2016: Diaco's coaching competition

[huskypantz]

Interesting fact - 6 of the 12 schools we play in the regular season will have new coaches. Of those, 3 have no head coaching experience. So Diaco has more head coaching experience than 25% of our opponents. We know how long it took Diaco to get things together - really, he's still a work in progress but showed improved between year one and two. Of our 2016 opponents, the only opponent who I would expect to see no dropoff due to new head coach/system is Virginia with Mendenhall because he's a damn good coach - there should be a limited learning curve for them. I see us beating all three teams with first-time coaches and 2 of 3 with new coaches. Of course, these schools fired their prior coach due to poor performance the previous season so it would be reasonable to say that they're some of the weaker schools on the schedule.

 

[uconnell]

Interesting fact - 6 of the 12 schools we play in the regular season will have new coaches. Of those, 3 have no head coaching experience. So Diaco has more head coaching experience than 25% of our opponents. We know how long it took Diaco to get things together - really, he's still a work in progress but showed improved between year one and two. Of our 2016 opponents, the only opponent who I would expect to see no dropoff due to new head coach/system is Virginia with Mendenhall because he's a damn good coach - there should be a limited learning curve for them. I see us beating all three teams with first-time coaches and 2 of 3 with new coaches. Of course, these schools fired their prior coach due to poor performance the previous season so it would be reasonable to say that they're some of the weaker schools on the schedule.

One would hope so.

 

[whaler11]

Virginia has all kinds of players. A coaching change there is bad for UConn.

Diaco's biggest problem his first year was his roster.

7 wins would be a good season. The 9-3 people are predicting would be excellent.

 

[jdb50]

Do the new and first time coaches have a QB? That is the key issue.

 

[mikedog10]

Of course, these schools fired their prior coach due to poor performance the previous season so it would be reasonable to say that they're some of the weaker schools on the schedule.

These schools fired their coaches because they weren't coaching well. Like Whaler points out, a coaching change is a good thing for UVA. They have decent players, but the team was underperforming. The new coaches in the league will likely be trying to improve their win total, not everyone tears it down to square zero like Diaco did in year 1. Don't take the new coaches for granted!

 

[uconnphil2016]

Virginia has all kinds of players. A coaching change there is bad for UConn.

Diaco's biggest problem his first year was his roster.

7 wins would be a good season. The 9-3 people are predicting would be excellent.

I agree that a coaching change is good for UVA, and I do think that Bronco is a good coach, but I was listening to an interview with him on The Solid Verbal podcast and was wondering if this is the type of hire that could be very, very difficult to pull off. Even if he is talented, the coach's personality has to mesh with the players. Mendenhall is coming from a school where faith, and not just faith but a very particular flavor of faith, was a necessary element of athletics. It wouldn't be at all surprising if players are hesitant to buy in, and if some are put off by the fact that he's a Mormon. Maybe this sounds ridiculous to others, but I just think that some players might be immediately turned off by his faith. Look at how the press and electorate reacted to Romney being Mormon--it's a really bizarre concept to a lot of people, and could impact the program. Not saying will, but could.

 

[huskypantz]

These schools fired their coaches because they weren't coaching well. Like Whaler points out, a coaching change is a good thing for UVA. They have decent players, but the team was underperforming. The new coaches in the league will likely be trying to improve their win total, not everyone tears it down to square zero like Diaco did in year 1. Don't take the new coaches for granted!

Each team can be in a different stage with a different situation in their coaching transition. UCF was pretty much rock bottom - after being on the mountaintop the previous season. McNeil at ECU was 26-13 in the prior three seasons before the 5-7 season last year. Was he a bad coach last year but a good coach the prior three? Or was talent eroding? That's really not the point.

What I would focus on is the fact that a new coach has to deal with a ton of transition. They have 105 young men they've never seen play live in a game. It's a lot tougher to manage personnel when you don't know who you can trust in various situations. They may even have some new coaches on their staff that they don't know. They're trying to learn the university, the town, the region, the weather, the high school coaches, the schools in their conference. The transition is not easy and it's definitely an advantage for Diaco. Mendenhall is the exception as the guy is a stud. Babers will probably acclimate fairly quickly, but does it take 5, 6, 9 games to really start to feel comfortable? Many of these players have brand new offenses and defenses to learn. New techniques, positions that they're not as good fits for in the new system versus the old, etc. Diaco has been dealing with this for the past two seasons. He's had the disadvantage. Now he's the coach that knows his personnel, understands his coaches, has tweaked his schemes to fit.

 

[jdb50]

Heard the new Rutgers coach interviewed about the draft on WFAN today and when asked what were the things he felt he had to change straight away he mentioned better attention to nutrition and a new approach to strength training and player development. Sounded like what HCBD said when he arrived in Storrs.