The yore of UConn QBs & Coaches past…

[giddyup]

FWIW, I believe Iowa St runs a 3-3-5. It works well when you have a great Nose Tackle and ends, with solid Linebackers and a hybrid LB who is mainly a DB, but only way it truly works is having a workhorse safety that can play both the pass and the run and with dbs that know their assignments. It is a difficult scheme to master when you don't have the players who know what to do/know their assignments pre-snap.

Right. I agree. Using a 3-3 requires exceptional athletes. It’s not a scheme to compensate for less then prototypical, undersized key position players. If your LBs can’t get off a block and fill, and your transitional LB/DBs lack the ability to speed rush effectively off the edge or lack the ability come up support the run, you’re dead. The is a reason we have been the worst D in football.

 

[Guru13]

Right. I agree. Using a 3-3 requires exceptional athletes. It’s not a scheme to compensate for less then prototypical, undersized key position players. If your LBs can’t get off a block and fill, and your transitional LB/DBs lack the ability to speed rush effectively off the edge or lack the ability come up support the run, you’re dead. The is a reason we have been the worst D in football.

I wonder why RE didn't just use the players he had and played to their strengths instead of letting a lot of them go and slowly implement the defense later on. It seems he couldn't adapt and play to their strengths hence telling the media it will take some time to rebuild the roster. Maybe we never had to rebuild the roster but develop the guys like Mora is doing with RE guys with better coaching. Which is a big differenceI am seeing with Mora.

 

[Buffett10]

I wonder why RE didn't just use the players he had and played to their strengths instead of letting a lot of them go and slowly implement the defense later on. It seems he couldn't adapt and play to their strengths hence telling the media it will take some time to rebuild the roster. Maybe we never had to rebuild the roster but develop the guys like Mora is doing with RE guys with better coaching. Which is a big differenceI am seeing with Mora.

Most of them were D-2 caliber players. Diaco couldn’t recruit to save his life

 

[gopher2]

Most of them were D-2 caliber players. Diaco couldn’t recruit to save his life

I have never understood why Diaco wasn't able to recruit better. He was a successful coach at ND who seemed to be turning the program around in his second year here. He was enthusiastic, charismatic (albeit a little
weird) and the players seemed to like him and play hard for him until near the end of his third year. Were his coordinators and position coaches ineffective recruiters? Did he/they target the wrong players? Did he lack connections in the big recruiting states? Or maybe he actually did bring in more talent than he is given credit for but didn't develop it. IDK, but the consensus on this board seems to be that the roster started to slide under PP and that the slide accelerated under Diaco. Outwardly he seemed to be a natural recruiter so I've just never understood why he missed so badly in the eyes of so many people.

 

[kemba]

Were his coordinators and position coaches ineffective recruiters? Did he/they target the wrong players? Did he lack connections in the big recruiting states?

I think all those things but also that a lot of guys could tell how fake and full of it he was. Sadly Warde could not

 

[gioff2323]

So, you’re saying diaco has the edge, P is 2d string, and RE will sit because he’s obtuse?

 

[Guru13]

Most of them were D-2 caliber players. Diaco couldn’t recruit to save his life

Okay lets look at the rankings for both defense and offense when Diaco and Edsall were here I tried cross-referencing between NCAA.Com and the sports-reference.com site.

Diaco 2014, Uconn 86th in Total Defense | 125th Total Offense
Diaco 2015, Uconn 15th in Total Defense | 122th Total Offense
Diaco 2016, Uconn 65th in Total Defense | 128th Total Offense
Edsall 2017, Uconn 122nd in Total Defense. | 103th Total Offense
Edsall 2018, Uconn 130th in Total Defense | 112th Total Offense
Edsall 2019, Uconn 128th in Total Defense | 120th Total Offense
Edsall 2021, Uconn 123th in Total Defense | 129th Total Offense

(Take my analysis with a grain of salt)

I am not sure in 2015 Uconn was ranked 15th in total defense, but I think we can all agree that 2017 and 2018 was a step in the right direction for the Offense, but after Lashlee and Dunn left, our offense just went downhill. Diaco fielded a better defense than Edsall 2.0, but his biggest problem was his offense not being competitive and putting points on the board. So to the point of Diaco having D-2 caliber players, I don't think that was the case with him, it was really him being a defensive head coach not knowing how to have a competent OC. In all seriousness, Edsall had players on defense to be successful regardless being recruited by Diaco, but he tried to use a defense that Uconn was not strongly suited for and that really hurt the team.

I believe Uconn had some very talented players on offense, but our biggest problem has been finding a consistent OC and surprisingly, Uconn has figured out that with a competent OC we can be competitive. The solution for our current program is can we find a way to field a somewhat competitive defense at the same time if our Current OC can make us competitive in being able to score more points than the other team. I think what Mora has done differently than Edsall and Diaco is give the OC full autonomy of the offense. In CFB you can get away with a subpar defense if you have a very talented offense who can keep consistently scoring and driving the ball down the field.

 

[Buffett10]

Okay lets look at the rankings for both defense and offense when Diaco and Edsall were here I tried cross-referencing between NCAA.Com and the sports-reference.com site.

Diaco 2014, Uconn 86th in Total Defense | 125th Total Offense
Diaco 2015, Uconn 15th in Total Defense | 122th Total Offense
Diaco 2016, Uconn 65th in Total Defense | 128th Total Offense
Edsall 2017, Uconn 122nd in Total Defense. | 103th Total Offense
Edsall 2018, Uconn 130th in Total Defense | 112th Total Offense
Edsall 2019, Uconn 128th in Total Defense | 120th Total Offense
Edsall 2021, Uconn 123th in Total Defense | 129th Total Offense

(Take my analysis with a grain of salt)

I am not sure in 2015 Uconn was ranked 15th in total defense, but I think we can all agree that 2017 and 2018 was a step in the right direction for the Offense, but after Lashlee and Dunn left, our offense just went downhill. Diaco fielded a better defense than Edsall 2.0, but his biggest problem was his offense not being competitive and putting points on the board. So to the point of Diaco having D-2 caliber players, I don't think that was the case with him, it was really him being a defensive head coach not knowing how to have a competent OC. In all seriousness, Edsall had players on defense to be successful regardless being recruited by Diaco, but he tried to use a defense that Uconn was not strongly suited for and that really hurt the team.

I believe Uconn had some very talented players on offense, but our biggest problem has been finding a consistent OC and surprisingly, Uconn has figured out that with a competent OC we can be competitive. The solution for our current program is can we find a way to field a somewhat competitive defense at the same time if our Current OC can make us competitive in being able to score more points than the other team. I think what Mora has done differently than Edsall and Diaco is give the OC full autonomy of the offense. In CFB you can get away with a subpar defense if you have a very talented offense who can keep consistently scoring and driving the ball down the field.

How many of those kids in 2015-2016 were kids he recruited on defense? Those were P’s kids. Diaco wanted huge kids that couldn’t run a sub 5 40 if their lives depended on it

 

[Bubba1957]

I wonder why RE didn't just use the players he had and played to their strengths instead of letting a lot of them go and slowly implement the defense later on. It seems he couldn't adapt and play to their strengths hence telling the media it will take some time to rebuild the roster. Maybe we never had to rebuild the roster but develop the guys like Mora is doing with RE guys with better coaching. Which is a big differenceI am seeing with Mora.

A couple of counterpoints to the 3-3-5 criticism:
Big athletic humans were not easy to find. That staff could barely fill out the roster on 0-line, D-line or backer. They did recruit lots of smaller guys that potentially could play the schema.
The conference was full of gun slinging QBs at that time. That alignment could have created problems for them.
Obviously, it didn't work, but it did not seem to be a random idea without any basis to me.

 

[ZooCougar]

I wonder why RE didn't just use the players he had and played to their strengths instead of letting a lot of them go and slowly implement the defense later on. It seems he couldn't adapt and play to their strengths hence telling the media it will take some time to rebuild the roster. Maybe we never had to rebuild the roster but develop the guys like Mora is doing with RE guys with better coaching. Which is a big differenceI am seeing with Mora.

Because Randy would rather lose than be proven wrong.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Bad mix of HC and two coordinators who were not his hires from the start with unshared philisophies. Playing underdeveloped freshmen instead of Diaco's upperclassmen lent to to the front seven being physically overmatched and divided the team.The white flag was waved when an OC could not be secured with 150k of REs own money and Giufre was made OL coach and OC. Surprise we are going indie! Head coach unaware his AD was working to leave a conference from the very beginning. 2020 non season. Another graceless exit. The whole RE2 was a mess except the early 2022 recruiting. Mora has to turn things rather quickly. Its been 50 years, I'm getting old and I have better things to do then spend time and money on bad football.

 

[Palatine]

Most of them were D-2 caliber players. Diaco couldn’t recruit to save his life

Not true. Edsall couldn't figure out how to use Travis Jones to play to his strengths. He was a poor and unmotivated coach. We have no idea how good the players were.

 

[Buffett10]

Not true. Edsall couldn't figure out how to use Travis Jones to play to his strengths. He was a poor and unmotivated coach. We have no idea how good the players were.

Travis was an Edsall commit... so once again Diaco couldn’t recruit. He wanted 20 TE/DE converts

 

[ZooCougar]

Bad mix of HC and two coordinators who were not his hires from the start with unshared philisophies. Playing underdeveloped freshmen instead of Diaco's upperclassmen lent to to the front seven being physically overmatched and divided the team.The white flag was waved when an OC could not be secured with 150k of REs own money and Giufre was made OL coach and OC. Surprise we are going indie! Head coach unaware his AD was working to leave a conference from the very beginning. 2020 non season. Another graceless exit. The whole RE2 was a mess except the early 2022 recruiting. Mora has to turn things rather quickly. Its been 50 years, I'm getting old and I have better things to do then spend time and money on bad football.

Most of this is on Edsall.

He was basically gifted the job at the 11th hour. He had an OC that he could have never secured on his own. But he screwed that up because he couldn’t get along with him..

AND he actually told the guy to score less.

Starting “his guys”. Should have been a fireable offense. Apparently the gap between “his guys” and the best was embarrassing and it killed morale.

Like every season we purged players like it was year one. Bad morale.

Couldn’t keep the next OC because again. Almost nobody good wants to work for the guy.

Then he hires Giufre to do both OL and OC. OL is the weak point so let’s cut down on the amount of coaching that unit gets in practice and in game. Plus OL coaches are notoriously bad at play calling.

Can you get any dumber?

2020? Any coach that is in it to win it would never support canceling a season. The 2020 season consisted of 25 practices and the weight room. Good and the Boneyard wondered out loud why we looked like a Division II team.

The sad thing is that the Boneyard and Edsall probably actually believed the nonsense that sitting out a year would be better. Idiots.

So going Indy? Given the other terrible decisions does it really matter. He should have never been hired back and should have been canned after the first season anyways.

Zero mercy to the guy. He drove us to oblivion.

 

[ZooCougar]

Travis was an Edsall commit... so once again Diaco couldn’t recruit. He wanted 20 TE/DE converts

As bad as Diaco was, he was better than Randy 2.0.

And Randy 1.0 is wildly overrated.

 

[businesslawyer]

As bad as Diaco was, he was better than Randy 2.0.

And Randy 1.0 is wildly overrated.

God, I thought you'd actually get through a series of rational, well thought out posts before saying something silly that reminds us that all your posts are based on who you don't like.

My bad.

 

[ZooCougar]

God, I thought you'd actually get through a series of rational, well thought out posts before saying something silly that reminds us that all your posts are based on who you don't like.

My bad.

Well look at his overall record in the Big East and then have a seat. He wasn’t as good as everyone remembers.

 

[CL82]

Randy 1.0 is wildly overrated

Well, winning football games and going to bowl games will certainly cause people to do that.

 

[ZooCougar]

Well, winning football games and going to bowl games will certainly cause people to do that.

Only terrible teams in BCS conferences didn’t go to bowl games.

 

[NEforceUConn]

I have never understood why Diaco wasn't able to recruit better. He was a successful coach at ND who seemed to be turning the program around in his second year here. He was enthusiastic, charismatic (albeit a little
weird) and the players seemed to like him and play hard for him until near the end of his third year. Were his coordinators and position coaches ineffective recruiters? Did he/they target the wrong players? Did he lack connections in the big recruiting states? Or maybe he actually did bring in more talent than he is given credit for but didn't develop it. IDK, but the consensus on this board seems to be that the roster started to slide under PP and that the slide accelerated under Diaco. Outwardly he seemed to be a natural recruiter so I've just never understood why he missed so badly in the eyes of so many people.

Neither can he

 

[Stinger92860]

I have never understood why Diaco wasn't able to recruit better. He was a successful coach at ND who seemed to be turning the program around in his second year here. He was enthusiastic, charismatic (albeit a little
weird) and the players seemed to like him and play hard for him until near the end of his third year. Were his coordinators and position coaches ineffective recruiters? Did he/they target the wrong players? Did he lack connections in the big recruiting states? Or maybe he actually did bring in more talent than he is given credit for but didn't develop it. IDK, but the consensus on this board seems to be that the roster started to slide under PP and that the slide accelerated under Diaco. Outwardly he seemed to be a natural recruiter so I've just never understood why he missed so badly in the eyes of so many people.

We do know he was not very good at breakfast, using timeouts, picking out pants, or returning punts. Without proper breakfast the rest of the day is usually a disaster.

 

[CL82]

We do know he was not very good at breakfast, using timeouts, picking out pants, or returning punts. Without proper breakfast the rest of the day is usually a disaster.

And a little shaky on the concept of a rivalry as well.

 

[Palatine]

We do know he was not very good at breakfast, using timeouts, picking out pants, or returning punts. Without proper breakfast the rest of the day is usually a disaster.

Not knowing what down it is and panicking in crunch time are not good qualities in a head coach.

 

[CL82]

Only terrible teams in BCS conferences didn’t go to bowl games.

So, minimally, we weren’t terrible under HCRE1. Can you say the same about Diaco‘s tenure? (yes, I know we did go to one bowl game.)

Also was the standard for making the Fiesta Bowl “just not being terrible.

HCRE2 was abysmal. HCRE1, not so much.

 

[ZooCougar]

So, minimally, we weren’t terrible under HCRE1. Can you say the same about Diaco‘s tenure? (yes, I know we did go to one bowl game.)

Also was the standard for making the Fiesta Bowl “just not being terrible.

HCRE2 was abysmal. HCRE1, not so much.

You mean the Fiesta Bowl where there was like 4 way tie for first place in the Big East? And got mauled on the actual bowl.

Made Todman tell his teammates he was entering the draft before the game and then didn’t even have decency to fly home with the team.

That’s the real Randy Edsall.

That peak isn’t as high as you think it is.