Whaler, I have no idea if your rant, and it was a good one, was directed at me. My comments on this matter, come from my opinion that the press statement is damaging to the player. Whatever the players / or coach actual reasons for Ashiru leaving? Irrelevant. That should not have happened in the press like that. It's damaging to the kid.
This is an entirely different layer of the onion to address, but one that has been consistent across coaching staffs - the press people at UCONN and the press people covering UCONN regarding football. It's going to take a unique kind of personality and individual to be able to eventually bridge that and fix it, and ironically, I think Diaco is such an individual - what he's lacking is the wins vs. the losses, to back up his words and actions.
I have no fault for any player that might decide to hang up the cleats, at any time, at any level, for any reason, and can walk away knowing they gave it everything they got.
I have no idea why Ashiru and Abrams are no longer on the team. Diaco threatened to clean out lockers himself if upperclassmen players weren't giving full effort, and two upperclassmen players are now gone. That's what I know.