Coach Bob Diaco Under No Illusions About This UConn Team (Des)

[huskymedic]

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

>>Diaco said now is the time to be honest with the players. "You tell them the truth and you show them the truth," Diaco said. "You don't blow smoke. You don't make stuff up. You show them the truth and you tell them and in doing that, particularly with the offensive line, they're going to see a lot of positives. A lot of new positives. They're still going to see negatives. There's no doubt about that, and we've got a lot of areas to clean up."

Communication, how it's done, will be important, too.

"We have respect and love and care built as a baseline in the foundation. In doing that, after that, if you're respectful — listen. if you're going to communicate and berate and demoralize and dehumanize and emasculate and you're going to communicate like that, no one is going to listen to you. "But if you're coaching them and you're caring for them and you're showing them instances of getting better, and you're telling the plan you're excited to execute to try to help them get better, then why would you have it any other way from a communication standpoint? And why wouldn't they be encouraged?

"They understand. Our whole organization here and our whole team understands how much work needs to be done, how far away this program was and is, so no one in this building is under false pretenses. Everybody here understands the work that's needed."<<

 

[Uconnalliance]

It's all what you do when your rebuilding

 

[whaler11]

Yep Saturday will be interesting.

 

[HuskyPete]

How fast we forget, watch this video and tell me.

 

[CodyJ.]

How fast we forget, watch this video and tell me.

"You're going to see a product that is representative of how you see yourself"

oh boy.

 

[Marty Jackson]

read as, "Patience".

 

[gabect]

Our record is 1-2? Has Des been watching every game or was he too busy in the ACC?

 

[minidarren]

Our record is 1-2? Has Des been watching every game or was he too busy in the ACC?

That was our preseason record. We are 0-1 for the regular season.

Get the EF with it already.

 

[John Greene]

I don't think anyone can disagree that "You don't blow smoke". But you also don't go out and tell the media that you think your team sucks. It seems to me that is just what BD has done. Good luck in keeping them motivated.

 

[sportsart]

I don't think anyone can disagree that "You don't blow smoke". But you also don't go out and tell the media that you think your team sucks. It seems to me that is just what BD has done. Good luck in keeping them motivated.

Maybe you didn't realize he was explaining what the team has been through with PP and GDL and that his approach is to try and build some confidence with the team. I'm 100% certain the team knows exactly how he feels about them.

The bold is the previous regime, in case you were unaware.

if you're going to communicate and berate and demoralize and dehumanize and emasculate and you're going to communicate like that, no one is going to listen to you. "But if you're coaching them and you're caring for them and you're showing them instances of getting better, and you're telling the plan you're excited to execute to try to help them get better, then why would you have it any other way from a communication standpoint? And why wouldn't they be encouraged?

 

[John Greene]

Maybe you didn't realize he was explaining what the team has been through with PP and GDL and that his approach is to try and build some confidence with the team. I'm 100% certain the team knows exactly how he feels about them.

The bold is the previous regime, in case you were unaware.

if you're going to communicate and berate and demoralize and dehumanize and emasculate and you're going to communicate like that, no one is going to listen to you. "But if you're coaching them and you're caring for them and you're showing them instances of getting better, and you're telling the plan you're excited to execute to try to help them get better, then why would you have it any other way from a communication standpoint? And why wouldn't they be encouraged?

I am well aware of the previous staffs "short comings". Why would they not be encouraged? Well, he just finished coaching a game in a way that said he does not believe this team has the ability to play against one of the worst teams in div1 FB. A USF team that is as undisciplined and fundamentally unsound as i have seen in years. Yet if you believe what DB says, he thought the best hope of beating that team was to pray that USF screwed up and that the ball somehow bounced our way. What part of that is encouraging?

 

[sportsart]

I am well aware of the previous staffs "short comings". Why would they not be encouraged? Well, he just finished coaching a game in a way that said he does not believe this team has the ability to play against one of the worst teams in div1 FB. A team that is as undisciplined and fundamentally unsound as i have seen in years. Yet if you believe what DB says, he thought the best hope of beating that team was to pray that USF screwed up and that the ball somehow bounced our way. What part of that is encouraging?

The encouraging part he was smart enough to know his 80% new OL does not have the skill set (especially in the horrid conditions) to protect his QB and that his back up QB was not 100% and would risk further injury if he played.

How hard is that to understand? If CW had got hurt passing and Boyle goes in with a bad leg and slips and injures it worse, the board would crucify him for being stupid.

 

[John Greene]

The encouraging part he was smart enough to know his 80% new OL does not have the skill set (especially in the horrid conditions) to protect his QB and that his back up QB was not 100% and would risk further injury if he played.

How hard is that to understand? If CW had got hurt passing and Boyle goes in with a bad leg and slips and injures it worse, the board would crucify him for being stupid.

That may be encouraging to you and somewhat understandable to me but somehow I doubt a team made up of mostly 18-20 year olds will see it quite the same. They have just been told by his actions and words that he has almost no confidence in their ability to execute.

 

[whaler11]

That may be encouraging to you and somewhat understandable to me but somehow I doubt a team made up of mostly 18-20 year olds will see it quite the same. They have just been told by his actions and words that he has almost no confidence in their ability to execute.

This seems painfully obvious.

If he flew a plane over the stadium with a banner that says 'you guys suck' it would have been less subtle.

 

[BNich]

That may be encouraging to you and somewhat understandable to me but somehow I doubt a team made up of mostly 18-20 year olds will see it quite the same. They have just been told by his actions and words that he has almost no confidence in their ability to execute.

The entire team right?

 

[noeynox]

Diaco is a motivator. He will need to be at his best to keep morale up this week, because John and whaler are not wrong here. You could see it in the offenses body language after the three straight runs and punt. Those kids were flat out dejected.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

read as, "Patience".

What I read was Diaco saying that he can not take a team that was competitive at times last year and reasonably hope to beat the worst teams in FBS.

We all get that this team is bad, and I think even the most optimistic expected a lot of losses. The thing I did not expect was such a huge drop off from Weist.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

People here understand how bad things were/are right? You were told that you couldn't keep anything at the Burton/Shenk. How little respect they had for their home and each other?

What I read was Diaco saying that he can not take a team that was competitive at times last year and reasonably hope to beat the worst teams in FBS.

We all get that this team is bad, and I think even the most optimistic expected a lot of losses. The thing I did not expect was such a huge drop off from Weist.

He lost CC and has a OL that's far worse than last year. Not so hard to understand. On your bright side it gives you ample opportunity to b!tch.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn almost lost to Stony Brook and got dominated by USF. Not so hard to understand.

 

[Confident Carl]

Diaco is a motivator. He will need to be at his best to keep morale up this week, because John and whaler are not wrong here. You could see it in the offenses body language after the three straight runs and punt. Those kids were flat out dejected.

On the contrary. Those kids saw and felt the 1st quarter fumbles of the 1st 4 games. They know they have problems, they know they need leadership, they know more than ever they have a leader that cares for them individually and as a team. They know they lost a game 17-14 in horrible conditions that could have been a total blow out and they know that no matter how bad things get, Diaco will keep them in a ball game as best he can. In addition to all the Offensive line drills, you know they are working on the fumbles and protecting the QB.

UCONN is like a 25 handicap golfer that wants to become a single digit golfer. As any golfer knows that just doesn't happen without great golf instruction and practice. Diaco sees the improvement in the game and is playing lots of Freshmen and sophomores who are getting valuable live game experience so they can say, been there, done that - including fumbling the ball, missing blocking assignments and getting beat long on D. I am confident this will all lead to W's. When the training wheels come off, most kids fall a number of times before they can ride the bike! When the kid falls and scrapes his knee, you tell him to get back on the bike and try it again until you get it right. After a while, the kid doesn't even think about it.

Diaco wanted to preserve Whitmer because he believes after all the hard work and the experience gained, this team has some wins coming this season. He didn't want to blow those hopes buy having no QB's for the Temple game and beyond.

I know the kids will get that because he has been straight with them from the get go!

 

[TRest]

So are we abandoning the passing game due to the OL for the rest of the year, or is this just a situational thing? If our 2 QB's are subject to season ending injuries every time we call a pass play, I guess we won't be passing anymore. Until we do.

 

[tjhusky]

So are we abandoning the passing game due to the OL for the rest of the year, or is this just a situational thing? If our 2 QB's are subject to season ending injuries every time we call a pass play, I guess we won't be passing anymore. Until we do.

We could not pass at SF due to weather and too many missed blocking assignments again. CW could not defend himself/keep the SF D honest by using his feet.

We will do what we are able to do next week given the conditions, matchups, field position, and score of the game. Until the OL understands who they need to pick up on every play our O options are limited.

 

[ktuck911]

UConn almost lost to Stony Brook and got dominated by USF. Not so hard to understand.

When looking back at the USF game, I can't say we got completely dominated by USF... Our OL did in the first 3 quarters...

 

[HuskyHawk]

We could not pass at SF due to weather and too many missed blocking assignments again. CW could not defend himself/keep the SF D honest by using his feet.

We will do what we are able to do next week given the conditions, matchups, field position, and score of the game. Until the OL understands who they need to pick up on every play our O options are limited.

All true, but if we could just stop gifting the opposing team 7 points to start every game it might help.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

What I read was Diaco saying that he can not take a team that was competitive at times last year and reasonably hope to beat the worst teams in FBS.

We all get that this team is bad, and I think even the most optimistic expected a lot of losses. The thing I did not expect was such a huge drop off from Weist.

Good point. Because there are the exact same players on the roster this year as last year. Total apples to apples comparison.

I mean seriously....all that has changed is that most of the offensive line is gone....oh and the starting QB is gone...oh and the third OC in 3 years. But other than that, it is totally fair that the offense should play like it did the last few games under Weist. Not the first games under Weist...we will just conveniently forget those. Let's just focus on the last few game where UConn played teams as crappy as UConn, who were also just trying to finish out the season. Yep..those were the glory games...getting that third win was magical.

I just don't understand how long Diaco expects us to wait...I mean it's been 4 games already. If he can't get these true freshman offensive lineman to play like seniors in 4 games, I don't know what to say. And Whitmer...it's almost hard to remember Whitmer in those last 3 games last year....but man he just doesn't seem the same this year as he was the last three games.

AH...those last 3 games of 2013....I remember them well. Damn Diaco!