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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2011

Randy Edsall

RANDY EDSALL: Well, I'm really looking forward to having our guys go out and play against Miami and get out there and see exactly what we have and how we perform under pressure. Camp has gone well. We've come out of it as healthy as I've ever come out of a camp, and just really looking forward to Monday night.

Q. Two-part question if you don't mind. I was curious if you had any reaction to the NCAA news down here yesterday regarding the eight players that aren't going to be up there when the 'Canes come up this weekend. But more important, Al Golden talked to us so much about how this can't be a distraction for his team. Has all this uncertainty down here at all been a distraction for you guys in camp given that they're your week one foe?
RANDY EDSALL: No, it wasn't, and I've just told our guys what we have to focus on is Maryland and what we have to do in order to go out and perform to the best of our ability. I mean, I know Miami is very talented and they've got a lot of very good players. Even though there's going to be some of those young men that aren't going to be coming with them as they make the trip north on Sunday to play Monday, those other young men who are going to step in have been very eager and very hungry to go in there and play.
We just need to make sure that we take care of ourselves and go out and perform, because again, we're the ones that have to go out and do the things that we need to do in order to be successful, and that's how we're trying to approach it, for us to go out and play the best, and we know we're going to play against a very good team and very good players at the University of Miami.

Q. Al told us yesterday that he had spoken to you personally just about what they're going through with their depth chart and not trying to keep things off the table. I know you go back a long time with Al. Have you offered him any encouragement or anything like that throughout this process?
RANDY EDSALL: Well, you know, I've gone against Al and I have a lot of respect for Al and what he did at Temple and what he's going to do there at Miami. But again, as a coach, it's unfortunate he did inherit -- that he inherited that situation. He didn't cause the problem.
But I just told him, hey, just keep looking forward and keep doing what you're going to do, and you'll be fine. That's really all he can do or anybody in that situation, that's all they can do. I think what he did is made sure that his team went and told people, were up front and honest with the NCAA and the people there at the University, and that's what you expect out of -- what I would expect out of Al, and that's the way Al has always been.
But yes, we were in contact, and I was in total agreement with how we were going to handle the situation, and again, it's a mutual respect between two coaches.

Q. Two quick ones here: Just a quick follow-up on Al Golden, I know he called kind of as a courtesy before Miami's travel squad was set. Was that unusual to hear from an opposing coach the week before a game?
RANDY EDSALL: Well, I mean, I think this situation is just a little bit different in terms of what was taking place. But in that situation you appreciate what he did, and I would have done the same thing if I was in that same situation, because again, that's the right thing to do.

Q. And real quick, you probably guessed I would ask you about DJ Adams. I was just wondering if there's an explanation why he didn't make the two deep at running back. Is there any issue there?
RANDY EDSALL: Well, DJ won't be playing in the game against Miami. He and Cody Blue, we had a team situation that took place -- there was a team issue that was involved, and those two guys will not be available to play against Miami, and it's behind us, and once the Miami game is over, then we move forward.

Q. Was it a violation of team rules of some kind?
RANDY EDSALL: Yes, it was a violation of team rules.

Q. Now that you know for sure you're going against Stephen Morris, and I know it's your first year there, but obviously you've seen film from the game. Can you talk about what you've seen from Morris? Last year's game against Maryland was his first start, and it was a pretty dramatic ending. Can you talk about him and what you expect?
RANDY EDSALL: Yeah, he beat us. He beat Maryland. And then when you take a look at his numbers and how he performed, he's a quality quarterback. You know, he's a young man that has the ability to beat you in a couple different ways, and we're very aware of him, and it's good that we do have some film on him that we can study him.
Now he's going to be in a new offense. But again, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and what he can do, and our guys know that he was a guy that beat us a year ago.

Q. And then the follow-up is UM will have -- I know you talked about this concentrating on yourself, but UM will have a significant number of really good defensive players not able to play in that first game. Does that change anything at all, the way you prepare Danny O'Brien as far as UM's defense?
RANDY EDSALL: No, I mean, we have a philosophy in terms of what we want to do and how we want to go about things offensively, and that's not going to change. But all's I know is that all those players that Miami is going to bring up here are going very talented; they're going to be fast, they're going to be athletic, and they're going to be physical. Those are things we have to deal with and make sure that we have a plan in place to combat those qualities of those young men at the University of Miami.

Q. We haven't had a chance to talk to you since the depth chart was released. Just talk about some of the changes or surprises beyond DJ, like the two true freshman, be it Ty Cierski or Justus Pickett or A.J. Francis winning his job back.
RANDY EDSALL: Basically what it comes down to, it just comes down to evaluation and how those young men did. They're on the depth chart in the spot that they're in based on what they did during preseason camp. So again, it's positions that are earned based on productivity and performance throughout the preseason.

Q. And A.J. Francis coming back from the spring and winning his starting job back after Monroe had it before?
RANDY EDSALL: Well, that's exactly what -- it's no different than what I just said about -- I included him in all those other -- with that statement that I just made. Again, that's where you come out of the spring and guys are at a certain position, but then if you work hard and you're the best guy -- because around here now, the best guy has got to play. I don't care if you're a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. The best guy has got to be there, and once you get there, it's your job to make sure you stay there and that you stay humble and that you stay hungry and that you go and work and nobody gets ahead of you. If you get complacent and you don't want to work and you don't want to do things correctly, then you're going to open up the door for somebody to get ahead of you.

Q. With the key people that Miami is not going to have out there, especially on defense, do you look at this game and say, I will have the most talented team on the field, the most experienced team on the field; this will be a game my team should win?
RANDY EDSALL: No. What you've got to do is -- again, I think what people have to understand is Miami is a very talented football team. What I want our kids to do is go out and play every play like it's the last play they'll ever play for 60 minutes. If we go out and do that and we don't turn the ball over and we don't shoot ourselves in the foot and have a lot of penalties and take advantage of the opportunities, then we give ourselves an opportunity to win. That's how you go into it, because if you start to go into games thinking that you can show -- basically show up and win, you're not going to win probably 90 percent of the time.
To me we've got to -- this game is important as any game that we're going to play, and we're going to approach all 12 of them the same way, and hopefully we get an opportunity for a 13th and a 14th. But we've got to approach every game with the same mindset and the same focus, and that's what I've been trying to get across to our guys, that hey, there's only 12 of them, and they all are so important, and you've got to lay it on the line in every game, and you've got to play your guts and your hearts out every play for that entire 60 minutes.

Q. No extra confidence, though, given the situation?
RANDY EDSALL: I mean, I'm confident going into every game. I'm going into every game thinking that we can win. And our players, you know, feel that way. If we don't feel that way, we shouldn't even put the uniform on or strap it up.
Q. Two of the biggest games on any team schedule are the opening game and the opening conference game, and in this case they're both the same game. So how does that add any extra pressure on this game or change anything to any extent?
RANDY EDSALL: Well, I mean, yeah. Your conference games are a little bit more important. They're all important, but the conference games are even a little bit more important because of the fact of what goes with winning your conference and the opportunities if you do win your conference in terms of what you get out of it.
But hey, our schedule is what it is. It's the first game, and we want to win this game as much as any game, whoever the opponent would be. But it is added significance just because it is a conference game.

Q. What about your own feelings going into your first ACC game as a head coach in this league? Any different than it was at UConn as far as butterflies, that sort of thing?
RANDY EDSALL: No, I kind of think I'm pretty relaxed. I'm anxious to go. But again, this isn't about Randy Edsall, this is about the University of Maryland, these kids. To me all's I want to do is make sure my whole focus and attention is on doing everything that I can do to make sure that these kids are prepared to the best of my ability and my coaching staff's ability to get them to play at the highest level that they can play at on Monday night. What we want to be able to do is to make adjustments during the game to give them the opportunity to play the best they can throughout the game.
Like I said, it's not about Randy Edsall, it's about these young men that are going to go out there and play the game, and it's my job and my coaching staff's job to make sure that they're prepared to the best of their abilities to go out and be able to execute and give them that opportunity to win come Monday night.

Q. What kind of camp did Nick Ferrara have this month, and will he be doing all three between place kicking, kickoffs and punting?
RANDY EDSALL: Yeah, Nick has had a good preseason. We chart everything in the preseason, the kickoffs, the punting and the place kicking, and he's a guy that won all three jobs. As we go into the game against Miami he'll be kicking off, he'll be punting and he'll be doing all the placement tries, as well.
Q. Have you ever had a guy do all three before?
RANDY EDSALL: God, I only think about usually what's going on that day. It's hard to -- I don't know if I have. But again, it just gets down to the fact that he outperformed everybody else in all three areas, and he won the jobs. Like I say, that's the way I believe in things and that's the way we're going to go about things here at Maryland, that whoever wins the job is whoever deserves it by what they've done on the field are the guys that are on the field getting those snaps.

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