January 02, 2011|By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun
Randy Edsall was mentioned for many coaching vacancies as his reputation grew, like Connecticut's football profile, the past few years. Athletic directors and university presidents were impressed with his image, his record and his ability to build a program virtually from scratch. But Edsall stayed in Storrs, eventually taking the Huskies from their infancy in what is now called the Football Bowl Subdivision to the school's first Bowl Championship Series game.
When the Huskies left Arizona on Sunday after their 48-20 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday night in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Edsall did not accompany them back to Connecticut. Edsall and his wife were headed to Maryland, where he finalized a contract that will make him Ralph Friedgen's successor as coach of the Terrapins. A news conference to introduce Edsall, 52, is scheduled for Monday.
What attracted first-year Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson and university president Wallace C. Loh to Edsall is obvious, but what made Edsall leave Connecticut after 12 years with the team finally playing in its first BCS game?
Former Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson, who gave Edsall his first fulltime college coaching job, believes it has something to do with Edsall's roots. Calling Edsall's hire "a great move by whoever made it", MacPherson said it makes sense for both Edsall and Maryland.
"He's almost a Maryland guy, up the river in Pennsylvania," MacPherson said of Edsall, who grew up in Glen Rock, Pa. "I'm positive that he thinks Maryland is one of the best jobs in the country for him. He's back home, and I think Ralph has done a good job, so he's taking over a good program and he doesn't have to rebuild again. I think he just has to reload. There aren't very many jobs in the country that I think Randy would be interested in. I thought he was going to settle in [at Connecticut] … but maybe he thinks he's taken them as far as he can."
The move seemed to catch the Huskies by surprise. According to the Hartford Courant, the players learned of Edsall's departure when he didn't get on the team plane.
"Finding out on the plane and hearing it from people and stuff was kind of disappointing," wide receiver Kashif Moore told the newspaper. "But at the same time, Coach Edsall has done so much for the program. I love him as a person and what he did for us after Jazz [Howard] was killed [last year after being stabbed]. I respect him for that, but at the end of the day, and I learned this when I was getting recruited, this is a business. We can't ever forget that."
Moore said that Edsall had a chance to tell his players when star running back Jordan Todman announced in the locker room after the Oklahoma game that he would forego his senior year to enter the NFL draft.
"I mean ... he could have told us then," Moore said.
Edsall built a program that had some success on the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) level under Skip Holtz. Despite being a doormat in Division I-A the first few years, Edsall eventually accomplished everything he had promised — including a Big East championship. Losing 30 of its first 41 games as a Division I-A program, Connecticut began turning things around in 2003, when the Huskies went 9-3.
Connecticut was 74-70 under Edsall, winning eight games or more the past four years, including 8-5 this season.
A source familiar with Edsall's situation said recently that the prospect of higher entrance requirements would have made it more difficult to recruit at Connecticut. Also, with national power Texas Christian University joining the Big East in 2012, it would have been tougher for the Huskies to get back to a BCS game on a regular basis coming out of the less-than-respected Big East. The Horned Frogs could finish as high as second in the country after beating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
What Maryland is getting in Edsall — the brother of former longtime ACC basketball referee Duke Edsall — appears to be a younger, more invigorated version of Friedgen. Edsall is known for being competitive and compassionate, a disciplinarian in the mold of New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin but with softer edges. He is also known for graduating players, with a program that was recognized in five of the past seven years for achievement in the classroom by the American Football Coaches Association.
"He is by-the-book," defensive tackle Kendall Reyes told an Oklahoma columnist a few days before the Fiesta Bowl. "You're not getting away with anything. If he says you gotta do it, you gotta do it."
Longtime defensive coordinator Hank Hughes told the Daily Oklahoman last week, "[Edsall] is single-minded in what he wants to do. He doesn't waver ... doesn't get all ruffled. He's a taskmaster. He doesn't deviate. He's got a plan. He knows he's gonna stand by that plan."
The move also seemed to be surprising on Maryland's end.
