UConn's Edsall tabbed as Terps' football coach

Former Connecticut coach Randy Edsall, who spent 12 years transforming the Huskies from Division I-A neophytes to Big East champions, was named coach of the Terrapin football team Jan. 2, capping a turbulent search to replace the ousted Ralph Friedgen.

Edsall's hire culminated two weeks of speculation over whom Athletics Director Kevin Anderson would select to succeed Friedgen, whose contract was bought out last month after compiling a 75-50 record in 10 seasons.

Names such as former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach and Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn had emerged as possible candidates for the vacancy since Anderson announced Friedgen's buyout Dec. 20. Leach, whose pass-happy brand of offense seemingly made him an attractive fit for a diminished Terp fan base, appeared to be the front-runner for the job through much of the process.

But less than 24 hours after Edsall's Huskies lost to Oklahoma, 48-20, in the Fiesta Bowl, the program's first BCS bowl berth, Anderson announced the hiring of the 52-year-old Glen Rock, Pa., native.

"I was able to look at his body of work," Anderson said of Edsall at his introductory press conference, "and it speaks for itself."

Tasked with overseeing the Huskies' transition from Division I-AA (or Football Championship Subdivision) competition to the Big East, Edsall won two of the league's past four titles and posted a 74-70 overall record and 22-26 mark in conference play.

Under Edsall, Connecticut also ushered in the construction of a new football stadium and consistently posted impressive graduation rates for players.

"This man is a builder and a champion," Anderson said.

Calling the opportunity a "dream job," Edsall reminisced about his earliest exposures to Terp athletics. He fondly recalled seeing his first college football game in Byrd Stadium in the 1970s and making annual treks to former men's basketball coach Lefty Driesell's basketball camp as a youth.

"It's not every time in your life that you get to go and have an opportunity to do something that you've really wanted to do once you entered the career field that you chose," Edsall said.

Edsall said he was proud to follow Friedgen, whom he worked with while at Georgia Tech. A former Syracuse quarterback, Edsall also was an assistant with the Orange and Boston College before working under then-Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin in the mid-1990s.

With a no-nonsense approach and straightforward tone to his words, Edsall offered little hesitation in stating his goals of winning championships.

"I'm a coach, and I want to win at the highest level, and if we're going to put the effort and the time that we do as coaches and these young men do as student-athletes, every year our goal is to win the ACC Championship," Edsall said. "That's what we're going to shoot for each and every year because if you don't, there's no sense for me to be here."

In Friedgen, Edsall replaces a fiercely loyal alumnus and two-time ACC Coach of the Year whose undoing was as much a result of his failures off the field than as any shortcomings on it. A year after the Terps suffered through a 2-10 season — a program-worst mark — Friedgen struggled to energize a fan base even as he orchestrated the second-greatest turnaround in wins in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Only once this season did fans fill Byrd Stadium to at least 75 percent capacity.

When coach-in-waiting James Franklin accepted an offer to become the coach at Vanderbilt in mid-December, Anderson was unwilling to allow Friedgen to coach through the 2011 season, instead opting to buy out the remaining year on his contract.

As the Terps prepared for Friedgen's final send-off, a 51-20 win against East Carolina in the Military Bowl, Leach, Malzahn and other names, such as Southern Methodist coach June Jones and then-Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez, reportedly were considered as candidates for the vacancy.

But ultimately it was Edsall who won out as Anderson's choice to take the Terps from "good to great."

"I had to make a hard decision when we decided to make a change," Anderson said. "We know that we are good, but we want to be great and take this football program to another level. That's why Randy is sitting here."

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