This is the second part of my interview with Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall. You can read part I here.

On the defensive line, you bring everybody back except Lindsey Witten, who led you in sacks last year. Do you see somebody stepping into his role as a pass-rusher?


Randy Edsall: We've got Marcus Campbell back, and Marcus is a guy who's played for us previously and he's bigger, faster and stronger than he was before. We've got him and Trevardo Williams, who played as a true freshman last year. And those two guys can really run, they're sub-4.5 guys. And I think both of them can be better because they'll have a little bit more experience under their belts. So between those two guys, we feel like we have a pretty good situation there at defensive end.

What is the status of Greg Lloyd, whom you're moving to defensive end? Will he be able to play this year after his knee injury?

RE: We're just going to have to wait and see. We'll make that determination when we get to August. The good thing is, if he isn't ready, we can redshirt him because he hasn't been redshirted. To me, it's going to be if he's 100 percent and ready to go in the fall, then he's ready to go. But if he's not going to be 100 percent, really by the time August rolls around, then it will be in our best interest to just go ahead and redshirt him and let him just continue to get healthy.

It's going to be what's best for Greg and his health. We have A.J. Portee and Teddy Jennings that we like and Jesse Joseph, who's not going through the spring. And then one of the young guys who came in at midyear, Jonathan Louis, we really like what we've see out of him so far. So we feel that without Greg right now we have six guys that are competing for those two spots.

At linebacker, you have two of the best and most experienced players in the league at that position in Lawrence Wilson and Scott Lutrus. I imagine you feel really good about that spot this spring, huh?


RE: We really do. Both of those guys are working and getting better. The big thing for those guys at that position is just to be more comfortable working side by side, and then developing backup situations for us if something did happen. Then at outside backer, Kijuan [Dabney] and Jory [Johnson], both of those guys played for us last year. Kijuan is lined up No. 1, Jory at No. 2 but it'll be a tremendous competition there this spring.

Your pass defense at the back end was a trouble spot at times last year, and you lost two senior defensive backs. How do you see the secondary shaping up?

RE: There's ability there; we've just got to get them to be a little more functional and a little bit more productive than what they were before. Blidi [Wreh-Wilson] won't be out there this spring because of his shoulder surgery, but he's progressing very, very well. I'm not worried about him. But at the corner position, we've got Tevrin Brandon, Markeith Cirinna, Dwayne [Gratz], Gary Wilburn, Chris Lopes and Gilbert Stlouis, who came in [midyear].

So we've got guys there, and what we'll do this spring is figure out who's the best two or three we have there and then who's the best nickel out of that bunch. We have Jerome Junior coming back at safety, and I thought he did better as the year went on last year. And then between Andrew Opoku, who came in at midyear, and Matt Edwards, Marcus Aiken and David Kenney, those guys are fighting it out to see who'll be opposite of Jerome.

The one thing I like about it is, overall, we have more speed and athleticism than we had previously in the secondary. It's just a matter of now, when you look at it, we don't even have any seniors back there. All we got is one junior; everybody else is a sophomore, a redshirt freshman or a [true] freshman. It's just a young group. But it's a young group that has speed and athleticism, so that's a good thing.

Because it's such a young group, will you try to do things this spring to really throw them into the fire and test them as much as possible?


RE: We just finished a defensive meeting this morning, and we were talking about what we're going to do, and that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to put a lot of pressure on them and get them to understand that, hey, in the spring we know there are going to be mistakes. We'd rather have them make mistakes in the spring and be more ready to go when the fall comes around. Again, I like that group in terms of their willingness and athleticism and their ability to learn. So now what we've got to do is make sure we get them in the right spots and get them to play with a lot of confidence.

Briefly on special teams: Desi Cullen did a lot of things for you, including punting and kickoffs. Where do those things stand this spring?


RE: David Teggart and Chad Christen will have a competition this spring and also in the fall to see who our kickoff guy will be. Christen and Cole Wagner are punting for us, and Chad's a guy who has a really strong leg. There are some things we have to work with him on, but the ball just pops off his foot. And then Derek Chard will be back as our long-snapper from a year ago, and David will handle PATs and field goals, while Chad is a guy who can punt and do field goals. So we feel we'll be in pretty good shape from a specialist standpoint in the kicking game.

You've redshirted a lot of guys the past few years. Do you feel like you've been building to this point where you have so much depth?


RE: I really feel like once we get to August and get some of these guys back who are on the shelf now, we'll have more depth here than we've had previously. We're continually getting better, having more depth and having more athletes, and that's the good thing. The big thing for us now is to have a productive spring and also be able to stay healthy so we can have all these guys going into the fall. And if we can do that, then we have a chance to be successful.

This may be impossible to judge right now, but do you sense confidence among the players from the way they finished 2009?


RE: I think our kids were in a good frame of mind as we got done with our winter program. They understand how close we were last year in terms of the games we won and then the games we lost, the five by 15 points. They understood how all those little things can make a difference, and I think that's the thing that they've concentrated on -- to really focus on all those little things all the time. That every play is an important play.

The little that I've been able to be around our guys because of the [NCAA] rules, I see a good focus. I see a good work ethic. And I see a team that understands that if we prepare the right way and put in the time that it takes to be good, then we have an opportunity to be a pretty darn good football team in 2010.