Randy Edsall on if he'll be fired by Maryland: 'Those are things I don't control'

Randy Edsall is, for the moment, Maryland football's head coach. After the Terps put forth a strong effort but ultimately fell to Ohio State on Saturday, 49-28, Edsall was emotional and then defiant.

Edsall spoke at length about the pride he had in his team's showing. He praised quarterback Perry Hills, who ground out 200 rushing yards despite a terribly challenging set of circumstances. He praised his team for not focusing on worries about his job status, and then he turned angry and stormed out when asked a question about the normalcy of his pregame handshake ritual with players. Edsall was angry, but what's most substantive is this:

A reporter addressed Edsall: "I apologize for asking this, but do you expect to be coaching your next game?"

Here was Edsall's response:

Edsall: "I'm going to go on a bus. I'm gonna watch the film. Those are things I don't control. All I'm going to do is get these kids to be the best they can be and develop them and keep getting them better. I don't make those decisions. Somebody else makes those decisions. As long as I'm the coach, all I'm going to do is do my job, do it the way I've been doing it, doing what I've been asked to do, and that's what I'm going to continue to do. Because the number one thing are these kids. That's what's most important. That's what everybody always needs to remember. What's most important are the kids, and what the college experience is - and developing them as people and students and people and athletes, and that's what we're going to continue to do."

(Emphasis is mine.)

Edsall has faced persistent questions about his job status since Thursday morning. Maryland has a bye week ahead, and then the Terps host Penn State for a game at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium on Oct. 24.

In addition to Edsall, quarterback Perry Hills and defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson said they weren't focused on Edsall's job status this week.

Here's more from Edsall on his job status. He didn't want to divulge what he said to his team about this situation during the week, and he said he'd continue to focus on making Maryland's players better.

Reporter: "Randy, have you had any conversations with with the administration, the last couple days, about your future?"

Edsall: "No, not at all. My whole focus was on these kids and trying to get them better. As I said on Tuesday, as I said on Thursday, as I’ll say here again today: The No. 1 thing is these kids, and college athletics is about making them the best you can be, as a student, as an athlete and as a person. That’s all my focus is, and that’s all it’s gonna be as long as I’m a coach."

Reporter: "Was this addressed at all with the team?"

Edsall: "Those things are really private, OK, between me and my team. OK? And they understand, and what needed to be said to them was said to them, and I was proud of them because they came out here and put all that stuff behind them when things broke, and they came out and they played their tails off, and you couldn’t ask for anything more than those kids doing that with the distractions that were taking place."

Here's full video of Edsall's remarks: