|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 11, 2013Randy EdsallMIKE FINN: We're now joined by Maryland head coach Randy Edsall. We'll ask coach to come on, give a brief opening statement, then go to questions. COACH EDSALL: We're excited that we've got two wins under or belt, both home games. Now we've got the difficult task of going on the road and trying to secure that third win. So hopefully we can have a great week of preparation and go up there and give ourselves that opportunity to get the third win. MIKE FINN: Questions for Coach Edsall. Q. Mixed emotions as you go back to UConn? Looking forward to or rather not play this game? COACH EDSALL: No, I've got fond memories of Connecticut, fond memories of Rentschler Field. Hopefully we can come away with a victory. Connecticut was very, very good to me and my family. Had a great experience there. Again, what you got to do is you take everything and put it to the side and focus and concentrate on getting our team prepared and ready to go up there and play. I know they're going to be fired up. I know it's a tough place to play, having coached there for nine years, ten years, in that stadium. It's going to be something we've got to be ready for. We have to make sure we do our job of staying focused, executing, getting better from week two to week three. Q. As you look at your good 2‑0 start here, anything you're ahead of schedule on, pleasant surprise that contributes to the 2‑0 start? COACH EDSALL: It's been guys that have worked very, very hard, have really mastered the techniques and the fundamentals and game plans that we've put together. Right now our kids are playing well. What we want to do is just work to get better each and every week. The way you do that is by preparing. They've prepared well so far this year. We just want to keep that going. Q. I wanted to talk about Brandon Ross. He's coming off an impressive game. He was your leading rusher last year, but not a big total or anything. Can you talk about his development, how much better he is this year. COACH EDSALL: Well, I think Brandon is a young man who is very talented. I think just having experience under his belt, having some of the success that he had last year has really kind of carried over to this year. In the first game we thought he was kind of dancing a little bit. Talked to him about that. He came back and had a really good game this past game. I've had a lot of really good runningbacks in my tenure as a head coach, and I think Brandon is another guy that can be very, very good, have a very good career. He's got the size, the speed, the athletic ability. He can catch the ball coming out of the backfield. Just pleased with how he's developing. I know he's going to continue to get better. Q. How much is it helping that you actually have a quarterback this year so you have a balanced attack? People don't always stack up against the run as they did a lot last year, late especially. COACH EDSALL: I think that's one of the pluses that we have in terms of our offense. C.J. is playing very, very well. He's a dual threat throwing the ball, running the ball. When you have the receivers in Deon and Stefon, Nigel, Dave Stinebaugh in there, it gives us a lot of opportunities to spread the ball around, be able to run the ball, be able to throw the ball if they want to try to take that away. That's what we want to be. We want to be multiple in terms of what we do, give a defense a lot to prepare for, let them try to figure out how they're going to match up with the skill people that we have. Q. Talk about your last time coaching in the stadium up there at UConn. COACH EDSALL: Again, as I stated just a little bit ago, I know it's a very tough venue. It gets loud there at Rentschler Field. I have a lot of great memories of things that went on there. We had a lot of great victories. Had a really good home record there. Fans were very supportive of what we were doing, how we made that transition. Again, I think it's neat to be able to go back. Now what we've got to do is just understand that we got a game to play and all our focus and attention has to be on that. Q. What did you see from UConn's game a couple weeks ago that might help you for Saturday? COACH EDSALL: I see a UConn team that made a lot of good plays offensively and defensively. There's a lot of good talent there. What we've got to do is take our things that we do well and go out and execute. What we have to do is execute at a high level to give ourselves an opportunity to win. Q. When a player misses an entire season, as C.J. Brown did last year, I guess you're never quite sure when he comes back how he's going to perform until you see him. After two games, what are your impressions? What has he done in particular? Are you gratified or surprised at all by the way he's been able to recover? COACH EDSALL: Well, it doesn't surprise me that he came back the way he did from the standpoint of the injury. I mean, you had to be around the building here just to watch how hard he worked, the time and effort that he put in to getting himself back from a physical standpoint. So that doesn't surprise me. He was always a very talented athlete. Again, he put in a lot of time studying film. He was sitting in on meetings all last year learning the offense, but not getting any reps. I think he's done a really good job of working, getting himself to where he's shown that he can run the ball. He's throwing the ball with extreme accuracy. It's good to see. Again, it makes our offense that much better. The leadership he brings to the table has been outstanding. I guess you could say it doesn't surprise me because knowing how C.J. is. He had something he wanted to prove to himself and to everybody else. He just wants to work and get better each and every time that he goes out there. Hopefully that will continue to happen. Q. From a coaching standpoint, how much I don't want to see easier necessarily, but what's the difference in being able to know you have a healthy quarterback you can count on, not sort of having to patch it together each week? COACH EDSALL: Well, I just hope he continues to stay healthy. When you have a guy like C.J., it's very comforting. Again, for what we want to do offensively with that position, he gives us everything we need, everything we're looking for. Then again, there's guys, the other 10 guys all believe and trust in him. He's a guy that has some experience. He had some starting experience from before. I think all those factors contribute to our team having more confidence on offense. Plus all the other guys are a year older, as well. MIKE FINN: Coach, thanks for being with us and good luck this weekend. COACH EDSALL: Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|