STORRS, Conn. >> UConn football coach Randy Edsall has left the program a day after announcing he would retire at the end of the season.

Edsall, whose teams have gone just 6-32 since he returned to the Huskies for a second stint as coach in 2017, will be replaced on an interim basis by defensive coordinator Lou Spanos, the school announced today.

“Upon further reflection by both Randy and I, and after having the opportunity to visit with Randy today, we are both in agreement that it is in the best interest of our student-athletes to have a new voice leading UConn football,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said

Edsall, 63, was originally the Huskies coach from 1999 through the 2010 season, leading UConn into what is now the bowl subdivision, taking the Huskies to five bowl games and winning Big East titles in 2007 and 2010.

He was rehired by UConn in 2017, despite going 22-34 at Maryland, where he was fired six games into his fifth season.

His rehiring puzzled many UConn faithful, who were still upset that he had left the Huskies after the team’s 2011 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma, without notifying his players or flying home with the team.

UConn went 3-9 during Edsall’s first season back, then went 1-11 and 2-10 before sitting out last season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Huskies, in their first season as an independent after leaving the American Athletic Conference, are 0-2 this season, losing their opener 45-0 at Fresno State before falling last Saturday at home, 38-28, to Holy Cross from the FCS.

Spanos, a 26-year coaching veteran in both college and the NFL, has served as UConn’s defensive coordinator since the 2019 season.

“I have gotten to know Lou over the last two years and have great respect for him as a person and for his football acumen,” Benedict said. “There is no doubt that Lou has the respect of the players and I look forward to supporting him and the team for the remainder of the 2021 season.”

UConn hosts Purdue (1-0) on Saturday.