Let me get this straight, Diaco balked on Kill???

[Chin Diesel]

Having a #2 who is more experienced and may be more qualified than #1 can be great or a death sentence for an organization. Especially if #2 makes it known he has no desire to be #1.

It all hinges on how #1 takes it.

 

[SubbaBub]

If he didn't have the health issues then I would agree with this. Diaco needed to take a leap of faith on this one, if it had worked the program and UConn certainly would have been better off.

Meh, I'm not going to kill him over it. The writing was on the wall. He wasn't going to succeed here. Why not just end it and move on from both sides.

Imagine starting out 2017 at 2-2 or worse? How was that going to play? No, he burnt all his capital. His plan in ignoring year one going 2-10, meant he had to make a bowl in year 2, and do something good in year 3.

If he had made a bowl in year one, he'd still be here is my guess, but you can only jerk people around for so long.

I can still defend the hire at the time because you just can't know for sure, but it didn't work out. Such in the life of a G5 program. You take your shot and hope it works.

 

[SubbaBub]

I predict DW doesn't see the field in 2017. The new coach will get a transfer in here from somewhere, anywhere! He might not get them by NLI day, but certainly by the start of the summer practices there will be a new #1 QB and it will be a name we don't know today.

I really hope so. I didn't see anything there. Maybe give Davis a shot unless you can find a JC or Grad transfer.

 

[Exit 4]

Meh, I'm not going to kill him over it. The writing was on the wall. He wasn't going to succeed here. Why not just end it and move on from both sides.

Imagine starting out 2017 at 2-2 or worse? How was that going to play? No, he burnt all his capital. His plan in ignoring year one going 2-10, meant he had to make a bowl in year 2, and do something good in year 3.

If he had made a bowl in year one, he'd still be here is my guess, but you can only jerk people around for so long.

I can still defend the hire at the time because you just can't know for sure, but it didn't work out. Such in the life of a G5 program. You take your shot and hope it works.

If I was Diaco I would have taken Kill. Kill presented the opportunity to turn his career around. I would have preferred going into 2017 trying to save my name even with Kill on the staff rather than being fired over the winter. Now its certain the Diaco legacy is garbage.

 

[ZooCougar]

Meh, I'm not going to kill him over it. .

Haha.

 

[RSTuthill]

Everyone is thinking that Diaco had some choice in the matter. I am guessing that he didn't. DB probably told him that Kill was coming in as OC and Diaco probably said that he could not live with that and that they needed to talk about a severance package for him to go quietly. My guess is that BD got maybe $1.7 - 2.0 million, not $3.4. The sad part is that DB had to explain the situation to Kill and they lost him at that point. The happy part is that BD left and we are free.

 

[UConnNick]

The guy is an egomaniacal control freak. He's also totally delusional and paranoid. It's no wonder he's a disaster as a head football coach. He probably would be at any level down to and including Pop Warner or midget. The only reason he had any success in South Bend is the quality of player talent he had available to him there. Even he couldn't screw things up with that talent level at his disposal.

Maybe he could win with Alabama's offense and defense. Anything short of that and he's got major troubles. He makes "Captain Queeg" look well balanced.

 

[ZooCougar]

If I was Diaco I would have taken Kill. Kill presented the opportunity to turn his career around. I would have preferred going into 2017 trying to save my name even with Kill on the staff rather than being fired over the winter. Now its certain the Diaco legacy is garbage.

His boss's boss likely overruled having him fired right after the season ended. So his boss gets to work finding an OC who is not only overqualified, but probably has the gravitas and the knowledge to teach him a thing or two.

Diaco at this point had run out of answers. He'd reached the bad end of his less than mediocre rolodex. So what does he do when the answer to his problems is dropped on his lap? He plays hardball and forces his boss's boss to reconsider her decision.

What an idiot.

 

[Exit 4]

His boss's boss likely overruled having him fired right after the season ended. So his boss gets to work finding an OC who is not only overqualified, but probably has the gravitas and the knowledge to teach him a thing or two.

Diaco at this point had run out of answers. He'd reached the bad end of his less than mediocre rolodex. So what does he do when the answer to his problems is dropped on his lap? He plays hardball and forces his boss's boss to reconsider her decision.

What an idiot.

The way this whole thing played out is so fascinating. I hope we get the juicy details at some point after the new guy is hired. It seems certain that the way Diaco handled the post season re-org was more evidence, irrefutable evidence that he was a lost man.

 

[HuskiesFan1014]

You're kinda talking out your butt here. He has had epileptic seizures which absolutely can be difficult to control which they obviously were in his case. However, once you find the right cocktail of meds you can lead a very normal life and can even get a drivers license once you've gone a while without a seizure. You keep spouting that there's no way back from that, but that's just false. Another paramedic, @huskymedic can back me on this.

And this guy, too. Absolutely correct.

 

[ZooCougar]

The way this whole thing played out is so fascinating. I hope we get the juicy details at some point after the new guy is hired. It seems certain that the way Diaco handled the post season re-org was more evidence, irrefutable evidence that he was a lost man.

I was done with him at the Navy game. And then he said something about how the expectations were low when he arrived here. He lost his grip with reality.

In an unconstrained environment, he would have been fired after the Navy debacle.

 

[BlueDogs]

His boss's boss likely overruled having him fired right after the season ended. So his boss gets to work finding an OC who is not only overqualified, but probably has the gravitas and the knowledge to teach him a thing or two.

Diaco at this point had run out of answers. He'd reached the bad end of his less than mediocre rolodex. So what does he do when the answer to his problems is dropped on his lap? He plays hardball and forces his boss's boss to reconsider her decision.

What an idiot.

DB just schooled Diaco, Herbst and the BoT. Very impressive, elite level leader if this was orchestrated with these dynamics in mind. He goes into the prolific category.

 

[ZooCougar]

DB just schooled Diaco, Herbst and the BoT. Very impressive, elite level leader if this was orchestrated with these dynamics in mind. He goes into the prolific category.

I've heard things... He's really smart. I don't think he'll be here long, but I would rather have a competent guy 3-4 years at a clip over a long term mediocre guy like Hathaway.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yup: The biggest winner in Jerry Kill's hiring at Rutgers? Chris Ash himself

I understand BL's point but what Ash just did is what many here thought BD needed:

>>But the biggest winner here is the head coach himself. Ash showed that he's comfortable in his own skin in hiring a coach with a longer resume than his own as a coordinator, and in doing so, he found someone that he can lean on next season and (hopefully) beyond. "The biggest thing I wanted with coach Kill was alignment in our plan and what we're doing," Ash said. "If there are situations that come up where I want to lean on somebody and ask his opinion, 'what have you done in that situation? Have you had this come up in a program?' Then absolutely, I'll go and have a conversation with him."<<

Now we watch to see how that works out...

That is exactly what a young coordinator turned HC needs, an experience guy on the sideline and in the offices, who can help you grow and learn how to be a HC. Diaco needed a guy exactly like this as OC, whether Kill or others. If he wanted another guy from inside his network, to continue to provide a positive feedback loop and no honest criticism, then Benedict had to fire him.

 

[Ldandy]

I certainly don't know how much of this story is fact and how much is fiction, but assuming it happened this is likely the unspecified reason that Benedict changed his mind about firing Diaco.

Hypothetically lets say Benedict convinced Kill to come out of retirement to run the offense at Uconn. In his mind he is willing to give Diaco another season knowing that there is a competent coach on staff who could take over should he have to pull the plug at some point mid season.

He then presents the idea to Diaco that Kill will have autonomy to run the offense as he see's fit. Essentially he is the HC of that side of the ball. Diaco feeling his leadership is being threatened, and that he may be working with his replacement, turns down the hire. He proposes some chump as an alternative. Benedict wises up and tells Diaco that he will be pulling the plug on Jan 2. Just a theory but it seems entirely plausible.

 

[jdb50]

Diaco lost the last regular season game in all three years of his tenure. SMU and Tulane were in our house with records below ours at the time and were humiliations with the opponents way more excited to play than our team. Temple we had our back up QB in and had no offense. We lost our Bowl game with no offense and by not throwing to Thomas who the next year catches 100 passes. Diaco spent very little time with the offense in practice and yet he won't accept help from a quality proven coach who would be happy to be an assistant. Bob lives in a fantasy land. His buyout compensation is way more than he ever should be paid to coach football again.

 

[BlueDogs]

I've heard things... He's really smart. I don't think he'll be here long, but I would rather have a competent guy 3-4 years at a clip over a long term mediocre guy like Hathaway.

Manuel looks like a bag a of hammers in comparison. Whole different level of sophistication. The awkward silence was all about maneuvering behind the scenes and not tipping his hand. I think he was happy to have the villagers up in arms to strengthen his position with the dolts above.

 

[Bubba1957]

Joe D mentioned that the buyout might be less that the number on the contract. Diaco's handling or refusing to handle the Kill opportunity might constitute a violation of the contract on his part. If the account on this thread is true, then it comes awfully close to insubordination. At least close enough to give the administration some leverage. Either way as an early Diacolholic, now totally reformed, I'm really excited about the future now that he is being shown the door.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Joe D mentioned that the buyout might be less that the number on the contract. Diaco's handling or refusing to handle the Kill opportunity might constitute a violation of the contract on his part.

As are the reports that Diaco was told by Benedict that he had to go to training for communication skills and media relations, and he refused.

 

[Skiblets]

You read some of the stories over the past 24 hours and the line that has stuck with me the most is that this team went over 50 possessions in a row without scoring a touchdown. Let that sink in for a bit and imagine the hubris of Diaco on two fronts. 1. He called the offense 'those guys over there' in a post game interview. Spent. Zero time with them. Jacobs nailed it when he called Diaco a Defensive Coordinator with a Head Coach title. 2. When presented with a solution and a damn good one he passed in Jerry Kill. Diaco is a nice guy but his crazy was too much to overcome.

 

[noeynox]

Best part of the Diaco tenure, the end.

 

[SubbaBub]

If I was Diaco I would have taken Kill. Kill presented the opportunity to turn his career around. I would have preferred going into 2017 trying to save my name even with Kill on the staff rather than being fired over the winter. Now its certain the Diaco legacy is garbage.

Every coach gets fired. Bob's career is far from done. He isn't getting a head coach job anytime soon, but that's true for a lot of guys. He can make close to a million a year as a DC. He is still well thought of in coaching circles.

UConn's image as a place you can win took as big if not a bigger hit than Bob did.

If the next guy doesn't turn it around we are all of a sudden BC in a mid-major conference

 

[Doggie Style]

The way this whole thing played out is so fascinating. I hope we get the juicy details at some point after the new guy is hired. It seems certain that the way Diaco handled the post season re-org was more evidence, irrefutable evidence that he was a lost man.

I'm ready to move on from ever hearing about this tool again! The only juicy details I will want to hear in detail, until the day I die is how we were left out of conference expansion and who was responsible for screwing us out of both our slots in tha ACC! I would pay good money for that book.

 

[Exit 4]

Every coach gets fired. Bob's career is far from done. He isn't getting a head coach job anytime soon, but that's true for a lot of guys. He can make close to a million a year as a DC. He is still well thought of in coaching circles.

UConn's image as a place you can win took as big if not a bigger hit than Bob did.

If the next guy doesn't turn it around we are all of a sudden BC in a mid-major conference

With all the bat sheet crazy things he did and his absolute refusal to assemble a coaching staff of non yes men - I think he's unlikely to ever get a P5 or G5 HC again. Are we pondering anyone right now that reached a level in coaching and failed? He has demonstrated that DC is his top slot. He will get plenty of those positions for as long as he wants.

 

[Exit 4]

I'm ready to move on from ever hearing about this tool again! The only juicy details I will want to hear in detail, until the day I die is how we were left out of conference expansion and who was responsible for screwing us out of both our slots in tha ACC! I would pay good money for that book.

I find wacky Bob's total lack of understanding and self awareness to be just too interesting. Its a personal car wreck and yes I want to look.