Diaco Comments on the Secondary & Ball Tracking
It was hotly debated on message boards again this past weekend. Is the UConn secondary being taught to not look for the ball and instead just track the defender?
I asked head coach Bob Diaco exactly that during Sunday’s call with the media.
“It’s just systematic,” Diaco responded. “We had built a system to eliminate the things that they do to move the ball, which worked.”
What exactly does that mean? Well, the Huskies played predominantly man coverage Saturday, again, rather than a zone look, which Diaco expanded upon.
“The plan was right,” he said. “It was going to put those perimeter players on body, rather than having zone body and zone eyes. That was systematic, which was going to give us an opportunity to win, which did, which would have. Like we said, this team [Memphis] is an explosive offense that has done really well and through the better part of three quarters, they really had a hard time. That’s been the conversation with a lot of these games, it was built by the system.”
Diaco went on to say his defense, once again, went up against an obscene number of plays on Saturday, particularly in the first half.
“Exposure at the end and what I mean by exposure, just a massive amount of plays,” he explained. “We defended 50 plays in the first half. Exposure creeps up on a defense. That’s why it’s important, the best factor for a defense, is an offense.”
The Huskies have one final week to see what the offense can look like under sophomore quarterback Tim Boyle. With a line that is now creating massive running lanes at times for RB Ron Johnson and has become reliable in pass protection, there have been zero sacks in three weeks, Boyle should excel this week against SMU. Not only is this a valuable experience for Boyle, but his play over this final stretch, which goes on tape, should give the staff a lot to look at when determining who is going to end up getting the job come August, 2015.
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