For Those Advocating Diaco Through 2017

[JMick]

Baylor? Smash mouth? That only applys to them when you examine their relationships with the Baylor co-eds.

Good, now I know not to listen to anything you post, ever. Baylor is a power run team out of the spread.

They've run for more yards than pass this season and have over 100 more carries than pass attempts.

 

[SubbaBub]

Those that were in the stands for the first quarter were absolutely giddy and we only put up 6 points.

A minor increase in competence will do wonders. The bad schedules will eventually erode the fan base. Houston went from looking at the Cotton bowl to a projection vs. Akron in Miami. League leading Navy doesn't fair much better. Having a limit on opportunities to play big games is what's killing the program. We were selling out in 05 and 06 and we were plenty terrible then.

 

[freescooter]

I agree with many things you post, but please, please, please , stop with the "smash mouth" football concept. Today's college game is fast, exciting, passing dominant, high scoring. UConn is in the trouble it is in today, partially because it refused (going back to Edsall) to embrace the wide open attacking brand of football.

The funny thing is that if you go back to 2002-4 we had a very wide open offense. We do again in 2009 especially. We had some very good runners but also through the football around quite a bit.

 

[ZooCougar]

Look at this attendance.

At what point can we no longer afford to keep him? I think we hit that point sometime early next season.

We could have a good QB, with more playmakers but he would still make terrible coaching decisions.

 

[Alum86]

Benedict signed Diaco to an extension, as someone said here, 5 minutes after he (DB) got here. I doubt he does anything until and unless we fall flat out of the gate next year. HE'd be a laughingstock.
I was surprised we only had just shy of 13K season tix this year. Paying a seat license, paying to be shoehorned in blue lot by Gezpatcho LAZ, gets tiresome when the product on the field sux.

 

[whaler11]

Benedict signed Diaco to an extension, as someone said here, 5 minutes after he (DB) got here. I doubt he does anything until and unless we fall flat out of the gate next year. HE'd be a laughingstock.
I was surprised we only had just shy of 13K season tix this year. Paying a seat license, paying to be shoehorned in blue lot by Gezpatcho LAZ, gets tiresome when the product on the field sux.

I think Pudge was talking about marginal season tickets (i.e. non-students and university use).

The students and school (player and coach comps) start them at like 8k or so.

 

[JMick]

I think Pudge was talking about marginal season tickets (i.e. non-students and university use).

The students and school (player and coach comps) start them at like 8k or so.

Comps are another thing. HS football programs get free tickets - how many actually use them? I know our program doesn't...

 

[whaler11]

Comps are another thing. HS football programs get free tickets - how many actually use them? I know our program doesn't...

The season comps are in the published season ticket and weekly attendance numbers.

I don't know how many groups they comp. I think the more comps you hand out you just devalue your own product so if they don't provide many that's fine with me.

 

[gtcam]

No one cares what Shane Stafford has to say.

A complete DB comment - at best
The guy was a decent player and dedicated player for UConn
BUT WHO CARES??????

 

[gtcam]

No one cares what anyone on the BY has to say either.

And a good day to you to
WOW

 

[UConnNick]

A complete DB comment - at best
The guy was a decent player and dedicated player for UConn
BUT WHO CARES??????

We should care about what any former player thinks about the current regime at UCONN. They're all potential ambassadors for the school and football program, and they're spread out all over the country.

 

[sub legacy]

Benedict signed Diaco to an extension, as someone said here, 5 minutes after he (DB) got here. I doubt he does anything until and unless we fall flat out of the gate next year. HE'd be a laughingstock.
I was surprised we only had just shy of 13K season tix this year. Paying a seat license, paying to be shoehorned in blue lot by Gezpatcho LAZ, gets tiresome when the product on the field sux.

What do you think will happen if Diaco somehow loses all four of the remaining games? Fired by December or retained through next season until further notice?

 

[JMick]

What do you think will happen if Diaco somehow loses all four of the remaining games? Fired by December or retained through next season until further notice?

We have Holy Cross, an AAC team or open date, Virginia, and an AAC game or open date next year to open the season. Anything less than 2-1 means he should be gone.

 

[31GuardTrap]

Attendance next year won't be as bad on paper. Mizzou and BC are in town. That will drive up the avg attendance figures.

 

[31GuardTrap]

No one cares what anyone on the BY has to say either.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
could be the best post ever.

 

[freescooter]

What do you think will happen if Diaco somehow loses all four of the remaining games? Fired by December or retained through next season until further notice?

He is gone. If they wait until 1/1 to save few bucks it doesn't really matter. It's as Jacobs said this is a mediocre team that under performed. I'm not saying they should have beaten USF or Houston or even Temple. But come on. Maine should have been blown out. Central Florida should have been a comfortable win. Virginia should not have been a nail biter. Turns out Cincy stinks this year. Tuberville bungled the quarterback situation in Pasqulonian fashion.

 

[CL82]

At what point can we no longer afford to keep him? I think we hit that point sometime early next season.

Game 3 next season is the earliest date. A change in offensive philosphy and/or early wins will push that further out.

I want BD to succeed. I don't think that it will happen though.

 

[pnow15]

Diaco is a tireless worker. It is my understanding that he even works on Sundays.
Apparently, he goes to a local high football field with his wife. She holds up a full length mirror and he practices running towards the mirror while clapping his hands to get the right look.
Sometimes he enters the field at different angles to see which angle is most effective.
I think he likes to run onto the field from the right side forty yard marker when addressing the offense and the left side marker when addressing the defense.

 

[freescooter]

Game 3 next season is the earliest date. A change in offensive philosphy and/or early wins will push that further out.

I want BD to succeed. I don't think that it will happen though.

I think that is true unless he end up 3-9 at which point he won't be back. That is what I was addressing. But another struggle against a 1aa team followed by losses isn't going to get it done.

 

[ktuck911]

We should care about what any former player thinks about the current regime at UCONN. They're all potential ambassadors for the school and football program, and they're spread out all over the country.

That seems to have been a problem with this program since Edsall left... 0 ties to anybody. The only guy that links even the Yankee Conference together to the now is Andy Baylock. With the success we actually had over the last 15 years at least you'd think there'd be more ties to former players. Not just being allowed to visit the campus and practices, but some you'd think could be ambassadors of the program other than in the NFL or at other schools.
The reality is we do have a history of football at our school, yet we get caught up in the P5 garbage... And they (P5 powers that be) don't want us to be a part of it.
We took a corporate approach that forgot about the football side a little...

 

[Exit 4]

What do you think will happen if Diaco somehow loses all four of the remaining games? Fired by December or retained through next season until further notice?

He stays on - because we don't have the $$ to hire anyone other than some DIII assistant.

 

[SubbaBub]

I'm not pulling the ripcord on BD coaching the team. I am pulling the ripcord on the idea that anyone is coming to take him away because we are winning conference titles anytime soon.

 

[sub legacy]

He is gone. If they wait until 1/1 to save few bucks it doesn't really matter. It's as Jacobs said this is a mediocre team that under performed. I'm not saying they should have beaten USF or Houston or even Temple. But come on. Maine should have been blown out. Central Florida should have been a comfortable win. Virginia should not have been a nail biter. Turns out Cincy stinks this year. Tuberville bungled the quarterback situation in Pasqulonian fashion.

Don't forget that Navy game. Ugh.

 

[ctkaiser]

It's not about high scoring at least in my mind. I'm fine with a a very good defense and very good offense. That will yield wins. Wins brings fans. Competitive games brings fans. Smash mouth football is exciting when it is truly a war of hard hitting dominance where players are let loose, blitzing, stunting, fullbacks are blowing up people, lineman are driving people into the ground, etc. That's not us. Trying to avoid losing by slow rolling, eating clock on offense and a bend defense, waiting for the other team to make more mistakes and stealing wins is us. It's horribly bad football.

Do we have a fullback?

 

[VAHuskyFan]

The idea was always that Diaco would be learning on the job.

The good news and bad news is that his primary shortcoming continues to come down to very basic aspects of game management.

That's good news because it's so fixable! There's a lot that goes into being a good college head coach. Diaco seems to be a great motivator who gets buy-in from his team, he's passionate about the game, and he appears to be a decent recruiter (though it's too early to know for sure). He's got a lot of the tough stuff down.

Managing the clock is easy by comparison! Making the right call on 4th and 1 at your opponent's 40 is easy by comparison! You can learn those things by reading a few football stats articles or playing Madden for a few weeks. So there's really nothing stopping Diaco from taking a big step forward very quickly as a HC.

Of course, that's also the bad/concerning news. He's 3 years into being a HC and yet he hasn't taken that step. Instead he is continuing to spend time obsessing over vitamins and fake FG formations.

Why? The only answer I can come up with is the Dunning-Kruger effect - he's so bad at these things he's not even capable of assessing his own abilities accurately. His presser after the Navy game seemed to confirm this.

This is where the AD comes in. Let's hope Benedict is able to break through with Diaco and help him understand some of the very basic things that are holding him and this team back. If Benedict can do that even partially, I still think Diaco has the potential to be a very good coach for us. If Diaco is too stubborn to take that help, though, his HC career will end here in failure.

 

[ctkaiser]

I agree with many things you post, but please, please, please , stop with the "smash mouth" football concept. Today's college game is fast, exciting, passing dominant, high scoring. UConn is in the trouble it is in today, partially because it refused (going back to Edsall) to embrace the wide open attacking brand of football.

One thing I liked about Edsall is he developed players. He didn't get 4 and 5 star recruits either but seemed to put 3 to 4 guys in the NFL every year.

 

[huskymedic]

The idea was always that Diaco would be learning on the job.

The good news and bad news is that his primary shortcoming continues to come down to very basic aspects of game management.

That's good news because it's so fixable! There's a lot that goes into being a good college head coach. Diaco seems to be a great motivator who gets buy-in from his team, he's passionate about the game, and he appears to be a decent recruiter (though it's too early to know for sure). He's got a lot of the tough stuff down.

Managing the clock is easy by comparison! Making the right call on 4th and 1 at your opponent's 40 is easy by comparison! You can learn those things by reading a few football stats articles or playing Madden for a few weeks. So there's really nothing stopping Diaco from taking a big step forward very quickly as a HC.

Of course, that's also the bad/concerning news. He's 3 years into being a HC and yet he hasn't taken that step. Instead he is continuing to spend time obsessing over vitamins and fake FG formations.

Why? The only answer I can come up with is the Dunning-Kruger effect - he's so bad at these things he's not even capable of assessing his own abilities accurately. His presser after the Navy game seemed to confirm this.

This is where the AD comes in. Let's hope Benedict is able to break through with Diaco and help him understand some of the very basic things that are holding him and this team back. If Benedict can do that even partially, I still think Diaco has the potential to be a very good coach for us. If Diaco is too stubborn to take that help, though, his HC career will end here in failure.

Rationale...

 

[06029]

The idea was always that Diaco would be learning on the job.

The good news and bad news is that his primary shortcoming continues to come down to very basic aspects of game management.
__________
This is where the AD comes in. Let's hope Benedict is able to break through with Diaco and help him understand some of the very basic things that are holding him and this team back. If Benedict can do that even partially, I still think Diaco has the potential to be a very good coach for us.

I'm sorry, is Uconn a D1 program or a high school or NAIA school where people are expected to keep learning on the job in season #3?

You hire a guy that is supposedly the top of the game at his level from one of the storied programs in football. He has coached at the highest levels. You should have a reaosnable expectation that he understands the basics of - running a program; recruiting strategies; in game management; how to improve player execution; and, how to manage the clock.

If you hired this guy at your company to run a division and the division keeps losing money, what would you do? Continue to hope and pray that he gets better and that his new manager can fix him? I would expect the new manager would fix the mistake by looking for and getting someone better. Someone more competent. Someone who knows what the basic things are.

 

[HuskyHawk]

He stays on - because we don't have the $$ to hire anyone other than some DIII assistant.

Yes, and there is the grass is always greener element at play here. I mean, if we could just hire a young energetic guy, who was a Broyles award winner at a huge program, like Tom Herman was you know? Wow...a guy like that would turn things around!

This year's UConn team would beat the snot out of last year's UConn team. It turns out that they have (a) shot themselves in the foot several times; (b) failed to adjust to losses in the secondary; and (c) played a tougher schedule than last year.

Diaco is mostly not playing with his recruits yet, and the team is generally better, even if it isn't translating to Ws. He's not going anywhere. But he will be given some definite mandates for next year I expect.

 

[freescooter]

Tougher schedule? Seriously? Syracuse and Virginia at home are tougher than BYU and Missouri on the road? Maine is no more than equal and I think worse than Villanova. Navy was playing a 3rd sting qb in his first game and UCF Is improved but really they were coming off 0-12 so that isn't saying too much. Cincinnati is much worse this year. As to this nonsense that this is on the job training for Diaco that is a ridiculous argument. Freshman quarterbacks learn on the job maybe but head coaches are expected to demonstrate a certAin level of competence that Diaco lacks entirely. More and more I'm coming to the conclusion that this was a terrible hire and the sooner we make a Chang the better. I was excited when he was introduced but very troubled with his first year a bit hopeful last year that maybe he had made the step up but year 1 is looking more like the real Diaco now.