I wonder if Diaco was our first choice

[Skiblets]

Hear me out. Warde does his interviews Monday, Tuesday. Makes his decision and starts negotiating with Diaco. Out of respect for Narduzzi, he stays quiet until Narduzzi's agent can get the PR machine going about assistant's salaries (makes Narduzzi look like a great guy "wasn't about my salary, was looking out for my staff").

Two hours later UConn has its man. Narduzzi saves face for future opps. Warde gets his guy and only suffers temporary twitter bitter beer face

Win.win

Just seems crazy to me that Warde would get an answer so quickly from Diaco so soon after Narduzzi 'declined the offer'

Crazy?

 

[sportsart]

Hear me out. Warde does his interviews Monday, Tuesday. Makes his decision and starts negotiating with Diaco. Out of respect for Narduzzi, he stays quiet until Narduzzi's agent can get the PR machine going about assistant's salaries (makes Narduzzi look like a great guy "wasn't about my salary, was looking out for my staff").

Two hours later UConn has its man. Narduzzi saves face for future opps. Warde gets his guy and only suffers temporary twitter bitter beer face

Win.win

Just seems crazy to me that Warde would get an answer so quickly from Diaco so soon after Narduzzi 'declined the offer'

Crazy?

Might be crazy but....

Don't know how the process goes but let's say it's down to Diaco and Narduzzi and Warde asks them to submit a financial plan on what they were looking for in terms of money for them and their staff.

Without making an offer to Narduzzi (they see his financials and decide it's not what they want to negotiate with) and lean towards Diaco.

Narduzzi says they wouldn't give him the money he wanted so he backed out (looks like an offer he turned down) and UConn goes with Diaco.

If you look at both of them, they match up pretty evenly. They got a feel for where the financials were at and went with Diaco.

That said, maybe UConn low balled on purpose...we'll probably never know.

 

[2Infinity]

The fact that the Diaco hire news came on the very same day as the Narduzzi withdrawal is huge from a PR standpoint. Manuel was able to virtually cancel out negative news for UConn with what is very definitely being perceived by the media and fans as very positive news! Kudos Warde!

 

[huskymedic]

Anything is possible. Twitter journalism puts a whole new spin on this stuff... No way in hell did the leak come from WM or PES. That was Cornrich's doing all the way (it may have been w/ tacit approval).

Oh... you suck as a secret agent man!!!!

 

[jostar1]

Or maybe that was why UCONN planted this (if they did):

"Sources inside the UCONN athletic department told Spartan Nation that, “Pat (Narduzzi) met with Warde Manuel (UCONN AD) on Monday in Atlanta. He was very impressive. After he (Narduzzi) won the Broyles award on Tuesday, Manuel again contacted and asked Narduzzi and Donna (his wife) to meet him at a law office in Atlanta. Subsequently Pat was offered a five year deal on Tuesday night and earlier this morning turned the job down.”

 

[BlueMAB]

Not crazy.

I think UConn informed Narduzzi they weren't going with him once they had an agreement in principle with Diaco. Duzzi puts out the "withdrawing my name" release while UConn is finalizing details with Diaco.

It's implausible that UConn went from being turned down by Narduzzi to landing someone arguably just as coveted within 2 hours.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

This is the most insecure fan base on the intertubes. Who gives a *$@# if Diaco was the first choice? If we are happy with the coach, then it doesn't matter if he was the first or 45th choice.

 

[huskyrob1]

The fact that the Diaco hire news came on the very same day as the Narduzzi withdrawal is huge from a PR standpoint. Manuel was able to virtually cancel out negative news for UConn with what is very definitely being perceived by the media and fans as very positive news! Kudos Warde!

I love it that Coach Diaco is from New Jersey. I hope he steals as many top recruits in RU's backyard as he can.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It is very plausible that Diaco was WM's first choice and that the only reason Narduzzi's agent had time to get out the leak was due to Warde's deliberate and thorough manner of doing things.

To the initial post in this thread:

Was BD our first choice? - We will never know but it is quite possible.

Did WM remain quiet to give Narduzzi time to cover his backside? - No. WM remained quiet because the process was not complete and he wasn't about to open his mouth just for the sake of hearing his voice or trying to make us temporarily look better while having yet to accomplish a thing. Many posters will need to get used to this. WM won't be yapping just for the sake of flash and glitter. His MO will be to allow the results to speak for themselves.

 

[Husky25]

I can't decide which is the saner of the two: the medicated or unmedicated Nelson. Lets just assume that the irratioality is a side effect...

Nelson forgot to take his pills today. He wants the football program to continue at the FBS level.

 

[Skiblets]

After a short night's sleep, I am now convinced that Diaco was UConn's first choice. Narduzzi's camp did the Casey Keeler two step (withdrawing my name from consideration) once that became apparent. We didn't get Narduzzied, we got our guy. Cheers to Warde

 

[BlueDogs]

After a short night's sleep, I am now convinced that Diaco was UConn's first choice. Narduzzi's camp did the Casey Keeler two step (withdrawing my name from consideration) once that became apparent. We didn't get Narduzzied, we got our guy. Cheers to Warde

Agreed. If D was 1st choice, it was masterfully done.

 

[UConnJim]

Typically in college head coaching job searches, a candidate announces he is withdrawing his name after he figures out he isn't getting the job and the new coach is announced within 24 hours. We may never know if Narduzzi was offered the job, but I am happy with the job Warde did and he stood by his word about the job search process.

Doesn't today feel so much better than the day they announced PP as head coach?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

After a short night's sleep, I am now convinced that Diaco was UConn's first choice. Narduzzi's camp did the Casey Keeler two step (withdrawing my name from consideration) once that became apparent. We didn't get Narduzzied, we got our guy. Cheers to Warde

I kinda maybe think that's what happened as well, but we'll never know. Nor do I care.

What troubles me is that Diaco gets by you on the stakeout wearing a pair of glasses and a suit pulling a Clark Kent type gimmick over you. Shameful.

 

[Carl Spackler]

No - you're not crazy. Yesterday was a very entertaining day for two highly competitive Louisiana brothers that operate websites for a living based on contacts withing the coaching fraternity. They've been known to play games, and everybody has give and take, and everybody knows them. The football world is very big, but it's also very small and your reputation is all you got.

Warde Manuel most definitely interviewed, the past two Broyle award winners for the head coaching jobs at UCONN, (among others) and there are only two direct sources verifiable as to what happened for those two award winnign assistant coaches. One candidate officially withdrew from the job search, and the other candidate had a contract in hand, signed, in his home state, about 2 hrs max, later.

It's highly unlikely, that in the manner and scope and level of what this job search entailed, that the candidate that "withdrew" was actually offered the job. It's much more likely that some kind of decision was made on Manuel's part, that caused one candidate to no longer be in the running.

SImple hiring and firing 101 - when a hire is being made for any job, it's not the interviewee that makes the decisions, it's the interviewer. I've said since last week, that this job is not about what any candidate wants or decides, it's about what Warde Manuel wants. My comments at the time were directed toward opinions on TJ Weist.

And on that note, I'm still curious as to what Diaco's cold weather sideline attire will be. Short sleeves? Nah. I don't want the Michelin man out there either.

 

[UDann]

Maybe I missed this but why were interviews conducted in Atlanta? Wouldn't a prospective coach want to see the facilities? talk with other coaches? players? or is it just about the money?

 

[Skiblets]

I kinda maybe think that's what happened as well, but we'll never know. Nor do I care.

What troubles me is that Diaco gets by you on the stakeout wearing a pair of glasses and a suit pulling a Clark Kent type gimmick over you. Shameful.

I know. Don't quit my day job. To tell you the truth, even if I had walked by him, probably wouldn't have registered. He was more under the radar than many of Edsall's recuits Warde played this masterfully

 

[UConn Dan]

Maybe I missed this but why were interviews conducted in Atlanta? Wouldn't a prospective coach want to see the facilities? talk with other coaches? players? or is it just about the money?

Parker (our coaching search firm) is located there. I'm sure we prepared a video presentation to showcase our facilities, etc.

 

[Nostical]

The espn ticker announcing Diaco to UConn also has a line saying Narduzzi turned us down.That's a bit bush league by them, as if Narduzzi was a superior candidate that snubbed us.

 

[jackl]

The espn ticker announcing Diaco to UConn also has a line saying Narduzzi turned us down.That's a bit bush league by them, as if Narduzzi was a superior candidate that snubbed us.

Would you expect anything less from espn!

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Maybe I missed this but why were interviews conducted in Atlanta? Wouldn't a prospective coach want to see the facilities? talk with other coaches? players? or is it just about the money?

Atlanta's airport is the busiest in the world. No matter where you are, you can probably get a direct flight to Atlanta. Storrs?

Uhhhh... good luck with that. Even getting to Bradley can be a pain depending on where you're coming from.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Atlanta's airport is the busiest in the world. No matter where you are, you can probably get a direct flight to Atlanta. Storrs?

Maybe I missed this but why were interviews conducted in Atlanta? Wouldn't a prospective coach want to see the facilities? talk with other coaches? players? or is it just about the money?

Wasn't he in Atlanta to accept the Broyles award?

 

[huskymedic]

HH - Little Rock Ark.

 

[huskyjawz]

Warde says emphatically that this was his first choice!