TJ Not One of the Assistants Who Announced He is Moving On

[Husky25]

Good OLine coaches are worth their weight in gold. I am a friend of a retired Pro Bowl center and he can go on for hours about tendencies, techniques, foot and hand placement and on and on. The basics are easy, the minutia takes time and knowledge to teach. I played 2 years of CFB at Central back in the old days and he taught me more about line play in an hour than I learned in my career. He thinks Foley is great and that all the endorsement I need. He claims, as long as the players are coach-able, a good line coach can, in time, turn a bunch of division 2 type athletes into a solid, functional D1 unit. Give that same guy D1 talent to work with and we're on the way, once again, to a potent running attack.

Unless BD has someone good in the hopper, Foley is a key guy to keep.

I didn't say Foley wasn't a good O-line coach and I also said I could take him or leave him, but there are plenty of good hungry O-line coaches out there too. For Instance, Northern Illinois was top 5 in rushing and Sacks against in the country, and their Quarterback will be at the Downtown Athletic Club tomorrow. Joe Tripodi is Northwestern class of 2006.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Bummer. Sounds like he's gone. Written in the past tense without alluding to the future.

He can't talk about the future because he doesn't control it. What would he say? Thanks for letting me coach this program and I hope the new guy keeps me on......

 

[UconnFamily]

Hughes is the one coach I don't wanna see come back. His Defense this year was terrible and I haven't been impressed with him overall. I am indifferent to the Offensive side but I do like the thought of having some continuity on that side of the ball. Diaco is a defensive guy and know what he wants there, let him bring in the coordinators who will implement his system. If he thinks Foley, Weist, and Day are good for the offense then bring them back. Remember, Weist wasn't here for the first two PP seasons and Foley was removed from his OL duties as well. When re-installed, there was a significant change for the last half of the season. We shall see.

I know people want to purge the staff of anyone related with PP but there is some talent there and Diaco thinks they fit his philosophy, I see no reason why it would be a bad move to bring them back.

Hank Hughes I think is one of the coaches gone. According to Coachingsearch.com:

UConn: Bob Diaco plans to offer the defensive coordinator job to Notre Dame DL coach Mike Elston, according to a source.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Hank Hughes I think is one of the coaches gone. According to Coachingsearch.com:
UConn: Bob Diaco plans to offer the defensive coordinator job to Notre Dame DL coach Mike Elston, according to a source.

Expected. Hank and UConn have been a 4-3 for several years and Bob's going to be a 3-4 coach. No time to teach existing staff the intricacies of how to implement and teach it.

 

[Fishy]

Those were 'thanks for the memories' messages from TJ.

He did a heck of a job - I don't want to hear about the first five games anymore which is ironic and hypocritical since I was one of the people bitching at the time.

could not have bailed the water out of the ship as quickly as TJ did.

 

[UconnFamily]

Expected. Hank and UConn have been a 4-3 for several years and Bob's going to be a 3-4 coach. No time to teach existing staff the intricacies of how to implement and teach it.

Great point! the only way I see him staying is if he goes back to his natural job DL coach

 

[metsfan2323]

I don't care if a single coach comes back.

Then you better pray this guy knows what he is doing. To me everyone leaving would be a huge warning sign. With P the problem was not the coaches who stayed it was the loser he brought with him.

 

[upstater]

Then you better pray this guy knows what he is doing. To me everyone leaving would be a huge warning sign. With P the problem was not the coaches who stayed it was the loser he brought with him.

I'd be more concerned about losing a couple good ones on the offensive side. Diaco plays a D derived from Al Groh. If your assistants aren't 100% on board, that could present a huge problem. Coaching responses to certain situations are ingrained. If players hear more than one thing, it can be a problem. That's why a clean sweep of the D may be necessary. Diaco is a defensive coach with a D philosophy.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I'd be more concerned about losing a couple good ones on the offensive side. Diaco plays a D derived from Al Groh. If your assistants aren't 100% on board, that could present a huge problem. Coaching responses to certain situations are ingrained. If players hear more than one thing, it can be a problem. That's why a clean sweep of the D may be necessary. Diaco is a defensive coach with a D philosophy.

Exactly and Diaco doesn't have time to train his coaches how to teach the defense. They have to be able to teach exactly what he wants on Day 1.

 

[metsfan2323]

I'd be more concerned about losing a couple good ones on the offensive side. Diaco plays a D derived from Al Groh. If your assistants aren't 100% on board, that could present a huge problem. Coaching responses to certain situations are ingrained. If players hear more than one thing, it can be a problem. That's why a clean sweep of the D may be necessary. Diaco is a defensive coach with a D philosophy.

I really hope all of the offensive guys stay. We finally got that ship turned around, I don't want to see it blown out of the water.

Diaco would be wise to be a CEO coach with offense and let the offensive guys do their job, he's going to have too many other things on his plate. A good leader knows how to delegate.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

While I wouldn't scream bloody murder, I'd like to see TJ, Foley, Wholley and Day retained. The rest.......I can see moving on.

I highly doubt TJW stays after those series of tweets.

 

[UConn Dan]

While I wouldn't scream bloody murder, I'd like to see TJ, Foley, Wholley and Day retained. The rest.......I can see moving on.

I highly doubt TJW stays after those series of tweets.

I 100% agree...

 

[Wise2]

Those were 'thanks for the memories' messages from TJ.

He did a heck of a job - I don't want to hear about the first five games anymore which is ironic and hypocritical since I was one of the people bitching at the time.

could not have bailed the water out of the ship as quickly as TJ did.

Maybe HCBD offered TJ the job as OC, but TJ asked for time to think about his options. Maybe he was offered another job as OC and he is just negotiating for more money from UConn and he would stay.

 

[huskymedic]

While I wouldn't scream bloody murder, I'd like to see TJ, Foley, Wholley and Day retained. The rest.......I can see moving on..

^^^ This^^^

 

[Yonick]

Diaco & Weist could be a great combo. Diaco is an enthusiastic bundle of energy. Weist seems low key. Their apparent offsetting personalities could make for a great combo. But, who knows.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Maybe HCBD offered TJ the job as OC, but TJ asked for time to think about his options. Maybe he was offered another job as OC and he is just negotiating for more money from UConn and he would stay.

Wishful thinking. He's gone by my read of those messages. We'll learn why later. D staff will be gone. I think Foley has a shot to stay.

 

[BlueDogs]

I hope TJ stays. I think he deserves that courtesy. Plus he's good.

 

[babysheep]

But hey, anytime you can bring back staff from 5,5,3 win seasons, you have to do it.

That's not the best point....the current staff was only really in charge of a 3-5 team who was, at the time of the takeover, 0-4 and coming off a blowout loss to Buffalo.

Overall I agree in that this is the best time to move on with a new staff. I hope Diaco completes a thorough evaluation of the current staff and their relationship with current players, which cannot be overlooked, then moving to make staff changes where he deems them appropriate.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

The tweets do seem to indicate he's leaving, though there's a small part of me that hopes it's just him saying, 'Thanks so much for the opportunity to be an HC.' rather than leaving the organization entirely.

 

[CL82]

I want Diaco to bring in whoever he thinks will be the best guy for the job. If that means TJ is out, then that's fine. I totally respect what Weist did for us, but this is a new era.

Agree but I see their skill sets as being complementary and I'd hate to lose the goodwill and loyalty TJ built this year. So I hope that HCBD thinks that TJ is a good fit and hope that TJ feels comfortable stepping down from interim HC.

 

[RMoore1999]

I hope TJ stays. I think he deserves that courtesy. Plus he's good.

This is about building a program to ultimately consistently win football games. Nothing more. Cannot hire assistants based on “courtsey”. No participation medals here. TJ’s effort was admirable. hopefully others notice and he lands on his feet.

 

[CL82]

Those were 'thanks for the memories' messages from TJ.

He did a heck of a job - I don't want to hear about the first five games anymore which is ironic and hypocritical since I was one of the people bitching at the time.

could not have bailed the water out of the ship as quickly as TJ did.

Agree re the tweets but TJ left himself wiggle room, which is smart.

I agree that TJ did a good job in a difficult situation. In a lot of ways he's helped to set the table for Diaco to be successful more quickly. I will always be a fan of him because of it.

 

[tduconn]

My heart makes me want to believe Irish Loop is correct in his analysis of TJW's tweets. "Maybe" this is his way of perhaps gaining some allies in the admin. to perhaps "recommend" BD keep TJW on as OC.

My wishful thinking......TJ is "suggesting" ........my reading between the lines......"I'm disappointed it didn't work out in my favor, but I'm still a team player and appreciate the opportunity you gave me. I'm interested in remaining with the program......if you'll want to keep me."

I know.....my heart is probably stretching the meaning too much.

I'm afraid to listen to my gut in reaction to TJW's tweets.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Guys, he's gone. Seriously, it's pretty obvious.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I doubt that TJ was offered anything yet by us but was given a pretty good idea what would be available to him here if he wanted to remain.

My guess is that the 'waiting until next week to meet the current staff' is so that both sides (BD & our coaches) can assess the landscape as to what the options are before the meetings. I would also guess that the tweets in question were because TJ found a similar job elsewhere and felt it would be better for all involved if he did move on. It won't surprise me if his old buddy Taggart hires him @ USF.