I am going to defend Coach Diaco on this topic, and I have been a pretty vocal critic. There are two things, I have liked about his tenure thus far:
1. Recruiting: I see a clear plan on the type of recruits he wants. High character athletes. Raw in many cases, but with obvious extremely high ceilings. Frames that can fill out. Forget star ratings, there are some very good players in this class.
2. Locker Room Culture: His peace and love speeches need to go, but I also see his vision here. He wants high character players that play for each other and not for themselves. If that means we lose a lot of players because they won't buy in, I am fine with that.
What this team desperately needs though is several leaders among the players. Kids who will get in the face of teammates who put themselves above the team, or players that refuse to put in the efforts. I said in the game thread, I don't care if it is a 5th year senior or true freshman walk on.
If players don't want to play the right way, they are free to leave. And that includes some of the players last night who obviously mailed it in (watch the game again and check out some defensive players standing around, or offensive players who refused to fight for the football and has terrible body language),
This is SPOT on. People can feel free fling dog crap at Diaco, everyone needs a scape goat and some of it is understandable. The play calling has been suspect at times. But husky nation needs to take a step back a deep breath and think about the situation this program HAS been in for a while now. There are players who as others have noted have mailed it in, it's obvious to anyone watching the game. This is not the first time we have seen this either. It's speaks to the type characters and program pride some of these players have. Call him a loser, call for his head, but don't be oblivious to the mess this guy has ... Weist had a tough gutted, high character, smart playin kid with no quit in Casey Cochran and with it came success. Casey was the type of player that was always noted to be the last off the field after every practice. I am no sure how Diaco is going to handle all the holes in the off season because I doubt many of his freshman will be ready to go day 1. Perhaps he goes the Juco route... But I see the beasts he's bringing into the program and their love and pride they already have for this flawed and losing program ... These kid's attitudes sound much different than many of the players that remain after PP ran the program into a ditch. People are crapping on Diaco's decision to kick a field goal... You know what time game was already over ... Maybe he was trying to save his players the embarrassment of a shutout.... But it was a lost cause.
Last edited: