I expected improvement

[ChrisSmith]

Wow.... Why not just offer Bill Belichick $4 million.

Evidently you didn't hear that Texas offered Saban $100 million last winter and he turned it down:
http://espn.go.com/college-football...epared-offer-100-million-nick-saban-book-says

He preferred remaining at Bama for a mere $55 million:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...contract-extension-assistant-coaches/9914115/

I'm sure a $2 million per year pay cut to come here is quite appealing.

It was a joke. Saban wouldn't come to UConn for $15MM a year. It's as stupid as an idea as firing Diaco. The bottom line is UConn is one of the worst BCS football jobs. Bad conference, no talent on the roster, poor recruiting areas. Firing Diacco after 4 weeks or 1 year would only further turn off any potential candidates. You have to give a guy at least 3 years to bring in some players, get his system installed. Hopefully Diaco can bring in some talent and get things turned around.

I was trying to make the point - who on earth did the original poster think UConn would replace Diacco with?

 

[Hoophound]

It was a joke. Saban wouldn't come to UConn for $15MM a year. It's as stupid as an idea as firing Diaco. The bottom line is UConn is one of the worst BCS football jobs. Bad conference, no talent on the roster, poor recruiting areas. Firing Diacco after 4 weeks or 1 year would only further turn off any potential candidates. You have to give a guy at least 3 years to bring in some players, get his system installed. Hopefully Diaco can bring in some talent and get things turned around. I was trying to make the point - who on earth did the original poster think UConn would replace Diacco with?

Stop buying into the media nonsense about the UConn job. Just like the basketball job, it needs to become a good job by someone succeeding at it. There is plenty of talent around to build a program and the media market, brand, facilities and academics make it attractive. UConn is a bad job right up until a good coach wins here, then it's a good job. That's how college jobs work. There is always an excuse for failure until someone wins, then all that is out the window.

Diaco recognizes that and that's why I believe he will work out in the end. He will bring in athletes and build like Edsall did. The big difference will be his very likable personality and salesmanship. Once he starts winning, kids will be all over playing for him. I just hope he recognizes when he needs to make staff changes to maximize potential. If certain areas are lacking, he needs to get guys in place that can fix it. Blind loyalty to crappy coordinators and assistants is a killer, as we've seen before.

 

[Adios]

I still think Lembo was the guy for the job...or another MAC head coach. Those guys bring the advantage of being head coaches. No learning curve. I agree with you on Warde. Sooner he is gone better off we are. But I wouldn't want Prendergast. There are plenty of competent ADs out there. We just don't happen to have one of them.

I fully agree we should have went for an established HEAD coach rather than an assistant.

 

[Excalibur]

I fully agree we should have went for an established HEAD coach rather than an assistant.

I agree with this and said so many times during the search. Not that coordinators can't have success, but immediate success is not as common. We didn't have time for a learning curve.

But, it's where we are now, and we have to wait and see if he actually learns anything.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I agree with this and said so many times during the search. Not that coordinators can't have success, but immediate success is not as common. We didn't have time for a learning curve.

But, it's where we are now, and we have to wait and see if he actually learns anything.

While a coordinator taking a first time head coach position will indeed have a learning curve, and success is not a guarantee, neither is success a guarantee with someone who has head coaching experience. I don't agree with putting priority on these concepts. I think Diaco is a lunatic for rotating young players the way he is, and runs the risk of having really not changed his starting point from this season to next season by much at all, instead of settling on a lineup of young players and drilling the hell out of them, but that doesn't mean he won't learn from it and become a better coach, and it doesn't mean I'm right either - he might very well make it work. Time will tell, on stuff like that.

What is the most important priority IMO, is the coach's knowledge and experience of the recruiting profile necessary for success, knowledge and experience of the recruiting territory, and then the ability to put together a staff that has the same kind of knowledge and experience, and can successfully recruit.

Time will tell on that too, but Diaco, on paper, and in theory - fits - and fits well for recruiting.

 

[Milo65]

My good friend is an Athletic Director at one of the bigger HS's in CT. He has several players on the UConn team and knows a lot of the coaches in the Network. I asked him his thoughts on UConn this year. He said to me in August: "The team has some play makers, but honestly the offensive line is so horrible that they will be lucky to win any games this year. In fact, it makes last year line look like the five blocks of granite." With that being said, this team was bad from the start. It all starts in the trenches and we need to bulk up and get some athletes on the OL so we can turn it around.

 

[huskymedic]

My good friend is an Athletic Director at one of the bigger HS's in CT. He has several players on the UConn team and knows a lot of the coaches in the Network.

"Network"??

 

[whaler11]

"Network"??

The Pasqualoni Telegraph Network.

.-...- ... -.- ...-. ...-... .-....

 

[noeynox]

Stop buying into the media nonsense about the UConn job. Just like the basketball job, it needs to become a good job by someone succeeding at it. There is plenty of talent around to build a program and the media market, brand, facilities and academics make it attractive. UConn is a bad job right up until a good coach wins here, then it's a good job. That's how college jobs work. There is always an excuse for failure until someone wins, then all that is out the window.

Diaco recognizes that and that's why I believe he will work out in the end. He will bring in athletes and build like Edsall did. The big difference will be his very likable personality and salesmanship. Once he starts winning, kids will be all over playing for him. I just hope he recognizes when he needs to make staff changes to maximize potential. If certain areas are lacking, he needs to get guys in place that can fix it. Blind loyalty to crappy coordinators and assistants is a killer, as we've seen before.

Spot on. What Bill Snyder did at Kansas State is on Moses parting the Red Sea level. I've mentioned other great turnarounds like Wisconsin, and Oregon. All three of those along with Virginia Tech, were absolute dregs in late 80's early 90's mid 90's. What changed the right coaching hire Wisconsin-Barry Alvarez, KState-Snyder, Tech-Beamer, Oregon-Brooks, to Belloti, to Kelly, to Helfrich/current coach. Washington State went to two Rose Bowls with Mike Price. CFB is so much about the HC.

Hiring that Jim Calhoun/icon coach is not easy by any stretch, but it is what makes programs go from bottom tier to middle tier territory, to a program with a legit shot at the the top 25, like the programs I mentioned. UConn, pays well, and has been good to their succesful coaches. Yes there are obstacles, but this can be a very good job for the RIGHT guy.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It was a joke. Saban wouldn't come to UConn for $15MM a year. It's as stupid as an idea as firing Diaco. The bottom line is UConn is one of the worst BCS football jobs. Bad conference, no talent on the roster, poor recruiting areas. Firing Diacco after 4 weeks or 1 year would only further turn off any potential candidates. You have to give a guy at least 3 years to bring in some players, get his system installed. Hopefully Diaco can bring in some talent and get things turned around.

I was trying to make the point - who on earth did the original poster think UConn would replace Diacco with?

My apologies. The interweb often removes the ability to read nuance and body language is not recognizable.

 

[huskynation]

Again all I want to see is tangible progress. He has to make the call on Whitmer/Boyle as first step. If he is hell bent on getting blown out with a 5th year senior, who will not be part of the future he promises will be so grand, he is making the same mistake P made when he went with Johnny McCantee over Mike Nebrich.

Actually Nebrich transferred when PP and GD choose whitmer as the starting QB over him his sophomore year.

Must of hurt Nebrich's pride to have a physically limited player ( Nebrich with a much stronger arm and mobility) beat him out.

Watching highlights of Nebrich it hurts that he didn't get a fair shot.

 

[noeynox]

Actually Nebrich transferred when PP and GD choose whitmer as the starting QB over him his sophomore year.

Must of hurt Nebrich's pride to have a physically limited player ( Nebrich with a much stronger arm and mobility) beat him out.

Watching highlights of Nebrich it hurts that he didn't get a fair shot.

I know when he transferred. The point was he burned Nebrich's redshirt, then rather than committing to developing him, he went with the clearly less talented player when developing the younger player would have been in the program's best interest. He didn't make a bowl with Mac anyway.

 

[Bonehead]

My good friend is an Athletic Director at one of the bigger HS's in CT. He has several players on the UConn team and knows a lot of the coaches in the Network. I asked him his thoughts on UConn this year. He said to me in August: "The team has some play makers, but honestly the offensive line is so horrible that they will be lucky to win any games this year. In fact, it makes last year line look like the five blocks of granite." With that being said, this team was bad from the start. It all starts in the trenches and we need to bulk up and get some athletes on the OL so we can turn it around.

Must be Xavier - unless you define several different than me.

Can you call him real quick and ask what this means?

“We want to continue to play Tim, when he’s feeling well enough to do that,” Diaco said yesterday. “We want to continue to do that, we want to play Tim in every game. There’s no reason why we wouldn’t. Tim is the quarterback of the future and why wouldn’t we take every opportunity to get him action to get better? We definitely WANT to, I’m not sure we can. It’s still going to be based on how he feels, but moving forward we definitely want to get him in each game.”

 

[Milo65]

"Network"??

I guess I should have said he works with a lot of other coaches both HS and college.