Jim Mora lives in a stately old building set upon three acres on a hill above campus at the University of Connecticut.

He loves the location, the connection to the campus community and the six-minute walk of a commute. But there's a spooky soundtrack of doors that open at night, ominous shadows and unexplained noises.

"I'm convinced it's haunted," he said with a chuckle in his office recently.

There are colliding metaphors for Mora's haunted new haunt — the task of bringing UConn football back from the dead and the 60-year-old Mora embracing the presence of new ghosts while trying to exorcise a few of his own.

"I just warn everyone who stays that it's haunted," Mora said with a laugh, "but they're good ghosts."

When taking over a program that went 1-11 last year, lacks a conference affiliation and last appeared in a bowl in 2016, the ability to find positive among the haunted is a necessary personality trait.

With UConn playing at defending Mountain West champion Utah State in Week 0, the football world will see a familiar face in a new place Saturday.

Mora's return to UConn has been cast as one of the sport's most unexpected unions — a collision of a program that needed an adrenaline shot and a coach who wanted another shot. Can he resurrect UConn football and his own coaching career along the way?