Mike Anthony On The Diaco Flameout | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Mike Anthony On The Diaco Flameout

sdhusky said:
Says Diaco lost the team after the Navy game and coached the kids on what to say to the media.

The players were under a lot of pressure re: their answers to the media. Diaco really did NOT like the media.
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I spoke to some parents after the game they said the same thing and he was blaming everyone but the trainer
 
Ldandy said:
Its all about perspective...

Harbaugh- Says and does crazy * but wins 10 games = Eccentric Genius

Diaco- Says and does crazy * but wins 3 games = Certifiably Insane
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I'm cause results matter. I cannot imagine any scenario where Harbaugh completely coughs up a hairball like Diaco did at end of the Navy game.

That is just 1 example. The board can give you plenty. Treating real games like pre season games. Thanking a team that whooped you as a partner in getting better. Somehow, I can't picture Harbaugh saying THOSE things. Other crazy stuff sure, but Diaco was a special brand of crazy.
 
Exit 4 said:
Well - there was this now infamous press conf in August of season 1.

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I bet 50 percent of the board one we were hit after this press conference. Bizzaro world.
 
Diaco was crazy and incompetent as a head coach. In NCAA football you don't have to be a good coach to win six games once in three seasons.

This podcast isn't on ITunes so I have no use for it unfortunately. I just can't be bothered.
 
cttxus said:
Not to pile on because we've all had to work through things like this at some point in our lives (if we're honest with ourselves) but, I think Bob is right now working through the consequences of letting pride and greed get in the way of his better judgement. I think he lacks self confidence in that video. He was simply not ready to be a HC, at least not at this level.
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Nor at any other level. He lives in his own little spectacularly insulated fantasy world. You can't do anything effectively if that's your entire frame of reference. He needs to be an assistant because he can't handle the bright lights and glare of the media, where all the responsibility is his.
 
UConnNick said:
Nor at any other level. He lives in his own little spectacularly insulated fantasy world. You can't do anything effectively if that's your entire frame of reference. He needs to be an assistant because he can't handle the bright lights and glare of the media, where all the responsibility is his.
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I think the real issue is he can't be a true executive, putting together the three phases, and on top that, seeing a game as a whole: momentum, positioning, time management, etc. He was just fine taking care of a single phase, which is still admirable (D1 head coaching clearly isn't for everyone).
 
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uconnphil2016 said:
9 to 10?? He won 6 and most of us bought in
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We actually had no choice but to buy in.... the powers that be at the time made the decision to hire his @**.... In 3 years we saw 0 growth...

Salute (once again) to Chief00 on calling his ousting a few weeks b4 it actually happened...

He needed to go...
 
Uconnalliance said:
I spoke to some parents after the game they said the same thing and he was blaming everyone but the trainer
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How dare he involve himself in blame assessment? Everyone knows that important activity is the exclusive province of those who participate in this forum. He had no right to usurp Boneyard authority in that regard.
 
The crucial thing is that he only won 11 games in 3 seasons though. If he had been 26-11 he would have been sort of whacky. I mean there's Sweeney forcing players to be baptized at a public university on the practice field and nobody makes too much of an issue. There's Harbaugh doing all sorts of bizzare stuff, there's Paterno hiring a pervert as his D.C. and keeping him on long after he knew, but they all won so nobody rocked the boat. Tom Caughlins idea of a family vacation was to go to A Red Sox game, 1, with his kids when he coached at BC Diaco wasn't nearly as bad crazy as Paterno but the big difference is he was a bad coach.
 
I saw an article yesterday about Tom Herman and a pee chart. Yes, you read that right.

LOOK: Texas urine color chart decides if you're a champion or selfish teammate

And then I thought about his whole kissing players before every game, and tucking his players in the night before games. I am starting to think that Herman is a more successful Diaco. He has the Diaco quirks, but seems to be a functional odd ball. After Diaco...I don't want another quirky coach. Should be interesting in Texas.
 
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freescooter said:
The crucial thing is that he only won 11 games in 3 seasons though. If he had been 26-11 he would have been sort of whacky. I mean there's Sweeney forcing players to be baptized at a public university on the practice field and nobody makes too much of an issue. There's Harbaugh doing all sorts of bizzare stuff, there's Paterno hiring a pervert as his D.C. and keeping him on long after he knew, but they all won so nobody rocked the boat. Tom Caughlins idea of a family vacation was to go to A Red Sox game, 1, with his kids when he coached at BC Diaco wasn't nearly as bad crazy as Paterno but the big difference is he was a bad coach.
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You're free to believe what ever you want, but what you're saying about Paterno here is simply wrong. He didn't knowingly hire a pervert in 1969 and keep him employed long after he knew. Why would Joe or anyone for that matter assume the risk of hiding a person like Jerry, when at the time of his hire he had zero track record of being an assistant coach?

The allegations of abuse relayed to him by Mcqueary didn't happen until 2002. Jerry retired in 1999. In that time span he was able to adopt 6 kids, foster others, and run a charity for disadvantaged youth. He was an alpha predator who fooled literally hundreds of intelligent, educated, and decent people for 30+ years. He was considered a pillar of the community by most, and this cover allowed him to commit his crimes. Calling Paterno bad crazy is way off the mark.
 
Ldandy said:
You're free to believe what ever you want, but what you're saying about Paterno here is simply wrong. He didn't knowingly hire a pervert in 1969 and keep him employed long after he knew. Why would Joe or anyone for that matter assume the risk of hiding a person like Jerry, when at the time of his hire he had zero track record of being an assistant coach?

The allegations of abuse relayed to him by Mcqueary didn't happen until 2002. Jerry retired in 1999. In that time span he was able to adopt 6 kids, foster others, and run a charity for disadvantaged youth. He was an alpha predator who fooled literally hundreds of intelligent, educated, and decent people for 30+ years. He was considered a pillar of the community by most, and this cover allowed him to commit his crimes. Calling Paterno bad crazy is way off the mark.
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At the risk of turning this thread into a Pattern thread, PSU fans need to stop being defensive of Paterno. Paterno was letting Sandusky have access to the program right up until the last couple years he was coach. I know a former player who was shocked when he went back to campus during the height of these issues, and Sandusky was still on campus. He may not have been there as a coach, but he was still active with the program. If Paterno knew about the allegations, he shouldn't have kept contact with Sandusky.

As I said before....Paterno was old school and he is loyal to a fault. He didn't take a strong enough position on this situation and it bit him in the ass. Trying to defend him now is pointless considering the severity of the allegations. Let it go. No posting a defense on a message board is ever going to change people's minds. However you want to spin the timeline doesn't matter. Paterno was told about a crime and should have done more to address it. Everything else is hearsay and spin.
 
Diaco lost everybody after the Navy game. I was still listening to college sports on Sirius back then and Rick Neuheisel said that he followed every program in the country, but stopped paying attention to anything UConn after that debacle. Someone on the inside of the industry confessing that just shows how damning that mistake was.

All of the warning signs were there. Diaco had all of this exuberance and energy but it never coalesced into results. My warning lights clicked on with him in year one when he couldn't stop talking about Vitamin D.
 
ZooCougar said:
All of the warning signs were there. Diaco had all of this exuberance and energy but it never coalesced into results. My warning lights clicked on with him in year one when he couldn't stop talking about Vitamin D.
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You're absolutely right. The line that always bothered me was that crap about BYU being our partner/helping us get better. "They were wonderful in our service." That still makes my skin crawl. Thanking someone for beating your ass. Talk about capitulation. Ugh. That certainly made me think something wasn't right, but I still bought in....
 
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Afroabe224 said:
The all time worst may have been him defending his 4th & 18 attempt from the BC 20, down 7-0 with a freshman QB playing his 2nd game ever.
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I was right their with some BC fans when that happened. We all just looked at each other and said WTF was that. My wife was there and doesn't really understand football and when she asked what happened I said, "you just watched someone commit career suicide".

I honestly don't think he had control of himself during the games.........which is a bit of a problem for a football coach.
 
IMind said:
You're absolutely right. The line that always bothered me was that crap about BYU being our partner/helping us get better. "They were wonderful in our service." That still makes my skin crawl. Thanking someone for beating your ass. Talk about capitulation. Ugh. That certainly made me think something wasn't right, but I still bought in....
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It's one thing to go way outside the box. But that only needs to happen when the box is holding you back. What we need was a better, more modern and effective box.

Diaco gave us a psychedelic slinky and a staff full of losers who really had never done anything.

I actually take back the Vitamin D comment. I knew we could be in trouble with Mike Cummings.
 
uconndogs said:
I was right their with some BC fans when that happened. We all just looked at each other and said WTF was that. My wife was there and doesn't really understand football and when she asked what happened I said, "you just watched someone commit career suicide".

I honestly don't think he had control of himself during the games....which is a bit of a problem for a football coach.
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Between that 4th down play, inserting D Williams (in retrospect - maybe Bisack should have been given the ball) and replacing Verducci midseason with someone with even less coaching skills, it was obvious Diaco believed in hail marys and god didn't answer his request. And in December, blocking Jerry Kill was his way of pulling the plug on himself.
 
Exit 4 said:
Between that 4th down play, inserting D Williams (in retrospect - maybe Bisack should have been given the ball) and replacing Verducci midseason with someone with even less coaching skills, it was obvious Diaco believed in hail marys and god didn't answer his request. And in December, blocking Jerry Kill was his way of pulling the plug on himself.
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Thank god he did... I mean there's no way he was going to... Diaco wasn't about bringing in anyone who might show him up/disagree with him. If I was in Diaco's shoes I would have loved the Jerry Kill move. Here's a guy who's been successful, is well thought of, has won everywhere, his strengths are your weaknesses... and has absolutely no interest in head coaching and maybe even medically unable to really take on the job as HC. His ego clearly was more important than actually doing the best job he could as head coach.
 
IMind said:
Thank god he did... I mean there's no way he was going to... Diaco wasn't about bringing in anyone who might show him up/disagree with him. If I was in Diaco's shoes I would have loved the Jerry Kill move. Here's a guy who's been successful, is well thought of, has won everywhere, his strengths are your weaknesses... and has absolutely no interest in head coaching and maybe even medically unable to really take on the job as HC. His ego clearly was more important than actually doing the best job he could as head coach.
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It's crazy.

Here's a head coach, with his status on life support. Fanbase hates you and you have probably lost the locker room. Your boss goes out and finds an OC who can make your offense better because you had the worst offense in America and still somehow have a job, has no designs on your job and can mentor you behind the scenes.

Diaco is either stupid or he wanted to be fired.
 
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IMind said:
Thank god he did... I mean there's no way he was going to... Diaco wasn't about bringing in anyone who might show him up/disagree with him. If I was in Diaco's shoes I would have loved the Jerry Kill move. Here's a guy who's been successful, is well thought of, has won everywhere, his strengths are your weaknesses... and has absolutely no interest in head coaching and maybe even medically unable to really take on the job as HC. His ego clearly was more important than actually doing the best job he could as head coach.
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Thank God Diaco didn't hire Jerry Kill! No offense to Jerry Kill, but if Diaco had hired him, he would still be the head coach!
 
I originally thought Diaco was a good choice. But he started to lose me with the key starter presser. Then he made some strange substitutions in the BYU game most notably at quarterback, them moved on to the thanks to our partners crap. But he totally lost me with the loss to Army followed by the SMU loss in year 1.
 
ZooCougar said:
It's crazy.

Here's a head coach, with his status on life support. Fanbase hates you and you have probably lost the locker room. Your boss goes out and finds an OC who can make your offense better because you had the worst offense in America and still somehow have a job, has no designs on your job and can mentor you behind the scenes.

Diaco is either stupid or he wanted to be fired.
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He didn't know anything about the fanbase because he was "spectacularly insulated" from the criticism. The guy was completely cuckoo. :rolleyes:
 
I have a sense that by the end of last year he knew this wasn't the right move for him and may actually have wanted to be fired. It didn't make sense for him to leave although I bet UConn would have waived any buyout. I don't think he ever got being a head coach but I also don't think he ever quite understood just how good AAC football actually was or how good UConn had been. He viewed it as a big step down from where he had been and barely above 1AA. Showed in his recruiting and in his game management and his staff.
 
freescooter said:
I have a sense that by the end of last year he knew this wasn't the right move for him and may actually have wanted to be fired. It didn't make sense for him to leave although I bet UConn would have waived any buyout. I don't think he ever got being a head coach but I also don't think he ever quite understood just how good AAC football actually was or how good UConn had been. He viewed it as a big step down from where he had been and barely above 1AA. Showed in his recruiting and in his game management and his staff.
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I totally agree with your first sentence.
 
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