UConn sports

Looks like Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross might yet call UConn’s Randy Edsall about becoming the Orange’s next coach.

Will Edsall take the call?

Here’s a story from Donnie Webb of the Post-Standard:

Everybody’s a candidate

- Neill

Rice High’s Durand Scott, one of the top shooting guards around, announced Wednesday that he’s headed to Miami and not UConn.

The Huskies, who already feature former Rice PG Kemba Walker, were turned down along with Pittsburgh.

“I made my decision because of comfortability, just the type of person I am and where I believe I best fit,” Scott told SNY.com. “When I took my visit to Miami, I knew it was the place I wanted to be. But I didn’t want to tell everybody. I wanted to weigh my options.”

- Neill

OK, that’s the last Coach Pinocchio joke.

Randy Edsall, who is a good sport sometimes, had a little fun with Courant columnist Jeff Jacobs, who had called the coach a liar in print Sunday. (Edsall is a liar, but we’re splitting hairs here).

The coach walked into his Tuesday morning meeting with the media and said:

“Jiminy Cricket! It’s great to see all you guys.”

He ended it with:

“Geppetto is calling. I have to get my nose tweaked.”

Good ones, coach.

I just want to hear an Edsall-Jacobs duet of “When You Wish Upon a Star” in two weeks.

Start practicing men!

– The coach is finished talking about the Syracuse vacancy, not that he talked about it much in the first place.

“I made the statement yesterday,” Edsdall said. “The statement says what it says and that’s it. I want to talk about South Florida. I dealt with that yesterday.”

Edsall told Chuck Banning of The Day about his inentions Monday.

– TE Steve Brouse will practice this week. He broke his leg in the Louisville game Sept. 26.

“He’s going to do a little bit of practicing today (Tuesday),” Edsall said, “more from a special teams standpoint than offense. We’re going to start to get him back in the mix.”

– CB Darius Butler hopes to be back for the Pittsburgh game. The senior says he has a slight problem with one of his knee ligaments but it doesn’t require surgery.

He won’t practice this week.

“It’s possible after the bye week,” Butler said.

Butler was still limping a bit as he walked around the Burton Complex Tuesday.

– The Huskies are practicing indoors this week with the thermometer inside the Shenkman Training Center cranked up to 75.

“It’s no different when we want them to come up here at the end of the year to play when it is 40 degrees or 30 degrees,” Edsall said. “It’s tough because your bodies just aren’t used to that.”

– UConn will avoid the same hotel that got six of its players in trouble the last time it went to Tampa. (Buying beer, lying about it, etc.)

In addition, there may have been a change in the attitude of the team after that incident.

“It’s just the attitude, the commitment, and trying to recruit character and guys that are going to do the right things,” Edsall said. “When that happened guys just said ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want guys like that around.’ ”

- Neill

A few afterthoughts from the University of Hartford’s road game in Hartford:

– No A.J., no problem. Well, not exactly.

Hartford was only down two points with 14 minutes to play Monday. When the game ended the Hawks were down 43.

No, I didn’t think that was possible (either deficit, really).

“We tried to be physical, we tried to be scrappy,” Hartford coach Dan Leibovitz said. “It’s really our only chance in a game like this.”

His team was, just not for long enough.

– Craig Austrie was very, very good. The senior from Stamford kept a cool head and a hot hand.

“I wasn’t concerned. I was composed out there,” Austrie said. “I was just trying to get my guys composed. Yeah, they made their run and we withstood their run. We’re the No. 2 team in the country and we have to expect things like that.”

Austrie hit a number of mid-range jumpers _ one of the few things the Huskies could do against Hartford’s 1-3-1 zone.

“Austrie must have made three, four, five or six foul-line jumpers,” Leibovitz said. “He did a very nice job playing under control.”

– Johnnie Bird’s entrance(s) into the game were notable for two reasons.

The first time the Bridgeport Central grad came onto the court, he was a spite sub. UConn coach Jim Calhoun was mad at Scottie Haralson, and sent Bird into the game to get Haralson.

Bird spent seven seconds of game time on the floor.

Then, late in the game with UConn rolling, Bird re-entered for a little mop-up duty.

He could have given the Huskies an even 100 points, but missed the free throw that followed his fastbreak layup with 35.8 seconds left in the game.

– Haralson is becoming something of a whipping boy for Calhoun. He’s obviously not playing well.

Haralson hasn’t scored yet in the regular season and is 0-for-6 from the floor. He was 1-for-9 in the preseason.

Calhoun joked that his old whipping boy (Gavin Edwards) loves the new scenario.

“There’s one guy exceptionally happy on our team right now. Really happy,” Calhoun said. “Gavin Edwards.”

There were a few puzzled looks when the coach first said that.

“Because Scott’s on the team,” Calhoun said. “If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Instead of getting on Gavin now, I get on Scott. It’s Scott’s turn. It’s Scott’s year.”

Wow, Haralson must be doing cartwheels. His year? That’s going to be fun!

– Leibovitz didn’t love the officiating job Mike Kitts, Tony Crisp and Ray Perone did.

“The game was officiated in a manner where it was hard for us to survive,” Leibovitz said.

Three Hawks fouled out and two others had four fouls.

– Former UConn stars Donny Marshall and Donyell Marshall were in attendance and sat behind the bench.

Donyell Marshall’s daughter is now a UConn cheerleader. (It’s his stepdaughter but you still feel old, don’t you?)

– Leibovitz (who seems like a bright guy and a good coach, by the way) took a playful shot at his team’s hometown newspaper after the game.

As he was finishing up his postgame remarks, the coach found a reason to smile.

“The only other positive is (Tuesday) we’ll finally be on the front page of The Courant,” Leibovitz said.

- Neill

UConn football coach Randy Edsall does not wish to be a candidate for the same job at his alma mater, Syracuse.

Our friend Chuck Banning at The Day in New London was the first with the story.

We’ll have more in Tuesday’s Post.

- Neill

I missed basketball practice this morning. I’ll probably have to run a few stadiums for coach Jim Calhoun on Monday.

Our man Chris Elsberry filled in for me (admirably, I’m sure) so he’ll have the men’s basketball news for us today.

As for the UConn football team, here’s some info from our Sunday chat with Randy Edsall:

– Syracuse’s Greg Robinson has been fired. All indications (there really haven’t been that many) are that the Orange are interested in bringing Edsall back to his alma mater and the place where he began his coaching career.

Edsall doesn’t want to talk about such things, of course.

“I don’t talk about personnel issues,” Edsall said Sunday. “I never will. I’m just concerned about coaching this football team here and making them better.”

Actually, the members of the media on the line for an afternoon conference call were the first to tell Edsall the news of Robinson’s firing.

“Greg’s a good guy. He’s a good coach,” Edsall said. “Things like that happen in our profession.”

– The reverse that resulted in a 50-yard touchdown run by Jordan Todman Saturday was a new play to some viewers. But the Huskies have been running it in practice for some time.

“It scores a touchdown every time we work on it in practice,” Edsall said. “That’s why we decided to call it in the game.”

– As reported here earlier (about 12:31 a.m. Syracuse time, I believe), Twyon Martin and Kendall Reyes are now the starting defensive tackles.

“They’ll be our starters again this week. I think they’re playing well,” Edsall said. “I thought they did some really good things in the game.”

Look for Rob Lunn and Alex Polito to continue to get some action, of course.

– No injuries from the Cuse game, the coach says.

“Nothing new to report there,” Edsall said.

– Edsall said the blocked punt UConn allowed was due to a miscommunication.

That’s the fifth blocked punt Desi Cullen and his squad have suffered this season.

“It’s a mistake. It was some execution things in all of them,” Edsall said. “Somebody didn’t hear a call or somebody just didn’t execute the technique. All the looks we’ve seen, we’ve practiced. It’s nothing new.”

- Neill

I just finished my game story on the UConn-Syracuse football game and I can’t keep my eyes open.

It’s been a long couple of days and I need sleep.

Before I nod off at the wheel on the drive back to the hotel, here are a few notes from UConn’s 39-14 win.

– Tyler Lorenzen is going to start? Tyler Lorenzen is going to start!

(Say it with Karate Kid-style rhythm and it sounds better).

Yes, UConn has its quarterback back. And yes, his numbers were pretty pedestrian. And yes, the Huskies won easily.

That’s about how it goes.

“The heart and soul of our team is back,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said. “Just his presence means so much to us.”

– We in the media sometimes take ourselves too seriously. Sometimes we get upset FOR the readers and fans without knowing what the readers and fans are really thinking.

When Edsall lies to us about his starting quarterback, it (ticks) me off. I’m not sure it (ticks) off the average fan or the casual reader but I think it might.

Anyway, the coach admitted to concealing his starting QB for the week.

It was sort of a non-apology, apology.

“I knew when he was going to play. I just didn’t want it out there,” Edsall said. “Because he means so much to us. When you’re playing Tyler, your game plan changes as opposed to when you’re playing Zach or Cody.

“Sorry but it’s a competitive game and we’re judged on wins and losses,” he continued. “I’m not going to give up anything from a competitive edge when it’s so tough to win.”

Edsall went so far as to have Zach Frazer warm-up with the first team before the game. Frazer was even throwing on the field during the coin-toss.

Lorenzen said he had a pretty good idea long before kickoff that he would start.

“I knew I would be in the mix,” Lorenzen said. “They kind of cleared me the week before the game.”

– Twyon Martin and Kendall Reyes started at the defensive tackle spots for UConn.

Rob Lunn and Alex Polito don’t appear to be injured anymore. Both played eventually.

I guess Martin and Reyes have passed them on the depth chart.

– Redshirt freshman Gary Wilburn saw the first significant action of his career as UConn’s fifth defensive back.

– You knew it was coming. Edsall was asked after the game by a local reporter about becoming Syracuse’s next coach.

Question: “Can you envision a situation where you’re on the other sideline next year?”

Edsall didn’t like the question, obviously.

“That’s really bad,” Edsall said. “That’s not appropriate at all.”

In reality, it wasn’t that bad. And the coach knew it was coming.

– Kicker David Teggart has made the first nine field goals of his career. His nine-straight makes are one shy of Matt Nuzie’s school record.

UConn officials believe it’s also the longest streak to start a career.

That’s it. I’m aslee….

- Neill

The big lefty is warming up.

It looks like quarterback Tyler Lorenzen may return to the lineup tonight

He’s in uniform and throwing the ball around with his teammates.

Stay tuned.

7 p.m. update…

It’s Lorenzen.

Let’s hope for his sake that he (as in coach Randy Edsall not the quarterback himself) didn’t pull a Matt Bonislawski with this one.

You know, that’s when you confound the opposing head coach (Dave Wannstedt) so much (meaning not at all) with your game week shenanigans about the starting quarterback that he shuts you out 22-0.

That’s what Pittsburgh did to UConn three years ago at Heinz Field when Edsall had the secrecy level at Defcon 1. He had Bonislawski warm up in the tunnel so no one would know until kickoff.

- Neill