East Hartford — Randy Edsall returned to the UConn football sideline on Thursday night.

The last time Edsall ran the program was during the highly-successful 2010 season that ended with an 8-5 record and trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

Edsall didn't plan on spending any time before Thursday's season-opening 27-20 win over Holy Cross at Rentschler Field reminiscing about his previous 12 seasons at UConn.

He's focused on restoring the Huskies back to respectability.

"This is not about me," Edsall said earlier this week. "It's about those kids. There's going to be a lot of people in the stands that were here to support us that were here before and I appreciate that very much. For me, it's just going out and making sure that I do the best job that I can to help these kids win and achieve their goals.

"I haven't even really given any thought to it and won't give any thought to it because all that is going to do is take away my focus and concentration on what my job is and that is to help these young men win. So that's all I'm going to be focused on. ... I just don't want to screw it up."

Edsall says he benefited from a break from coaching college football last season, working as director of research and special projects for the Detroit Lions. He had sour ending with Maryland, being fired after posting a 22-34 record in four-plus seasons.

"Last year being in Detroit was great," Edsall said. "I got a chance to sit back and just really watch and observe and be able to get better. If there were things that I wouldn't have taken from that experience then I would have just been cheating myself and shouldn't even be coaching. That experience was wonderful."

He's grown as a head coach since his last stint at UConn during which he went 74-70 overall and qualified for five bowl games.

"Experience is a great teacher," Edsall said. "If you don't allow yourself to continue to learn and grow, you're never going to be the best you can be. That's something you stress to the players. If I'm going to stress that to them, then I better be living it myself.

"That's one thing that I try to do in my life is not be a phony. ... I had a great teacher in Tom Coughlin, playing for him and coaching for him. He was a guy who never asked you to do anything that he wouldn't do himself."

Drought watch

UConn entered the season opener looking to end two significant droughts.

The Huskies went the entire 2016 season without scoring a first quarter touchdown, scoring just nine points overall on three field goals.

They also haven't scored off a punt return since the 2011 Fiesta Bowl or from a kick-off return since September 2014 against Stony Brook.

They broke the first drought as redshirt freshman Nate Hopkins scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 10 seconds left in the first quarter, handing UConn a 7-3 lead.

News and notes

Edsall, who planned on making a game-time decision on his starting punter, went with redshirt freshman Brett Graham. ... UConn had six freshmen and 11 redshirt freshmen on the depth chart for Thursday's game. "We're not going to use inexperience as any kind of excuse," Edsall said. ... Redshirt junior Jason Thompson (special teams), redshirt senior Tommy Myers (offense) and redshirt senior Junior Joseph (defense) served as game captains. ... It was the first meeting between UConn and Holy Cross since 1985. ... The Crusaders entered the game with a 3-11 record vs. Football Bowl Subdivision foes, beating Army, 30-21, in the last opportunity in 2002. ... Prior to this season, the Huskies posted an 11-4 record in season openers since moving to Division I-A in 2002. ... Junior college transfer Eli Thomas, a linebacker, has enrolled in classes but will not play this season. ... Up next: UConn hosts South Florida in its American Athletic Conference opener on Sept. 9 at the Rent.

g.keefe@theday.com