New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Edsall era to end
Coach says he will retire at end of season
Randy Edsall, who returned as head coach to the UConn football program in 2017, announced he is retiring at the end of the season.
The Randy Edsall redux is nearing its end in Storrs.
Edsall, who returned four years ago with hopes of guiding the school’s football program out of the abyss, announced Sunday he plans to retire at the end of the season.
“Back in 2017 I made a commitment to the university, but felt it was better to make this announcement now rather than the end of the year to allow the university ample time to prepare for the future of the football program,” Edsall said on Twitter.
The announcement comes a day after the oft-beleaguered program dropped its home opener to FCS product Holy Cross, 38-28. The Huskies are 0-2 on the season and have been outscored 83-28.
Edsall declined to discuss the decision during his weekly call with reporters on Sunday, though he did maintain his commitment to the program.
“I’ve done it for 17 years, and I’ve done it for 40 years as a coach, I will bust my (butt) to the best of my ability until the end of the season,” he said. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve done it that way all my life. It isn’t going to change.”
Edsall, 63, coached the Huskies from 1999 to 2010, guiding the program as it transitioned Division I-AA to Division I-A as a member of the Big East.
UConn went 74-70 and reached five bowl games during that tenure, including the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day, 2011.
After that game, a 48-20 loss to Oklahoma, Edsall abruptly left to coach Maryland, where he went 22-34 and was fired midway through his fifth season.
Competing in the American Athletic Conference, UConn’s football program struggled under Paul Pasqualoni and Bob Diaco and attendance at Rentschler Field steadily declined.
UConn, which became an independent football program when the school moved its athletic programs back to the Big East last year, is 6-32 since Edsall returned. The losses to start the season — particularly the loss to Holy Cross — led to calls for a change among fans on social media.
Administration threw its support behind Edsall over the offseason, rewarding him with a two-year contract extension through 2023 that pays him $1.26 million this season.
But Edsall has been unable to rekindle the success of his first stint in Storrs, despite the program having taken the 2020 season off due to COVID-19 complications.
The school announced that it will conduct a national search for Edsall’s successor.
“While the program has been unable to recapture that level of success on the field during Randy’s second stint as our head football coach, the decision to retire at end of the season was made by Randy,” UConn athletic director Dave Benedict said in a statement. “As is the case with all our teams, I am constantly evaluating the football program and will continue to make decisions that I feel are in the best interest of our student-athletes.”
The Huskies came into this year with promise, but a 45-0 loss to Fresno State swept away much of the optimism that had been built up in the preceding weeks. And now, Edsall is already fielding questions about whether his players have begun to quit.
“I didn’t see anybody quit out there yesterday,” Edsall said. “We had opportunities all throughout the game to make plays, and we just didn’t make them. But I haven’t seen guys not respond, I haven’t seen guys not believe in what we’re doing. It always helps when you win.”
The Huskies host Purdue on Saturday and have opened as 32.5-point underdogs.
“If everybody does the things that we’re asking them to do, I know that they can be successful,” Edsall said. “It’s just that some guys aren’t doing it well enough. … If you’re a competitor, you’re going to just work through it. It’s like some of the hitters get in a bad slump. What do they do? They work through it, watch themselves and tweak it. And then they get out of a slump. It’s the same thing.”
When asked how he deals with the pressure of trying to save the season from spiraling further, Edsall said he leans on lessons he learned from his parents.
“I had a talk with my brother and my sister today. We were brought up to do the best we could each and every day, no matter what the odds were, who you were going against, whatever,” Edsall said. “I’ve just tried to follow that model all my life. I’ll continue to do that as long as I’m on this earth. I was always taught, put more pressure on yourself than anybody can put on you and demand more of yourself than others will demand of you. If you do that then you’ll be successful and you’ll be able to enjoy the things that you do. Don’t worry about what other people think or say.”
Prior to his first stop at UConn, Edsall bounced around as an assistant in college and the NFL. He spent time with his alma mater Syracuse, Boston College and Georgia Tech, as well as with the Jacksonville Jaguars when he coached under his mentor Tom Coughlin. He also worked in 2016 as the Detroit Lions’ director of football research.
Edsall is 80-102 in his two stints at UConn and 102-133 overall.