The Edsalls' moves could be complicated. When he became Georgia Tech's defensive coordinator in 1998, the couple's Jacksonville-area house "didn't sell right away, so we actually lived apart for 18 months," she said.
He went from Georgia Tech to Connecticut, and was hired by Maryland in January 2011. The family has moved into a large, contemporary home about 30 minutes from College Park. He has a six-year contract.
On the living-room wall are water-color portraits -- they were given to the Edsalls as gifts -- of many of the family homes they have left behind. "There is a lot of uncertainty, so you have to be able to live with that and not get too tied in to where you are," she said. "The 12 years we were at Connecticut are basically where our kids grew up."
Lined up on a shelf in the basement home theater are helmets representing each of his head coach or assistant jobs -- Maryland, Connecticut, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There is a framed ticket stub in his home office to the first Maryland football game he attended as a fan (against Villanova) in 1972. There is the Baltimore Colts helmet he wore when he competed in the Punt, Pass and Kick competition as a boy.
There are photos of the kids -- each involved in football. Corey, 19, a former walk-on player at Syracuse, is now at Maryland and will work with the team to learn about the coaching profession. Daughter Lexi, 22, is starting an internship with the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.
Eileen said the kids have long understood that criticism of their father comes with being a major-college coach, and they should pay little heed.
Said Randy Edsall: Eileen "has to tell the kids, 'You know who your dad is, you know what he does.'"
Confident and supportive
Eileen is probably as naturally competitive as her husband, an avid golfer. In 1990 -- nine years after graduating -- she was named to Syracuse's women's athletics hall of fame.
"At 5-8 or 5-9, she wasn't the tallest player, but on both courts (basketball and volleyball), she was tough," said Quilty, a high school guidance counselor who remains close with Eileen. "She was definitely one of the unsung heroes on our team, doing the 'dirty work' underneath the basket, playing tough defense, not getting a lot of recognition, and hitting key shots with the men's-size basketball we had to play with back in the day."
Eileen Edsall has a long professional history, which includes time spent as a financial consultant, selling mutual funds and working in accounting. She has an ease in public that her husband sometimes lacks, particularly during sessions with reporters in which he can appear stiff or hostile.
"I was in marketing and finance and dealt with people and things all the time, so I'm very comfortable in that arena," she said. She lowers her voice before continuing. "Probably sometimes more so than him."
But she doesn't often share her football views publicly because she doesn't consider that her role.
"She would like to come out and say things, but she's not going to," Randy Edsall said. "That's not the way you do things."
Her approach differs from Ralph Friedgen's wife, Gloria. The former Maryland coach's contract was bought out before Edsall arrived.
Gloria Friedgen often greeted players with hugs as they left the training center to board the bus taking them to away-game charter flights. She organized game-day tailgates, helped raise funds for the university and sometimes arrived at practices with fruit or other snacks for the players.
Now that she and her family are settled, Eileen Edsall said: "I would absolutely help fundraise and show my face and do things to help the program."
But would she deliver snacks to the players? "It's not youth soccer," she said.
jeff.barker@baltsun.com
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