Some news and notes from Monday's press conference with Randy Edsall...

• Edsall opened by announcing the team awards. The most surprising was the offensive player of the year. Zach Frazer. Jordan Todman was the team MVP, and Lawrence Wilson the defensive player of the year. But Frazer was 11-3 in games he started and finished over the last two years, and might be the only player to win the award who went from starter to third string to second string to starter again.

• Todman and Kendall Reyes are exploring the possibility of entering the NFL Draft, Edsall said.

• Lawrence Wilson and Scott Lutrus will play in the East-West Shrine Game; Zach Hurd and Anthony Sherman will play in the Texas vs. the Nation Game. Edsall is also working to get long snapper Derek Chard into a senior showcase game.

• It was Christmas in Storrs for the UConn football players. The Fiesta Bowl representatives are in town for the next two days, and have set up a room where the players can select their NCAA-sanctioned bowl gifts on a point-system. No specifics yet on what's available, but you can bet there's some very nice electronics.

• Everyone not already out for the year should be available for game, meaning Mike Ryan and Twyon Martin, Edsall said. Moe Petrus had surgery on his hand, but should be OK. "They're telling me all those young men will be cleared to go," Edsall said.

• Edsall mentioned an Associated Press story (written by Hartford-based reporter Pat Eaton-Robb) about UConn's success this season and its effect on them. "This is for all those guys," Edsall said. "Anything is obtainable."

• Edsall stopped working with the safeties after the Louisville loss. He now thinks that might have taken something away from the team. "I went to the coaches and said I can't do that anymore," Edsall said. "I went back to big picture stuff."

• Edsall was asked if UConn's game be an "us against the world" mentality for the Huskies? "We're 17-point underdogs," Edsall said. "We're going to play hard. The way we always play. I have tremendous respect for Oklahoma and Bob Stoops. They're good. But we're going to go and play hard." Edsall mentioned he's been a similar scenario. As an assistant at Jacksonville, the Jaguars came in as 17-point underdogs to the Denver Broncos and John Elway in the NFL playoffs in 1996 and won to reach the AFC championship game. "It was one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NFL playoffs," Edsall said.

• Edsall said he's going to try and get former UConn and Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins out to the Fiesta Bowl. "He deserves it," Edsall said.

• Edsall said he hasn't really had an opportunity to dig into Oklahoma film yet because he's been out recruiting, and he goes back on the road for two days starting tomorrow.