The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Edsall sounds off on state of NCAA
STORRS — Nearing the end of a 20-minute rant on the hypocrisy of major college football, UConn football coach Randy Edsall stopped in mid-sentence and declared, “now, I’m on a roll.”
Truer words may never have been spoken.
The media was invited to check out the final day of winter conditioning before the start of spring football camp on Friday. With Edsall’s recent posts on Twitter suggesting college athletes should be paid — and more recently taking umbrage with a rule that prevents recruits who have signed their National Letters of Intent from attending team meetings unless the general public is invited to spring practice — Edsall had a chance to sound off on rules that leave him worried about the future of a sport he has devoted his life to.
“I am just trying to do what is right and speak from the standpoint of somebody who has seen it, experienced it first hand,” Edsall said. “What we are doing is not right.
“I have made a lot of mistakes, I am not perfect, trust me, but I want to do what’s right for these kids.”
While there are rules on the books that get Edsall’s blood boiling, one of the main talking points is
about the offering of scholarships to prospects before their senior season.
“We shouldn’t be offering kids until Sept. 1 of their senior year, we shouldn’t be doing that,” Edsall said. “(Former Penn State coach) Joe Paterno is the guy who first started screwing things up. He is the (coach) who first started offering kids early and you saw what happened to their program. We are supposed to be honorable, trustworthy people as coaches, so the types of things we tell kids, they should be able to take things and trust and take to the bank, feel good about that.
“Do you sleep well? I sleep great at night because I ain’t worrying about if this guy tweets that you did something wrong, it is who you are. If you can’t demand that yourself, how can you go in front of kids that you are supposed to be a coach, a teacher, a mentor and a parent to them and tell them anything if you are not doing it the right way?,” Edsall said.
“If you’re cheating and not following the rules, how can you be one of those four people? Maybe I’m screwed up, but that is the way I look at what I do. I am a teacher, I am a coach, I am a mentor and I am a parent. So what am I going for these kids if I am do what I say and not as I do. It is about your own integrity, your own character, trying to be the best person and doing it the right way. I am not going to back down from that, I am not going to do it.”
As for his Huskies, Edsall doesn’t know how many wins they will have, but with the first of 15 spring practices scheduled for Monday, he’s excited about the culture that is continuing to form.
“We have a good vibe going, good cohesion and everything else,” Edsall said. “Guys have taken to it and are doing a good job. We still have a lot of work to do but everything has been really positive, so as a coach that is what we want. We talk about standards and we make it real simple. I’ve had a chance to stand back and look back at the recruiting class again, I thought we had a really good class. We are going to evaluate guys ourselves, we are going to look at game film and do all those things, get the right kinds of kids like we did before.”
Offensive linemen Ryan Crozier, Noel Ofori-Nyadu and Nino Leone, linebacker Eli Thomas and punter Luke Magliozzi will miss spring practice due to injuries, but with no departures from the roster since January, Edsall knows he is continuing to build the foundation necessary to return to the days when he coached UConn to four consecutive bowl games. In the meantime, when he sees a situation or a rule that he believes is not in the best interest of today’s high school and college football players, he won’t be shy in voicing his opinion.
“I’m going to keep being a voice and advocate for the athletes because it is hard for them to be able to say things,” Edsall said. “If we as coaches come out and say things maybe it will get some traction to it but it is just not right.
“If it keeps going down this path, I feel for the people who love to coach and love to do it for the right reasons and have to get involved with what is going on.”