Chip Malafronte's Sunday Gravy Column: Randy Edsall has chance to cement a legacy at UConn

[huskymedic]

Sunday Gravy: Randy Edsall has chance to cement a legacy at UConn

Couple of interesting tidbits among the other comments:

>>Whether Edsall returns UConn football to the good old days is far from guaranteed. He created a viable BCS level program. His two predecessors left it in shambles. A dramatically changed landscape makes a rebuild all the more challenging. Recruiting at UConn wasn’t easy even with the carrot that was the Big East’s automatic BCS bid. The Power Five conferences now hold all the cards.<<

>>According to a well-connected source, Don Brown, the defensive coordinator at Michigan, was never contacted about the UConn job. Neither was Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. Both are former assistants at the school. “Don Brown would’ve had serious interest in the job,” the source said. “That’s a fact.”<<

>> This UConn football storyline — Edsall’s turn from hero to heel to hero again — is a script straight out of Vince McMahon’s WWE handbook. Only thing missing at Friday’s introductory press conference was Jeff Hathaway jumping out from behind a curtain to bash Edsall over the head with a folding chair.<<

 

[noeynox]

Would have loved Don Brown. Thought he was a realistic option. One of the few discussed. That said, I'm all in Randy 2.0.

It's over. We have our guy for now. Hoping for better results.

 

[Dooley]

I'll put my eggs in the basket of the guy who has already built UConn before. We need to get back to that point and then we can start discussing "next steps" with this program. For now, I want wins, fairly routine bowl games, and 35K+ back at the Rent.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

To this day I don't get the love affair this board has with Don Brown.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Don Brown is a hell of a defensive coach. I'm not sure he could handle the transition to head coach (I believe it didn't turn out well when he took over at UMass). If this were six years ago, I would have loved the idea. Today, we are not in a position to take that risk.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

I am not saying that Brown should have been our choice for head coach (I don't think he should have). But for those questioning his potential transition from D.C. To HC....his winning percentage as a head coach is over .667 (he has won more than 2/3 of the games he's coached as a HC.

Again, I don't think he should have been the choice, but I am surprised he never even got mentioned as a candidate.

 

[CTMike]

To this day I don't get the love affair this board has with Don Brown.

I like the aggressive philosophy and would love to see us be aggressive in all three phases. Not an endorsement of him per se, just sick of us giving up on some phases and half-arsing others.

 

[Dooley]

I would break out in an overly excited sweat if we hired Don Brown back as our DC. But I'd be worried if he was our HC. I *think* Benedict was correct to target a guy with head coaching experience...especially one with head coaching experience here. This is way too important of a hire to roll the dice on an unknown.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I like the aggressive philosophy and would love to see us be aggressive in all three phases. Not an endorsement of him per se, just sick of us giving up on some phases and half-arsing others.

I thought he was ok as our DC. He wasn't great. Everybody loved him until his aggressiveness yielded a long TD. I'm much more interested in winning football games than playing what some consider "exciting football".

 

[whaler11]

Don Brown got 1.4 million per for three years today.

Yes he makes 40% more than our head coach.

So I'm pretty sure Don wouldn't have answered the phone anyway.

 

[HuskyBandDad]

He signed 5 year 7 million to stay at Michigan

 

[UConnDan97]

Don Brown is a hell of a defensive coach. I'm not sure he could handle the transition to head coach (I believe it didn't turn out well when he took over at UMass). If this were six years ago, I would have loved the idea. Today, we are not in a position to take that risk.

I agree. Can't afford to take the risk now. I'm a little surprised that we didn't kick the tires for Moorhead, though. One wonders if that is a reflection of the amount of money we have available, or if Benedict's belief in Edsall is so strong that he pulled the trigger without kicking many tires at all. I'm guessing that silly buyout clause for Diaco left us in a monetary bind...

 

[Hoophound]

I think Benedict wanted to see if Edsall felt he could do the job and if he wanted it. In their conversations it probably became evident to Dave that Randy had thought this through already and knew what he'd do and who he'd like to hire. Dave probably talked to him about recruiting and the offense and so on and Dave liked what he heard. I don't think Dave asked him to come back and do exactly what he'd done the first time. Benedict wants a modern, marketable product. He has surely read enough here to know that many of us thought Randy was old school and potent offense wasn't his strong suit.

My personal opinion is that this was in the works for two months. Dave put a feeler out, got to know Randy, told him he wasn't sure where he was headed with Diaco etc. and then one day pulled the trigger. In that time, Randy probably talked to a few guys he can trust about their interest in coming with him and it kind of came together. I don't buy for a second that this was a quick thing. Dave worked on it and he knew if he had to keep Bob for another season, he'd hire Randy next year if Bob couldn't turn it around. I think Dave following Randy on Twitter was a bit of a signal to the fans and to Bob that change would be coming if the wins didn't come soon. I didn't like that move on Benedict's part but now it makes sense. He was chummy with Randy months ago.