A couple of things on progress and coaching, big issues....

[Kgun7]

I'm with you. I may be a bit naïve or jaded, but I think a lot of what happened can be chalked up to rookie mistakes. He's too detail oriented type of a guy to not look over everything that went on this season and not make some adjustments to his plan.

A little LESS detail oriented wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Not knowing every commit who signed with Houston, Tulsa, & ECU on signing day might give the staff a little more time to prepare for Villanova ...

 

[UconnU]

the troubling thing as people have pointed out is that if we go 3-9 or 4-8 next year Diaco is going to say look we increased our wins by 50-100%.. we have a freshman QB...we're making great progress! Real progress would be at least .500 returning the majority of our players in this $#!& show of a conference with a weak non-conference schedule. I have real concerns that he is not challenging these players enough, that he is finding too many positives in a sea of negatives.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The only thing that keeps me off the pipe is the thought that he has to be a much better recruiter than he is a coach.

This is you off the pipe?

 

[uconnbill]

No progress. Regression in fact. Sounds familiar. What we need is for Diaco to be found with a dead girl or a live boy. Any volunteers? Jraz?

WOW that was the most classless thing I have ever read on The Boneyard in over 14 or so years.

 

[Stainmaster]

WOW that was the most classless thing I have ever read on The Boneyard in over 14 or so years.

Agreed. There's a place here for valid criticism of Diaco. But this is just trolling -- mind you, it's not even clever trolling either.

 

[BNich]

How has BD recruited? I'll admit I can't make heads or tails of football recruiting. He's been, at times, head-scratchingly bad at coaching on the field, but when this guy came in a bunch of us were more excited to see the kind of kids he'd be able to bring in with his charisma.

But looking at these press conferences, he's thrown the team under the bus more than a few times in what came off as a plea to deflect criticism away from himself. He never offers any specifics. It's always "we're not quite there yet but we're getting there, I have no doubt", "I could point to SO MANY areas where we've improved this year" (but then actually points to none), and then just pandering to fans. I wonder if he can even recruit. He's charismatic for sure, but he's also the first person to blame everyone else for this season. Recruits must see that.

And he's pulled in a number of commitments before the date we are used to. Beyond that, more than one, two or three commits seem to be committed to one another before they even hit campus. I am ok with this.

 

[Gurleyman]

Agreed. There's a place here for valid criticism of Diaco. But this is just trolling -- mind you, it's not even clever trolling either.

Not that it makes the comment a whole lot better, but he paraphrased an old line about pr: "There's no such thing as bad press, unless you're caught with a live..."

Just in case it makes it a little better to know that his comment wasn't an original thought that went through his head - just a rather inappropriate application of a old line.

 

[Sully]

My goodness, how did we get here? I hate to say this but I kind of expected them to lose to SMU. OMG the horror of sucking

 

[jackl]

I don't think he would either. TJ will be a head coach some where I'm sure. My point is that OC needs to be addressed this offseason. Cummings is as qualified to call plays as some random 8 year old playing Madden '15 on his Xbox.

Maybe we could chip in and get a Madden '15 for Cummings this Christmas.

 

[Samoo]

It

Not that it makes the comment a whole lot better, but he paraphrased an old line about pr: "There's no such thing as bad press, unless you're caught with a live..."

Just in case it makes it a little better to know that his comment wasn't an original thought that went through his head - just a rather inappropriate application of a old line.

It was actually Edwin Edwards who said it when describing the only way he's lose the election for governor of Louisiana.

 

[donyell34]

This is you off the pipe?

After this season I'm going back on the pipe.

 

[Perfect Hair]

WOW that was the most classless thing I have ever read on The Boneyard in over 14 or so years.

Wow, and this is the biggest hyperbolic thing I've ever read on the Boneyard. Have a sense of humor Mrs. Diaco

 

[FfldCntyFan]

the troubling thing as people have pointed out is that if we go 3-9 or 4-8 next year Diaco is going to say look we increased our wins by 50-100%.. we have a freshman QB...we're making great progress! Real progress would be at least .500 returning the majority of our players in this $#!& show of a conference with a weak non-conference schedule. I have real concerns that he is not challenging these players enough, that he is finding too many positives in a sea of negatives.

From what I understand the divisions begining in 2015 are East: UConn, Cincy, UCF, USF, Temple, ECU - West: Tulane, Tulsa, Houston, SMU, Navy, Memphis.

We will play all five in our division (USF, ECU home - @ Cincy, @ UCF, @ Temple) and three across divisions. I have heard for quite some time (and may have even read somewhere but don't recall where) that Navy is playing here next season. As we've already faced Tulane, SMU (twice) and Memphis (twice) all years each has been in this conference, my guess is that we will face Houston and Tulsa (one home, one road) to fill out our conference slate.

We have road games with Missouri and BYU next season so realistically, 2-2 out of conference is the best we can reasonably expect (but I will state that losses to either Army at home or Nova will be major setbacks). After that, USF at home, the home game (we still haven't demonstrated much as a road team) against Tulsa/Houston and the trip to Temple are the only games where I don't see a win as a long shot (barring some player development miracle at OL and QB). I'm not sure that challenging the players sufficiently is an issue and if we only win 3, 4 or 5 games in 2015 it is very possible that progress (towards what we will end up wanting to acheive) could be made.

Tell me, from the proposed above schedule (yes, the conference schedule may end up being slightly different) what would you view as acceptable progress?

 

[Perfect Hair]

when he coached the NFL's worst franchise, the Jets - that would have been his first HC gig

Thanks for telling us something we all know. He was only there for one year so that's why I ignored it. If you read the original post about him it talked about him piling up losses but staying positive and turning things around. He never had a chance to do anything with the Jets.

 

[SubbaBub]

the troubling thing as people have pointed out is that if we go 3-9 or 4-8 next year Diaco is going to say look we increased our wins by 50-100%.. we have a freshman QB...we're making great progress! Real progress would be at least .500 returning the majority of our players in this $#!& show of a conference with a weak non-conference schedule. I have real concerns that he is not challenging these players enough, that he is finding too many positives in a sea of negatives.

And we'll nod, pat him on the head and show him the door. He might keep his job with 5 and a good showing but I doubt it.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

From what I understand the divisions begining in 2015 are East: UConn, Cincy, UCF, USF, Temple, ECU - West: Tulane, Tulsa, Houston, SMU, Navy, Memphis.

We will play all five in our division (USF, ECU home - @ Cincy, @ UCF, @ Temple) and three across divisions. I have heard for quite some time (and may have even read somewhere but don't recall where) that Navy is playing here next season. As we've already faced Tulane, SMU (twice) and Memphis (twice) all years each has been in this conference, my guess is that we will face Houston and Tulsa (one home, one road) to fill out our conference slate.

We have road games with Missouri and BYU next season so realistically, 2-2 out of conference is the best we can reasonably expect (but I will state that losses to either Army at home or Nova will be major setbacks). After that, USF at home, the home game (we still haven't demonstrated much as a road team) against Tulsa/Houston and the trip to Temple are the only games where I don't see a win as a long shot (barring some player development miracle at OL and QB). I'm not sure that challenging the players sufficiently is an issue and if we only win 3, 4 or 5 games in 2015 it is very possible that progress (towards what we will end up wanting to acheive) could be made.

Tell me, from the proposed above schedule (yes, the conference schedule may end up being slightly different) what would you view as acceptable progress?

Same as expectations going into this year. There's no number. You want to see progress on the field and on the sidelines. We made strides in the 2 games against ECU and UCF and then slid to depths further than where we began against BYU. On the plus side if you're looking for silver linings, the OL progressed a significant amount. Our DL was pretty good and we're only losing McBryde. I thought Carrezola was better than Frank when he played. Ormsby as well, so I expect that position to be net positive next year.

I've stopped caring about what Diaco says except when I think it affects the players. I think his constant dredging up the past and telling the media how fat they were and how much they sucked took a toll on them. I hope he's learned a great deal this year.

I want to see 1 QB play the entire game. I want to see us establish some kind of offensive identity. I don't even know what their plan was/is?

 

[gioff23]

Thanks for telling us something we all know. He was only there for one year so that's why I ignored it. If you read the original post about him it talked about him piling up losses but staying positive and turning things around. He never had a chance to do anything with the Jets.

It makes perfect sense to ignore his fist gig as a HC ....

For the record, I'm a big fan of big balls Pete but no one watching him coach the jets (or the pats - who made playoffs bc AFC sucked) could have predicted his success at USC and eventual success with Seattle