Randy Edsall, Joe Moorhead, Greg Schiano favorites for UConn football job

Nearly six years after big-timing the University of Connecticut, Randy Edsall could be on his way back to the Huskies’ football sidelines.

Edsall is the favorite to replace Bob Diaco, who was fired by the school on Monday, but there are plenty of other intriguing candidates available. Those candidates include Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead (a former assistant at UConn under Edsall), Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano (who took a similarly weak Northeast football school in Rutgers to glory once upon a time), and Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando (another former Edsall assistant at UConn).

Moorhead, Schiano and Orlando will likely wait on better opportunities to open up in the coming years. Meanwhile, Edsall is seen as damaged goods across the college football landscape. He had just two winning seasons in five years at Maryland and went 22-34 overall. He was fired by the Terps last year.

Edsall is currently the director of football research-special projects for the Detroit Lions, but at just 58-years-old he will surely seek another head coaching job.

Edsall guided the UConn football program through its most modern success as the school won a pair of Big East championships and reached a major bowl berth (Fiesta Bowl) in 2011. After Edsall’s Huskies fell to Oklahoma, 48-20, on Jan. 1, 2011 – he bolted for Maryland in rather ugly fashion.

“If I could do it over again, I wish that there was some way that I could see the players and tell them face-to-face that I was going to leave and come to Maryland,” Edsall said in 2012. “But due to the circumstances surrounding that, I wasn’t able to do that and that’s something that I’ve gotta live with.”

Of note, UConn athletic director David Benedict recently started following Edsall on Twitter. Edsall’s Twitter feed is full of inspirational quotes. Four days ago he quoted UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma: “The BEST time to change is when you have a pretty good thing going on..The MOST DIFFICULT time is when you’ve lost your edge.