|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: CONNECTICUT v OKLAHOMADecember 31, 2010Randy EdsallGLENDALE, ARIZONA THE MODERATOR: Good morning. I would like to introduce the head football coach of the Connecticut Huskies, Randy Edsall. COACH EDSALL: Good morning. Some of you got up early enough, I see, which is good. I tell you, this week has just been really, really good. John Junker and his staff and Duane, you know, really showed our kids a tremendous week. The hospitality has been unbelievable. We thank Tostitos for their sponsorship for this game but also for college football. And I think things have gone as well as can be expected for us this week practice-wise. We even got to practice in the rain, which is something unusual out here in Phoenix, so that was a treat. It was really our first wet ball day that we had all year, even though we are not going to need it for the game tomorrow night. We're healthy. The kids are in a good frame of mind. And really just now just waiting to go play the game. We're looking forward to it. Q. In light of what happened yesterday in the Pinstripe Bowl with that penalty again Kansas State at the end of the game, have you talked to your team before or after about celebration, what you can do, what you can't do? Did that give you pause to re-talk to them? And what do you think about next year when the rule's even more severe in terms of taking the touchdown away? COACH EDSALL: Seeing that I'm the chairman of the Rules Committee, my son got on me yesterday when that happened. That's a crazy rule, he told me. We try to tell our kids all the time, you just can't bring attention to yourself. When we see it, if they do it, we try to make sure we correct it in practice. You know, it is just an indication of -- you watch the play, and did the young man maybe think it was just spontaneous, he did it? It is unfortunate, but that is the rule, bringing your attention to that. Next year, I mean, that would still be penalized the same way because if the act has to happen before he crosses the goal line. He crossed and scored the touchdown. So that wouldn't have changed anything next year. If he would have done that before he crossed the goal line, you know, then it wouldn't have been the touchdown. But, again, I just think it is one of those things where if you hand the ball to the official and you go chest bump or jump in the air with your teammates, those are the things. I think sometimes young men just lose sight of the fact of what's taking place. Unfortunate, but that was the rule and he violated it. Q. You said your son says it is a crazy rule. Obviously it was applied to the rule, but what are your thought on the rule as it was applied in that game? COACH EDSALL: Like I said, it was something that was spontaneous and I think the official did make the right call based on the rule that we have. I think it is always tough because everybody knows there is no gray area. We're not saying you can't celebrate or you can't have fun. There is a way to have fun. And that was one where it was more individualistic rather than a team. He had his quarterback have to throw him the ball. Other people had to make blocks for all that to happen. Don't make it individualistic. Go and celebrate with your teammates. We want kids to have fun, and we want them to celebrate. What he did is more of an individual act, which is not what the rule is about. And that's why the penalty -- the penalty came out. And there is a way. You see people scoring touchdowns and you see them having fun and celebrating and they're handing the ball to the official and they are going to celebrate with their teammates. That's really what you want, because it is a team game; it is not an individual game. Q. After you kicked us out of practice yesterday, I just wanted to know how it went and did you sense that the team was ready to seize an opportunity tomorrow night? COACH EDSALL: Yeah. We had you there for 35 minutes, I thought that was long enough, especially when we started getting into running plays with our game plan. I thought our kids were focused. I thought we had a good practice. We were fortunate that the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl has that relationship with Arizona State to be able to go in and practice in their Bubble, which is a very nice facility. We got all the things we need to get done. I thought the focus and the execution was good. And then we always end up having at the end of practice our last practice of the year with our seniors, everybody congratulating them as we go out. So I was pleased with yesterday's practice. Now we do more mental work today and we have a walk-through and meetings. So all the physical stuff is done, and now it is time to do more with the mental part of the game. Q. Your story of this program is really an amazing one, how quickly you have been able to get to this point. May not have seemed quickly to you. But compared to other programs, to be able to accomplish what you've accomplished so far has been fairly quick. Can you talk about the nuts and bolts, maybe the short version of how you've been able to get to this point? COACH EDSALL: Perseverance. The short version. You know, what it's been, it is coming in with a philosophy of being all about team. Everything that I wanted to do when I came to UConn was wanted to build a program that would stand the test of time; that we weren't going to be a football team, we were going to be a program. And I think when you do that, the team is the most important part of our program. It is not about individuals, it is about the team, it is about trust, it is about enthusiasm, it is about accountability, it is about mental toughness. And really just sticking to those values and those morals that I think are so important in developing young people. Because if you can surround yourself with good people and get them to believe in what you're doing and instill in them it is the right way to do things, then you can accomplish those things. We weren't going to take the shortcuts. We didn't go out and try to win in the first couple years and go the juco route or anything like that. We went out and just got kids that were high school and we were going to develop them. And, again, do something that each year you have a chance to be good if you do it that way. We got a couple junior college kids when we had a need. But for the most part, it has just been -- it really has been a lot of hard work, determination, perseverance, really the good old-fashioned American work ethic. That's really what it's been all about. Q. This week with all the excitement, I think it would be pretty easy for you guys to kind of get caught up in a little bit of it. We were talking with Jordan yesterday and he basically said this is a business trip, it is not a field trip. Can you talk about that mentality you've instilled in these kids this week? COACH EDSALL: Well, it is not from this week. It is really -- it's what we've done all along. That's the thing. We've always been consistent with how we've treated games. Yes, a Bowl game is a reward, but it is still a game that you are going and trying to win because it goes into the record books as a win or a loss. The fortunate thing for us we have been to four other Bowl games and we have had a routine of how we've worked when we went into those games. And we've really stuck to the same type of plan. And the kids know. I meet with them beforehand to say here's the schedule, give them input. They told me when they wanted to kind of get off the field and have time to themselves. So, really, they know that when we go to a Bowl, there is a time to enjoy themselves and there is a time to work. And, you know, these kids are competitive. And they know the only thing that people remember is who's won the game, not who's lost the game. They try to maintain that focus and do that, and that's really what we have been able to do. We got good leadership. We got good leadership and, like I said, they understand the importance about every game counts. And when the games count, you give everything you have to try and be prepared and go out and play to the best of your ability. Q. When you take a look at what Landry Jones and the Oklahoma offense has accomplished this year, without giving away your game plan, how do you plan on stopping him or at least slowing him down? COACH EDSALL: Well, that's a good question. Like I said, you feel like the little boy at the dike and the holes are starting to come in and you only have so many fingers to plug the holes, and they have so many talented, skilled athletes. And really what you have to do is you just have to -- to me, you got to try to play good, sound, fundamental defense and execute your techniques because, again, they got good wide receivers, they got a good running back, a good offensive line. The quarterback is very good and very accurate. So, again, when you have multiple weapons out there, you know, it does make it difficult. And so what we'll try to do is just put a plan in place that we think we can slow them down the best that we can. And, again, just go out and execute what we think is our strength versus what they try to do. Q. Coach, you have a common opponent in Cincinnati. How much value has there been in that in preparation for this game? COACH EDSALL: It's been a lot. We know who Cincinnati is and how they play, and being familiar with them, it gives us a little bit of a reference point with Oklahoma. Again, we had all the games that we studied and looked at, but Cincinnati did give us a good situation because we do know them and know their personnel and their schemes and what they try to do and maybe how they -- how Oklahoma tried to attack them and how Cincinnati tried to attack Oklahoma. So I think any time somebody in your conference plays, it gives you a little bit more of a reference point and it gives you a little bit more -- you might put a little bit more emphasis maybe on that particular film than maybe some of the other ones. Q. Can you talk about the balance -- talk about what you did in between the final game of the season and the Bowl game, a lot of teams get quite a bit better, and the preparation you had there, especially getting ready for the up-tempo type of offense? COACH EDSALL: Again, what we did is we took our normal schedule that we always take with the Bowl games. Last year we played basically at the same time against South Carolina, and usually what we do is we play the first -- we've played the first week in December even though there is no championship game in the Big East conference. We have three games that are played championship Saturdays, and we've always been one of those games for the last number of years. So we finished on Saturday, and then the coaches, we go recruiting. And this year the coordinators stayed in and started working on Oklahoma and then we practiced that Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday while we had recruits in. And then we gave them the next week off because of finals, exams. Our kids were all in final exams, and we finished those on Saturday. And then we got five practices in before we let them go for Christmas, which was really our prep for Oklahoma, doing the whole game plan and practicing that. And then they went home the afternoon of the 22nd and were home the 23rd, 24th and 25th. And then we came out here on the 26th. The thing that's been good is we have been able to have a normal prep week in preparation for the game on Saturday. You know, it is hard to simulate the up-tempo with the scout team because they got to run the plays. But we've always taken the premise that we worked good against good all during the season. And we do run an up-tempo offense at times. So when we wanted to get work on that, we would just go good against good and go at a higher pace. And that's all you can do. You know, that's the same thing, is when you go against like a wishbone team or an option team, sometimes it takes a little bit to get into the flow of the game and the tempo of the game early on. And that's what -- we're going to have to make sure that we're on top of it right from the get-go because we don't want to get ambushed. And we know that they do go very fast, and I think we've practiced and prepared our guys to handle that. Now we just got to be able to go out and execute. Q. Back on the celebration. One thing I wanted to ask you, the game immediately following was the Music City Bowl. I'm told it was the same officiating crew conference, Big Ten, calling both games. Music City Bowl, everybody scored a touchdown seemed to salute. Nobody got a flag. Is there a problem with selective enforcement or interpretation from not just national conference to conference but within a conference? COACH EDSALL: Well, I do think that there is some inconsistencies maybe between conferences. I think we're getting closer. I think we're getting closer with the new officiating group that's a national officiating group that has been formed. I think that we'll bring things in together a little bit more. And that's one of the issues I'm sure we'll talk about not only in Dallas but then at the Rules Committee meeting this year. And to me that's one of the biggest things. All of the conferences should be interpreting and calling everything the same way. It shouldn't be that the particular supervisor from a particular conference is going to interpret things this way, we're going to enforce things this way. Everything has to be together, so when you do get these situations, the kids -- you know, it is really for the kids' sake, that they know how the game is always going to be called. That's like the NFL. I mean, there it is all interpreted the same way, it is all called the same way. Like I said, I think we are on the right path with the NCAA from the standpoint of this national officiating group. Dave Parry is the one who has headed it up. But to get everybody so there isn't one conference deals with it this way, one conference deals with it another way, just got to get that consistency throughout the country. Q. You have a very good running game with your toss sweeps, leads, isos and things. Oklahoma has gone to a little bit of a different defensive front the last couple of games, the 50-front. So now they have two different defenses or maybe some more schemes than that maybe even that they throw at you. Talk about that matchup, if you could, and does the additional defensive front or look, does it make any difference whatsoever to you? COACH EDSALL: Well, that's the thing when you go into the games, you're just not sure exactly what's going to happen, what they're going to play. That's why you got to be able to make adjustments. When teams have a long time to prepare, I mean, I don't think they are going to change everything that they do, but there is going to be a couple wrinkles. We've prepared for everything. And we've seen all different fronts during the year. We've seen the odd front. We've seen the even front. We've seen nine guys down in a box. We've seen it all pretty much in terms of the running game. So, again, the biggest thing is what we have to try to do is make sure we get on people and cover people up and give Jordan enough room where he can make some cuts and do some things. And then we got to make sure we get blocking on the perimeter. But we're prepared just about to see anything. Like I said, we have got to be able to make adjustments during the game. Q. Has the fact that the team is a huge underdog been a motivating point for you at all? I know in years past in the preseason Big East Bowls, if you felt that the university was picked lower than you thought, you might use that as a motivator, at least early in the season. Is it something you even addressed with the kids? COACH EDSALL: No, I have never said a word about it (smiling). That's the story of our life. That's the story of our life. We have been the underdog ever since we've undertaken this adventure, this journey. So it is really no different than what we're used to all the time. I always think any time if there is somebody who doubts you or questions you, it just makes you go a little bit harder and play a little bit harder and prepare a little bit harder. But ultimately what we got to be able to do is we got to be able to go out when the ball is kicked off and play to the best of our ability and execute the best way that we can. But, like I said, this situation is really no different than what we've been through for the last 12 years. Q. I heard you talk a moment ago about Oklahoma's no-huddle and their fast pace. In your workouts, what did you try in terms to replicate that a little bit? COACH EDSALL: Well, we, like I said, go good against good, and our offense just went and did the things that they normally do at times. Because we can go fast paced. We just tried to do that with going good on good. We always go even when we do practice, we don't ever have the offensive scout team huddle. They're always up there on the line of scrimmage. They don't know the plays as well. Like I said, when you go good against good, ones against ones, now you can duplicate that kind of speed or that kind of quickness in terms of getting the plays off. But you don't do that the whole practice because your offense has to prepare for the fronts and coverages they're going to see, and the defense has to prepare for all the different plays they are going to see. We just tried to do it the best way that we can and incorporate ones against ones to be able to do that. And hopefully we will be okay with it. Q. What do you think it's going to take that underdog label off the team and program? COACH EDSALL: You just got to keep winning. That's all you have to do. You have to keep winning. That's all you can do. You know, you can't -- to me, you don't worry about it. You just go out and do the best you can. And if you win, it seems like winning takes care of everything. It is amazing, we were talking about this the other day in the staff meeting, when you really look at this season, I mentioned it to Joe D when I was doing a radio show with him yesterday, but it is really incredible. Twelve years ago the teams we were playing. This year we opened up with Michigan and we're finishing with Oklahoma. It is a lot different than opening up with Maine and ending with Rhode Island. I think that kind of spells out exactly where we've come from, what we have been able to do and what we have been able to accomplish. I know that people would have never thought that that would be the case in probably 2010 back in 1998, '99, 2000, even 2003, '4 maybe. But that's what makes things fun. It is those challenges that you thrive on. It is the opportunities that are presented to these young men that really makes college football what it is. Q. Just piggybacking on that, what are your thoughts personally? You were at Syracuse, the NFL, and then go down this one AA building job up to the FBS. Yourself, you are finally here, you are finally back into the big time when for so many years you were playing in obscurity up in New England. COACH EDSALL: I don't know. I'm just a pretty humble small-town guy. You just kind of take it in stride. It is about -- I'm just glad I was able to contribute enough to help these kids get to this point because, I mean, this is really what it's all about for these kids in college football. They've made it to the top of the mountain, as Dee Rowe would say. There is only ten teams that participate in this BCS arena. And they're one of ten teams. And you're just happy for whenever your children do good, you're happy for them for the players. You're just happy for them because, again, it just -- in your own mind as a coach or a parent, every day you're teaching. Every day you are molding young people. It is validation for all the things that you stand for, all the things that you believe in and the repetitiveness of what you say has sunken in and they've listened to what you've instructed them to do. And by doing that, they have gotten to the pinnacle. They have gotten to the top of the mountain. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
|