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TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: CONNECTICUT v OKLAHOMA

December 29, 2010

Randy Edsall

GLENDALE, ARIZONA

Q. First off, leading up to the week, your thoughts on the team's practice, the mental mind-set as you draw closer to the game?
COACH EDSALL: The mind-set has been really good with the players. We got out here on the 26th. The 27th, you know, they had to get their legs underneath them a little bit.
But yesterday I thought we practiced well and, you know, you can just see the intensity picking up with each day and each practice that we've had. I like where we're at.
Today we'll practice, we'll practice again tomorrow and have our walk-through on Friday.
So, you know, I feel as though the kids are ready. We got some sickness going on with a couple guys. Mike Ryan, Dwayne Gratz aren't here this morning. I think it is something they have eaten. We had a couple guys yesterday. Hopefully we will get through that. And after today hopefully we won't have any more illnesses.

Q. Can you talk about the challenge of stopping Oklahoma's offense.
COACH EDSALL: They present a big challenge, the fact that they have an outstanding quarterback, outstanding running back, outstanding receiver, a good offensive line. And then from a scheme standpoint, they put a lot of pressure on you in terms of how quickly they get to the line of scrimmage.
So, again, that's something that we've tried to simulate in practice, but it is very hard to do so. But, again, what we have to do we just basically have to play good, sound, fundamental defense and make sure that we understand exactly, you know, what they're doing. And if we do that, then that gives us a chance to win.

Q. How are you able to make such rapid progress at the school?
COACH EDSALL: I think it's -- we have a plan -- we had a plan in place when I took the job over, surrounded myself with good coaches. We were able to go out and recruit quality student-athletes and players and we really never listened to other people. We always just did the things that we felt were necessary to have a solid program.
My whole premise was, you know, I wanted to build a program that would stand the test of time. It wasn't a situation where we came into that we wanted to win right away. We wanted to make sure as we built it, we were building it the right way and doing it the sound way. And that's really what we did.
And I think what happens is when you lay the foundation and brick by brick build it, you can do some things maybe quicker than what people would imagine we could.
But, again, I think it comes back to all of being a team. We built this whole thing around being a team and not around individuals. It is all about gaining results through teamwork, which is what we have been able to do.

Q. How hard is it to recruit up there?
COACH EDSALL: We're not in a hotbed for recruiting in terms of Connecticut. You know, there is anywhere from four to six Division I players a year. But, again, the thing that we have been able to do, we have been able to get young men who have ability, put weight on them and develop them, and those young men have turned out to be really good.
So that's the thing that we've tried to do, is just go out and recruit kids that we feel fit into what we can do. We don't look at the -- who is a four-star, who is a five-star. We basically do our own evaluations and determine who can fit into the model we have.

Q. What are some of the external factors that helped you build the team so quickly: administration, facilities, things like that?
COACH EDSALL: I think you go back to a couple people. We had the support of then governor John Rowland who made the commitment when the Patriots decided not to come to Hartford to allocate the money to build a stadium. We had a 40,000-seat stadium, Rentschler Field, $90 million that the State owns and that we play in, and then we had the generosity of the State again in terms of money, Bob Burton and Mark Shenkman of the Burton Family Football Complex, and we have the Mark Shenkman Training Facility, which is a $50 million training facility.
When you have the support of the State of Connecticut, the governor, the Speaker of the House at the time, you had the facilities, so that was the thing. You were able to have the facilities because we didn't have tradition on our side. So what we had to do is we had to have something to sell. And what we had is the facilities to sell.
And then I thought we did a good job of scheduling, putting the right schedule in place. We had a great president in Phil Austin who wanted to do that, and then Jeff Hathaway who came in. It is a combination of a lot of people.
Basically what we did is we did it the way we wanted to. We didn't listen to anybody else. We had a plan and we just stuck with it, even when there were some tough times.
You know, if you just do things the right way, you do it through hard work and through a passion and energy that you want to succeed, this is what happens.

Q. A lot of coaches talk about a synergy with the administration, with the athletic director. How would you characterize your relationship?
COACH EDSALL: It's good. I think any time you are going to be successful, you have to -- you always have to work together. Everything is all about teams. It is these guys working together, as coaches and players. It is the administration, too. Everybody has got to be on the same page. Everybody has got to do their job.

End of FastScripts

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