2016 Purdue Football Coaching Search: Randy Edsall

Candidate Tier #3

Category: Old guys

Who Is He?

Randy Edsall was the head coach at Maryland from 2011 to October of last year and was the head coach of Connecticut from 1999-2010. At UConn, he went 74-70 but had four 8-win seasons, two 9-win years and won two conference titles. He was also there while UConn was in two different conferences and also spent four years as an independent. At Maryland, Coach Edsall went to two bowl games but never did better than 7-6. He was 2-4 when he was fired last October.

Edsall is now “Director of Football Research” for the Detroit Lions. Interestingly, he also spent 19 years after college in various position coaching roles before finally getting a head coach shot. Not sure what that says.

Why would he be successful at Purdue?

I’m not entirely convinced he would be successful at Purdue. I think, though, that winning at a non-traditional football program like UConn isn’t easy and he saw them through a lot of transition. However, he seemed to lose his cool a bit when things were going poorly at Maryland. Maybe he was destined to be a smaller-time coach.

Why could he flop at Purdue?

He struggled to get Maryland to be more than middling and it wouldn’t be easier at Purdue.

Would he come to Purdue?

Yes, I think so. Assuming he still wants to be a head coach, it doesn’t feel like he’ll get many more options. And being the Director of Football Research for the Lions doesn’t seem like the kind of visible position that gets you noticed by athletic directors. So if Purdue came calling, I definitely think he’d answer.