Seeing the mass of bodies surrounding the phone shortly before noon made it clear that this is not just another week in the world of the UConn football program.
Pretty much from the time Randy Edsall departed en route for Maryland, the date when Edsall would bring his Terrapins to Rentschler Field was being circled on the calendar.
Edsall called in right on time and spent a few minutes taking questions about the reception he is expecting from the Rentschler Field fans as well as the improvement of the Terps' offense. Here's what he had to say
"It will be nice to come back and visit Rentschler Field," Edsall said. "I have a lot of fond memories of Rentschler and a lot of exciting games that were played there. The fans were great and I know what kind of a tough environment it can be and I have to make sure I get my team prepared. I am looking forward to it because I have all good memories of the times that I spent in that stadium
"I have been in this business long enough, there will be people who will boo and probably people who will cheer, that is the nature of the profession we are in and again I just very thankful of the people who supported the program when I was there and made me feel at home and got behind our team and allowed us to do the things that we did. Anytime you go on the road nobody likes you so that is just part of playing the game
"I think having C.J. (Brown) back as the quarterback has really helped us. It was unfortunate he got hurt last year and had to go through what he had to go through but he worked extremely hard to get back. I think he is playing at a really high level, he is playing with a lot of confidence. I think we have a lot of good pieces around him, you look at Deon (Long) and Stefon (Diggs), you look at Nigel King, Levern Jacobs, Brandon Ross, Kenny Goins and our offensive line has done a great job. I have tried to get the best five guys we have there and I think they are going to continue to get better each and every week. I think what we have is we have guys who have the ability to make big plays and fortunately for us in the first two games we have been able to do that."
Edsall was asked about what he picked up on tape from watching UConn's season-opening loss to Towson
"You watch the tape and you see what goes on in that game. Towson was able to make a couple of plays in the passing game that really helped them come away with a victory. I thought UConn made some really good plays in that game as well but just didn’t make quite as many as Towson did. I stay in contact with Rob (Ambrose, the Towson head coach and former assistant coach under Edsall at UConn) he is right up the road from where I am and I stayed in contact with him since he has been at Towson."
Naturally, Paul Pasqualoni was asked what he thought the fans' reaction would be to Edsall's return considering the fact that he left to accept the Maryland job without telling his players about his intentions.
My sense is it will probably be mixed, some people really appreciated the years and there are other people who are probably a little upset with the way things sorted out in the end so I would say our fans are going to be giving them hopefully as hard of time as they can but I still think there are people in the state and in the community would like it to sort out a different way but appreciate what he did
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