Randy Edsall
Earlier Tuesday, we brought you the live chat portion of Terrapins football coach Randy Edsall’s ESPN “car wash” appearance. Later in the day, the appeared on an ESPNU college football podcast with ESPN senior writer Ivan Maisel and with university alum Scott Van Pelt on ESPN Radio’s SVP & Russillo. You can listen to the podcast here and his conversation with Van Pelt here, but below are some highlights from the appearances.
As with most of the preseason, Edsall’s conversation with Maisel centered on the injury woes of the team last season, especially at quarterback — you know, four injuries, three ACLs and one freshman linebacker. But Edsall told Maisel that C.J. Brown is back and 100 percent, and in the long run, having last season to watch from the sidelines could have a great benefit on Brown’s command of the offense.
It was very difficult for him because when you have the expectations of going into the season and being the starter and then it’s taken away from you through nobody’s fault, when you’re just running a two-minute drill, nobody’s within, he makes a cut and tears his ACL. He was devastated. It was hard on him. We just tried to keep him pumped up, keep him involved.
With all of the injuries last season, many freshmen had the opportunity to play and will enter 2013 with more seasoning than would have been expected. There’s also continuity with offensive coordinator Mike Locksley and defensive coordinator Brian Stewart entering their second years in their positions. And with the experience of the sophomores, Edsall said contributions from this year’s freshman class will be a “bonus.”
This will be the second year now that everybody’s been in the system. They’re not coming in and having to learn a new offense or a new defense or anything new on special teams, so I think the familiarity with what we’re doing schematically will be drastic this year. The guys having last fall and then this past spring and then this fall, it’s going to help us a lot because they understand and they can play faster.
And finally, Edsall addressed this university entering its final year in the ACC and the impending move to the Big Ten.
Anytime there’s change, regardless if it’s sports or whatever, people react kind of negatively at first to change, or they question why the change. But I think once all the things that were laid out there as to why the move, why the president, athletic director and board of regents decided to make this move to the Big Ten, I think once everybody heard all the reasons and how it was going to benefit the university in totality, not just athletically, then everybody kind of said, ‘Oh now we understand, now we embrace it’ because people just didn’t have enough information to go with what had taken place.
Van Pelt, a visible presence at some basketball games and ardent supporter of the Terps, also talked with Edsall about the team’s youth. Edsall said last year created a “hungry bunch,” and the team wants to return to a bowl game.
It’s interesting because the kids have really taken ownership of what’s going to take place. I think any time you have that where they’re holding themselves to a very high level of expectation and they’re holding each other to that level of expectation, you’ve got a chance to attain the goals you want to attain. It’s been something that’s been very special to watch since January.
Van Pelt brought up wide receiver Stefon Diggs — he joked to Edsall, “When in doubt … snap it to him and see what happens. He might just score.” — and Edsall was very complimentary of the sophomore.
Very dynamic. Very explosive. Very electric. A guy that you love to be around because of his intensity and his willingness to compete. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve coached in the NFL, and I don’t know if I’ve been around a more explosive, dynamic guy when you’re talking about what he’s going to be, what he’s doing to do as a receiver, what he can do as a return guy and then just his overall competitiveness. If he stays healthy, the sky is the limit. He’s a guy that wants to be not good, he wants to be great, he wants to understand everything there is to know about his position.
And finally, Van Pelt asked Edsall about running back Wes Brown, who had the charges filed against him dropped Monday, and what path Brown may have back to the team.
He was suspended by the university, still is suspended. What Wes will have coming up, he’ll have a hearing with the university. That will determine his status in terms of going forward. He does have that coming up. When that is, I’m not sure, but he will have that opportunity to have that hearing on campus.
The Terps are set to report to training camp Sunday, and the season opener against Florida International is Aug. 31 at Byrd Stadium.
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