Perspective

[Marty Jackson]

I understand it's the heat of the moment and everyone is really upset. This loss hurts a lot because we are all looking for confirmation that we've "turned the corner." But these fire Diaco comments are a little over the top. I'll chalk it up to venting. This man turned around a dumpster fire in year 2. Has he had his WTF moments.... Obviously... and they've stung. But at least I have hope and can be angry by a 4 point loss at Navy then feel hopeless as we get schooled by Buffalo.

This loss is on the coaches. Diaco plays not to lose...but I can see clear progress on offense and defense. Second half adjustments were obvious on D. When allowed, the offense looked competent. The concern about our stud play maker Thomas not being used enough is no longer such a concern. The program is adapting ...I really think this game hit Diaco particularly hard and he has to fix these unacceptable mistakes. He's not a dumb guy as many on here suggest. Look ....we are only 2 games into year 3 coming off a bowl season complaining about a last second loss to Navy at Navy, that we should have won. Lets calm down with the Fire Diaco stuff and stick with the team and our coach and see how they respond. Next week is a chance to get back to a winning record.

I agree... Was at the game and everything looked lost after the first half. Should have been down 28-0. I give credit to the team and coaches for righting the ship and scoring 24 unanswered points.
Something we haven't seen in a few years is a third or fourth gear on offense. Kind of like, where has this been. I hope they keep this in their toolkit because they do have some weapons on offense.

He probably won't do it in public, but I hope Diaco owns this loss to the players. they did everything and deserved better from the coaches. Nobody goes into the last 17 seconds with 1 to hoping for one play. You get two plays.....

 

[The Moose]

100 Level coaching would have been enough to win the game

 

[Palatine]

I understand it's the heat of the moment and everyone is really upset. This loss hurts a lot because we are all looking for confirmation that we've "turned the corner." But these fire Diaco comments are a little over the top. I'll chalk it up to venting. This man turned around a dumpster fire in year 2. Has he had his WTF moments.... Obviously... and they've stung. But at least I have hope and can be angry by a 4 point loss at Navy then feel hopeless as we get schooled by Buffalo.

This loss is on the coaches. Diaco plays not to lose...but I can see clear progress on offense and defense. Second half adjustments were obvious on D. When allowed, the offense looked competent. The concern about our stud play maker Thomas not being used enough is no longer such a concern. The program is adapting ...I really think this game hit Diaco particularly hard and he has to fix these unacceptable mistakes. He's not a dumb guy as many on here suggest. Look ....we are only 2 games into year 3 coming off a bowl season complaining about a last second loss to Navy at Navy, that we should have won. Lets calm down with the Fire Diaco stuff and stick with the team and our coach and see how they respond. Next week is a chance to get back to a winning record.

He's the one who had the 2-10 record. He was the dumpster fire.

You see progress? Where?

 

[uconnflyer88]

Well, OK I guess. But fire him if we lose next week. Virginia sucks and we are at home so no excuses.

lol this team was 2 - 10 two seasons ago....no excuses?

 

[gopher2]

lol this team was 2 - 10 two seasons ago....no excuses?

I was joking. But I'm glad you got a laugh out of it. Not many laughs to be had this evening.

 

[Devland]

I disagree with the "play not to lose" part of your post. He took a big risk earlier in the game on the fake field goal first down. If that had failed he would be getting killed here for letting three points get away. On they final play he took a big risk ( way too big in my opinion), but if somehow Johnson had made his way into the endzone on that play he would be getting praised for the gutsy call. My only hope is that this is a learning experience for Diaco and the next time he makes a better decision based on this decision.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

I disagree with the "play not to lose" part of your post. He took a big risk earlier in the game on the fake field goal first down. If that had failed he would be getting killed here for letting three points get away. On they final play he took a big risk ( way too big in my opinion), but if somehow Johnson had made his way into the endzone on that play he would be getting praised for the gutsy call. My only hope is that this is a learning experience for Diaco and the next time he makes a better decision based on this decision.

We can't afford any more of Bob's incompetence. He needs to take his training wheels and work out his mistakes coaching a local high school team. This guy is contributing to the demise of our football program during the most critical time of conference realignment.

It is time for Diaco to go. He is just not fit as a head coach.

 

[Devland]

We can't afford any more of Bob's incompetence. He needs to take his training wheels and work out his mistakes coaching a local high school team. This guy is contributing to the demise of our football program during the most critical time of conference realignment.

It is time for Diaco to go. He is just not fit as a head coach.

There should also be some accountability for the players themselves. What puzzles me is the fact that they showed no urgency to get up and get another play off . Whether they were informed by the coaching staff or not about the situation they should know the situation in the game. Every fan here and in the stadium knew the time and score situation. You would hope the players on the field could figure this out on their own. I realize that some Navy players were on top of UConn players to prevent them from getting up. But if the UConn players were at least trying to hustle to the line the refs would penalize Navy for delay of game. In seventeen seconds you should be able to get two plays off.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

There should also be some accountability for the players themselves. What puzzles me is the fact that they showed no urgency to get up and get another play off . Whether they were informed by the coaching staff or not about the situation they should know the situation in the game. Every fan here and in the stadium knew the time and score situation. You would hope the players on the field could figure this out on their own. I realize that some Navy players were on top of UConn players to prevent them from getting up. But if the UConn players were at least trying to hustle to the line the refs would penalize Navy for delay of game. In seventeen seconds you should be able to get two plays off.

Why take the risk at that point of the game? We could have easily get off 2 quick pass plays and still run a play with 17 secs left.

There were so many other coaching blunders. In the first half, we were 4th and short twice in Navy side of the field and punted vs. going for it. Both times Navy matched down and scored TDs.

Second half we were 4th and 1 and decided to kick a FG vs. going for it. We were moving the ball well that time. That 3 straight runs vs. trying to throw even once before Navy's last TD was another head scratcher.

This guy is not a head coach. He is clueless. He is a great motivator, but he is not a head coach. Time to pull the plug on this guy.

 

[Athlete94]

Even the announcer at the game said, why would you not throw the ball once and let your QB take a shot. He said your giving Navy exactly what they want. Then he says while at the 1, where's this team urgency to get on the ball, there was none. It's like they all thought they had more time. What a joke, disappointed but still proud of this team. There's no way we sniff a 24 pt swing 2 or 3 years ago.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I wish that RE had Diaco's personality when he was here. I also wish he had our current coach's ability to come across as positive and supportive while explaining things that didn't turn out instead of making comments that sounded like he was throwing some kid under the bus. If RE had this he would have been able to recruit better when he was here, would have won more during our BE years and he would have been more attractive to the schools he was continually looking to for his next job and he would have left us a couple years earlier. The benefit there would have been Hathaway would have been far less likely to hire P as a replacement and things likely would never have gotten as bad as they did.

On the ride home from the Maine game BD spike about how coming from behind in the fourth quarter and winning a game on the last possession were things we couldn't do in the previous two years. All I could think at that time was the last thing I wanted to hear from him was sunshine being blown up people's backsides. We escaped that game, needed a bit of good fortune to do so and the attitude should have been that a anything shy of a comfortable win in that game was a failure.

In the mid 1990's Stage Spurrier realized he needed a better defensive mind for Florida to take the final step to the title and brought in a kid named Bob Stoops to run the defense. Florida won a title and Stoops got a quality HC gig at Oklahoma. Early on there Stoops realized he needed someone to run the offense so he brought in Mike Leach. Oklahoma won a title and Leach got the HC job at Texas Tech. Diaco needs to find someone to run the offense and let him do it às his being involved doesn't lead to good things often enough. He may want to look into a special teams expert while he is at it.

This game was infuriating on too many levels. The offense looks excellent when run at a good tempo but that happened only on three drives. While I absolutely don't a agree (if this is the reason) I can accept the guy in charge beliving that as there are limits to practice time, offense and defense as should be prioritized and once the program has caught up to where they should be on offense and defense, then additional time can be devoted to special teams (disclaimer, I am speculating that this is the case and I would prefer if with our offensive deficiencies, a Beemer ball approach to supplement scoring were taken).

If we were a candidate for the college football playoff and the opponent was one where a win would have launched us to a more firm spot in contention, today would have been a fireable offense. As that is not the case, today had better be a learning moment for BD. He needs to understand the importance of tempo to an offense's efficiency. He needs to understand the importance of time/clock management and he needs to understand critical situations. He'll never become a quality HC without learning these things.

 

[champs99and04]

I don't usually agree with Forte - but I could teach Diaco clock management in 40 hours. He couldn't teach me how to scheme a defense in 4,000.

Of all the things to fix for a coaching staff - risk/reward and clock management is probably the easiest thing.

This is a great point, and the reason I think the calls to fire him are a bit ridiculous.

Diaco suffers a bit from Andy Reid syndrome. Checks a lot of boxes as a football coach...problem is, his weaknesses are so obvious and so aggressive that your average Madden player is literally more intelligent in regards to calling plays that are compatible with basic probability. And that's precisely what is so maddening...that something legitimately good is being squandered by some combination of stubbornness and ignorance. It's like a chef who makes the greatest dish in the district and then sneezes on it as he's delivering it to the customer.

And as I'm sure you know this is far from something that is unique to Diaco. It's an epidemic in the NFL and probably as bad at the college level. My theory is that football coaches in general are incredibly high-strung, rigid people, and that doesn't always align with a willingness to acknowledge things like math and basic reasoning.

 

[Devland]

Why take the risk at that point of the game? We could have easily get off 2 quick pass plays and still run a play with 17 secs left.

There were so many other coaching blunders. In the first half, we were 4th and short twice in Navy side of the field and punted vs. going for it. Both times Navy matched down and scored TDs.

Second half we were 4th and 1 and decided to kick a FG vs. going for it. We were moving the ball well that time. That 3 straight runs vs. trying to throw even once before Navy's last TD was another head scratcher.

This guy is not a head coach. He is clueless. He is a great motivator, but he is not a head coach. Time to pull the plug on this guy.

I agree with the point about not running it three straight times especially because they would be kicking into the wind. I know he makes mistakes. I think he has potential to learn from his mistakes and grow into the best head coach we've had. I am retired now but I think back and cringe at some of my ideas from when I started my engineering career. A lot of it was because I was too gung ho and thought I knew more than I did. I learned from these failures. Diaco is a baby and I believe he will learn from his mainly because of his passion. As far as conference realignment goes, I could care less. I enjoyed Yankee conference games at Memorial Stadium as much as I enjoy these games. Football is football to me so I don't understand why people get so hung up on the conference realignment thing. Just enjoy the games.

 

[whaler11]

This is a great point, and the reason I think the calls to fire him are a bit ridiculous.

Diaco suffers a bit from Andy Reid syndrome. Checks a lot of boxes as a football coach...problem is, his weaknesses are so obvious and so aggressive that your average Madden player is literally more intelligent in regards to calling plays that are compatible with basic probability. And that's precisely what is so maddening...that something legitimately good is being squandered by some combination of stubbornness and ignorance. It's like a chef who makes the greatest dish in the district and then sneezes on it as he's delivering it to the customer.

And as I'm sure you know this is far from something that is unique to Diaco. It's an epidemic in the NFL and probably as bad at the college level. My theory is that football coaches in general are incredibly high-strung, rigid people, and that doesn't always align with a willingness to acknowledge things like math and basic reasoning.

TCU lost in two overtimes tonight because when they had the chance to run the clock out with a first down... instead they scored a touchdown.

Up 1 instead of going down inside the 5 the TD gave Arkansas the chance to tie and they did. 2 OTs later their playoff dream is close to dead.

I said it last week during the Clemson game. The first school that hires someone who knows what they are doing to manage the clock is going to have a competitive advantage. A grad assistant with 5000 hours of video games is exactly what is needed even if Diaco mocks it.

 

[whaler11]

I agree with the point about not running it three straight times especially because they would be kicking into the wind. I know he makes mistakes. I think he has potential to learn from his mistakes and grow into the best head coach we've had. I am retired now but I think back and cringe at some of my ideas from when I started my engineering career. A lot of it was because I was too gung ho and thought I knew more than I did. I learned from these failures. Diaco is a baby and I believe he will learn from his mainly because of his passion. As far as conference realignment goes, I could care less. I enjoyed Yankee conference games at Memorial Stadium as much as I enjoy these games. Football is football to me so I don't understand why people get so hung up on the conference realignment thing. Just enjoy the games.

I loved games at Memorial Stadium - but it's completely different than being part of a P5 conference and the experience that goes with it.

Once you get a taste of something like the Fiesta Bowl it's hard to go back.

It's like going to a Wolfpack game after going to a dozen NHL playoff games.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I agree with the point about not running it three straight times especially because they would be kicking into the wind. I know he makes mistakes. I think he has potential to learn from his mistakes and grow into the best head coach we've had. I am retired now but I think back and cringe at some of my ideas from when I started my engineering career. A lot of it was because I was too gung ho and thought I knew more than I did. I learned from these failures. Diaco is a baby and I believe he will learn from his mainly because of his passion. As far as conference realignment goes, I could care less. I enjoyed Yankee conference games at Memorial Stadium as much as I enjoy these games. Football is football to me so I don't understand why people get so hung up on the conference realignment thing. Just enjoy the games.

Seriously? Yankee Conference vs P5 football? Memorial Stadium vs. Rentschler? Kind of like those Yankee Conference Championships in mens basketball were just as exciting as those pesky National Championships that ran into April and interfered with the opening of major league baseball, huh?

 

[Devland]

Seriously? Yankee Conference vs P5 football? Memorial Stadium vs. Rentschler? Kind of like those Yankee Conference Championships in mens basketball were just as exciting as those pesky National Championships that ran into April and interfered with the opening of major league baseball, huh?

I hate baseball. It is the most boring and brain dead game ever invented. I can and have enjoyed football at every level. I grew up in Eastern PA attending a football game every Saturday (Until I was old enough to play). I didn't matter what level. DI,DII, DIII my father would always find a game for us to attend. I will now still attend a Trinity, Wesleyan or Central game on a Saturday if UConn isn't home.

 

[UConnNick]

I wish that RE had Diaco's personality when he was here. I also wish he had our current coach's ability to come across as positive and supportive while explaining things that didn't turn out instead of making comments that sounded like he was throwing some kid under the bus. If RE had this he would have been able to recruit better when he was here, would have won more during our BE years and he would have been more attractive to the schools he was continually looking to for his next job and he would have left us a couple years earlier. The benefit there would have been Hathaway would have been far less likely to hire P as a replacement and things likely would never have gotten as bad as they did.

On the ride home from the Maine game BD spike about how coming from behind in the fourth quarter and winning a game on the last possession were things we couldn't do in the previous two years. All I could think at that time was the last thing I wanted to hear from him was sunshine being blown up people's backsides. We escaped that game, needed a bit of good fortune to do so and the attitude should have been that a anything shy of a comfortable win in that game was a failure.

In the mid 1990's Stage Spurrier realized he needed a better defensive mind for Florida to take the final step to the title and brought in a kid named Bob Stoops to run the defense. Florida won a title and Stoops got a quality HC gig at Oklahoma. Early on there Stoops realized he needed someone to run the offense so he brought in Mike Leach. Oklahoma won a title and Leach got the HC job at Texas Tech. Diaco needs to find someone to run the offense and let him do it às his being involved doesn't lead to good things often enough. He may want to look into a special teams expert while he is at it.

This game was infuriating on too many levels. The offense looks excellent when run at a good tempo but that happened only on three drives. While I absolutely don't a agree (if this is the reason) I can accept the guy in charge beliving that as there are limits to practice time, offense and defense as should be prioritized and once the program has caught up to where they should be on offense and defense, then additional time can be devoted to special teams (disclaimer, I am speculating that this is the case and I would prefer if with our offensive deficiencies, a Beemer ball approach to supplement scoring were taken).

If we were a candidate for the college football playoff and the opponent was one where a win would have launched us to a more firm spot in contention, today would have been a fireable offense. As that is not the case, today had better be a learning moment for BD. He needs to understand the importance of tempo to an offense's efficiency. He needs to understand the importance of time/clock management and he needs to understand critical situations. He'll never become a quality HC without learning these things.

We are presently engaged in a much more serious endeavor than getting a CFB playoff spot. We're trying to get into a P5 conference to preserve our athletic program on a long term basis. I'd say that's light years more important that a CFB playoff spot. We're a legitimate B12 candidate, and we have a head football coach in the sport that matters who cannot manage late half or game strategy, because he obviously doesn't know what he's doing. That has to be fixed and fixed now, not later.

 

[Marty Jackson]

There should also be some accountability for the players themselves. What puzzles me is the fact that they showed no urgency to get up and get another play off . Whether they were informed by the coaching staff or not about the situation they should know the situation in the game. Every fan here and in the stadium knew the time and score situation. You would hope the players on the field could figure this out on their own. I realize that some Navy players were on top of UConn players to prevent them from getting up. But if the UConn players were at least trying to hustle to the line the refs would penalize Navy for delay of game. In seventeen seconds you should be able to get two plays off.

You don't get two plays on a run and no clock stoppage. Burning that to was huge. That play needed to be a pass. And then you get one final play.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We are presently engaged in a much more serious endeavor than getting a CFB playoff spot. We're trying to get into a P5 conference to preserve our athletic program on a long term basis. I'd say that's light years more important that a CFB playoff spot. We're a legitimate B12 candidate, and we have a head football coach in the sport that matters who cannot manage late half or game strategy, because he obviously doesn't know what he's doing. That has to be fixed and fixed now, not later.

So you are claiming that a conference who saw one of their top schools lose a game last night due to poor clock management would eliminate a quality expansion candidate because that school lost a game they had an opportunity to win due to poor clock management.

 

[UConnNick]

So you are claiming that a conference who saw one of their top schools lose a game last night due to poor clock management would eliminate a quality expansion candidate because that school lost a game they had an opportunity to win due to poor clock management.

No, one game isn't going to make or break anything, but this is a disturbing pattern in Diaco's case. We wouldn't be where we are now with our football program if this wasn't just another of several instances where winnable games were lost due to late game coaching decisions. They're looking at who your head coach is. What are they seeing with this guy? A nutjob who's incompetent when the chips are down? That isn't a great recommendation for inclusion in a conference trying to enhance its value.

 

[DefCONNOne]

I agree... Was at the game and everything looked lost after the first half. Should have been down 28-0. I give credit to the team and coaches for righting the ship and scoring 24 unanswered points.
Something we haven't seen in a few years is a third or fourth gear on offense. Kind of like, where has this been. I hope they keep this in their toolkit because they do have some weapons on offense.

He probably won't do it in public, but I hope Diaco owns this loss to the players. they did everything and deserved better from the coaches. Nobody goes into the last 17 seconds with 1 to hoping for one play. You get two plays.....

Consecutive not unanswered. The last Navy TD put an end to the "24 unanswered points" nonsense.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

I hate baseball. It is the most boring and brain dead game ever invented. I can and have enjoyed football at every level. I grew up in Eastern PA attending a football game every Saturday (Until I was old enough to play). I didn't matter what level. DI,DII, DIII my father would always find a game for us to attend. I will now still attend a Trinity, Wesleyan or Central game on a Saturday if UConn isn't home.

Disagree with you on baseball. Applaud that you are an appreciative fan of football at every level. Great that you are, honestly. Not my point to my reaction to your earlier post. The passion that exists on this board is due a passion and rooting interest that never existed when UConn was in YC. When you growing up in eastern PA, you already had an in state, big time football program (Penn State) that you could root for. The fans in Connecticut don't (not entirely) and desperately want inclusion into a P5 conference and Trinity, Wesleyan and CCSU football can't satisfy that appetite.

 

[uconnbill]

That's all well.and good, Mrs. Diaco.

Now tell us Donald Trump is a sweet humanitarian who is just misunderstood.

Pure and simple, this was coaching failure that ruined an impressive comeback.

You can spin it and use PP perspective all you want, but it won't take the sting out of this one. Give Bobby a night-night kiss and tell him he did the best he could. We know otherwise. Tonight he was Lucy yanking the ball away from Charlie Brown at the last second. Deja Vu to me.

Please leave the politics off of this board. We have enough cesspool types here already without the politics being thrown out.

The players love him and that means a lot to me and many others. He will make mistakes and will keep the team unlike the last coach who shall remain nameless forever on this board.

 

[uconnbill]

Why take the risk at that point of the game? We could have easily get off 2 quick pass plays and still run a play with 17 secs left.

There were so many other coaching blunders. In the first half, we were 4th and short twice in Navy side of the field and punted vs. going for it. Both times Navy matched down and scored TDs.

Second half we were 4th and 1 and decided to kick a FG vs. going for it. We were moving the ball well that time. That 3 straight runs vs. trying to throw even once before Navy's last TD was another head scratcher.

This guy is not a head coach. He is clueless. He is a great motivator, but he is not a head coach. Time to pull the plug on this guy.

You do realize that Lane Kiffin is not coming through the day anytime soon. This fire the coaching stuff is crap and unproductive, to say the least. He is not going anywhere and maybe some fans need to put on their big boy pants and suck it up some