Pete Roussel : Bob Diaco has retained only one uconn assistant

[Bill Sussman]

Best of luck to our former coaches but I think this is exactly what we needed.

 

[freescooter]

Pretty much what I expected, too. Time to reset. I'm glad Foley is back, though. He is just a terrific coach, outstanding at developing offensive lines, and frankly he did a nice job with the tight ends when he had them, too. I mean a kid who was a D3 volley ball player and a defensive end? Seriously? And compare the offensive line before 9/30 with the performance after 9/30. So much for the un-named source who made the comment that Foley wouldn't make a difference, huh?

 

[Chin Diesel]

Everyone knew the defensive staff was getting gutted. Switching to a 3-4 scheme necesitated that change.

On offense uunless Disco felt comfortable with TJ as his OC, a wholesale cleaning was coming too. The incoming OC has to be able to build his staff.

My biggest takeaway is that Diaco spent the weekend finding an OC/DC and getting input on who they were comfortable with retainng.

 

[freescooter]

One other thought. We had one of the worst offenses in college football for the last 3 seasons. How in the heck can anyone call for bringing back most of the guys who ran that side of the football? with the exception of Foley who has a rep beyond Storrs, I think its sort of crazy. FWIW, I would not have been shocked if he replaced Foley as well. I assumed he would only retain 1 guy from the old staff, 2 at the most. thought it might be Hank, who I am told is a respected Dline coach.

 

[Srqhusky]

He said it wasn't a rebuild job??

 

[upstater]

One other thought. We had one of the worst offenses in college football for the last 3 seasons. How in the heck can anyone call for bringing back most of the guys who ran that side of the football? with the exception of Foley who has a rep beyond Storrs, I think its sort of crazy. FWIW, I would not have been shocked if he replaced Foley as well. I assumed he would only retain 1 guy from the old staff, 2 at the most. thought it might be Hank, who I am told is a respected Dline coach.

People were talking about Weist. Weist is responsible for helping groom many WRs for the NFL. The guy has had a string of good players at Cincy. And his work with Phillips, Geremy Davis and Foxx, etc. was outstanding. UConn will have a very difficult time filling his shoes at WR coach.

 

[UconnFamily]

He said it wasn't a rebuild job??

I think he meant that with the talent we have, the great facilities, academics etc... we don't have to rebuild since we have all the necessary resources to recruit and win right away. Now, we all know that we needed to clean house after we hire a new coach. We don't want a Diaco to keep a staff he's not comfortable with just to please anyone, he needs to bring in a staff that sees his vision so he can succeed.

 

[tcf15]

Pete Roussel ‏@coachingsearch 2m
Bob Diaco is basically cleaning house at UConn. 3 of 4 grad assistants will not be retained, per source. http://goo.gl/jR4dCq

Feel kind of worse for those guys.

 

[Nostical]

Cleaning house is actually a good image for us. It shows in both the hire of Diaco and his cleaning house that the new sheriffs in town, Herbst and Manuel, have a much different plan for the program than others before envisioned--or even now anticipated. This says "we're getting ready for primetime", not "we're retracting" or "we're just happy to plod along in the AAC"

 

[FDNY99]

This was one guy who definitely needed to go...

OK. That explains this... I wasn't going to speculate what this was about but now we know :

 

[gioff23]

People were talking about Weist. Weist is responsible for helping groom many WRs for the NFL. The guy has had a string of good players at Cincy. And his work with Phillips, Geremy Davis and Foxx, etc. was outstanding. UConn will have a very difficult time filling his shoes at WR coach.

Assuming Weist could get his head wrapped around a lesser role (than HC). Some of the coaches may have wanted to move on. Best wishes to them all as they seek to continue their careers.

 

[Waquoit]

Isn't it interesting that the one guy staying on is the guy treated the worst by the previous crew? The guy they demoted then started a whisper campaign against?

 

[UConnJim]

Assuming Weist could get his head wrapped around a lesser role (than HC). Some of the coaches may have wanted to move on. Best wishes to them all as they seek to continue their careers.

I wish nothing but the best for Coach Weist as he turned around a floundering program. Thanks! Unfortunately, you can't keep someone on the staff that was essentially the head coach for 2/3 of the season. The players need to know that Diaco is now in charge. Both Weist and Diaco understand this.

 

[Limbo Land]

Wow. I expected a little house-cleaning from BD, but I wasn't expecting the entire crew (save 1). I think very highly of Foley, so I'm glad he's on board. I suppose his philosophy of line play must fit with Diaco's, since Diaco has said the first order of business is to win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That also means that Hughes' philosophy didn't match (I'm not shocked by that one). I think I'm most shocked on the offensive side of the ball, since I think that Weist and Day did a really nice job closing out the season in terms of WR, QB, and play calling.

Well, I can't wait to see some of the new names that BD brings into the fold. He must already have many of them in mind and perhaps even ready to commit, if he has already let the current staff go. Therefore, time for me to get back on that refresh button again...

The only way to change a culture of losing is to clean house. Good for the new coach to make the hard decision that Coach PP couldn't.

 

[huskymedic]

Pete Roussel ‏@coachingsearch 2m
Bob Diaco is basically cleaning house at UConn. 3 of 4 grad assistants will not be retained, per source. http://goo.gl/jR4dCq

Feel kind of worse for those guys.

Doug Shearer appears to be last man standing of the GA's. Here's a reminder of who he is: http://www.nhregister.com/sports/20...-uconn-grad-assistant-turned-tight-ends-coach

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Cleaning house, whether in football staffs or business, should only be done rarely. It actually sends a message of weakness, not strength.

Other than Foley, I didn't feel that strongly about any assistant, but is it really worth losing ALL that institutional knowledge?

Let's hope Disco knows what he is doing.

 

[Limbo Land]

Cleaning house, whether in football staffs or business, should only be done rarely. It actually sends a message of weakness, not strength.

Other than Foley, I didn't feel that strongly about any assistant, but is it really worth losing ALL that institutional knowledge?

Let's hope Disco knows what he is doing.

Always the optimist Muntz… don't know how much weaker we can get in regards to football stats, wins, and national perception. I think you are dead wrong on this one.

 

[metsfan2323]

Cleaning house, whether in football staffs or business, should only be done rarely. It actually sends a message of weakness, not strength.

Other than Foley, I didn't feel that strongly about any assistant, but is it really worth losing ALL that institutional knowledge?

Let's hope Disco knows what he is doing.

Yup, and anything less than 6 wins is a fail. You don't get a free year just because you had to start from scratch, because you didn't have to start from scratch.

Army, Stony Brook, and 4 conference wins (TJ had 3 conference wins) should be more than doable now that we have found a QB. 6 wins is just a "C".

 

[upstater]

Assuming Weist could get his head wrapped around a lesser role (than HC). Some of the coaches may have wanted to move on. Best wishes to them all as they seek to continue their careers.

I wasn't saying he should have been retained. I was answering freescooter who was questioning the coaching skills of the guys who were let go.

 

[huskymedic]

Sure sounds like once BD was hired TJW wasn't an option to be retained:

desmondconner1:18pm via Twitter for iPhone
Former #UConn interim head coach T.J.Weist said he and new coach Bob Diaco never got to the point of an offer to stay. T.J wants to b an HC

 

[Limbo Land]

This guy might need to cancel his reservation soon. Huge lifestyle change if his job is gone.

 

[MattMang23]

I just wanna know why all of his tweets are about food.

 

[freescooter]

nelson, nelson, nelson...this is Standard operating procedure in college football. Even when head coaches get promoted, they often replace large numbers of the existing staff. In basketball with 3-4 coaches, it is less common to make wholesale changes, though usually there are some. It almost always happens in college football at this level, especially when the previous administration has been fired. You know how many of Spazziani's staff Addazio kept? Two. And one was more an administrator. You know how many holdovers from last year's Syracuse staff there were? Two. Three if you count the head coach who was promoted from the staff, yet he still replaced the majority of the staff.

 

[Kgun7]

I can't say enough about the complete turnaround that Weist conducted with the QB's and WR's. I really thought there would be some way HCBD could incorporate that momentum into the new staff.

He must already have his OC picked out because he already knows Foley's techniques and teaching methods will mesh with the new OC's style.

 

[Excalibur]

nelson, nelson, nelson...this is Standard operating procedure in college football. Even when head coaches get promoted, they often replace large numbers of the existing staff. In basketball with 3-4 coaches, it is less common to make wholesale changes, though usually there are some. It almost always happens in college football at this level, especially when the previous administration has been fired.

For the most part I agree. The college football world is generally different from the business world in this respect. I'd prefer that everyone be assessed individually before making a decision, but I also don't know for sure that Diaco didn't do this.