Return to UConn emotional for Edsall

One word came to Randy Edsall’s mind as he stepped in front of the microphone as UConn’s football coach for the first time since the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.

“Wow,” Edsall said in the Friday morning introductory press conference. “I don’t what else to say but wow.”

Edsall, who left UConn after the Fiesta Bowl to take the job at Maryland, landed with the Detroit Lions after being fired at Maryland. Edsall admitted that he was perfectly content in his stress-free scouting job in Detroit and declared that the UConn job was the only head coaching gig he would be interested in pursuing.

Edsall was rather emotional during his opening comments especially when speaking about seeing the statue for late former UConn star Jasper Howard. Before getting too deep into his address, he expressed remorse for the way he walked out on the

FROM PAGE 1 UConn team after the 2011 Fiesta Bowl loss to fly to Maryland.

“I made one of the worse decisions in terms of how I left the University of Connecticut,” Edsall said. “That is something I have to live with and I lived with. I am not perfect, everybody makes a mistake, I regret it; it is some that has weighed on me heavily over the years. I just hope I will be able to earn the trust back from all the fans.”

Edsall won a program record 74 games at UConn from 1999-2010, navigating the difficult jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision level. After beginning his tenure with three straight losing seasons, Edsall led the Huskies to a seasonending four-game winning streak during the 2002 season. From that point until he left to coach the Terrapins Edsall led UConn to a 63-40 record, six winning seasons and five bowl games.

“Today is a special day,” UConn director of athletics David Benedict said. “At one time (Rentschler Field) was full of fans, we look forward to seeing the stands full again.”

Twelve times from 200610 UConn sold out Rentschler Field, five other times more than 38,000 of the 40,000 tickets were distributed. As a point of reference, since his departure the only sellout was a 2013 game against Michigan and the second biggest crowd came when Edsall brought his Maryland team to East Hartford in 2013.

“We need to move forward together to grow this program,” Edsall said. “I am not good enough to do it myself, together we can make sure we get this place 40,000 strong, putting banners up, playing and winning. That is what UConn is all about, it is winning in the classroom, winning on the field and winning in life once they leave here.”

Current and former players were among those at Friday’s press conference. Edsall also spoke about reconnecting with his former UConn players before NFL games.

“It brings you back to reality to say wow, look at the things we accomplished at the University of Connecticut. It is those emotions, those relationships that drive you as a coach. That is what it is all about, it is about those guys, seeing the statue for Jasper Howard it gets you and it never leaves you. Having a chance this morning to talk to the current studentathletes, a great group of guys, a together group, a group that I look forward to coaching, mentoring, helping them achieve their goals that they want to achieve. I didn’t want to get emotional, but this is what Connecticut means to me and thank you for having me back.”

While he had his own team to coach, Edsall did admit to keeping tabs on his former team.

“I always checked the scores,” Edsall said. “You don’t invest 12 years of your life, have the opportunity to start as an FCS program and get it to an FBS school and to the Fiesta Bowl, that just doesn’t leave you. I wanted them to win; I wanted Connecticut to do well.”