Now that Randy Edsall is returning to UConn Football, both fans and players – past and present – are hopeful the Huskies can be a winning program just like during his first tenure as head coach.
At Friday morning’s press conference, Coach Edsall did not shy away from addressing his abrupt departure for the University of Maryland after the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.
“That is something that I have to live with and I’ve lived with,” Edsall said, “I’m not perfect, everybody makes a mistake. I regret it. It’s something that has weighed on me very heavily.”
“I just hope that I will be able to earn the trust back from all the wonderful fans,” he added. “Because what I’m doing now is I apologize for how I left, it was wrong. I take full ownership and accountability for that and now we’re going to move forward together.”
Steve Peronace, a fan who graduated from UConn in 1991, said he accepts Edsall's apology.
“I felt it was sincere,” Peronace said. “I believe he did regret the way things happened.”
Edsall’s 74 wins from 1999 to 2010 are the most by any coach in school history.
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“Enjoyed the time that he was here for the 12 years previously,” Peronace said. “Thought he was a great coach, very good at recruiting under-looked players and building them up.”
Edsall’s wife Eileen is among the many people he thanked at the podium.
“He’s invested a lot of time you know starting it up,” Eileen Edsall told NBC Connecticut. “I mean it was not his baby, he had a lot of help along the way, but anytime in this profession you’re somewhere 12 years and you grow it from one level to the other and your children grow up here, you can’t help but have an emotional investment in it.”
Former UConn running back Andre Dixon said there was no one better to replace the fired Bob Diaco than his old college coach.
“In the past three years as I came to games, the numbers went down, they went down, they went down,” Dixon said of attendance at Rentschler Field. “I think with Edsall in there you’re going to see as you go to games the numbers are going to go up, they’re going to go up, they’re going to go up and it’s going to turn back into the Husky pride and we’re going to be winning some games and bleed blue.”
Toward the end of his remarks, Edsall held back tears describing seeing the statue at the stadium Friday morning for Dixon’s teammate Jasper Howard, who was stabbed to death in 2009.
“I didn’t want to get emotional,” Edsall said. “But this is what Connecticut is all about, this is what Connecticut has meant to me and thank you for having me back. God bless you.”
Edsall and Huskies will get to work on turning the program around starting on Jan. 16. The team has not had a winning season since he left after the 2010 season.
