Commanders in the sixth.

It’s one for the video scrap book. Bell was taken in the 4th round of the NFL Draft Saturday, chosen by the Buffalo Bills with the 125th overall pick.

“Just the hard work,” Bell told Buffalo-area reporters on a Zoom call Saturday, “there’s God, my family and my support system, but it’s all in the work, I’m a hard worker, I just put in the work, put my head down keep grinding and just take it day by day.”

Bell had to wait one day longer than anticipated. Though he had the NFL.com’s ninth-best scouting grade among receivers in this draft, there were 19 wideouts picked ahead of him, and he was not part of the run of receivers taken in the second and third rounds on Friday night. However, he had been extensively linked to Buffalo during the draft process, as he fit the mold of the type of receiver the organization likes to work with star quarterback Josh Allen, 29, who is in his prime.

They already have Khalil Shakir, a receiver Bell has often mentioned he studies, and acquired veterans DJ Moore and Trent Sheffield. Now they have added an college receiver with a lot of game experience, considered ready to contribute right away, to their receiving corps.

“My versatility provides a lot of different things you can do with me,” Bell said. “I would say I’m dynamic, explosive, versatile, I can do a lot of things, inside, outside, deep ball, intermedia routes, I can do a lot of things.”

Those who watched him play at UConn can attest to that. Bell, who played at Taft School in Watertown, started his college career at Wisconsin. After three years, he transferred to UConn where his career took off, with 50 catches in 2024 and 101 last season. Bell was a finalist for the Fred Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s top wide receiver.

He scored 13 touchdowns for the Huskies in 2025, and had at least six catches in every game but the first, a blowout win over CCSU, and the Fenway Bowl, where he played only one series. He was among the top receivers in FBS in yards after the catch (1,325, second) and average YAC (8.2, fourth).

UConn The League

Skyler Bell is heading to the @BuffaloBills! pic.twitter.com/N0tjevklBa

— UConn Football (@UConnFootball) April 25, 2026

At the Combine, Bell ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, with a 41-inch vertical leap and 11 foot, 1-inch broad jump. With these “measurables,” Bell combined a knack for making clutch catches in the Huskies’ close games, and a high football IQ in his route running. Though he is older than most rookies, about to turn 24, he is considered by draft analysts a player who can contribute in the NFL immediately, ideal for a team that needs depth in its receiving corps.

Bell caught 11 balls for 107 yards during UConn’s OT loss at Syracuse, and six for 63 and two TDs in the Huskies victory at Buffalo last season, so the Bills didn’t have to travel far to see him at his best. Former Husky Chase Lundt, who is going into his second training camp with the Bills, chatted with Bell about playing there during the season, and the pre-draft process.

With the Bills, Bell will be reunited with defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, who was on the staff at Wisconsin when Bell was there.

“I’m going to give him  the craziest hug,” Bell said. “That’s my guy. My true freshman year I redshirted, he was our DC, I was running routes against his defense. Then we’d go look at film, he was trying to get me better so I could torch his defense and make them better.”

Former Husky tight end Justin Joly, who finished his career at NC State, was picked by the Broncos in the fifth round, No. 152 overall. Bell’s former teammates at UConn, quarterback Joe Fagnano and linebacker Bryun Parnham, were still waiting as the last rounds of the draft were playing out Saturday.

The NFL Draft begins Thursday night in Pittsburgh and Bell’s name is well-represented on mock drafts and team-specific websites. A lot of teams need wide receivers, several in fact, and Bell offers skills that could translate into yards and points right away.

“Reliable, consistent, productive,” ESPN Draft Analyst Mel Kiper Jr., said, in listing Bell as one of  his “sleepers’ on a recent program. “He will play in the NFL and he will contribute to an NFL offense in his first year.”

How UConn’s Joe Fagnano, Skyler Bell fared at NFL Combine

Bell was one of several receivers vying to be targeted at Wisconsin. He transferred to UConn to be the No. 1 target, and he left money in the transfer portal to stay in Connecticut for a second season. Not only was he a productive FBS receiver, catching 151 passes in two years and scoring 13 TDs in 2025, he showed an explosiveness and knowledge of the game that got noticed by the right people. Last season, he was among the top receivers in FBS in yards after the catch (1,325, second) and average YAC (8.2, fourth). And he showed a knack for clutch catches. At 23, to turn 24 during training camp, Bell is a player in which teams know what they are getting.

Invited to the scouting combine, Bell ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash, with a 41-inch vertical leap and 11 foot, 1-inch broad jump, athletic measurables combined with on-field production that vault him into the third or fourth round on most mock drafts. Kiper has him 85th on his list of top prospects, 13th among wide receivers. Other mock drafts have him as high as late in the second round, in the 60s.

Here’s a look at the state’s draft prospects:

Joe Fagnano

At UConn, Bell formed a potent combination with quarterback Joe Fagnano, who blossomed in his sixth and seventh years of college football. Similarly, the amount of game action he has seen and put on film gives teams a clear picture of Fagnano, who had a visit with the Patriots this past week, as a quarterback who could make a roster. After throwing for 3,448 yards and 28 touchdowns, with only one interception, he’s projected by many to go on Day 3, in the sixth or seventh round, or a high-priority free agent. (It may better for him, to sign with a team of his choosing).

Bryun Parham

The active UConn linebacker was in on 126 tackles last season, with three forced fumbles and an interception. He could be an interesting late pick or undrafted free agent and stick as a special teams player.

Chris Freeman

The UConn kicker, a transfer from Indiana, showed a strong leg, including a 65-yard field goal on the Huskies’ Pro Day, a knack for clutch kicking, like a last-second game-tying field goal at Syracuse and a game-winner at Buffalo, and the ability to kick in less-than-ideal conditions, with his 49-yarder on an icy field at the Fenway Bowl. Seems like a kicker the NFL would want to consider.

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Josh Pitsenberger

Yale’s captain and star running back carried his power and speed out of the Ivy League and into the FCS playoffs. He could be a player for a team that utilizes a fullback or has a willingness to experiment with a pure football player.

Dathan Hickey

A Bristol Central grad, Hickey had a solid career at safety for Yale before being derailed by injuries. He transferred to Youngstown State and impressed, earning a Shrine Bowl invitation, perhaps enough to rekindle his NFL dreams.

Brady Olsen

CCSU’s quarterback, similar to Fagnano, has a lot of playing experience and has won a lot of games as Central reached the FCS playoffs two years in a row. He has the size (6-4, 200) and arm strength (3,125 yards, 35 TDs, seven interceptions) to warrant a look.

Elijah Howard

With nearly 3,000 rushing yards in three seasons at Central, Howard (5-11, 176 pounds) would be hard to beat in terms of productivity. Could certainly be worth a look as a kick returner.

Payton Rhodes

Sacred Heart wide receiver (22 catches, 218 yards) drew some attention at the College Gridiron Showcase and at UConn’s Pro Day.