Coaching staff hasn't a clue

[Husky25]

So you believe that running off kids was part of the plan. I happen to agree with you. I think Diaco is pompous enough, despite having no experience ever being a head coach, to do this. However, if you are going to do this don't you lose all right to complain about only having 65 scholarship players etc? It's his decision, his fault he only has so few players, own it!!

To whom are you referring when you say "running off kids." The Ashiru "controversy" was resolved by Tuesday Morning, by way of three reporters poking enough holes in the original story to seriously call the author's credibility into question.

In terms of players not enrolling for the Spring 2014 semester, they were either academic casualties or discipline issues, and therefore addition by subtraction from a football stand point. According to Desmond Conner, Shakim Phillips left the team before Diaco said word one to him. If there is no plan to play a kid, are they really considered depth? At any rate, injuries and inexperience have hurt more than dismissals.

 

[Perfect Hair]

Whitmer barely saw the field the last two games...

Why did he play at all and why did it take until Game 10 for this to happen?

 

[Carl Spackler]

The entire season has been coached like a scrimmage. substitution patterns, use of time outs, play calling, etc. He introduced a new defense and began instituting a new offense. Ashiru was not starting next year, K Abrams was not catching targeted throws. UConn is not going to recruit against the local P5 schools, yet.

No argument from me here. But it does leave the concern unaddressed, about the ability to actually coach a game, like an actual game. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[sdhusky]

Just because

And here comes the vitriol and posts calling me a troll. Just because I disagree with you doesn't make me a troll. I happen to think Diaco does not have a clue and I have been clear about this. Am I allowed to have an opinion? I, and many others, have given evidence of this. You BF'ers have given no evidence to the contrary because you have none, so you resort to name-calling. Congrats.

Not. Its not because you disagree. It's because you are a troll.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

So....Perfect Hair....what is your real story? Let's face it...you sign up on here with a name that is a shot at the head coach. Your tag line under your name is another shot at the head coach. Your posts are all shots at the head coach.

You are either..

a: A regular poster on here who doesnt have the stones to post your strong dislike of the head coach under your usual handle.
b: A relative/friend of a player who has an axe to grind because you/them didn't get recruited...got booted from the team etc.

Which is it? Because it feels like your one and only objective on this board is to trash the head coach of the football program. It begins with your name and continues with your posts.

 

[J187Money]

Why did he play at all and why did it take until Game 10 for this to happen?

Again, most of us agree on this point also.

But if Boyle isn't going to be the guy, to the extent that he proves himself unworthy of the position next year, would playing him all year to a crappy record have made you feel better? If we were 2-9 with Boyle at the helm the narrative would be:

a) Why are we playing Boyle when it is obvious he isn't the future.
b) Why aren't we playing Whitmer so we at least have a chance at winning some games.
c) The rest of the team can't develop properly with such poor QB play.

The bottom line for me is that we don't have a great QB on the roster so no matter what choice Diaco makes it is bad.

*I* would have preferred he handled it differently, but I'm not silly enough to think that if he made different decisions we would be 8-3 right now. We have a coaching issue, but we also have a personnel issue.

 

[Carl Spackler]

In the history of UConn sports I can't imagine anyone inherited more of a mess than Jim Calhoun. His first year the teams 2 stars were ruled academically ineligible. He had as many walk-ons as scholarship players. I don't recall him ever saying/whining publicly "..but I inherited a mess..." He just coached the way he was going to coach and got the best results he could. That's all Diaco had to do.

Not sure if misunderstand, but I actually think Diaco did coach the way he wants, to get the best results he could. I think he needs to learn from it, and improve, absolutley, and I think he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut a little more, while still talking a lot, when it comes to press statements, if you know what I mean.

 

[Skiblets]

You seriously want me to detail what I would do differently from him, haven't we categorized this enough. How about stopping mass substitutions? How about sticking with one QB? How about after this one QB (Whitmer) has shown he has not improved at all committing to the future and sticking with Boyle exclusively? How about keeping the one WR threat we have, and he is a stud, on the field at all times because even though we need to be a run-heavy team this one threat always has to be respected.

So you would change in game decisions and playing time. Agreed. But that is a rather simplistic plan and you wouldn't get hired for a pee wee team if that was the totality of your plan simpleton

 

[Perfect Hair]

So you would change in game decisions and playing time. Agreed. But that is a rather simplistic plan and you wouldn't get hired for a pee wee team if that was the totality of your plan simpleton

Simplistic yet the most important, which is exactly what this team needs. Do you want me to give you more detailed formation info etc? Because I can as I, unlike Diaco, have been the head coach of a team before.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I think I stayed at a holiday inn express last night.

 

[Skiblets]

Simplistic yet the most important, which is exactly what this team needs. Do you want me to give you more detailed formation info etc? Because I can as I, unlike Diaco, have been the head coach of a team before.

Would be nice. You've given us five nauseating pages of telling us what is wrong and only one simple idea on what you would do to fix it. Bitch moan and complain is all we get from you and one Warren Zevon reference

 

[sdhusky]

Not sure if misunderstand, but I actually think Diaco did coach the way he wants, to get the best results he could. I think he needs to learn from it, and improve, absolutley, and I think he needs to learn to keep his mouth shut a little more, while still talking a lot, when it comes to press statements, if you know what I mean.

Calhoun had tons of HC experience when he took over, but he has some huge advantages. The BE was the hottest league in the country and on ESPN more than anyone else. There were more players who wanted to play in the BE than want to play in the AAC.

I think Diaco will win big at UConn, but there are no guarantees. There is nothing that has happened so far that makes me feel Diaco can't turn it around. If he doesn't, he is gone and we start again.

 

[huskymedic]

Simplistic yet the most important, which is exactly what this team needs. Do you want me to give you more detailed formation info etc? Because I can as I, unlike Diaco, have been the head coach of a team before.

Madden doesn't count...

 

[Carl Spackler]

Calhoun had tons of HC experience when he took over, but he has some huge advantages. The BE was the hottest league in the country and on ESPN more than anyone else. There were more players who wanted to play in the BE than want to play in the AAC.

I think Diaco will win big at UConn, but there are no guarantees. There is nothing that has happened so far that makes me feel Diaco can't turn it around. If he doesn't, he is gone and we start again.

Well, it's certainly a full moon, because I am wondering,....., Me now - I'm wondering what the hell this post has to do with anything I wrote and how I should respond? Crazy things happen when there is a full moon, and that's what worries me most about this game tomorrow. There is absolutely no reason we lose tomorrow, other than the full moon.

So anyway - the only question I can come up with about Diaco, is his ability to actually head coach a team to wins regularly. I would concede that we haven't seen his best effort yet, at accomplishing that, but in everything else observable by me, the guy is a success so far through 1 year. The quality of recruit that he is bringing in, none of us will know, until they actually start playing, but he is at least bringing in adequate numbers such that we don't have to have proverbial heart attacks every time a player is slow getting up of the field after a play.

So, we have 1 more game to play for 2014, and then won't have another for 10 months until September 6, 2015. The program we go up against in Sept 2015, unless something major happens, will be led by a guy that has won something like 215 games in his college head coaching career. Hopefully, when that time comes our head coach will have 3.

 

[Perfect Hair]

So....Perfect Hair....what is your real story? Let's face it...you sign up on here with a name that is a shot at the head coach. Your tag line under your name is another shot at the head coach. Your posts are all shots at the head coach.

You are either..

a: A regular poster on here who doesnt have the stones to post your strong dislike of the head coach under your usual handle.
b: A relative/friend of a player who has an axe to grind because you/them didn't get recruited...got booted from the team etc.

Which is it? Because it feels like your one and only objective on this board is to trash the head coach of the football program. It begins with your name and continues with your posts.

Here we go again with my biography which I already basically posted on another thread a couple of weeks ago where I was called a troll. My son got me interested in this board, as he is an even bigger UConn football fan than I am (he graduated 3 years ago). I was a lurker for many months until he convicned me to join and post. My username is not "taking a shot" at the head coach, does he or does he not have Perfect Hair? How is that an insult? It's actually the first thing my wife ever said about him when she saw him for the first time watching the BYU game. As far as the signature from the Warren Zevon song, I think it's funny, and came to me as I was watching the "Color of Money" with Tom Cruise palying pool and singing that song. Again, I don't think it's a shot at the coach, just a joke, and I think it fits in perfectly with the theme of werewoves and energy vampires to use Diaco speak (and yes, that may be a shot right there).

I'm on record as I don't think he knows what he is doing. And I posted before, that after meeting him at one of those coach's tours he came off to me as a used car salesman. Some people thought he sounded great, all rah-rah and were all pumped up by him, my son being one of those. I didn't get that feeling. And when I saw that starting QB announcement debacle I gulped hard and said uh-oh. And after the BYU game when he talked about sending kids off the field because of sleeve lengths, the warning bells turned to sirens.

So that's my wikipedia entry. I'm not a player, or parent of a player or a poster under a different name, sorry to disappoint you. And I hope my first through twentieth impressions of our Coach are wrong, we'll see.

 

[Perfect Hair]

Madden doesn't count...

View attachment 7785

Actually my son swears that more coaches should play these football video games so they can practice time management. I think he stole the idea from Bill Simmons so take that for what it is worth. But you do know that Diaco has never ever been a head coach before right, not even of a Pop Warner team?

 

[Perfect Hair]

I think I stayed at a holiday inn express last night.

Wasn't talking to you, dude.

 

[Perfect Hair]

Calhoun had tons of HC experience when he took over, but he has some huge advantages. The BE was the hottest league in the country and on ESPN more than anyone else. There were more players who wanted to play in the BE than want to play in the AAC.

I think Diaco will win big at UConn, but there are no guarantees. There is nothing that has happened so far that makes me feel Diaco can't turn it around. If he doesn't, he is gone and we start again.

You should have stopped at the experience point, the Big East/TV angle didn't have anything to do with Calhoun's success, if it did every other BE coach would have been a star too. Calhoun was a winner everywhere he coached: he won a State championship in High School, he had great success at Northeastern before we got him. Diaco has none of that experience or resume, which is why if you think he can do it here you are accepting it on blind faith. I would say based on the experience of Brian Kelly's other assistants who have been disasterous head coaches the odds are highly in favor of him being a total failure here. I think it was a huge mistake by Warde to give any first time head coach this job, way too risky.

 

[Dogged]

Wasn't talking to you, dude.

When you post here you're talking to the entire Boneyard.

Did you play for Paul Pasqualoni?

 

[sdhusky]

You should have stopped at the experience point, the Big East/TV angle didn't have anything to do with Calhoun's success, if it did every other BE coach would have been a star too. Calhoun was a winner everywhere he coached: he won a State championship in High School, he had great success at Northeastern before we got him. Diaco has none of that experience or resume, which is why if you think he can do it here you are accepting it on blind faith. I would say based on the experience of Brian Kelly's other assistants who have been disasterous head coaches the odds are highly in favor of him being a total failure here. I think it was a huge mistake by Warde to give any first time head coach this job, way too risky.

Actually, the BE helped. Every original school but BCU got to a FF. Calhoun was better than everyone else, so he won more than everyone else. But guess, what? He didn't go to any at Northeastern.

Diaco won as a player. Won at Cincy. Won at ND. They guys has had success and been around successful people.

If you think you know more than Warde, why don't you get his job? I bet he makes more than you.

 

[Husky25]

You should have stopped at the experience point, the Big East/TV angle didn't have anything to do with Calhoun's success

That's untrue. Calhoun said it himself on CenterStage with Michael Kay. The way he was able to get quality kids to go to school in the Northeast Connecticut woods in the early years was selling the conference and heritage of his opponents, such as St. Johns, Villanova, and Georgetown.

The reason Calhoun had almost instant success is because 2 players can turn around a basketball team. The football equivalent is 9, and is actually higher given the specialization of football positions. We've been over this!!!!

FYI, Calhoun was 9-19 in 1986-87, when 3 other Big East Teams went to the Final 4.

I will remind you one again that no one is forcing you to be a UConn sports fan.

 

[sdhusky]

Simplistic yet the most important, which is exactly what this team needs. Do you want me to give you more detailed formation info etc? Because I can as I, unlike Diaco, have been the head coach of a team before.

I guess not a successful one. They don't seem to have as much free time as you.

 

[Waquoit]

One of the reasons I was an early Diaco backer was that I felt he had a plan. But I've lost confidence that he has the ability to implement a plan, no matter how good it is.

 

[Carl Spackler]

That's untrue. Calhoun said it himself on CenterStage with Michael Kay. The way he was able to get quality kids to go to school in the Northeast Connecticut woods in the early years was selling the conference and heritage of his opponents, such as St. Johns, Villanova, and Georgetown.

The reason Calhoun had almost instant success is because 2 players can turn around a basketball team. The football equivalent is 9, and is actually higher given the specialization of football positions. We've been over this!!!!

FYI, Calhoun was 9-19 in 1986-87, when 3 other Big East Teams went to the Final 4.

I will remind you one again that no one is forcing you to be a UConn sports fan.

Where did you get that 9 number from? For me, it's more like 15.

 

[Carl Spackler]

One of the reasons I was an early Diaco backer was that I felt he had a plan. But I've lost confidence that he has the ability to implement a plan, no matter how good it is.

I'm at a different point. I think whatever his plan is, heavily favored long term goals over short term goals, and I've reached the point where I don't have confidence in his ability to head coach a team to wins, especially in games when matchups are at least even, or perhaps in our favor. I don't have confidence in that, because I'm not sure if I've actually seen the attempt yet.

This conclusion, that I hang on, is much better than the alternative.

 

[Husky25]

Pure and simple mathematics.

2÷5 = 40%
9÷22 = 41%

I also said that it's probably more given positional specialization.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Pure and simple mathematics.

2÷5 = 40%
9÷22 = 41%

I also said that it's probably more given positional specialization.

WTF is that? Math? Are you trying to make me mad?

 

[Jimdish255]

One of the reasons I was an early Diaco backer was that I felt he had a plan. But I've lost confidence that he has the ability to implement a plan, no matter how good it is.

I feel like I understand parts of the plan, but others have me confused and others just frustrated. We may not like the tone and consistent criticism offered up by certain posters, but when a team is losing for reasons that extend beyond any logical building process it's worth considering issues like HC experience and lack of game preparation.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Here we go again with my biography which I already basically posted on another thread a couple of weeks ago where I was called a troll. My son got me interested in this board, as he is an even bigger UConn football fan than I am (he graduated 3 years ago). I was a lurker for many months until he convicned me to join and post. My username is not "taking a shot" at the head coach, does he or does he not have Perfect Hair? How is that an insult? It's actually the first thing my wife ever said about him when she saw him for the first time watching the BYU game. As far as the signature from the Warren Zevon song, I think it's funny, and came to me as I was watching the "Color of Money" with Tom Cruise palying pool and singing that song. Again, I don't think it's a shot at the coach, just a joke, and I think it fits in perfectly with the theme of werewoves and energy vampires to use Diaco speak (and yes, that may be a shot right there).

I'm on record as I don't think he knows what he is doing. And I posted before, that after meeting him at one of those coach's tours he came off to me as a used car salesman. Some people thought he sounded great, all rah-rah and were all pumped up by him, my son being one of those. I didn't get that feeling. And when I saw that starting QB announcement debacle I gulped hard and said uh-oh. And after the BYU game when he talked about sending kids off the field because of sleeve lengths, the warning bells turned to sirens.

So that's my wikipedia entry. I'm not a player, or parent of a player or a poster under a different name, sorry to disappoint you. And I hope my first through twentieth impressions of our Coach are wrong, we'll see.

Thanks for answering my question. I don't believe you, but I appreciate that you responded.

 

[Tdaley]

Some of the debates on this board are mind numbing!! I think Diaco has made improvements in our defense. If he can find a couple of pass rushing defensive ends and/or linebackers, he may be on his way to developing a great defense. Our special team play has been better than last year which we all know isn't saying much. Last year's version of special teams was horrible. At least we have had a few very good kick off returns this year. Our offensive has actually gotten worse. Had Diaco just adopted Weist's offense from last year, we may have won a few more games this year although that is open to debate since the best quarterback on our roster for that style offense wasn't around after game one. In any case, every new coach seems to always install his own system rather trying to come up with system that fits the current talent on the roster. The apparent belief is that its easier at the college level to install your own system and recruit the players to fit into that system, rather than to change your system year to year. As we all know, most college teams ( not all) usually get worse not better in the first year of a new coach. At this point in time it seem to be a waste of time to debate whether or not Diaco is a good hire. Those of you who are not impress with him to date, are never going to change their minds through this on- line conversation. The only thing that will do that will be Uconn wining more games during the season. I respectively disagree with those on this board who claim that he Diaco isn't making progress and that he is a poor coach. When you factor in the lack of talent and the experience on the offensive line, a lack of a good blocking tight and a lack of an athletic quarterback with the installation of a new offensive system, it was very optimistic to think this team would be successful this year on the offensive side of the ball. On the other hand, if Diaco stubbornly thinks he can run a offense that relies on 2 tight end sets, fullback leading run plays, option read with an occasional deep pass, then its on him to improve the play at those positions. My guess is that he will slowing make progress and that we will be close to a 500 team next year. I base this speculation partly on the improve play of the offensive line during the year and the knowledge that Diaco will have more of his type of players s on the roster next year including a quarterback who is a legitimate run threat. That may not satisfy the bowl starved fan based here. However, I very much doubt that any other coach that would be willing to come to UConn could improve us any faster. Lets hope we do see the improvement next year. Otherwise, its going to be very ugly at the Rent at the end of next season.