For Those Advocating Diaco Through 2017

[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.

 

[Carl Spackler]

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...

I disagree with this. Not that Andy B is the keystone for social connectivity of the program - he is. He's no spring chicken anymore either (sorry if you're reading) but its truth. He's smart enough though I think to leave what he does in good hands whenever he does hang up the cleats.

But to the point, I disagree. Diaco has done a ton of good, with Andy's help in connecting alumni to the players. There have been many functions. Edsall did literally nothing. The current players are going to be more interested in the younger alum, especially those in the NFL, and they do come back and spend time. From the 1-AA days, one of the Sweitzer brothers is actually a regular media guy for the program now, sideline reporter or something. There are other guys that are all connected now on social media and stuff from the 80s, 90's and going back further.

The winningest years for the program ever in over 100 years is still the late 1980s. 2007-2010 is close. The only double digit win season still, belongs to I think 1997 team with Stafford at QB. The 80s and 90s regularly produced All-American players.

It wasn't the top level of football, obviously, then, but the recruiting argument is a fail, because Edsall reproduced it in the secind half of the 00's.

It was winning football, and the players who are all now adults know what quality football looks like, and they pay attention and aren't fooled. Diaco has become a parody. For that matter, the bakers dozen times or so × 10k or so fans that are the core base paid attention also know. From then, and he newer fans that watched the Edsall era.

And on that note, Staffords team, if not much changes, will have far outdrawn at the gate for Memorial stadium, than the 2016 team will for its remaining home games at Rentschler, and thst's just sad. Tulane will be family and band only.

You know why? They scored enough points to win 10 games. Its the culture. Win and people show up. Lose and there are better things to do.

The season isn't over at 3-5, but the wiggle room is fading quick.

 

[CTMike]

I think Diaco is here this year and possibly next year.

I think we switch QBs next year.

I think we struggle.

I hope... we show signs of life. But I'm not counting on it.

 

[Carl Spackler]

UCONNHUSKIES.COM :: University of Connecticut Huskies Official Athletic Site :: Football

Box score shows 28k attendance. Thats obviously not the number in the stands, and not the actual paid attendance.

If I'm not mistaken, I think 2016 saw a bump in season ticket sales from 2015. There is no reason to doubt that if the program gets its together and wins out to another bowl game that the trend wouldn't continue. The season isn't over.

My point, is that nobody that has been part of winning titles at UCONN in the sport of football before is buying Booby's fishcake bullsh-t anymore.

Tom Jackson used to say, "What am I feeding you?" to players. He wasn't feeding fishcake. Skippy didn't realize defensive football was part of the game but his teams scored points. Edsall won with risk averse discipline. Pasqualoni lost because he coached like a 20th century abusive screamer to 21st century players and the players mutinied. Diaco, well - called a kick late in a game agsinst BYU to get the kicker practice - during a game, ran the fake/fake field goal last week. - and tells fish-cake and batman stories.

Just put the players in position to succeed and win. Thsts the coach's job.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

 

[CTMike]

We are going to have a QB change next year. Will Diaco be the coach or not is the question.

 

[SubbaBub]

We are going to have a QB change next year. Will Diaco be the coach or not is the question.

We will have a QB competition next year. The never-ending faith in pulling a Tom Brady out of a hat full of unknowns bogales my mind. Especially, when that unknown is a reshirt freshman because we have seen the rest of them.

Listen, I hope it works out whomever it is, but QB is not what is holding this team back.

 

[FDNY99]

We will have a QB competition next year. The never-ending faith in pulling a Tom Brady out of a hat full of unknowns bogales my mind. Especially, when that unknown is a reshirt freshman because we have seen the rest of them.

Listen, I hope it works out whomever it is, but QB is not what is holding this team back.

Maybe not BUT if BS is named the starter coming out of spring ball this team is gonna have another season next year!

 

[TheDoggPound]

We will have a QB competition next year. The never-ending faith in pulling a Tom Brady out of a hat full of unknowns bogales my mind. Especially, when that unknown is a reshirt freshman because we have seen the rest of them.

Listen, I hope it works out whomever it is, but QB is not what is holding this team back.

It surely is a part of it.

 

[TheDoggPound]

And I stuck up for Shirreffs

 

[Husky pride]

The question I have is who is really running the offense? Is it Verducci? Is this really his offensive scheme? Or is it Diaco's offense and he is merely calling plays worked out on a script that Diaco created? Whoever is responsible for this offense needs to go. AD Banedict needs to have a discussion with both Diaco and Benedict. But here is the scary part to me...it's not just the offense that needs fixing. The defensive scheme is horrible, too. What with the 3 man front that doesn't put pressure on the QB and having slow linebackers cover WR's or backs out of the backfield. They can't keep up with them. The overloads that continually go uncovered and no adjustment made. The CB play 10 to 12 yrs off the WR's. They brought them up, played bump and run a couple of times and it was quite effective. There are so many things wrong. Benedict needs to take an active role if he hasn't already. I hope he already has a short list.

Benedict HAS taken an active role.....extension to 2020 and a RAISE! Now, there's one heck of an Athletic Director!!! Might we even call him a "rock star"?

 

[Redding Husky]

SMU just beat Tulane to become 4-4.

It seems like every team in the conference is improving except for us.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Crickets, crickets.

 

[CTMike]

We are going to have a QB change next year. Will Diaco be the coach or not is the question.

Guess I was wrong about the timing.