Diaco did not inherit a complete disaster. Quite the opposite.

[RedSoloCup]

I hate myself for reading this entire thread.

The yard needs a self-help group for those of us sucked into reading these.

We watch bus accidents... Palatine threads...

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

No, that is not the only conclusion. My point is Diaco made plenty of his own mess. Frankly I just get tired of posters and the media throwing the players under the bus.

The Diaco plan can still work. This may be a great way to build a progam. We'll see. I hope it works.

But he did not inherit a complete mess. He made his own mess on purpose. The team he inherited was on the uptick. And 28 points a game is pretty darn good as well.

Jimmy Bennett
Xavier Hemingway
Steve Greene
Tyler Bullock
Bryan Paull
E.J. Norris
Spencer Parker
Kamal Abrams
Casey Cochran
Lyle McCombs
Shakim Phillips
Jesse Joseph
Shamar Stephen
Tim Willman
Ryan Donahue
Yawin Smallwood
Tyree Clark
Taylor Mack
Ty-Meer Brown
Cole Wagner
Chad Christen

Who are players on the 2013 finale two deep who left the program after that game? I'll take "2014 Starters" for $500 Alex.

Angelo Pruitt
Jefferson Ashiru
Byron Jones
David Stephenson

Who are players who were injured or quit in the middle of the season?

 

[Pudge]

Well ...

When I look at all of those names, I see something that I absolutely think has gotten far better in the Diaco short time than from Pasqualoni: Individual players actually have gotten better. I see a bunch in the list of the departed that I thought never got better. Never developed. Diaco has gotten kids to play better. Who? I do think - as abysmal as we state - that some of the OLine is better. Certainly Hopkins, Levy, Knappe. RB Newsome is better. WR Noel Thomas. TE Bloom and Myers are better. DLine - lot have improved, particularly Fatukasi and Adeyemo. LB - Joseph (I guess). And the starting secondary have all improved.

We are cleaner - few penalties from simple lack of focus.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Well ...

When I look at all of those names, I see something that I absolutely think has gotten far better in the Diaco short time than from Pasqualoni: Individual players actually have gotten better. I see a bunch in the list of the departed that I thought never got better. Never developed. Diaco has gotten kids to play better. Who? I do think - as abysmal as we state - that some of the OLine is better. Certainly Hopkins, Levy, Knappe. RB Newsome is better. WR Noel Thomas. TE Bloom and Myers are better. DLine - lot have improved, particularly Fatukasi and Adeyemo. LB - Joseph (I guess). And the starting secondary have all improved.

We are cleaner - few penalties from simple lack of focus.

I think with effective coaching that the core of players that will be on the field for the next 2 years has a great chance to do achieve high levels of success - meaing competing for league title and post season bowls.

We are not the far away from that right now, but it's the attention to detail, the focus, and the consistency in all aspects of coaching and playing that's lacking. Understandable from a young coach and young team.

Understandable does not mean acceptable. It's not acceptable, if there is no consistenst improvement and learning from mistakes demonstrated.

What's most important, is that the recruiting trail and classes continue to improve as well, so that when this group of young players matures and graduates in 2-3 years, that we're not back right where we started after the Fiesta Bowl.

The most impressive thing to me about Diaco to date, is his attention and focus on the recruiting plan and trail - which is translating into success in bringing in quality players that fit the mold of what he and the university want.

THe worst thing about Diaco, to me, to date, is his lack of what appears to be an emotional keel and stability as a head coach. The team and program, when it comes to competing on the field, and more importantly preparing to compete on the field during the weeks, as a collective group - always takes on the personality of the leaders = the head coach. Doesn't matter if it's a football team, or any other gropu of people working together toward a common goal. The team takes on the personality of the leadership. He's got to be less of an emotional rollercoaster and more of a ship's captain. Nothing wrong with being high energy and passionate and whacky - but when it comes to preparation for competition, you got to have your system and you can't ride huge waves of emotion and motivational ploys and tactics.

TInker with a team's psyche with motivational ploys, but if that's all you got - the motivational ploys -it's a paper house, house of cards. You got to have the actual preparation procedures and practices set in stone that are going to be consistent.

Just my blathering on a Wednesday.

 

[UConnDan97]

What an interesting thread!

Here' s how I see it:

1) Pal is right that Diaco did not inherit a complete disaster. But he DID inherit an incomplete disaster. It was nowhere near being "quite the opposite" as the thread title claims. He had players that I have argued have talent. But they were extremely mistake-prone, confused, and by most accounts, low on the strength-and-conditioning meter (which is nearly criminal!).

2) Spackler is right that Diaco has a lot of learning to do as a new coach, and that he seems to be getting better and learning. We have to remember that this is his first time doing this, so the head-scratching decisions at big moments will happen. The time management issues will happen. But they are getting fewer and further between. At least he has motivated this team and has them believing again.

3) Pudge is right that the individual players have gotten better, even the much maligned offensive line; the majority of which are still very young.

As is classic form for the Boneyard, an issue goes up and people jump to a side to prove something is black or white. Most often times, the truth is actually gray. Feel free to argue how dark a shade of gray, but please stop the insane hyperbole on the board!

Oh, by the way, we're going 15-0 next year...

 

[BlueDogs]

They had a crap game against Cincy. It was the first real crap game of the season, and hopefully the only one.

They're a young team and an inexperienced coaching staff, that still has a lot of liabilities and weakness, and they just got to keep working and improving. Coaches and players.

How you respond to a crap game, is a big deal though. Yes, the season without a bye so far, has got them fatigued and beat up, but they're not the only team that is fatigued and beat up. No excuses.

There is no excuse for coming out at home on Friday night and not giving the very best effort they've got and put on the field in nearly month.

THat is on the coach(s) to set the tone and direction, to make sure that they respond to poor performance properly, and for the players to respond and follow through.

3-5, does not mean a lost season. This is a home game, and we don't have many left.

Go to throw USF in the crap bucket too. Was a winnable game marked by underwhelming performances and lack of execution.

 

[BlueDogs]

Well ...

When I look at all of those names, I see something that I absolutely think has gotten far better in the Diaco short time than from Pasqualoni: Individual players actually have gotten better. I see a bunch in the list of the departed that I thought never got better. Never developed. Diaco has gotten kids to play better. Who? I do think - as abysmal as we state - that some of the OLine is better. Certainly Hopkins, Levy, Knappe. RB Newsome is better. WR Noel Thomas. TE Bloom and Myers are better. DLine - lot have improved, particularly Fatukasi and Adeyemo. LB - Joseph (I guess). And the starting secondary have all improved.

We are cleaner - few penalties from simple lack of focus.

I agree but I think the case is way over stated, and improvement is spotty and not nearly impactful enough thus far:
Running game other than Arkeel is worse. RB pass protection is worse. Certain pieces of the OL have improved, but others have made no progress and appear to have regressed. TEs are way under utilized, despite flashes of being very good hands in traffic. Receiver corps still can't separate or run routes open. LB corps is a disaster and regressing, and DBs are not allowed to improve just play off them and not give up the deep ball. D Line is one dimensional being excellent at run stop, but still cant get penetration or keep QB in a box.

 

[sdhusky]

Huh? He didn't inherit the team that was under Weist? Interesting take.

You prove to be a douchibag yet again.

 

[J187Money]

There is another way to look at it. Diaco chose to do a complete tear down and rebuild. This is a path he chose.

The squad was not a complete disaster. It had actually taken some steps forward. It just was not to Diaco's liking. Weist had no such prejudice. He got different results because his priorities were different.

You made about 750,000 posts about how bad Whitmer was last year. And after you got Boyle after screaming about it for 10 weeks, he was worse. TJ would have won 6 games with that team? I'll be the first person to say that I wish TJ was here as OC at a minimum (and maybe he would have been a better head coach). But be serious.

Without CC, TJ would have won 0 of those last 3 games. End of story.

 

[Pudge]

I agree but I think the case is way over stated, and improvement is spotty and not nearly impactful enough thus far:
Running game other than Arkeel is worse. RB pass protection is worse. Certain pieces of the OL have improved, but others have made no progress and appear to have regressed. TEs are way under utilized, despite flashes of being very good hands in traffic. Receiver corps still can't separate or run routes open. LB corps is a disaster and regressing, and DBs are not allowed to improve just play off them and not give up the deep ball. D Line is one dimensional being excellent at run stop, but still cant get penetration or keep QB in a box.

I'd agree with all of that.

 

[businesslawyer]

You prove to be a douchibag yet again.

We need him to prove it?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

You prove to be a douchibag yet again.

He may be insanely wrong, but he's not a douchibag. If he were a douchibag he'd of just popped onto a thread to call someone a name. You know anyone like that?

 

[whaler11]

No, that is not the only conclusion. My point is Diaco made plenty of his own mess. Frankly I just get tired of posters and the media throwing the players under the bus.

The Diaco plan can still work. This may be a great way to build a progam. We'll see. I hope it works.

But he did not inherit a complete mess. He made his own mess on purpose. The team he inherited was on the uptick. And 28 points a game is pretty darn good as well.

So yes you've concluded the coaches have done a bad job. They created a mess out of nothing. You didn't disagree.

 

[Palatine]

So yes you've concluded the coaches have done a bad job. They created a mess out of nothing. You didn't disagree.

No. No. No. This was a team that had a rough season then bailed themselves out. Won three straight. Showed a lot of character. They were back on the right path.

Diaco came in. Decided to do a complete do over. That resulted in 2-10.

Why is this so hard to understand? It simple. Diaco did not inherit a complete mess. People need to stop jumping all over the kids. They are not a bunch if junk. They were down and got back up. The fact that Diaco wanted to do a complete tear down and build is not their fault.

And it is probably too early to make a judgement on whether Diaco's way was the right way or not. We'll see. I have NOT concluded anything about Diaco. But the 2-10 is on him not the kids. We'll see.

 

[cohenzone]

So besides losing CC:

McCombs got thrown out and Brown and Phillips transferred out before HCBD starting coaching.

An already decimated senior class was wiped out further with injuries to maybe our two best players -- Jones and Davis -- and Adams up front.

Our OL graduated the only remaining players who had played for Edsall and then lost its best starting OT on opening day.

The only "fact" in your starting point was that the 13 team did in fact show amazing character by not giving up on the season 0-9 and way down on the road to Temple on a cold November night.

Facts tend to confuse Pal.

 

[Nostical]

The good news is if we win big on Friday night all of this will be forgotten.

 

[Pudge]

No. No. No. This was a team that had a rough season then bailed themselves out. Won three straight. Showed a lot of character. They were back on the right path.

Diaco came in. Decided to do a complete do over. That resulted in 2-10.

Why is this so hard to understand? It simple. Diaco did not inherit a complete mess. People need to stop jumping all over the kids. They are not a bunch if junk. They were down and got back up. The fact that Diaco wanted to do a complete tear down and build is not their fault.

And it is probably too early to make a judgement on whether Diaco's way was the right way or not. We'll see. I have NOT concluded anything about Diaco. But the 2-10 is on him not the kids. We'll see.

Back on the right path?

Is there anything about the poor (in contrast to other FBS college football programs) weight training and fitness regimen that says right path? Do you have any doubt (given your Pro cred, you have to remember the Pro Day numbers) that what we heard about the Strength and Conditioning Program was true?

I give TJ Weist credit. I give Casey Cochran credit. And I give the entire roster gold stars. I think it was a complete mess. My opinion. There is little from the first August camp that Diaco ran to the first 4 games that was more horrifying than seeing the level of competition we provided in all three phases. You had to duct tape things.

 

[whaler11]

No. No. No. This was a team that had a rough season then bailed themselves out. Won three straight. Showed a lot of character. They were back on the right path.

Diaco came in. Decided to do a complete do over. That resulted in 2-10.

Why is this so hard to understand? It simple. Diaco did not inherit a complete mess. People need to stop jumping all over the kids. They are not a bunch if junk. They were down and got back up. The fact that Diaco wanted to do a complete tear down and build is not their fault.

And it is probably too early to make a judgement on whether Diaco's way was the right way or not. We'll see. I have NOT concluded anything about Diaco. But the 2-10 is on him not the kids. We'll see.

Do you have Jimmy S on ignore? He blew your entire theory out of the water in one post.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Facts tend to confuse Pal.

The most disturbing thing about this year's team is the defense.
It's has gotten worse of late. Good D and we have a least one more win.
With a good chance at 5 this weeks
What is the problem?
Even against Navy ,they made some adjustments at the half.

The last couple of weeks they looked like a group of underclassmen.

 

[hexlub]

I hate myself for reading this entire thread.

But have you waited all day for Sunday night?

 

[Palatine]

Back on the right path?

Is there anything about the poor (in contrast to other FBS college football programs) weight training and fitness regimen that says right path? Do you have any doubt (given your Pro cred, you have to remember the Pro Day numbers) that what we heard about the Strength and Conditioning Program was true?

I give TJ Weist credit. I give Casey Cochran credit. And I give the entire roster gold stars. I think it was a complete mess. My opinion. There is little from the first August camp that Diaco ran to the first 4 games that was more horrifying than seeing the level of competition we provided in all three phases. You had to duct tape things.

The kids were not responsibility for the strength coach. And he seemed to do a fine job with Jones and Davis. I like the new guy. Balis is an upgrade. But this is way off the point.

As for our competitiveness in the first four games -exhibition season- that was a result of decisions made by Diaco for the long term of the program. Some of them were head scratches like sitting Davis on third downs. That is why we weren't competitive. The mess IMHO was largely of his making. Maybe he's genius, too early to tell.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

The kids were not responsibility for the strength coach. And he seemed to do a fine job with Jones and Davis. I like the new guy. Balis is an upgrade. But this is way off the point.

As for our competitiveness in the first four games -exhibition season- that was a result of decisions made by Diaco for the long term of the program. Some of them were head scratches like sitting Davis on third downs. That is why we weren't competitive. The mess IMHO was largely of his making. Maybe he's genius, too early to tell.

Would you kindly address the rebuttal that we lost 25 kids who contributed versus Memphis in 2013?

 

[Husky25]

Would you kindly address the rebuttal that we lost 25 kids who contributed versus Memphis in 2013?

As I said earlier, Pal is only interest in the name on the front of the jersey. The experience, ability, and discipline of the players filling the uniform is immaterial.

 

[Palatine]

Would you kindly address the rebuttal that we lost 25 kids who contributed versus Memphis in 2013?

Yes, that is many players. But I believe that was some of that was part of Diaco's plan. Part of his tear down. Making space for the kind of players he wanted. It certainly robbed the team of any depth. The bigger issue is how many scholarships were left unfilled. The coach has a direct effect on that number.

 

[businesslawyer]

The kids were not responsibility for the strength coach. And he seemed to do a fine job with Jones and Davis. I like the new guy. Balis is an upgrade. But this is way off the point.

As for our competitiveness in the first four games -exhibition season- that was a result of decisions made by Diaco for the long term of the program. Some of them were head scratches like sitting Davis on third downs. That is why we weren't competitive. The mess IMHO was largely of his making. Maybe he's genius, too early to tell.

Your logic needs to shoot for unassailable rather than unbelievable. The fact that two people survived a strength program and got to the NFL is not proof that the strength program was o.k. It's not even evidence of that. It's only proof that Jones and Davis were good enough to survivie the issues and get to the League.

 

[huskysupporter]

Yes, that is many players. But I believe that was some of that was part of Diaco's plan. Part of his tear down. Making space for the kind of players he wanted. It certainly robbed the team of any depth. The bigger issue is how many scholarships were left unfilled. The coach has a direct effect on that number.

I am 100% convinced that your sole purpose on this board is to generate clicks and views. Obviously nothing compares to your posts in the cesspool, but this one merits consideration.

I think Coach Diaco has not done a good job this year, but to claim the cupboard wasn't bare when he started? Crazy.

 

[cohenzone]

The most disturbing thing about this year's team is the defense.
It's has gotten worse of late. Good D and we have a least one more win.
With a good chance at 5 this weeks
What is the problem?
Even against Navy ,they made some adjustments at the half.

The last couple of weeks they looked like a group of underclassmen.

There's a difference between questioning coaching decisions - fair game - and saying that the cupboard wasn't bare. Sure there were some decent players, but - as has been pointed out - the 3 games won under Weist were not exactly against very good teams. Diaco was not coming into a good team situation and had no players he had recruited. Physically, his first team was not competitive, I've said for three weeks now that as erratic as our O has been this year, I thought it was ahead of the D, which has no scary playmakers at all. It may look like we regressed on D, but I thinks it's more the case that we've faced better offenses, including USF which managed 45 against SU. I'm with those who wonder why we don't rush LB's or D Backs once in a while to mess with the QB's comfort level, especially since we don't have the talent on the D line to raise havoc. But to say Diaco had a a decent cupboard last year is totally out of whack with reality. I give the guy at least through next year, remembering that even then, his own recruits will be underclassmen. I would like to see them adjust the D schemes to account for mismatches against us physically and talent wise. I think I give up on the O line. Remarkable we move the ball decently anyway.

 

[whaler11]

I'm not sure why people miss the obvious.

The defense is good against bad offenses like Army, UCF and Missouri and bad against good offenses like Cincinnati.

I know everyone has a better scheme than the defensive coordinator who took Cinci to within 1 second of a BCS title game and took Notre Dame to a BCS title game. Maybe defensive scheme can't make up the player differences.

 

[Tdaley]

Its pure speculation as to what Weist would have done if he was keep on as head coach. Could he recruit? Its not known. Did he do a good job as interim coach? I thought so but his 3 wins were against the weakest teams in the conference. Would he have produced more wins last year than Diaco did? Its hard to say but probably would have won a game or two more only because he would have kept his system in place and not made the radical changes that Dicao made. But after 3 losing season in a row, I don't know how anyone could conclude that the talent level here wasn't abysmal. Whether it was Weist, Diaco or someone else, this program was in desperate need of a major infusion of talent. All the great coaching in the world isn't going to change that fact. No hire was going to fix things in a year at talent depleted school in the northeast that is known for its basketball not its football. Its a very difficult job with no easy fix. Diaco will be given 3 years to turn things around because it will take at least that long to fix our program. Some of the opinions on the boneyard are colored somewhat by the Edsall years where he complied a 500 record during his tenure with teams that seem to overachieve annually. He built teams that hit hard and could play power football which was a great advantage in the cold weather of November and December. But those teams struggled against speedy offensive minded teams and for the most part had trouble throwing the football. We just didn't have the speed or the athletes to compete with those some of teams. With the changing landscape of college football you are going to have to be able to recruit the kind of players with the size and speed to compete the offensive juggernauts in own conference. That means throwing the football and defending great passing teams. We don't have those players yet. There are some signs ( not conclusions) that Diaco is improving our talent base ( at wide receivers especially) but its too early to tell. He has recruited kids that haven't even seen the field yet. His is working on only his second full recruiting class. Its more than fair to say that the jury is still out on Diaco. I don't think its even remotely fair to say he hasn't done a good job here. We just don't really know yet. You have to give him more time. Coach Saben isn't showing up in Storrs any time soon with a class of 5 star recruits.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Diaco came in. Decided to do a complete do over. That resulted in 2-10.

Yes he did. Guess what, most coaches do. His name is on this and his future will be determined in large part to whether he succeeds or fails here. He views his job as building a program, not merely fielding a team.

And it is probably too early to make a judgement on whether Diaco's way was the right way or not. We'll see. I have NOT concluded anything about Diaco. But the 2-10 is on him not the kids. We'll see.

Yes it is too early to judge but it appears that you already have. The 2-10 is on him as the decision was made to get a number of younger players experience in order to a) see what we did have and b) make the team better two and three seasons down the road. Could we have won more games with a different approach? I don't know as while Army would be the obvious (and only truly debatable) loss that could have been turned into a win, the same change in approach may well have put us on the wrong end of the game against UCF (before anyone yells about the USF game keep in mind that the first two times we had the ball we handed it to them in scoring position. The change to a turtle basically remaining in his shell got us back in that game and kept us there until the end).

Diaco is going to build it his way. You need to accept this.