Feelings on Edsall? | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Feelings on Edsall?

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FDNY99 said:
Liked him while he was here...thought he may have topped out and was at a point where he needed to move on. Thought he should have done a better job of telling the team he was leaving; but personally hoped he would succeed.
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This
 
Skiblets said:
Let's see.
1. He graduated players
2. He brought us success faster than any of us expected
3. He filled the Rent
4. He was key in closing the deal with Burton and Schenkman (that was not Hathway)
5. He beat ND in South Bend and that post game interview was as heartfelt as it gets. Still get chills hearing the U-C-O-N-N cheer while he's being interviewed. 1:15 mark
6. He was a gentleman in his handling of Jazz's murder

but
7. His departure was terrible
8. He had the media skills of Belichick and was not a great salesman of the program

I give him an A for his overall tenure. He just got to the point where he could no longer tolerate Hathaway and his micromanaging ways. I honestly believe that if Herbst was hired two years earlier and brought in Warde, that Randy would probably still be here.

He also knows that coaching careers at one school have an arc and after the Fiesta Bowl, probably felt like his would start trending downward so he made the move.

But he is a million times better than Coach P
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Well said.
 
Jimmy Serrano said:
I would take Nick Saban too. Maybe we should kick those tires to see if he's interested as long as we're dealing with a fantasy.
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Can we get Vince Lombardi since reality doesn't seem to count.
 
Skiblets said:
Let's see.
1. He graduated players
2. He brought us success faster than any of us expected
3. He filled the Rent
4. He was key in closing the deal with Burton and Schenkman (that was not Hathway)
5. He beat ND in South Bend and that post game interview was as heartfelt as it gets. Still get chills hearing the U-C-O-N-N cheer while he's being interviewed. 1:15 mark
6. He was a gentleman in his handling of Jazz's murder

but
7. His departure was terrible
8. He had the media skills of Belichick and was not a great salesman of the program

I give him an A for his overall tenure. He just got to the point where he could no longer tolerate Hathaway and his micromanaging ways. I honestly believe that if Herbst was hired two years earlier and brought in Warde, that Randy would probably still be here.

He also knows that coaching careers at one school have an arc and after the Fiesta Bowl, probably felt like his would start trending downward so he made the move.

But he is a million times better than Coach P
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Sums up my thoughts.

With him at the helm, we won when we were supposed to, competitive in most games we weren't supposed to win, and I don't care how good an FCS team came in here, he would never have lost to them. And if there were ever a loss like last weeks his players never would have acted matter of factly, like I saw some of the players in their post-game interviews.

Oh and we'd still be going to bowl games and maybe even an occasional BCS. I'll never understand how some say he had a ceiling. Blows my mind. He worked wonders with limited resources and as this debacle with PP and GDL continues to grind on and destroy casual fan interest, I think the diehard is starting to realize what we had. I for one will be cheering his entrance to thank him for what he has done. Then I will root hard against him and yearn for that highly competitive BCS type game that we used to regularly witness when he was our HC.
 
Killing Edsall about Danny O'Brien just shows you have no grasp of anything.
 
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Thought he was a good coach, not a great coach

Very good at developing players, and at coaching the fundamentals. I thought we were always a team that looked well coached. Liked that we were able to develop an identity as a team that was tough and physical and could always run the ball down your throat.

Also thought the questions over whether we had reached our ceiling under him were legit. Passing game was almost always a major problem. Overall talent level didn't seem to be getting better. Most of the time when we played the better Big East teams it looked like we were less talented and while he gets credit for having some success under those circumstances, he gets blame for not changing them. I thought 07-10 we were pretty much the same team year after year, just the breaks fell different ways each year.

I also think that as much as gets written about the challenges of building the football program at UConn, it was also a very good situation. New stadium, new facilities, at a great basketball school. I don't think his job was as difficult as turning around an irrelevant 1-A program. There might have been disagreements about whether we should go 1-A or not, but once the decision was made, there was excitement. And we got to enjoy the benefits of a BCS conference while playing in a conference that was much more wide open than it had been in the past. So his accomplishments get overrated to a degree when people say stuff like "wow, would you have ever imagined back in 1998 that UConn would be playing in the Fiesta bowl, or winning in Notre Dame." Those accomplishments have probably more to do with the changing landscape of college football than UConn themselves. So again, I thought he did a good job, certainly could have been worse, but I think there's a lot of guys who could have pulled off what he did, and some who could have done more.

As far as how he left, my only problem was him calling Maryland his dream job because, I mean, come on. But its extremely rare for a coach to leave in a way that makes everyone happy. They only have so much control over the timing of it. And coaches who leave before the bowl game get criticized for abandoning their team, and coaches who leave afterwards get criticized for waiting to long and putting their school in a tough spot to hire somebody, so you can't really win.
 
The program was more successful than anyone expected. I didn't think Randy was the guy to bring UConn up another level but he earned the chance to do so after the BCS Bowl.

Coaches Hot Seat has it as #5 v #6 . HCPP vaulted up 9 spots with the Towson loss. I consider the loser to he a lock to get canned at the end of the season.
 
I watch the video of his ND post-game and think about everything he did and I'm like "how could we boo him?"

Then I think about how he left and I'm like "how could he have left like that?"

Not sure how I'll react on the 14th. Just know I'll be cheering like hell for the team with dogs on their helmets.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
Handled the Jazz situation as a gentlemen? A case could be made that he used it, like everything else during his tenure, for finishing 8-5 with a team that could have been in the Top 10. He blew game after game that year, and almost gave away Notre Dame despite the fact that their defenders were bouncing off us like it was a video game by the fourth quarter. The loss to Rutgers was unforgiveable, and while we got screwed by a horrendous call against UNC, that game should have never been that close.

Edsall was an all right coach, nothing more. He was a good talent evaluator and player developer, terrible salesmen, and mediocre game coach. He wasted a star QB in Orlovsky by not following him up with a legitimate D1 QB for the rest of his tenure at UConn. He got some talented kids early on with the promise of playing time and the Big East, but after that his recruiting was inconsistent. Edsall had two winning records in Big East play. Two.

And I do think the cupboard, while not bare, was not well stocked either. UConn might have had more interest in the program if it didn't look like such a rebuilding project. Who really chased the job? Phil Fulmer, Pasqualoni and Mark Whipple. Even Tom Bradley didn't really want the job, and he must have known that Penn State was about to blow. No other top mid-major or top coordinator was even interested. Two over the hill, has beens looking to retire on the job, and two lifer assistants. THAT was the stack of resumes that Hathaway had to look through. Some of that goes to Hathaway, but Edsall should get some of the blame too.
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This post captures Randy and his tenure at UConn to a tee. As for how he left, who cares? This is big boy football and Maryland certainly didn't want the UConn players breaking their story. They should have been more upset about being the only team on New Years Day (win or lose) not to have an offensive TD. People just never seemed to get this. He left, boo hoo for the players. Hell, they should have manned-up and sent him emails and texts of congratulations and best wishes.
 
Love him for what he built, a little bitter over the way he left, forever grateful. I boo loudly when returns to the Rent, I will give him a standing ovation when the Program holds a ceremony in his honor in the distant future.
 
I like Edsall and I hope he gets a good reception. I thought the way he left was total BS, but he had seen the writing on the wall and no one can really deny he made the right choice in jumping ship.

UConn fans, I think, have gotten very used to guys like Calhoun and Auriemma and expect our coaches to not only succeed but to stay put...and I think Edsall bailing was a rude awakening for a lot of us.
 
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I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.
 
weyuo said:
I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.
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For the life of me I can't understand how people can paint Edsall as a bad/borderline bad coach when we were making bowls (even the damn fiesta bowl) and often winning them. Compare that to what we had before Edsall, and what we have now that he's gone.

It's utter nonsense.
 
amory said:
For the life of me I can't understand how people can paint Edsall as a bad/borderline bad coach when we were making bowls (even the damn fiesta bowl) and often winning them. Compare that to what we had before Edsall, and what we have now that he's gone.

It's utter nonsense.
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They live in some alternate reality.

Oh he talked about execution with the media. Who gives a what he said to the mostly dopey CT media.
 
weyuo said:
Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.
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That statement is so pathetically lame I actually laughed out loud. You sound like you'd laud a businessman who boosts sales by dropping price below cost.

street buzz: There's a guy selling new Mercedes for $1000 a pop. Cars are flying out the door. Let's get over there before reality sets in.
weyuo: Say what you want but revenues are up.
 
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The program had a lot of firsts and a lot of great moments under Edsall. I had a lot of fun during those days. It was exciting. We were competitive and never really felt like we couldn't win a game, no matter the opponent.

He's gone, and the team is worse. And the fan base is miserable. But we will get a new coach and all things are possible.
 
weyuo said:
I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.
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Now I know why you are such an apologist for the current team. Closet PP fan. Got it.
 
weyuo said:
I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.
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The only thing more annoying than your posts is that stupid avatar of yours.
 
weyuo said:
I was unimpressed by Edsall and those with short memories forget how much most folks wanted him to be replaced. He threw players under the bus when talking to the press. His offenses struggled much the same way they do now. People say he was a disciplinarian but I remember him having his share of kids booted off the team, suspended for games, arrested and one unfortunately stabbed to death. Not sure what the APR for his teams were but I'm guessing it wasn't any higher than it is under P's tutelage. he went to ONE BCS game in his time here and that was a fluke. They won a three way tie-breaker for first place that year and because UConn was going to represent the Big East the football community decided to punish the league by sending them as far away from CT as possible instead of Florida where they would have had a good showing fan wise. Then, in the 3rd quarter of the Oklahoma game(Fiesta Bowl) I watched him give up on the team.....hunching down on bent knees looking to see what time it was. He left the team without as much as a good bye in person. He couldn't keep the cream of the crop high school players in state to stay in state. Had a poor repertoire with the high school coaches around the area. Say what you want about coach P but the recruiting is better than it was with Edsall.

The one thing I will give Edsall credit for is kissing enough butt at the right time to get the Burton complex built.
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I don't think this is the thread to do it in, but I do think you are off base with your comments.
 
Weyou, I'll let you in on a little secret. It is okay to have hated Edsall when he was here and to hate P now. Edsall was , P is a nice guy, but proving he sucks as a coach. O'er supposed improved recruiting isn't exactly producing game breakers from what I saw Thursday night.
 
.-.
Irish Loop said:
We don't really know for another 2 or so years, honestly. All of our current upperclassmen, minus any transfers (Whitmer, Philips) were Edsall recruits.
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Well if your recruiting improves your underclassmen should be taking jobs from upperclassman. Seems like you don't need to wait forever.

And since Edsall left the cupboard so bare, should really speed things up.
 
Irish Loop said:
We don't really know for another 2 or so years, honestly. All of our current upperclassmen, minus any transfers (Whitmer, Philips) were Edsall recruits.
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Utter nonsense. It's not like Pasqualoni just walked in the door. At the very least you could acknowledge that he has had time to impact how the players on this perform on the field.

And if what Edsall left was so bad talent wise then I am certain that even talent that bad could handle an FCS team.

Neil Ostrout said it best. This team has been decimated by the abundance of RETURNING STARTERS. Good grief. This team should be playing better than this.
 
kemba said:
Thought he was a good coach, not a great coach

Very good at developing players, and at coaching the fundamentals. I thought we were always a team that looked well coached. Liked that we were able to develop an identity as a team that was tough and physical and could always run the ball down your throat.

Also thought the questions over whether we had reached our ceiling under him were legit. Passing game was almost always a major problem. Overall talent level didn't seem to be getting better. Most of the time when we played the better Big East teams it looked like we were less talented and while he gets credit for having some success under those circumstances, he gets blame for not changing them. I thought 07-10 we were pretty much the same team year after year, just the breaks fell different ways each year.

I also think that as much as gets written about the challenges of building the football program at UConn, it was also a very good situation. New stadium, new facilities, at a great basketball school. I don't think his job was as difficult as turning around an irrelevant 1-A program. There might have been disagreements about whether we should go 1-A or not, but once the decision was made, there was excitement. And we got to enjoy the benefits of a BCS conference while playing in a conference that was much more wide open than it had been in the past. So his accomplishments get overrated to a degree when people say stuff like "wow, would you have ever imagined back in 1998 that UConn would be playing in the Fiesta bowl, or winning in Notre Dame." Those accomplishments have probably more to do with the changing landscape of college football than UConn themselves. So again, I thought he did a good job, certainly could have been worse, but I think there's a lot of guys who could have pulled off what he did, and some who could have done more.

As far as how he left, my only problem was him calling Maryland his dream job because, I mean, come on. But its extremely rare for a coach to leave in a way that makes everyone happy. They only have so much control over the timing of it. And coaches who leave before the bowl game get criticized for abandoning their team, and coaches who leave afterwards get criticized for waiting to long and putting their school in a tough spot to hire somebody, so you can't really win.
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I only wish I had written this, but this is far better than most of my FHCRE analysis. It captures the good, the overrated, the cold hard truths of his tenure. It gets right down to what he could do, what he didn't seem able to do, and what he did that could have been done just as well as many others. Great post.
 
ZooCougar said:
Utter nonsense. It's not like Pasqualoni just walked in the door. At the very least you could acknowledge that he has had time to impact how the players on this perform on the field.

And if what Edsall left was so bad talent wise then I am certain that even talent that bad could handle an FCS team.

Neil Ostrout said it best. This team has been decimated by the abundance of RETURNING STARTERS. Good grief. This team should be playing better than this.
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I didn't claim Pasqualoni is a great developer of players. I refuted the fact that we are in a current position to judge the players Pasqualoni recruited to the program. They're all sophomores and freshmen and for the most part don't play, so we don't really know. They are two totally separate things. Don't let your hatred of Paqualoni cloud your judgment of the difference between player development and pure recruiting.
 
whaler11 said:
Well if your recruiting improves your underclassmen should be taking jobs from upperclassman. Seems like you don't need to wait forever.

And since Edsall left the cupboard so bare, should really speed things up.
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Well if we were getting 4- and 5-star recruits, absolutely. But if it's only an incremental upgrade in recruiting (which I believe it probably is), then you're probably still looking at players taking a few years to catch up to the players ahead of them on the depth chart.
 
Irish Loop said:
Well if we were getting 4- and 5-star recruits, absolutely. But if it's only an incremental upgrade in recruiting (which I believe it probably is), then you're probably still looking at players taking a few years to catch up to the players ahead of them on the depth chart.
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Well if you are 10-15 and they still aren't breaking through that increment might be imaginary. Edsall may know more about recruiting than websites...
 
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