Offseason Interview Series: Diaco’s Assessment of the Fans & Scheduling
Photo Credit: THE BONEYARD BLOG – Kallie Elizabeth
Last offseason, Bob Diaco was constantly on the road, hitting every corner of the state, spreading the word that change was here and things would be different. There was the Buffalo Wild Wings tour, the appearances on every morning radio show imaginable, a cooking appearance on Better Connecticut and countless other events.
UConn averaged just over 27,000 fans in seven home games at The Rent in 2014, the lowest figures in the history of the program, since the upgrade in ’03.
With the effort the first year head coach made to generate a buzz since his arrival, one would think there was some disappointment at the support his team received, right?
“No, not at all, I totally understand,” Diaco insisted on Friday inside the Burton Family Football Complex. “Who the hell wants to watch a losing team?”
My response was natural, ‘I guess so, but….’
“You guess so?,” Diaco abruptly stopped me before I could finish with ‘this was an important year for conference realignment.’
“You’ve got choices [as a fan],” he continued. “Listen, attendance is down everywhere because you don’t have to leave your couch, every game is on television. You can watch your home town team on your television or on the internet, from your couch. You’re comfortable, sitting in your living room, with your fridge right there.
“In some instances, with a big-time premier game, you’re getting way more information. You’ve got camera angles, you have inside scoops, shots into the sidelines, shots into the mask, it’s a honked up experience. So as our television experience has improved, attendance all over the country has gone down, so that’s a natural thing.”
As for this program?
“You want to talk about this fan base,” he asked, “with that already happening and then you don’t win? And they’ve got a choice to make? The team is 2-8 and the weather report comes out and it’s 25 degrees and it’s gonna be sleeting and you’re upset they’re not there at the game? That’s our teams’ fault, that’s not the fans’ fault.”
Diaco is extremely happy with the fans, knowing that when things are going well, Rentschler has quite the reputation around college football. He saw it firsthand when Virginia came in and left with a 45-10 defeat in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd.
“The fans are awesome, they really all,” he said. “This state wants to have a winning football team and they’ll come. They’ll pack that place, it’ll be loud and it’ll be ballistic. All we’ve got to do is take care of our business, not them [the fans] take care of their’s. We’ve got to take care of our business.”
With the Huskies now playing in the American against perceived lesser quality opponents than the fan base is used to, I asked about his thoughts if scheduling played a role in attendance?
“I think scheduling is the key component to turning the program around, I’ll tell you that, hell yea,” he said. “What it has to do with fan attendance?”
“If you don’t win, the fans won’t come; if you do, they will,” he said matter-of-factly. “I think too much is made about who the match-up is. ‘Oh, well they won’t come because it’s…’ They’re not going to come because you lose, if you lose they’re not going to come. If you win, the people will come. The people want to win, they want to watch a winner, they want to be aligned with a winner and they want to leave the stadium happy.
“Now if you can do that and play a marquee team, great. But if you are not playing a marquee team and you can do that, it’s still good. Playing a marquee team and not winning is not as good, that’s a fact. And when you’re developing and you’ve got a young program, just getting started, it’s a critical component, absolutely critical.”
Diaco’s ideal schedule is one that begins with four, winnable, out-of-conference games, before diving into conference play.
“You have four teams in order to prepare yourself for your eight conference opponents,” he said. “That’s what I’m used to. That’s how Iowa schedules, that’s how Kansas State schedules, that’s how Wisconsin schedules. The people that are from the Hayden Fry tree, that’s what we believe in.”
Under this model, look to continue to see an FCS, a non power-5, and then two higher level non-conference match-ups. This year’s schedule of Villanova, UMass, BYU, who for all intents and purposes is a P5 and Missouri, should be what’s expected moving forward.
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