UConn's Bob Diaco Hopes To Expand Role Of Preferred Walk-Ons (Des)

[whaler11]

Yes the NFL is so full of players recruited by no one. When April rolls around the early rounds won't be dominated by the SEC, PAC 12 and Big 12.

 

[whaler11]

You do realize that these players (the preferred walk-ons) are excited to to be given the opportunity to compete for a spot. They aren't being forced to go to UCONN against their will, but keep throwing Shot at the wall, it's the only thing you are good at.

I know you can't read but give this your best shot:

"but if this really talented Connecticut high school football player who loves Connecticut ... to me, these guys are not an afterthought anymore," Diaco said. "Don't go to another university. Come to UConn. Come serve this state institution and come serve the football team."

You aren't an afterthough - but come serve this state institution. Sure you have to pay your way to do it. But you aren't an afterthought.

 

[noeynox]

If I wasn't clear I knocked him for recruiting against Maine and calling on Connecticut players to serve their state university without scholarships.

If he wants to deliniate walk ons from preferred walk ons that's fine.

Well Ryan Griffin's other offer was New Hampshire. Kids with tons of offers have never flocked here in droves. There have been some, Jimmy Bennett, Brad Kanuch, Lamelle, Kevin Murphy appears to be one. The recruiting looks no different than it ever has. I just want to see progress when the games start. Beat Nova and Army at home and maybe, his plan has a chance. Lose those games and I will begin to question if he can ever succeed here. Like you, I feel he left wins on the field last year with his coaching. We will see if year two shows he can tighten up some basic coaching stuff.

 

[metsfan2323]

I know you can't read but give this your best shot:

"but if this really talented Connecticut high school football player who loves Connecticut ... to me, these guys are not an afterthought anymore," Diaco said. "Don't go to another university. Come to UConn. Come serve this state institution and come serve the football team."

You aren't an afterthough - but come serve this state institution. Sure you have to pay your way to do it. But you aren't an afterthought.

you must be wearing a bra and panties because you want everyone to be treated the same. You want everyone to be given a scholarship, especially the borderline talented CT player. How liberal of you. I'm glad you are not in charge of recruiting.

Edit: you want everyone to be given a scholly unless they have an offer from Maine.

 

[junglehusky]

competing with Alabama and Ohio State for future top ten draft picks <-----> a billion square miles of gray area <------> CT recruits and kids with FCS offers only

but yeah, let's oversimplify it instead because everything has to be binary. 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01100101 01100001 01101000 00101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101101 01110000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01111001 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110011 01110100 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 00100000

 

[whaler11]

you must be wearing a bra and panties because you want everyone to be treated the same. You want everyone to be given a scholarship, especially the borderline talented CT player. How liberal of you. I'm glad you are not in charge of recruiting.

Edit: you want everyone to be given a scholly unless they have an offer from Maine.

Do you live in Florida?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I was joking the other day about how we get Patriot league kids that we're the captains of their baseball team and made the honor roll.

Next thing I know we get a kid with a Maine offer who does karate.

Please spare me the measurable bs and 'high character' spiel too.

We suck, frankly because our recruiting sucks and so does our coaching.

Wake me up when we recruit majority of kids that can actually play football and has the offers to prove it.

The "this player had no offers" line is about as played out as the Denham brown once scored 100 points in a Canadian HS basketball line.

 

[BoatShow]

Oh

 

[BNich]

I actually think highly of Zordan - I don't care who else has offered. Nebraska has used the preferred walk on program for years with much success. Depth is something that has to be built, I don't care how it is done and if these kids can contribute, I am all for it.

I thought he has a scholarship offer and not a preferred walk on spot.

 

[metsfan2323]

Wake me up when we recruit majority of kids that can actually play football and has the offers .

and another Boneyarder officially achieves status. Go away turd, we don't want to wake you up.

Why the heck would someone who feels that way even bother posting in here?

 

[whaler11]

and another Boneyarder officially achieves status. Go away turd, we don't want to wake you up.

Why the heck would someone who feels that way even bother posting in here?

LOL be glad he cares. If you exclude everyone who doesn't treat the team like a Pop Warner team you'll have about 2 dozen fans left.

 

[metsfan2323]

LOL be glad he cares. If you exclude everyone who doesn't treat the team like a Pop Warner team you'll have about 2 dozen fans left.

Nope, the people who come in here bashing our recruits who probably read this board don't care, they are A- holes.

LOL "spare me the measurables and the high character" wow, what are we supposed to recruit on singing voice? But of course that is a poster Whaler supports, someone who kicks dirt on the football team and probably wishes it would go away.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Who else recruits Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont? The answer is the FCS schools because it isn't cost effective for any P5 outside of New England to send people up there. So, kids like Kendall Reyes, Ryan Griffin and Jordan Zolman have few offers.

Additionally, where kids camp are huge. If Jordan was competing in another sport, did he go to anyone's camp? I bet he didn't make the circuit so nobody knew of him. Hence, the Maine offer.

 

[whaler11]

Nope, the people who come in here bashing our recruits who probably read this board don't care, they are A- holes.

LOL "spare me the measurables and the high character" wow, what are we supposed to recruit on singing voice? But of course that is a poster Whaler supports, someone who kicks dirt on the football team and probably wishes it would go away.

I get that you don't get it... but try not to get so angry at the messenger.

He gets to the games from the city. You are the one deciding who can and can't be fans based on how often they agree with you.

Once you've got the fan based paired down to only those who agree with you then you'll be thrilled.

You are missing the point anyway - this kid might be all-conference as a true freshman. Nobody is bashing him - good for him and all the success he has had outside of football.

The point is you can't build a competitive program unless you are winning recruiting battles against peer and competitive programs. It's day 1 stuff.

 

[Pudge]

How many offers did Kendall Reyes - lowly player from Nashua, NH - have "Mr I-Know-Football"?

 

[KOD594]

The in-state PWO is very good all around for many reasons and is great idea by Coach Diaco to pursue this route. Instead of having kids showing up as walk-ons just to have bodies to fill the roster you get kids with some talent, gives some depth, creates some competition, makes your scout team better which helps the two deep practice harder and maybe every now and then some of them develop into starters by their junior or senior year. Additionally creates relationships with high schools that might be leveraged when they have scholarship players in future. From fan base perspective might create more interest as people follow the programs that kids from their local schools goes to, so if it can increase interest in UCONN football and maybe get few more people in the stands that is great.

My issue with the article is from the reporting angle, is why does it send Des and some of the other beat reporters only report on what Diaco wants to speak about and ask softball questions. Would like to see article also about OC search, why did it take six weeks to decide to make a change (when most teams make those decisions few days after the season), what were reasons of keeping Cummings and parting ways with Foley (not arguing merits one way or another, just would like our beat reporter to ask that relevant question from head coach), who have you interviewed or at least how many people were interviewed and when do you expect to make the hire, will they have time to put in new plays before spring ball or are you looking to keep same play book for most part and just looking for someone to just make better and quicker play calls and use the right personnel (e.g. not have top receiver on sideline in many passing situations). As a fan of program just want to see reporters who have access to team try to get information that their readers would want to know.

 

[metsfan2323]

I have held off on commenting on the recent circle jerk..

This is how Whaler views the board welcoming a new recruit.

God forbid we post positive comments about his commitment and inspiring story and achievements and damn us to hell if we think he will do well here. Whaler is smarter than the rest of us because he can see the big picture with clarity and without bias, he knows everything sucks and we should all be miserable.

 

[whaler11]

This is how Whaler views the board welcoming a new recruit.

God forbid we post positive comments about his commitment and inspiring story and achievements and damn us to hell if we think he will do well here. Whaler is smarter than the rest of us because he can see the big picture with clarity and without bias, he knows everything sucks and we should all be miserable.

Acutally guy, I ignored all the talk about the kid from Maine. I commented in thread about Diaco's call to state football players to serve their state university. I only brought up the kid from Maine as an additional reason beyond the new comments that things continue to look bleak.

You can disagree if you like... but it's a hell of a longshot we are riding here. It's not a secret formula to winning college football games.

I have pretty much avoided bringing up the giant elephant in the room. You can't do it without getting bashed by blind homers like you.

The offer lists are an issue. A major issue.

 

[metsfan2323]

Acutally guy, I ignored all the talk about the kid from Maine.

Why did you feel it should be ignored? and then why did you call it a circle Jerk?

 

[whaler11]

Why did you feel it should be ignored? and then why did you call it a circle Jerk?

I ignored it because it's harmless.

The circle jerk reference was towards some guys on twitter not about anything on this board.

 

[Kgun7]

You aren't an afterthough - but come serve this state institution. Sure you have to pay your way to do it. But you aren't an afterthought.

The point is you can't build a competitive program unless you are winning recruiting battles against peer and competitive programs. It's day 1 stuff.

I give whaler credit for pointing out the perceived hypocrisy of HCBD imploring CT players to forego offers elsewhere, while giving offers to marginal prospects outside of CT. Sometimes HCBD needs to go about his business without trying to explain it to others ... it can be easily interpreted as BS.

However ... I strongly disagree that you can't build a competitive program without winning recruiting battles. UCONN has major disadvantages in the recruitment of football talent, and I want a coach that recognizes those disadvantages and recruits accordingly.

Anyone on the 'yard would love to have he success of Boise State. Just look at the 2015 projected starters at Offensive Tackle and their offers ....

LT #67, Rees Odhiambo, RS Freshman - No other D-1 offers.
RT #70, Steven Baggett, RS Freshman - Air Force, New Mexico State, Western Kentucky

 

[metsfan2323]

I ignored it because it's harmless.

The circle jerk reference was towards some guys on twitter not about anything on this board.

Yeah, OK, Thanks for clearing that up then because it sure seemed like you were referring to the board celebrating a new recruit.

 

[whaler11]

I give whaler credit for pointing out the perceived hypocrisy of HCBD imploring CT players to forego offers elsewhere, while giving offers to marginal prospects outside of CT. Sometimes HCBD needs to go about his business without trying to explain it to others ... it can be easily interpreted as BS.

However ... I strongly disagree that you can't build a competitive program without winning recruiting battles. UCONN has major disadvantages in the recruitment of football talent, and I want a coach that recognizes those disadvantages and recruits accordingly.

Anyone on the 'yard would love to have he success of Boise State. Just look at the 2015 projected starters at Offensive Tackle and their offers ....

LT #67, Rees Odhiambo, RS Freshman - No other D-1 offers.
RT #70, Steven Baggett, RS Freshman - Air Force, New Mexico State, Western Kentucky

There are always going to be players who fall the through the cracks. That is a given.

Boise barely pretends to be more than a Community College so it's hard to draw a lot of parallels to UConn.

Thank you for coming up with the right word on the PWO comments.

 

[noeynox]

There are always going to be players who fall the through the cracks. That is a given.

Boise barely pretends to be more than a Community College so it's hard to draw a lot of parallels to UConn.

Thank you for coming up with the right word on the PWO comments.

Boise, Louisville and Kansas State may all be community college models, but they have won at levels we could only imagine. Maybe its one we should emulate rather than pretending to be Michigan or Stanford.

 

[whaler11]

Boise, Louisville and Kansas State may all be community college models, but they have won at levels we could only imagine. Maybe its one we should emulate rather than pretending to be Michigan or Stanford.

Amen.

 

[History Geek]

Boise, Louisville and Kansas State may all be community college models, but they have won at levels we could only imagine. Maybe its one we should emulate rather than pretending to be Michigan or Stanford.

Disagree. I hope UConn never decides that athletic success trumps academics. UConn is an academic institution first and foremost, one that has aspirations to become one of the elite land-grant universities, a la Michigan, Virginia, UNC (before the recent scandals), etc. I am all-in on this goal. Our athletics helps us move toward this goal. That is why I am hyper-interested maximizing our position in the new college athletic paradigm because the $$ we have been able to invest in the facilities and academics since our basketball programs have become nationally relevant will dry up if we aren't involved. But let's not let athletic success become more important than academics.

 

[tduconn]

There are a "couple" of positives and a "couple" of concerns

Some positives I see and give credit to BD for recognizing and trying to mitigate:

It has always been difficult to recruit a roster of athletes recognized by more prominent programs to UConn

Trying to get recognized athletes recruit to UConn is more difficult now than every for obvious reasons......on field performance the last 5 years.......a non P5 league......level of OOC opponents (for most part, with a few exceptions, very weak).

If you look at where most of the football players from Ct are going, if they are not purely academic choices by the athletes, most are FCS or lower At least it gives an home grown athlete "a chance" at a scholarship at an institution with a good educational values, and a playing opportunity at a higher skill level......even as BD suggests, most may not make the team and/or receive a scholarship.....at least education wise, they are at a good institution.


My concerns:

Trying to fill a roster with preferred walk ons from CT........is that because recruiting is so difficult he can't fill the available openings with scholarship offers to more skilled athletes that have at least an interest from other programs?

What is the difference in skill between an athlete that is preferred walk on from CT with no other offers, and the athletes that have no other offers but received an offer of a scholarship from UConn?

My ultimate concern, and this is not BD's fault, is the future of the program. UConn has never been a power house, and getting to that level appears to becoming increasingly harder if your roster is going to primarily consist of "under the radar athletes".

 

[junglehusky]

In the other thread we signed a kid with Cincy, Duke, Temple offers - don't think I'm going out on a limb to say those are "peer" type programs. Does that balance the scale just a little bit, or do we have to have multiple kids with multiple P5 offers from UL, KSU and whoever to satisfy the requirements?

 

[History Geek]

...My ultimate concern, and this is not BD's fault, is the future of the program. UConn has never been a power house, and getting to that level appears to becoming increasingly harder if your roster is going to primarily consist of "under the radar athletes".

I am also concerned for the future of the program. However, I remain hopeful when I remember the trajectory of both our basketball programs. Coaches Auriemma and Calhoun showed up on campus in the mid-80s (Auriemma a well-respected assistant from the then-elite program at UVA, Calhoun a successful head coach at the mid-major Northeastern.) Neither had success right out of the gate. However, Husky nation could sense that both of these guys were different, maybe even special. Both started having some success in the late 80s. Then the Dream Season year of 89-90 the women won the Big East while the guys almost made it to the Final Four. Note this was done with mostly "under the radar" recruits. The success expanded our recruiting footprint and we became nationally prominent (and in the case of the women, nationally dominant) programs. It all has to start somewhere. Coaching up under the radar athletes is our institution's forte. When Warde hired Diaco I thought he had found the next Gino/Jim. Admittedly my faith took a hit after this past season. However, I remain hopeful and my gut still tells me that Diaco and staff can do it. I hope.

 

[whaler11]

In the other thread we signed a kid with Cincy, Duke, Temple offers - don't think I'm going out on a limb to say those are "peer" type programs. Does that balance the scale just a little bit, or do we have to have multiple kids with multiple P5 offers from UL, KSU and whoever to satisfy the requirements?

It would be nice if the majority of kids had at least AAC offers. Noting that the data isn't something you can assume is 100% correct.... it's ugly on paper.