Randy Edsall’s first season fractured Maryland football; can he repair it?

[huskysupporter]

ERIC PRISBELL
Do you need an image makeover?

RANDY EDSALL
No, I don't need an image makeover.

Randy doesn't realize that everyone in Maryland hates him.

Randy's responsibility is to win football games (which he didn't do well this year), its not whether fans and media like him. If he went 10-2 and was the same old Edsall, do you think we would see this much hatred? Bill Belichek is a miserable coach, but I would guess Patriot fans are very happy with him, whereas Cleveland fans probably do not have great memories.

I do find it hard to have sympathy for Edsall, though. This is the risk you run when jumping ship. Sounds like the players were used to a drastically different culture under Friedgen, and when someone came in with strict rules, it didn't go over well.

 

[ruskin]

anybody else think it's time to start an Edsall only forum? Seems to work for the realignment talk. Rehashing the past, debating RE's strong and weak points and reveling in his misery takes a lot of the oxygen out of this room.

Sept. 15 at College Park is not going to be a layup. Far from it.

 

[CAPS]

Row row row your boat right on up the stream merrily,merrily,merrily until the fans they don't scream! For your !kin job! I give him til mid season next yr. Buh bye!

 

[huskypantz]

“The perception of who Randy Edsall is is not who I am,” Edsall said. “It is not who I am.”

Mr Third Person, at it again. "It wasn't me enacting all those rules, it was that Randy Edsall guy. That's not who I am."

 

[noeynox]

Edsall on Edsall: "Randy Edsall is a pure football genius, that's who Randy Edsall is!"

 

[TouchdownHusky]

There is no doubt that the uconn roster is filled with high character guys that work their tails off to be successful. They definitely have that "never say die" attitude. Other programs, and Maryland is one of them, have more talent but not nearly the character that we do. Look at the bowl game against South Carolina a few years ago. They were much more talented but didn't have the will to win at that point in the season. As much as everyone wants to bash Edsalls recruiting classes, they are filled with guys who want to work hard and be the best they can be.

Yeah but . . . I'd rather have more talent. South Carolina has gotten better since the Papa Pizza Bowl . . . UConn?? Talent vs character? If you are gonna give the edge to one or the other . . . go with talent. Character can be worked on once they are on campus.

 

[mattp]

anybody else think it's time to start an Edsall only forum? Seems to work for the realignment talk. Rehashing the past, debating RE's strong and weak points and reveling in his misery takes a lot of the oxygen out of this room.

Sept. 15 at College Park is not going to be a layup. Far from it.

i'm hoping that we kill them in that game and hopefully that will bring some kind of closure to this. at this point everybody pretty much knows what everybody else's thoughts are on Edsall so we really don't need to rehash them, but it is the offseason so there's not much else to discuss. i'm looking forward to the look a like thread leading up to the game

 

[Palatine]

The Edsall love on this board was out of the park. I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach.

Edsall was considered "great" here because of the low expectations. He did a good job. But anyone who looked saw the flaws, vanilla offense, blaming players, playing not to lose, inability to close on recruits, paranoid rules, PR disaster. What we're seeing now is Randy Edsall unplugged. He can't point to trailers and say this is where we were. He has to point to the future and say this is where where we're going.

I believe Edsall never talked about UConn's bright future because he didn't believe in UConn. He thought he took the program as far as it could go. For years, Randy had been looking for the first job away from Storrs that would have him. Maryland took him. Good for them.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

The Edsall love on this board was out of the park. I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach.

Edsall was considered "great" here because of the low expectations. He did a good job. But anyone who looked saw the flaws, vanilla offense, blaming players, playing not to lose, inability to close on recruits, paranoid rules, PR disaster. What we're seeing now is Randy Edsall unplugged. He can't point to trailers and say this is where we were. He has to point to the future and say this is where where we're going.

I believe Edsall never talked about UConn's bright future because he didn't believe in UConn. He thought he took the program as far as it could go. For years, Randy had been looking for the first job away from Storrs that would have him. Maryland took him. Good for them.

Not much to disagree with here. Your post is on target. Bottom line is Randy took the program as far as he could. Taking it to the next level - outright BE championships, winning records against most or all BE opponents, noteworthy OOC wins, better bowls on a regular basis, frequent Top 25 appearances, etc. - was going to require a different coach. Is PP that guy? Time will tell.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

The Edsall love on this board was out of the park. I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach.

Edsall was considered "great" here because of the low expectations. He did a good job. But anyone who looked saw the flaws, vanilla offense, blaming players, playing not to lose, inability to close on recruits, paranoid rules, PR disaster. What we're seeing now is Randy Edsall unplugged. He can't point to trailers and say this is where we were. He has to point to the future and say this is where where we're going.

I believe Edsall never talked about UConn's bright future because he didn't believe in UConn. He thought he took the program as far as it could go. For years, Randy had been looking for the first job away from Storrs that would have him. Maryland took him. Good for them.

Wow, one poster thought he was great. Big sample size. No one thought UConn
built the Rent, Shenkman, Burton because of Randy Edsall. He was charged with making the program competative within the conference, that is not having low expectations or believing in Uconn. You didn't like his style, too bad. You said it "He did a good job" Lets move on.

 

[Kingspoint]

anybody else think it's time to start an Edsall only forum? Seems to work for the realignment talk. Rehashing the past, debating RE's strong and weak points and reveling in his misery takes a lot of the oxygen out of this room.

Sept. 15 at College Park is not going to be a layup. Far from it.

As I said at the beginning of the post, "Interesting end of season article on the woes of FUCRE. I know some are tired of reading about him...so don't." Maybe I should have added the warning "...unless you fear all the oxygen in this room will be consumed."
I usually only post articles or ask questions that I think will generate some discussion. Interestingly enough, this one has. But if they don't, I don't consider it a waste of oxygen nor am I offended. However, when they do, I usually get some truly interesting insights, and hopefully others do too.
ruskin - Thanks for contributing.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Wow, one poster thought he was great. Big sample size. No one thought UConn
built the Rent, Shenkman, Burton because of Randy Edsall. He was charged with making the program competative within the conference, that is not having low expectations or believing in Uconn. You didn't like his style, too bad. You said it "He did a good job" Lets move on.

No he was not charged with that. Lew Perkins hired him and said exactly..."Here's the keys to the car, there's no owner's manual." UConn was not going to join the big east until the 2005 season, and when he was hired, if I recall correctly, the plans to joing the big east were not even agreed upon yet. 7 years after he was hired we joined. We actually joined a year early b/c of the Miami mess.

There were zero expectations for Randy Edsall to be successful when he was hired. Zero. He was charged with running a football program with outdated and inadequate facilities, having just come out of the folding of the Yankee Conference after some 50+ years of existence or whatever. While the rest of the athletic department was working on building the infrastructure for upgrading to division 1-A football and figuring out what conference we would play in (we were A-10 for a while) and eventually joining the big east conference. He was given integral say in the development of that infrastructure, the buildings, the facilities, the stadium grounds. He had absolutely no experience recruiting for a football program at the d-1A level regularly, aside from selling himself and the concept of building a program from scratch, which is how he landed Dan Orlovsky. Without Orlovsky, this program is not anywhere close to where it's at today. Players build programs, not coaches. THat is all fact. The fact that he was so closely involved in building those fantastic facilities, is what made it so maddening, at least for me, to see him fail to go out and really recruit hard once they were built.

When it came time to continue the success in recruiting, after 2007 or so, as we began to win games regularly as a member of the big east, his recruiting fell off dramatically, and he also began regularly, and actively looking for jobs elsewhere. Fact.

My opinion is that either he felt like he finished the job he was hired for in the mid 2000s, and wanted out at that time, or that as stated elsewhere, he simply didin't believe UConn could achieve anything more than he already managed, or he simply was unable to adapt and modify his basic recruiting pitch, in that the program was already built, there was nothing left to sell, except himself, and that's what he did sell when recruiting - not UConn, but himself.

 

[Waquoit]

there was nothing left to sell, except himself, and that's what he did sell when recruiting - not UConn, but himself.

I agree, his ego wouldn't allow him to sell the school or the facilities. Randy was all about Randy. Why are our football facilities still such a secret?

 

[Carl Spackler]

The Edsall love on this board was out of the park. I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach.

Edsall was considered "great" here because of the low expectations. He did a good job. But anyone who looked saw the flaws, vanilla offense, blaming players, playing not to lose, inability to close on recruits, paranoid rules, PR disaster. What we're seeing now is Randy Edsall unplugged. He can't point to trailers and say this is where we were. He has to point to the future and say this is where where we're going.

I believe Edsall never talked about UConn's bright future because he didn't believe in UConn. He thought he took the program as far as it could go. For years, Randy had been looking for the first job away from Storrs that would have him. Maryland took him. Good for them.

THe proverbial throw up in the mouth, but I agree. I'll just add, and i've written this many times, I would have liked to see Edsall stay, and actually change and get out there on the recruiting trail and take the program up another notch from where he brought it. Wasn't to be, and to my knowledge, even though eh was actively purusing other coaching jobs for a few years, Maryland was the first real job offer he got beyond the interview stage.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

No he was not charged with that. Lew Perkins hired him and said exactly..."Here's the keys to the car, there's no owner's manual." UConn was not going to join the big east until the 2005 season, and when he was hired, if I recall correctly, the plans to joing the big east were not even agreed upon yet. 7 years after he was hired we joined. We actually joined a year early b/c of the Miami mess.

There were zero expectations for Randy Edsall to be successful when he was hired. Zero. He was charged with running a football program with outdated and inadequate facilities, having just come out of the folding of the Yankee Conference after some 50+ years of existence or whatever. While the rest of the athletic department was working on building the infrastructure for upgrading to division 1-A football and figuring out what conference we would play in (we were A-10 for a while) and eventually joining the big east conference. He was given integral say in the development of that infrastructure, the buildings, the facilities, the stadium grounds. He had absolutely no experience recruiting for a football program at the d-1A level regularly, aside from selling himself and the concept of building a program from scratch, which is how he landed Dan Orlovsky. Without Orlovsky, this program is not anywhere close to where it's at today. Players build programs, not coaches. THat is all fact. The fact that he was so closely involved in building those fantastic facilities, is what made it so maddening, at least for me, to see him fail to go out and really recruit hard once they were built.

When it came time to continue the success in recruiting, after 2007 or so, as we began to win games regularly as a member of the big east, his recruiting fell off dramatically, and he also began regularly, and actively looking for jobs elsewhere. Fact.

My opinion is that either he felt like he finished the job he was hired for in the mid 2000s, and wanted out at that time, or that as stated elsewhere, he simply didin't believe UConn could achieve anything more than he already managed, or he simply was unable to adapt and modify his basic recruiting pitch, in that the program was already built, there was nothing left to sell, except himself, and that's what he did sell when recruiting - not UConn, but himself.

Carl,
UConn board of trustees approved of an upgrade in '94, Mansfield voted down the stadium in '97. Kraft left Roland holding the bag in 4/99, the Rent was approoved later that year.. Perkins wanted us in the Big East in the early 2000's I believe it was by 2002. He was hired to transition us into the BE. Of course there were expectations. His recruiting classes did not get worse. Your sense of history is almost always suspect.

 

[ruskin]

As I said at the beginning of the post, "Interesting end of season article on the woes of FUCRE. I know some are tired of reading about him...so don't." Maybe I should have added the warning "...unless you fear all the oxygen in this room will be consumed."
I usually only post articles or ask questions that I think will generate some discussion. Interestingly enough, this one has. But if they don't, I don't consider it a waste of oxygen nor am I offended. However, when they do, I usually get some truly interesting insights, and hopefully others do too.
ruskin - Thanks for contributing.

Didn't mean my post to be a personal shot at KP, and my apologies if it read like one. Obviously Edsall continues to be a big topic on this board (people like to slow down to look at car wrecks) and the intent isn't to censor that talk, although I don't see anyone making a new point that will change anyone's mind on RE. Just thinking a sub-board for all things Edsall might work as well as the realignment one seems to be if you want to come here for UConn news and talk. For example, the FUCRE board could take all the latest Maryland transfer news, how Fridge was a better recruiter than Edsall, etc. etc. The Baltimore-Washington press is very aggressive and I suspect there's a lot more RE articles on the way.

 

[Carl Spackler]

History books are always suspect. Depends who's writing them and why. Nothing you wrote changes anything I wrote. The initial talks of upgrading really started in 1990-1991 and then got shelved for a while. So what that the board approved the upgrade? He was hired with the knowledge that we were transititioning from 1-AA to 1-A and that the big east conference was the desired destination. Because Perkins wanted us in teh big east in the early 2000s doesn't mean much. Somebody up there in storrs very recently wanted us in the ACC too. As for recruiting classes post 2007, they weren't getting stronger. I do not agree that the charge that Edsall was hired with was to make us competitive within the conference, which is what you initially said, and that's what I was responding too. Are you really saying the Perkins hired him in 1998 exactly 13 years ago today I believe, to make us competitive in teh big east conference?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Duncan, for the record, since you questioned it, I've looked to verify, and the board of trustees vote to upgrade to 1-A, came by a 16-1 majority at a session in mid october 1997. Not 1994. Mansfield didn't vote the on campus facility down until 1998. I wrote in my original response that I wasn't sure if the plans to join the big east were in place at the time Edsall was hired in December 1998, but indeed they were. The big east extended invites to Villanova and UConn to upgrade football and join the conference in 1997, with a december 31 decision deadline, which was why the vote was approved in october that year. Skip Holtz was originally charged with the transition job.

So, I'm wrong, it's very much possible that Edsall was charged with building a team that would be competitive in the big east conference.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

History books are always suspect. Depends who's writing them and why. Nothing you wrote changes anything I wrote. The initial talks of upgrading really started in 1990-1991 and then got shelved for a while. So what that the board approved the upgrade? He was hired with the knowledge that we were transititioning from 1-AA to 1-A and that the big east conference was the desired destination. Because Perkins wanted us in teh big east in the early 2000s doesn't mean much. Somebody up there in storrs very recently wanted us in the ACC too. As for recruiting classes post 2007, they weren't getting stronger. I do not agree that the charge that Edsall was hired with was to make us competitive within the conference, which is what you initially said, and that's what I was responding too. Are you really saying the Perkins hired him in 1998 exactly 13 years ago today I believe, to make us competitive in teh big east conference?

Any coach we were to hire/retain at that time was going to be their goal.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8313847.html

That what was stated from the consultant from the SEC during and as an argument for the upgrade it. I believe it recides in the same article from which you quoted.

 

[ZooCougar]

This post needs more likes.

The Edsall love on this board was out of the park. I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach.

Edsall was considered "great" here because of the low expectations. He did a good job. But anyone who looked saw the flaws, vanilla offense, blaming players, playing not to lose, inability to close on recruits, paranoid rules, PR disaster. What we're seeing now is Randy Edsall unplugged. He can't point to trailers and say this is where we were. He has to point to the future and say this is where where we're going.

I believe Edsall never talked about UConn's bright future because he didn't believe in UConn. He thought he took the program as far as it could go. For years, Randy had been looking for the first job away from Storrs that would have him. Maryland took him. Good for them.

 

[mattp]

This post needs more likes.

it doesn't get more likes because most of the opinions regarding Edsall were fabricated by Palatine. by far the most annoying part of thinking Edsall did a good job (which even Pal admits he did) was that i was constantly told that i love him, don't think anyone else could do the job and that i think he should be coach for life. i never heard one person say anything like any of that, expect Pal and a few others when attributing it to the "apologists". all i've heard people say was that he did a good job and probably a better job at building the program than most (that means more than 50%, not 99.9%, and when you consider 50% of coaches are probably fired in 3 years it's hard to argue that he didnt do a better job than most would). all the superlatives have come from Pal and his anti edsall cronies, not from the apologists

 

[Kingspoint]

Didn't mean my post to be a personal shot at KP, and my apologies if it read like one. Obviously Edsall continues to be a big topic on this board (people like to slow down to look at car wrecks) and the intent isn't to censor that talk, although I don't see anyone making a new point that will change anyone's mind on RE. Just thinking a sub-board for all things Edsall might work as well as the realignment one seems to be if you want to come here for UConn news and talk. For example, the FUCRE board could take all the latest Maryland transfer news, how Fridge was a better recruiter than Edsall, etc. etc. The Baltimore-Washington press is very aggressive and I suspect there's a lot more RE articles on the way.

Hey no offense taken ruskin. This board is chock full of peoples opinions so I understand. One thing I do know is that for the most part, people on this board can agree to disagree in a more civilized manner than the way they do it on some of the other boards I've read.

Just so you know, one of my New Year's resolutions is to not post anything more on FUCRE unless something really, really, really good comes along. I just hope I can keep that resolution better than one I made last year...to exercise more. Probably be a lot easier. SIGH!

 

[BlueMAB]

it doesn't get more likes because most of the opinions regarding Edsall were fabricated by Palatine. by far the most annoying part of thinking Edsall did a good job (which even Pal admits he did) was that i was constantly told that i love him, don't think anyone else could do the job and that i think he should be coach for life. i never heard one person say anything like any of that, expect Pal and a few others when attributing it to the "apologists". all i've heard people say was that he did a good job and probably a better job at building the program than most (that means more than 50%, not 99.9%, and when you consider 50% of coaches are probably fired in 3 years it's hard to argue that he didnt do a better job than most would). all the superlatives have come from Pal and his anti edsall cronies, not from the apologists

This post needs more likes.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Also, FYI - while I freely admit my memory isn't what it once was, I just checked w/ a source and in 1994, there was indeed talk of upgrading at that time, but it apparently did not get to official BOT vote, because the university senate (faculty, administration and student representation) at the time had a session and voted down the upgrade. What's interesting that I just reviewed, is that good old Lew, in that inital report on upgrading that he put together in 1991 on request from the administration, he strongly predicts that the 'upper tier' of college athletic conferences would be strongly motivated to form an independant tier of sports programs independant of the NCAA. He predicted that way back in 1991!

anyway - all of that's verifiable, if you want to look.

 

[ZooCougar]

Ok. I think you must be the MattP from another dimension. Because I don't remember any superlative in any of Palatine's posts.

Edsall definitely has his share of worshippers here. To say otherwise is ridiculous. There were even people here so confident in his abilities that they predicted Maryland would be in the ACCCG. "cough, cough Gars".

Good times.

it doesn't get more likes because most of the opinions regarding Edsall were fabricated by Palatine. by far the most annoying part of thinking Edsall did a good job (which even Pal admits he did) was that i was constantly told that i love him, don't think anyone else could do the job and that i think he should be coach for life. i never heard one person say anything like any of that, expect Pal and a few others when attributing it to the "apologists". all i've heard people say was that he did a good job and probably a better job at building the program than most (that means more than 50%, not 99.9%, and when you consider 50% of coaches are probably fired in 3 years it's hard to argue that he didnt do a better job than most would). all the superlatives have come from Pal and his anti edsall cronies, not from the apologists

 

[mattp]

Ok. I think you must be the MattP from another dimension. Because I don't remember any superlative in any of Palatine's posts.

Edsall definitely has his share of worshippers here. To say otherwise is ridiculous. There were even people here so confident in his abilities that they predicted Maryland would be in the ACCCG. "cough, cough Gars".

Good times.

he just said "I recall one poster saying he couldn't imagine or want anyone except Edsall as the UConn coach." which
is pretty close to a superlative. and to be fair they could still make the ACCCG while he's there. i think a lot of us that liked him came off as worshippers because we felt the need to defend some ridiculous comments made about him. personally i wouldn't have minded keeping him around for a long time b/c i thought we'd have a tough time getting a decent replacement (i thought we'd be looking at Whipple-type candidates, which we largely were) and because i was willing to settle for good. i didn't want to make a Cuse-esque move to fire a good coach and hire GRob. i think most "apologists" felt about the same. i don't think that makes me a worshipper, but some people seem to think so.

BTW i'm not from a different dimension, but i did travel here from the future, so it's similar

 

[TouchdownHusky]

BTW i'm not from a different dimension, but i did travel here from the future, so it's similar

Then you can tell us when RE was fired at Maryland . . . after '12? '13? 14? Come on it didn't last longer than that. No way. And was UConn asked to join the ACC by then?

 

[Palatine]

it doesn't get more likes because most of the opinions regarding Edsall were fabricated by Palatine.

First, I only cited one opinion. Second, there was a poster who titled his thread something very close to what I wrote. I didn't "fabricate" a thing. Period.

 

[mattp]

Then you can tell us when RE was fired at Maryland . . . after '12? '13? 14? Come on it didn't last longer than that. No way. And was UConn asked to join the ACC by then?

i should have specified i'm only from a week in the future

 

[mattp]

First, I only cited one opinion. Second, there was a poster who titled his thread something very close to what I wrote. I didn't "fabricate" a thing. Period.

anytime you refer to Edsall lovers or Edsall worshippers you're fabricating opinions, and i'm pretty sure you've done both several times. if not i apologize as i may be confusing you someone else