In the famous words of Harvey Dent, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” While that’s not quite analogous to Randy Edsall’s dramatic fall from grace, the 63-year-old’s coaching legacy is certainly complicated by what was a disastrous second tenure in Storrs.
Edsall, in many ways, helped put UConn football on the map, guiding Connecticut through its early years in the Big East, with that rise culminating in the school’s first—and so far, only—BCS appearance at the 2011 Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. Unfortunately, the Huskies didn’t have much time to enjoy that triumph with Edsall departing under awkward circumstances (he defected to Maryland immediately after UConn’s Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma, not even flying home with the team).
After an unsuccessful five-year tour of duty at Maryland, Edsall would eventually return to the program he helped shape, resuming his place atop UConn’s coaching hierarchy in 2017. Many assumed Edsall, who led Connecticut to five bowl appearances in his initial stint including wins in the 2004 Motor City Bowl, the 2008 International Bowl and the PapaJohns.com Bowl in 2009, would return the Huskies to national prominence. Instead he won six games in four seasons with the spiraling Huskies—once considered an up-and-comer in the college football world—descending further into FBS obscurity.
After an embarrassing home loss to Worcester-based Holy Cross—an FCS school with barely 3,000 students—Edsall announced his plans to retire after the season. Monday the school announced Edsall would be leaving immediately with defensive coordinator Lou Spanos inheriting his role on an interim basis.
With local product Dan Orlovsky starring at QB in the Huskies’ newly-built stadium (40,000-seat Rentschler Field in East Hartford) in the early 2000s, UConn looked, at least at that point in time, like a program on the rise, successfully transitioning from FCS (then known as Division 1AA) to college football’s highest level. But when the Big East collapsed amid conference realignment, so did UConn, joining Cincinnati, South Florida and all the others who weren’t quick enough on their feet in the middling AAC. In a spread-out conference of spare parts, Connecticut would struggle to find its identity, inviting mockery by trying—in cringe-worthy fashion—to start a rivalry with UCF.
Central Florida declining its “Civil Conflict” trophy after routing UConn in 2016 was a low moment for the program, but somehow the Huskies would fall even further into the depths of mediocrity, leaving the American Athletic Conference to become an FBS independent in 2020. The Huskies, who, before losing to Holy Cross, were obliterated 45-0 in a season-opening loss to Fresno State, went a combined 3-21 (0-16 in conference play) over their final two seasons in the AAC and didn’t even play last year, opting out due to the COVID pandemic.
UConn looks very much like a program fighting for its life. Saturday’s home opener drew a meager 18,782 fans to Rentschler Field and this week’s showdown with Purdue (installed by Vegas as 33.5-point road favorites) figures to draw only marginally more interest. The old boy scout adage is to leave a place better than you found it. Regardless of where the Huskies go from here—returning to the FCS circuit is a distinct possibility—Edsall fell woefully short in that regard.
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