Assistant coaching news...

[BlueMAB]

Every one of these guys has been a coordinator and/or head coach before at another program or a lower level.

 

[noeynox]

You are right, we don't know. But Diaco is making a lot of first time Head Coach mistakes. He blows out the old staff. He replaces them with a lot of friends of his who are getting pretty significant promotions. And we don't see a single guy on the list that looked like he was in demand with other schools.

I thought Pasqualoni was a silly old fossil, but the resumes of some of the coaches that came in were solid if not outright impressive. The only mistake he made on the staff was bringing in his friend.

We are where we are, and this program and entire athletic program is totally $%@ed if Diaco doesn't work out, so we got to root for him. Let's hope for the best.

There is no way for you to know that (the bolded statement). He knows these guys, and their capabilities. Something none of us on this board know. P brought in one guy that turned out "impressive". Weist. Guys like Clayton White, and Kermit Buggs (who was coaching at a D2 school) didn't really distinguish themselves as special team coordinators. Wholey and Fogarty were alums but didn't have "impressive" resumes. If people were expecting to see a slew of guys come over from P5 conference teams, well maybe our budget isn't up for that even if we are at the top of The American in terms of assistant pay.

The board is really over thinking this. We won't know jack squat until the first game. Despite the previous staff resume, we looked awful with the basics picking up delay of game penalties, procedure calls, and most importantly clock management was frigging horrendous, not lining up in the victory formation to run out the clock once. To say nothing of the unblocked rushers we routinely saw. That's just the offense. If the new staff could manage those simple intracancies, this team will be better by default.

Now if these guys can recruit kids with multiple offers we will know we are on the right track.

Edit: Shane Day was an impressive hire coming from the Bears.

 

[Go_Huskies]

You are right, we don't know. But Diaco is making a lot of first time Head Coach mistakes. He blows out the old staff. He replaces them with a lot of friends of his who are getting pretty significant promotions. And we don't see a single guy on the list that looked like he was in demand with other schools.

I thought Pasqualoni was a silly old fossil, but the resumes of some of the coaches that came in were solid if not outright impressive. The only mistake he made on the staff was bringing in his friend.

We are where we are, and this program and entire athletic program is totally $%@ed if Diaco doesn't work out, so we got to root for him. Let's hope for the best.

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

 

[HawkHusky]

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

Troll sighting!

 

[MattMang23]

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

You forgot the part where he shook my hand and gave me a chubby.

 

[PAGS]

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

Yeah, typical in all levels of football, new HC...all new staff. Hand picked by the HC

 

[Dove]

The unofficial symbol of the UConn football board here at the old Boneyard:

 

[Dooley]

Gotta love the Boneyard. When UCONN was 0-9, all everyone wanted was for UCONN to clean house completely and go in a different direction. Now that that has happened, we are all praising PP for his assistants hires (except GDL) and are pining for the "good ol' years" under TJW when the team went 3 and friggin' 5 (I love the work TJW did as much as the next guy but let's be real, he was 3-5). Absolutely ridiculous. We could have hired Bill Belichick as HC and if he brought in Nick Saban to be his DC, I swear we'd have a few downers complain that Belichick was just hiring his buddies. Can't we all give the new coach and staff at least one season to show what they can do? PLEASE notice I said SEASON. Not 1 offseason day. Not 1 practice. Not 1 game. 1 SEASON. And even then, 1 season may not be enough time to turn this mess around. It took Charlie Strong a few seasons to dig out from Steve Kragthorpe's mess and guess what? It will likely take Diaco a few seasons to dig out from PP/GDL's mess.

I understand that the UCONN fan misery index is always set to ludicrous. Heck, this CR mess and seeing local rivals that I view as being inferior to UCONN (complete body of work) get seats on AAC escape pods has turned me into one miserable old coot too. But let's all just be patient folks. The entire staff hasn't even been assembled yet. The players haven't begun offseason conditioning. Signing Day is months away. Spring Ball seems like an eternity away. And yet here some of us are complaining away before this year's bowl season is even over. Patience people. Let's see how the team plays on the field before we all go back to jumping off the same cliffs that we were when our team was 0-9.

 

[Colt house75]

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

Hey Mr. Go_:
Go home...you suck..better yet ..go back to the BC/Rutgirls Board.
a) He did not fire everybody...he retained Foley/TJ and several others moving on/maybe 2 fired not counting GA's.
b)Go on vacation...get serious..not in his DNA....would bet dollars to donuts he has worked round the clock to get this off the ground.
c)He is the CEO and is hiring who will fit into his system.
So freakin' go back to your hole and stay there..........

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I think you'd be a fool not to be nervous given every coach except for one is new. But I find it interesting we can get so excited for a new head coach who has no top level head coaching experience but are wringing our hands to the point of blisters over an OC who didn't call his own plays. Didn't TJ call plays for just 1 game at Cinci?
I'm very excited for Diaco and at the moment can do nothing but hope he's putting together a good staff. He knows a heck of a lot more than I ever will. For my tastes, as long as the new OC doesn't run up the middle on every first down it will be an improvement over the GDL days.

 

[junglehusky]

The accusation of nepotism is kind of hilarious. As if managers in the business world only ever hire employees they have no prior relationship with. When a company hires a VP, and the CEO knows the candidate, does he recuse himself from the process and leave the therm when decision is being made? I doubt it.

Secondly, as to Cummings' non play calling role at his previous job - if you think this reflects poorly on Diaco's judgement, the implicit assumption is that this took place during the interview :

BD : You didn't call plays last year but you must have have ideas of your own. Tell me what your philosophy on play calling would be.

MC : Herp derpy derp de derp!

BD: Good enough for me! You're hired!

 

[Dooley]

BD : You didn't call plays last year but you must have have ideas of your own. Tell me what your philosophy on play calling would be.

MC : Herp derpy derp de derp!

BD: Good enough for me! You're hired!

You had me at Herp.

 

[Bill Sussman]

You had me at Herp.

It was really the derpy derp that sold me

 

[CL82]

Great Post. I am nervous. If his friends don't get the job done like GDL does he have the guts to fire them. Coach P's only significant mistake was hiring his buddy and not having the guts to fire or demote him until he was forced. His other non-friend and objective staffing choices were good. Don Brown was a great choice. Shane Day good choice.

Also does anybody know if this standard practice? It seems odd that you would fire the whole staff and replace them with your buddies. If you did this in the business world it would look like nepotism. Is coach BD saying that nobody on the current staff was any good.

Here is what coach BD has done so far

1 Fire everbody
2. Go on vacation
3 Hire his buddies

So you are saying he's following coaching 101? I guess that 's comforting.

 

[ZooCougar]

The accusation of nepotism is kind of hilarious. As if managers in the business world only ever hire employees they have no prior relationship with. When a company hires a VP, and the CEO knows the candidate, does he recuse himself from the process and leave the therm when decision is being made? I doubt it.

Secondly, as to Cummings' non play calling role at his previous job - if you think this reflects poorly on Diaco's judgement, the implicit assumption is that this took place during the interview :

BD : You didn't call plays last year but you must have have ideas of your own. Tell me what your philosophy on play calling would be.

MC : Herp derpy derp de derp!

BD: Good enough for me! You're hired!

No, I disagree. I am assuming that there is more than meets the eye here, but in hiring an OC who didn't call his own plays you are assuming risk. It's as risky as hiring an OC whose prior job was a WR coach at Cincy.

I guess my expectation was that we were going to get an OC, who had done all of his job before. Calling plays is a pretty huge part of the duty.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Secondly, as to Cummings' non play calling role at his previous job - if you think this reflects poorly on Diaco's judgement, the implicit assumption is that this took place during the interview :

BD : You didn't call plays last year but you must have have ideas of your own. Tell me what your philosophy on play calling would be.

MC : Herp derpy derp de derp!

BD: Good enough for me! You're hired!

Great comedy right there. Nice to have a good chuckle while I peruse the suicide hotline that is the BY.

 

[UConnRock]

The play calling during the end of year turnaround was done primarily by Shane Day who had never had a sniff of play calling duties in his coaching career.

The offensive coaches were a disfunctional group led by GDL. Obviously Foley, Weist et al did not agree with GDL's line coaching philosophy, but had no voice. Weist was a WM hire who never had the trust of PP. It was a recipe for disaster.

Diaco's goal is obviously to bring in a cohesive unit to get the entire coaching staff and team to totally buy into the offense. Patterson and Cummings have a ton of experience and obviously will work well together in developing talent. Foley is the quintessential team player and I am sure the RB coach will fit in nicely. It has to work better than the misfit group that was here previously.

 

[BlueDogs]

...And the Yard reverts to its usual camps: A) HC can do no wrong loyalists casting firebombs at anybody that raises an objection vs. B) the perpetually dissatisfied who see total destruction at every turn challenging the intelligence of the sheep.

Its good to be back to normal.

My take is we have to let HCBD play out his hand. Way too early, but I have rising concern about his choices. Buffalo and MAC makes me worried. This is not an elite staff targeting BCS level programmatic levels on its face. But, we have to hope HCBD knows a lot more than us about these guys and what they can bring. Stay tuned.

 

[UconnFamily]

No, I disagree. I am assuming that there is more than meets the eye here, but in hiring an OC who didn't call his own plays you are assuming risk. It's as risky as hiring an OC whose prior job was a WR coach at Cincy.

I guess my expectation was that we were going to get an OC, who had done all of his job before. Calling plays is a pretty huge part of the duty.

I agree, Cummings is more of an O-Line coach than an OC. We already have Foley who produced a lot of NFL caliber O-Linemen we don't need 2 O-Line coaches. He never called plays at CMU which is a big part of being a OC. I don't see how this doesn't have some of you guys nervous. We can all say "In Diaco we trust" but he's human he's going to make mistakes and this is one of them in my opinion. All the other hires I like, but Cummings, not so much.

 

[ZooCougar]

I agree, Cummings is more of an O-Line coach than an OC. We already have Foley who produced a lot of NFL caliber O-Linemen we don't need 2 O-Line coaches. He never called plays at CMU which is a big part of being a OC. I don't see how this doesn't have some of you guys nervous. We can all say "In Diaco we trust" but he's human he's going to make mistakes and this is one of them in my opinion. All the other hires I like, but Cummings, not so much.

Not having blind faith is not being an energy vampire. Yesterday I read that CMUs offensive stats were so so. Now we hear that he didn't call the plays.

Maybe they would have been better had he called the plays. Like I said, let's hope there is more to him than meets the initial look.

 

[Skiblets]

Not having blind faith is not being an energy vampire. Yesterday I read that CMUs offensive stats were so so. Now we hear that he didn't call the plays.

Maybe they would have been better had he called the plays. Like I said, let's hope there is more to him than meets the initial look.

Apparently Chip Kelly, Sean Payton and Cliff Kingsbury were very interested in the job but ultimately Diaco decided to go in this direction.

 

[ZooCougar]

Apparently Chip Kelly, Sean Payton and Cliff Kingsbury were very interested in the job but ultimately Diaco decided to go in this direction.

Oh please be reasonable, are you saying that there is no middle ground between Chip Kelly and the CMU OC. Come back to me when you want to make a reasonable argument.

 

[Skiblets]

Oh please be reasonable, are you saying that there is no middle ground between Chip Kelly and the CMU OC. Come back to me when you want to make a reasonable argument.

Who would you suggest? I think its impossible to judge any hires right now until we see the first few games of the season. We have no way of knowing how all the parts will fit together - overall philosophy which leads to teaching the xs and os which leads to getting the players who can execute which then leads to calling the right plays which then leads to actual execution. So how the hell can we even begin to judge the naming of individual coaches as this point when they are just one part of an overall process. It's impossible

 

[Carl Spackler]

Who would you suggest? I think its impossible to judge any hires right now until we see the first few games of the season. We have no way of knowing how all the parts will fit together - overall philosophy which leads to teaching the xs and os which leads to getting the players who can execute which then leads to calling the right plays which then leads to actual execution. So how the hell can we even begin to judge the naming of individual coaches as this point when they are just one part of an overall process. It's impossible

Impossible?

This is the boneyard dude. The shine on the crystal balls is blinding. You can see it from space, like the great wall of china, and the dump on Staten Island.

 

[Waquoit]

Trying to keep an open mind...just putting out there a scenario that could happen quickly if we start slow.

Why?