The question of whether the University of Connecticut violated a state nepotism ban by hiring football head coach Randy Edsall’s son as an assistant had the president of the university testifying in court.
NBC Connecticut Investigators broke the story last summer that the Office of State Ethics issued an opinion critical of the hire.
UConn President Susan Herbst made it clear she believes Connecticut has a unique set of ethics laws that can make it hard to recruit staff, whether it’s faculty or Division I coaches.
Attorneys for the Edsalls and UConn said their clients did everything right when Corey Edsall was hired as tight end coach, up to and including having a management plan so Corey Edsall would be supervised by the school’s athletic director and not Randy Edsall.
However, the Office of State Ethics is holding fast to its view that Randy Edsall negotiated his son’s contract after already starting work for UConn, something UConn and the Edsalls dispute.
The ethics panel argues even without that issue, the other problem that will always loom large is that while faculty members might be related and in the same department, a football team works differently.
The judge ended the hearing without a ruling.
If he upholds the ethics opinion it could subject Randy Edsall to a potential fine only for the past season, because at the very end of the legislative session language was slipped into a bill that permits the Edsall arrangement.
