Paul Pasqualoni entered last fall’s matchup against Syracuse carrying plenty of history. Pasqualoni and his Connecticut team got the best of the Orange that day, coming away with a 28-21 victory.

It was his first victory as a head coach since 2004 — his final season as Syracuse’s head coach.

Now Pasqualoni must prepare some of his players for a similar challenge this weekend. The Huskies (1-1) will travel to play Maryland (2-0) on Saturday, with the Terrapins coming off a 36-27 win at Temple.

This time, the coach on the other sideline will be feeling nostalgic.

Terrapins head coach Randy Edsall was the head coach at Connecticut for 12 seasons, where he guided the program in its transition to Division I. But when the Maryland opportunity came up, Edsall jumped at the chance to lead an Atlantic Coast Conference program and departed from Connecticut.

Saturday, some of Edsall’s former players will get the rare chance to square up against their former coach, and they’re not hiding their emotions going into the game.

“It is not going to be hard to get fired up for that one,” Huskies senior defensive tackle Ryan Wirth told Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register. “Definitely. That is about it; that is all I am going to say about that.”

Wirth was one of the last players Edsall and his staff recruited. He took the Maryland job two days after the Huskies lost to Oklahoma in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.

It’s Pasqualoni’s team now, and the former SU head coach led Connecticut to a 5-7 record in his first year with the Huskies, going 3-4 in Big East play. Edsall didn’t fare as well with the Terrapins, finishing 2-10 and failing to win a Football Bowl Subdivision game after a season-opening victory against Miami (Florida).

Maryland has already matched its win total from last year, and looks to surpass it against its coach’s former players.

As far as Pasqualoni is concerned, though, the ironic matchup makes little difference once the players take the field.

“Coach Edsall’s not playing in this game, and there aren’t any coaches on the field,” Pasqualoni said during Monday’s Big East teleconference. “From our standpoint, we’re just going to get ready to play this game and not get distracted by anything else.”

For the Huskies to fare better against Maryland, they’ll need to fine-tune an offense that only scored seven points in a loss to North Carolina State last Saturday. Connecticut was held to 239 total yards in the loss, and was held scoreless until Lyle McCombs’ 5-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.

Edsall’s offense fared a little better, racking up 334 yards in the 36-point effort against Temple. A former backup quarterback at Syracuse — where he also spent 11 years as a graduate assistant and assistant coach — Edsall gave the reins of his offense to freshman quarterback Perry Hills to lead his offense against the Huskies. Hills threw for two touchdowns and ran for another against Temple.

The professional connections between Pasqualoni and Edsall are deeply rooted. From 1987 to 1990, both worked on the same defensive staff at Syracuse — Pasqualoni coaching linebackers, Edsall coaching defensive backs.

Still, Pasqualoni prefers not to dwell on past ties in preparation for this weekend. More important football-related matters, such as working hard in practices and learning assignments, take precedence.

“Every game is very precious,” Pasqualoni said Tuesday. “Let’s get ready to play. If you’re distracted, I don’t know how you’re functioning at a high level.”

Edsall walks the same line, claiming not to place any special attention on this week’s game.

“To me, this is just the third game on the schedule,” Edsall said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It just happens to be against Connecticut.”

Edsall, though, didn’t leave the Huskies on the best of terms.

After the Fiesta Bowl loss, Edsall didn’t take the plane back to Connecticut with his team, ESPN reported. When the plane touched down, players began to learn of Edsall’s departure by phone and text message, the story said.

For then-senior Huskies wide receiver Kashif Moore, Edsall’s actions served as a reminder of sport as a profit-driven endeavor.

“At the end of the day, and I learned this when I was getting recruited, this is a business,” Moore said in the story. “We can’t ever forget that.”

Pasqualoni and his team have business to attend to on Saturday, trying to beat Maryland to get back above .500 on the season. For Pasqualoni, that’s all the motivation needed.

But for the Huskies who experienced Edsall’s sudden departure, the memory of the way he left the team remains.

“It is definitely a big game,” redshirt sophomore safety Ty-Meer Brown told Fuller. “He is the coach there; he did a great job here. The way he left, I feel like some people didn’t like that, but I think it’s going to be a great matchup for us.”

Published on September 12, 2012 at 12:42 am

Contact Kevin: kmprisei@syr.edu