You see, tough is not a question in Storrs, Conn. Not when you've experienced the kind of 
tough that UConn football has since the Oct. 17 stabbing death of cornerback Jasper Howard.
Tough is identifying a player's body at the morgue in the early hours 
of a Sunday morning.
Tough is holding it together for your players and your campus, even as you try to hold yourself together.
Tough is wanting so badly to pay tribute to the player you lost with a 
win, only to lose three times by a total of 10 points.
So, Edsall took the word "tough" as a relative term, until he heard the question. 


"What can you say about rumors you've been contacted by Kansas?"
The room fell silent, bracing for the answer.
"I'm not touching that one with a 10-foot pole," Edsall laughed.
He meant the question, but maybe the job, too.
Randy Edsall is the hot coach again, having built this UConn program from I-AA into a factor in the Big East. He lands strong recruits, setting 
parents at ease in their living rooms with his warm but disciplined nature.
And, in the aftermath of the tragedy that his team has dealt with this fall, Edsall has been the rock for the Huskies to lean on. He is a leader, and, at a university with two basketball coaches who boast 1,501 career wins, he is every bit as important as Jim Calhoun or Geno Auriemma.
What athletic director with an opening wouldn’t want to pick up the phone and call Edsall with a job offer? His alma mater, Syracuse, tried last fall. And, as Mark Mangino and Charlie Weis learn their fate, more calls are sure to come his way this fall.
But there is just something that feels right about Edsall and UConn. He has seen the program this far along, and it feels there may be a corner ready to be turned here that only this coach can guide them through.
In an interview following the program’s crowning achievement to date — a 33-30 overtime win over Notre Dame — Edsall cautioned that this was no upset.
"No," said the coach, shaking his head. "I just thought we could beat Notre Dame. I wanted these kids to know that they put their pants on one leg at a time, too."
If anything, the Huskies have to be one of the most competitive teams this college football season. They are 5-5 with two games (Syracuse and South Florida) remaining on the schedule, but they could easily be 7-3 or better. In fact, you could argue that they’re 15 points away from being 10-0, given that’s the combined difference in their five heartbreaking losses.
While one more win will make UConn bowl-eligible — remarkable, considering all they have endured — it’s hard not to sneak a peak at next season. Most of the offense will return intact, aside from running back Andre Dixon. But there’s no mistaking that Jordan Todman is a star in the making out of the backfield. And the Huskies could have one of the toughest linebacking corps in college football next year.
In short, it’s time for this program to take its next step. It’s time to drop the "little ole’ UConn" label.
The Huskies open 2010 at Michigan, and I’m putting folks in Ann Arbor on notice for an upset. Then again, I better watch how I phrase that, right?
Upset, Randy Edsall’s you-know-what.
