Randy Edsall returns to UConn: It's all about the right fit

Randy Edsall is 58 and life is swirling maybe faster than ever.

He's flying cross-country for a final weekend with his new Detroit Lions. He's packing up his condo and driving to Connecticut. He's assembling a coaching staff. He's trying to salvage a recruiting class with only a few weeks left in the cycle.

He's starting his nearly four decades-old football life over again, and he views it as a gift.

More than a week after accepting the head coaching position at the University of Connecticut, and going home again, the expert in time management and organization hasn't yet been able to return his well-wish phone calls from former players, assistants and friends.

"It's all very surreal ..." he said with a bit of a laugh.

Rarely do big-time college head coaches get to go back where they started.

But that's exactly what the Susquehannock grad is doing.

He's back at the helm of a team he once guided from the anonymity of Division I-AA ... to building a new stadium while joining the FBS as an independent ... and then to the Big East Conference. Edsall led the Huskies to five bowl games, a league title and a marquee matchup with Oklahoma on New Year's Day.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Randy Edsall building Maryland football for Big Ten success

He's getting the chance to start over at the place where he admits making one of his biggest mistakes.

He's a head coach again after being fired from his dream job at the University of Maryland — the team he grew up rooting for in Glen Rock — because he lost more than he won while wading through one lofty struggle after another.

At the time, Edsall wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to do.

His first step was accepting a utility position on the staff of former Penn State assistant and Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell. For only the second time in nearly 35 years, this fall, Edsall did not coach players hands-on. Instead, his job varied from evaluating free agents to college prospects, from scouting work for the offense to helping with replays and clock management on game days.

And to be sure, he enjoyed being able to soak in someone else's style and system, for once. But he also grew to miss that day-to-day interaction with players.

"On Sundays, I'd see (them on NFL teams) and you'd say, 'Wow, you really had an impact on young people.'"

He realized he wanted to lead again, but only with the exact fit.

Truly, for only one team.

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Edsall always carried confidence well, ever since his high school days when he earned all-state recognition in football, basketball and baseball.

But as a coach he's more of a behind-the-scenes builder than a big-personality seller. He's more disciplinarian and taskmaster who learned under hard-liner Tom Coughlin.

"At the level Connecticut is now, he'll get to do it his way," said brother Duke Edsall, a longtime college basketball official.

"He can (recruit) kids with a chip on their shoulder, the underdog kid from nowhere-Pennsylvania who he pulls out of the rafters and becomes a heck of a player.

"To go and get in on those five-star (prospects) you've got to kiss butt and glad-hand and baby sit these kids. That's not the way we were brought up. This just fits his personality so much better."

Randy Edsall says going back to Connecticut, which could pay him more than $1 million a year with incentives, was more about that fit than washing away a bad taste from his time at Maryland. He believes he's a more patient coach now.

"It's knowing what you can do there and having won there before," he said. "My kids grew up there, my daughter graduated from there. It's just the respect I have the for the university."

Red Lion grad Andrew Zeller played on Edsall's offensive line at Maryland and spent some time with him at the Lions before he was cut.

"I like that he's a straight-shooter, he does things the old-school way," Zeller said. "And that's hard for guys not accustomed to that lifestyle. Some players thought they could come to college and do whatever they wanted.

"He helped people be accountable. Not everybody in that system as a young athlete can appreciate that, but I appreciated that."

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Randy Edsall is living his dream at Maryland

Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead worked under Edsall for two years at Connecticut.

He was most impressed by the "culture" Edsall created at UConn, built around work ethic, attention to detail and selflessness.

"Our sum was greater than our parts," Moorhead said. "That culture really became self-perpetuating in a lot of ways. ... It was just understanding how all of the intangibles and little things off the field manifest themselves on the field."

Edsall views this opportunity as a gift because of the way he left Connecticut. After being offered the Maryland job, he didn't tell his Husky players he was leaving, or fly back with them from the Fiesta Bowl.

He apologized for that last week during an emotional introductory news conference.

"I'm far from perfect and I made a mistake," he said. "That weighed heavily on me from six years ago and I've had to live with it. It's bothered me, and now I just hope I can earn the trust back from the people there ..."

More than anything, he soaked in the packed club section atmosphere of Rentschler Field during his press conference, from former players to fans to university workers he's known for years.

He certainly felt forgiveness. He felt like he owns the most unusual re-birth of a coaching career.

"That (support) probably spoke more to me than anything anyone can ever say."