Having just mocked the "revisionist history" thread, I am now going to offer some "revisionist future" because I am a hypocrit mostly.
There have been calls for Edsall to be fired on this board. Any sane person kinda knows that is lunacy for many reasons, but I'm here to renew a call for patience.
Here are my arguments
Lets Get Real
This is Edsall's 3rd Year. Let's be real, with no disrespect to the players recruited by Diaco, this entire program was a smoldering ruin when he got here. He had bad players, that didn't fit his system(or any system, for that matter). When he got here, we were in a conference that was actively hurting our ability to recruit, our scheduling flexibility, and our revenue potential. It was the worst possible situation as a football program. The conference both is actively derided but sneakily has good teams. That is the worst case. Ok, that is what he walked into. Then, we went independent, and are figuring that out. Randy works for a $1m salary, well below basically every other D1 coach. Not crying poor for the guy, but a nod in his favor and in favor of our budget. He has dealt with massive staff turnover during this entire process as well. You may say that's partly his fault I say . He hired some impressive people thus far, retaining them at underwater salary and conference affiliation has been a struggle. Not his fault.
Performance- Expectations vs Reality
The first question we need to ask ourselves is simple - what are our expectations? My expectation is that he can replicate Edsall 1.0 results. That is to say, that at the end of his first 3-4 recruiting classes that Edsall will have a fundamentally sound team with a few diamond in the rough-types, that will will 6-7 games a year. They will beat up on the teams they should beat up, and they will lost to the teams they should lose to. I want to be clear - I WOULD BE VERY HAPPY WITH THAT OUTCOME. I do not seek a world-beater for a football program. I want a team that I can justify making 6-7 trips a year to Renschler to tailgate with family and know that I will see competent, non-embarrassing football. If we steal a win here or there that we don't deserve, more power to State U. I think everyone on this board needs to think very hard about their expectations, because if they are realistic, Edsall is a safe bet to deliver with patience. If not, well, I think you need your head examined.
The second question is, relative to talent, have we performed as expected? Are we on plan? Given the fact that in years 1-2 we essentially fielded a JV team with the Varsity schedule, I'm not going to worry about W/L for this. It is what it is. I expected to get crushed, and mostly we got crushed. So let's look at my expectations for progress. 1 - Have we seemed more competent generally, fundamentally sound? I would definitely say yes. While we bottomed out on defense last year with all freshmen, I think we are showing pretty good improvement this year, particularly on the DL and CB. We aren't world-beaters, but you can see a more cohesive team, playing their keys better. Our offensive line isn't as offensive, even sometimes downright good-ish. Again I'm not even saying we are any good, but we are playing the game in a more sound way. Everything looks in order on the field. 2 - Have we built a more solid roster, with a few diamond-in-the-rough types starting to peek through? Here I think is the biggest feather in Edsall's cap. He was always a solid evaluator of talent, and his first couple recruiting classes are no exception - We've found 2 pretty good QBs in Kraszewski(sp?) and Zergiotis. Say what you want about their freshmen mistakes, but those guys showed some skills that no recruited QB has done in ...checks watch... 15 years? Travis Jones is a beast and will be an NFL draft pick. I very much enjoy what I am seeing from all of the young DEs, especially Eric Watts, Kevon Jones, and Dillon Harris. Jackson Mitchell and Jordan Morrison look good as young LBs, and I think some of the young DBs, especially guys like Keyshawn Paul and Myles Bell are just plain going to be flat good in a couple of years. On offense it looks like the young receivers have a lot of ability, espeically Cam, Maurrisea, and Jefferys. I'm not an evaluator of OLine or TE play, but we seem to be solidifying our depth there as well. In addition to the solid talent at the bottom of the pipeline, Edsall is being pretty smart about grad transfers. A solid D2 qb? check. A Starting WR from D2. check. A starting Safety and OLB via JucO? check. A player at MLB from Notre Dame? Check. He's filling holes where it makes sense to bridge the gap to the young kids.
now lets look at his history - He starts out poorly as he recruits and implements his plan - and notice that the strength of schedule in this rebuild is particularly strong, especially compared to his first stint at UConn. After building and recruiting, his teams then are solid, around .500 or just above. That's what we need!
Ok, So here is my case - you people who want him fired are ridiculous. Edsall will not get us to another fiesta bowl, but with his methodical and detail oriented approach he can definitely deliver us what the vast majority of us seek. A competitive, respectable team that we can enjoy watching in person, tailgating before games, and maybe every couple years going to a fun bowl.
End of rant.
