Randy Edsall to Maryland: 10 Reasons the Terps Made the Right Hire
Fresh off Connecticut's first-ever BCS game against Oklahoma last night comes word that Huskies head coach Randy Edsall is going to Maryland.
He will take over a Maryland program that Ralph Friedgen has turned into one of the better teams in the ACC.
When it was first announced that Friedgen wouldn't be returning to the school after their bowl game against East Carolina, speculation had the Terps interested in former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.
Leach has a good track record as an offensive guru, but he doesn't really excite a fanbase.
Edsall may not excite the fanbase either, but he is a much, much better choice for Maryland. He is a great coach and will have his new team competing for ACC Championships for a long time.
Here are 10 reasons that Maryland absolutely made the right hire with Randy Edsall.
The Guy’s a Winner
1 of 10
It doesn’t matter who Randy Edsall is coaching, he is a winner. He may not have the most talent in the country, but what talent he does have on his teams, he gets them to play as a team.
As a result, he gets his teams to win a lot more games than they should.
Edsall is a great winner, and he will be able to bring that to Maryland.
He’s a Master Motivator
2 of 10
When you don’t have great talent but are winning a lot of games every year, it speaks volumes about your motivation skills.
Randy Edsall does a very good job of motivating his players and making them believe in themselves.
He will bring his great motivation skills to Maryland and get the most of the players there.
He Coaches Both Sides of the Ball
3 of 10
When Maryland announced that Ralph Friedgen was going to be stepping down, a lot of analysts said that former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach was the candidate that Maryland wanted.
Leach is an offensive innovator, but he doesn’t care about defense at all.
Randy Edsall makes sure that both sides of the ball are taken care of. He coaches his offense, defense and special teams. He will make Maryland a much more complete team than Leach would have.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
He Got UConn to the BCS
4 of 10
Say what you want about the Big East right now, but Randy Edsall was able to get Connecticut into the BCS. This UConn football program is still in its infancy in FBS, and to get them to one of the biggest bowl games is impressive.
They didn’t fare too well in the Fiesta Bowl, but the fact that he was able to get UConn into that game speaks volumes about him as a coach.
He deserves a lot of credit for where the Connecticut program is at right now.
He Will Get Maryland a Quick Turnaround on Their Investment
5 of 10
Randy Edsall has been coaching Connecticut for 12 years. During that time they moved from Division I-AA up to Division I-A. The transition was complete in 2002. Since then, they have posted a 65-46 record.
He can take over a program in a major transition phase and get results right away.
They made their first bowl appearance in 2004 and have made four consecutive bowl appearances since 2007, including their Fiesta Bowl appearance in 2011.
Gets Most Out of Talent
6 of 10
One of the best ways to evaluate a coach is how much the team wins relative to the talent that is on the team.
Connecticut has never finished in the top 50 of the recruiting rankings on Rivals.com, but they have won at least eight games every year since 2007.
That’s the sign of a coach who knows his team’s strengths and weaknesses and knows how to get the most out of every player on the roster.
Going to a school that won’t get the most elite recruits, like Maryland, Edsall will have to be able to get the most out of the talent that he is able to get. He has a track record that proves that he can do just that.
No Issues or Scandals Surround Him
7 of 10
Unlike Mike Leach, who has all kinds of issues surrounding him and his departure from Texas Tech, Randy Edsall has no such issues.
If Leach would have gotten the job there would have been all kinds of questions about what has happened in the past with Texas Tech. Plus, it would have made it more difficult for him to get recruits to go to Maryland, given his past.
With Edsall, there are no issues, no scandals of any sort. He brings a clean resume into Maryland. He can use that and the success that he has had at Connecticut to get recruits to come play for him.
Maryland Couldn’t Do Better
8 of 10
That sounds like a negative headline, but it’s meant to be a positive.
The Maryland job isn’t going to attract an elite-level head coach like Urban Meyer or someone like that.
However, they did get a guy who is not far below an elite-level coach.
Randy Edsall brings a lot to the table for the Terps, and they needed to hire someone like him to get their football program to the level that they want to be at.
He’s a Great Coach
9 of 10
Perhaps the simplest and most important reason that this is a great hire is because Randy Edsall is a great coach.
He has won in a place that not a lot of other people could succeed at.
He brought a team into the FBS and made them respectable almost immediately. He got them into a BCS game, to the surprise of many.
Randy Edsall will turn Maryland into a power in the ACC very, very soon.
He Can Inspire the Players on His Team
10 of 10
Right along with Randy Edsall’s motivation skills is his ability to inspire his team. If you don’t believe that you can win, you are doomed right from the start.
Without having the top-level talent at Connecticut, Edsall got the Huskies players and fans to believe in what they were doing. He got them to believe in the team concept, and that paid dividends.
Connecticut got rewarded this year with their first-ever Big East Championship and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl.
Even though things didn’t go so well in that game, the fact that UConn was there is a testament to Randy Edsall and his coaching ability.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
