Working weekend Part 2 -- Sunday Presser

Yes, I am late, but I had to go to a picnic after media day. It's a beautiful day, I hope if your reading this blog post you were outside for at least a portion of today.

Anyhow, Hofstra.

Randy Edsall took out every cliche and platitude in the book for this one. And, I mean every single cliche and talking point:

"We want to win a Big East championship. We want to win one game at a time, and really focus on that. Last week doesn't matter this week....Be best we can be.”

Then he brought up the "they all count and this one is as important as any other" (don't think this is a fan storm the field game, is it?). It reminded me a bit of Bull Durham when Nuke LaLoosh finally makes it to the Major Leagues.

I will give Edsall a bit of slack since he has been great for all of fall camp. Besides, what is he supposed to say? "We should beat Hofstra by 40 points and be unchallenged?" That would be refreshing.

Imagine if Joe Biden was a football coach?

Coach Biden: "Us lose to Hofstra? Oh come on, that is malarkey. Absolute malarkey! If we lose to Hofstra we should be looking for another job."

Football coaches aren't on the straight talk express. Especially when they are playing opponents they are expected to blow out. It happens to every fall to football coaches all over this country. Try interviewing a high school football coach. After the cliche fest however there was some good stuff.

While I hope Sunday presser's never happen again, the brunch was thoroughly enjoyable. It was french toast, sausage and pancakes that had me longing back to my college days. Nothing like falling out of your dorm bed Sunday morning (after a night of intense studying) in West Campus and making the trip over to McMahon dining hall for all you can eat lunch. Back to football.

• Injuries: Jordan Todman and Brad Kanuch are unlikely to play (no surprise).

• Safety Aaron Bagsby has returned to practice and Jerome Junior won't need surgery. Both have knee issues. That should help safety depth that Edsall admitted is much thinner than he anticipated. Jon Jean-Louis has a hip flexor and because of the chronic ankle injury to Greg Robinson, Kijuan Dabney is hedging positions and playing outside linebacker.The starting lineup is stacked, but if Dahna Deleston and/or Robert Vaughn go down it's pretty thin. Glenn Mourning, who hasn't sniffed playing time in his career, and walk-on Emmanuel Omokaro at the backups. The sooner Bagsby gets back the better this situation will be. I know they like Greg Lloyd in the middle, but considering the injuries and the way this has played out, I wonder if how the lack of anticipated depth at safety led to Deleston moving back from linebacker (Bagsby was hurt in the summer just prior to camp).
  

• Edsall mentioned he thought his team ran out of gas at the end of last year. He took that into account and learned for that. He wouldn't say how they are doing things this year, but without a doubt he did wonder what happened in the final 1/4 of the season.
  
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• Rob Lunn gave his Big East championship ring to his father and his Meinieke Car Care Bowl ring to his grandfather.
  

• As I said yesterday, I like the vibe of this team.