Looks like Diaco is gonna be REAL busy....

[Forte]

I am going to defend Coach Diaco on this topic, and I have been a pretty vocal critic. There are two things, I have liked about his tenure thus far:

1. Recruiting: I see a clear plan on the type of recruits he wants. High character athletes. Raw in many cases, but with obvious extremely high ceilings. Frames that can fill out. Forget star ratings, there are some very good players in this class.

2. Locker Room Culture: His peace and love speeches need to go, but I also see his vision here. He wants high character players that play for each other and not for themselves. If that means we lose a lot of players because they won't buy in, I am fine with that.

What this team desperately needs though is several leaders among the players. Kids who will get in the face of teammates who put themselves above the team, or players that refuse to put in the efforts. I said in the game thread, I don't care if it is a 5th year senior or true freshman walk on.

If players don't want to play the right way, they are free to leave. And that includes some of the players last night who obviously mailed it in (watch the game again and check out some defensive players standing around, or offensive players who refused to fight for the football and has terrible body language),

This is SPOT on. People can feel free fling dog crap at Diaco, everyone needs a scape goat and some of it is understandable. The play calling has been suspect at times. But husky nation needs to take a step back a deep breath and think about the situation this program HAS been in for a while now. There are players who as others have noted have mailed it in, it's obvious to anyone watching the game. This is not the first time we have seen this either. It's speaks to the type characters and program pride some of these players have. Call him a loser, call for his head, but don't be oblivious to the mess this guy has ... Weist had a tough gutted, high character, smart playin kid with no quit in Casey Cochran and with it came success. Casey was the type of player that was always noted to be the last off the field after every practice. I am no sure how Diaco is going to handle all the holes in the off season because I doubt many of his freshman will be ready to go day 1. Perhaps he goes the Juco route... But I see the beasts he's bringing into the program and their love and pride they already have for this flawed and losing program ... These kid's attitudes sound much different than many of the players that remain after PP ran the program into a ditch. People are crapping on Diaco's decision to kick a field goal... You know what time game was already over ... Maybe he was trying to save his players the embarrassment of a shutout.... But it was a lost cause.

 

[whaler11]

LOL. Yeah people are making the head coach the scapegoat. He's the frigging head coach. If the team quits he isn't the scapegoat - he frigging owns it.

 

[Marty Jackson]

This game was pathetic. Worse than any under coach PP. Diaco is clueless and should clean out his own locker after this showing.

Not even close. Cinci is a good team playing good ball . Getting pasted by buffalo last year was much worse.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I don't want to hear one more goshdarn thing about recruiting after the mythical P #uptick.

 

[Forte]

Your right he does own it... And I think he's doing things about it that will take time to mature. He's building culture through the type of players he is recruiting and by removing the types of players that are disrupting that vision. I'm glad you find humor in the situation.

 

[huskysupporter]

Your right he does own it... And I think he's doing things about it that will take time to mature. He's building culture through the type of players he is recruiting and by removing the types of players that are disrupting that vision. I'm glad you find humor in the situation.

The problem I have with Coach D is his atrocious in game coaching. This actually can be corrected, but he needs to give an honest self assesment. Not sure if that will happen.

They need an offense with an identity. If that means adopting a Dino Babers, 100 plays a game, offense, fine. If it means an Alabama run based offense, great. Just stay committed to the plan. The play calling has been an embarrasment.

I am okay with the defense except they need to bring pressure off the edges.

 

[Palatine]

The problem I have with Coach D is his atrocious in game coaching. This actually can be corrected, but he needs to give an honest self assesment. Not sure if that will happen.

They need an offense with an identity. If that means adopting a Dino Babers, 100 plays a game, offense, fine. If it means an Alabama run based offense, great. Just stay committed to the plan. The play calling has been an embarrasment.

I am okay with the defense except they need to bring pressure off the edges.

We only run five plays, two runs and three pass patterns. And it doesn't look like there is a game plan at all.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

This can't be the old fortebleedsblue. That guy found doom and gloom when we were going to bowl games. Unless he's had a labotomy this can't be the same guy.

 

[UConnNick]

What exactly is the culture?

Celebrating opponents' missed FGs like a fool during games which you trail 41-0. That's apparently what we have become reduced to. Schadenfreude!

 

[Marty Jackson]

Ashiru was a contributor. He got the pick against UCF that led to a TD. He also forced the fumble against Army. To my eyes, while not as flashy as Stewart he was much more of a playmaker.

I don't think it was a matter of whether they could play or not. especially this late in the season.

there is nobody on this team worth risking the entire program over. if the coach thinks certain players are not "10 toes in" then I'll leave it to him to make that decision.
hope they use this as a learning process for the next challenges in life and move on.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Celebrating opponents' missed FGs like a fool during games which you trail 41-0. That's apparently what we have become reduced to. Schadenfreude!

here's a wild guess... he doesn't care what the score is or the time left. you play until the game is over. And, he's trying to instill that in his players.

 

[RMS25CT]

What exactly is the culture?

Be careful asking these tough questions. One particular poster tried to skewer me a couple of weeks ago because I asked what Diaco's offensive philosophy was? The question was asked in the context of what type of players he was going to recruit so he had "his guys".

 

[Jarhead_1775]

We are building a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude.

 

[SubbaBub]

When the program goes 13-23, then adds a 2-8, I would hope a house cleaning is the first order of business. My concerns, fast becoming issues, with BD is that his "plan" isn't making a lot of sense. There hasn't been any noticeable improvement in any areas. I'm not giving credit to the O-line because they started out so bad, it's not much of an accomplishment.

 

[SubbaBub]

I am going to defend Coach Diaco on this topic, and I have been a pretty vocal critic. There are two things, I have liked about his tenure thus far:

1. Recruiting: I see a clear plan on the type of recruits he wants. High character athletes. Raw in many cases, but with obvious extremely high ceilings. Frames that can fill out. Forget star ratings, there are some very good players in this class.

2. Locker Room Culture: His peace and love speeches need to go, but I also see his vision here. He wants high character players that play for each other and not for themselves. If that means we lose a lot of players because they won't buy in, I am fine with that.

What this team desperately needs though is several leaders among the players. Kids who will get in the face of teammates who put themselves above the team, or players that refuse to put in the efforts. I said in the game thread, I don't care if it is a 5th year senior or true freshman walk on.

If players don't want to play the right way, they are free to leave. And that includes some of the players last night who obviously mailed it in (watch the game again and check out some defensive players standing around, or offensive players who refused to fight for the football and has terrible body language),

If he is trying to out Randy, Randy. He isn't all that convincing. But, I agree that any future for this program lies with recruiting a bunch of iron tough SOB's.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

People can talk about the new recruits as being raw, high character players and that's all well and good...if they are good at football.

We're recruiting a goddam MAC/Patriot league roster and everyone is so willfully ignorant of it.

There is no uptick, there is no "but omg player x had zero offers!", the bottom line is we've had a losing conference record all these seasons is because other teams recruit higher ranked players. Period.

People love to point out our success stories and that's fine but by and large when you recruit guys with offers from URI, middle Tennessee state and Toledo don't be surprised when we continue to suck.

 

[huskysupporter]

People can talk about the new recruits as being raw, high character players and that's all well and good...if they are good at football.

There is no uptick, there is no "but omg player x had zero offers!", the bottom line is we've had a losing conference record all these seasons is because other teams recruit higher ranked players. Period.

I completely disagree with that statement. There are a lot of factors as to why this team has been horrid. Coaching is one. It definitely isn't because other teams recruit higher ranked players. Higher ranked players based off of what? I don't care about the rankings, I care about our staff's ability to identify and evaluate talent. Coach Edsall was a master at this. Coach P? Not so much. Jury is out on Diaco, obviously, but watching the clips of the players in this class, I am excited. Fast, athletic players with frames to put on size.

When you are recruiting to UCONN, you need to be able to project where a prospect will be more than at other schools. We are not getting the blue chips that every school is recruiting. But we can get the players that are blue chips when they leave campus (Kendell Reyes, Will Beatty, Darius Butler, Tyvon Branch, Donald Brown, Robert McClain, Anthony Sherman, Alfred Fincher, Sio Moore, Scott Lutrus, Bama Wilson, Shamar Stephen, Jordan Todman, Marcus Easley, Donald Thomas, Zach Hurd . . . etc.)

 

[Dooley]

I completely disagree with that statement. There are a lot of factors as to why this team has been horrid. Coaching is one. It definitely isn't because other teams recruit higher ranked players. Higher ranked players based off of what? I don't care about the rankings, I care about our staff's ability to identify and evaluate talent. Coach Edsall was a master at this. Coach P? Not so much. Jury is out on Diaco, obviously, but watching the clips of the players in this class, I am excited. Fast, athletic players with frames to put on size.

When you are recruiting to UCONN, you need to be able to project where a prospect will be more than at other schools. We are not getting the blue chips that every school is recruiting. But we can get the players that are blue chips when they leave campus (Kendell Reyes, Will Beatty, Darius Butler, Tyvon Branch, Donald Brown, Robert McClain, Anthony Sherman, Alfred Fincher, Sio Moore, Scott Lutrus, Bama Wilson, Shamar Stephen, Jordan Todman, Marcus Easley, Donald Thomas, Zach Hurd . . . etc.)

Agree with your disagreement. UCONN has never recruited the highly sought after 4 star recruit. In fact, the only 4 star recruits we've ever signed (Difton and Miller) were complete busts. Other 4-star transfers (Phillips and Stewart) also struggled - one with injuries and the other with taking horrendous angles.

UCONN's bread and butter recruiting philosophy has always been to mine for the under-recruited guys and coach/train them up by using our facilities. The PP regime failed to do that (the coaching/training up part) and now we're playing catch-up. Unfortunately, it will take years to see if Diaco's first true full recruiting class of 2015 will pan out and reap the benefits of UCONN's outstanding facilities. They all have great frames that could potentially fill out to NFL sized bodies. But that might not happen for another 2-3 years and, by then, I hope we will be winning more than 2-3 games per season.

 

[politics]

On the WTIC postgame show, he said that they played hard.

BDs gotta stop with that crap. To say UConn played hard last night is an insult to anyone who took the time to go to the game.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I completely disagree with that statement. There are a lot of factors as to why this team has been horrid. Coaching is one. It definitely isn't because other teams recruit higher ranked players. Higher ranked players based off of what? I don't care about the rankings, I care about our staff's ability to identify and evaluate talent. Coach Edsall was a master at this. Coach P? Not so much. Jury is out on Diaco, obviously, but watching the clips of the players in this class, I am excited. Fast, athletic players with frames to put on size.

When you are recruiting to UCONN, you need to be able to project where a prospect will be more than at other schools. We are not getting the blue chips that every school is recruiting. But we can get the players that are blue chips when they leave campus (Kendell Reyes, Will Beatty, Darius Butler, Tyvon Branch, Donald Brown, Robert McClain, Anthony Sherman, Alfred Fincher, Sio Moore, Scott Lutrus, Bama Wilson, Shamar Stephen, Jordan Todman, Marcus Easley, Donald Thomas, Zach Hurd . . . etc.)

Sure those guys are great examples of guys that were under the radar that played great at uconn and ended up making a pro career.

But let me ask you, under Edsall we won 2 conference titles going 5-2 those seasons. That was great.

Our other seasons? A lot of 3-4 or worse.

You know who consistently finished higher? WVU, Cinci, Pitt.

Coaching is very important obviously but if you simply don't have the players you can't win consistently at a high level.

The fact were now recruiting at a Mac level with bad coaching scares the hell out of me.

 

[huskysupporter]

Sure those guys are great examples of guys that were under the radar that played great at uconn and ended up making a pro career.

But let me ask you, under Edsall we won 2 conference titles going 5-2 those seasons. That was great.

Our other seasons? A lot of 3-4 or worse.

You know who consistently finished higher? WVU, Cinci, Pitt.

Coaching is very important obviously but if you simply don't have the players you can't win consistently at a high level.

The fact were now recruiting at a Mac level with bad coaching scares the hell out of me.

UCONN constantly was at the bottom of recruiting rankings for the BE. Yet I can assure you, there were many teams ranked higher that performed far worse.

Unfortunately right now, it looks like we have a Jimmy's and Joe's and X's and O's problem right now. And that is a recipe for disaster.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

UCONN constantly was at the bottom of recruiting rankings for the BE. Yet I can assure you, there were many teams ranked higher that performed far worse.

Unfortunately right now, it looks like we have a Jimmy's and Joe's and X's and O's problem right now. And that is a recipe for disaster.

UConn consistently finished towards the bottom half of the BE aside from the two title teams.

Just because UConn overachieved those two seasons due to their recruiting rankings does not prove anything to me.

I don't care what the sites rank guys per stars but I care a great deal about their offers.

Unless you think Diaco and his staff just know more than all the other staffs which after this season I would highly question.

 

[ZooCougar]

LOL. Yeah people are making the head coach the scapegoat. He's the frigging head coach. If the team quits he isn't the scapegoat - he frigging owns it.

That's really all that needs to be said here.

Diaco is responsible for every success and failure.

 

[bobbyinaz]

UConn consistently finished towards the bottom half of the BE aside from the two title teams.

Just because UConn overachieved those two seasons due to their recruiting rankings does not prove anything to me.

I don't care what the sites rank guys per stars but I care a great deal about their offers.

Unless you think Diaco and his staff just know more than all the other staffs which after this season I would highly question.

I agree that a recruits "stars" is not that big a deal but his other offers are very significant. Yes, Edsall should get a lot of credit for recruiting some under the radar kids but, at then end of the day you need better players than the other team to win games consistently.

The fact that we are "outrecruiting" Bryant College & Rhode Island for kids is very concerning. The fact that we are being told that certain recruits "have only been playing the game for a few years but have huge upside" is ridiculous. UConn needs to start winning games immediately not 2 or 3 years from now "if" we catch lightning in a bottle with some of these kids.

I will admit that I was not happy with the Diaco hire when it was made as I believed that UConn needed to hire someone with head coaching experience and not provide on the job training for a coordinator. This hire was too important to us given the state of the program, and the issues with CR. So far he has done nothing to change my opinion. His phony rah rah atitude is starting to take its toll on the players and the fanbase. And please don't compare him to Ollie as an example of hiring an assistant/coordinator. The only thing Bob Diaco and Kevin Ollie have in common is that they both breathe air. Other than that Diaco isn't qualified to be mentioned in ghe same breath as KO

Stop telling me what a mess things were when you got here & do something to change it. Finishing 2-10 or 3-9 is unacceptable with no clear plan being demostrated. We have now gone a full season where he has shown us nothing about what type of program he will run. What will the offensive system be? What will the defensive system be? He says he want kids that love football. Great! Then stop recruiting kids who just started playing a couple years ago. I f a kid really loves the game he would've started playing in Pop Warner not as a junior in high school because he outgrew the soccer team at his high school.

It's time for this show to stop. I know he's not going anywhere after this season but if things haven't changed by this time next year then he must go

 

[whaler11]

I agree that a recruits "stars" is not that big a deal but his other offers are very significant. Yes, Edsall should get a lot of credit for recruiting some under the radar kids but, at then end of the day you need better players than the other team to win games consistently.

The fact that we are "outrecruiting" Bryant College & Rhode Island for kids is very concerning. The fact that we are being told that certain recruits "have only been playing the game for a few years but have huge upside" is ridiculous. UConn needs to start winning games immediately not 2 or 3 years from now "if" we catch lightning in a bottle with some of these kids.

I will admit that I was not happy with the Diaco hire when it was made as I believed that UConn needed to hire someone with head coaching experience and not provide on the job training for a coordinator. This hire was too important to us given the state of the program, and the issues with CR. So far he has done nothing to change my opinion. His phony rah rah atitude is starting to take its toll on the players and the fanbase. And please don't compare him to Ollie as an example of hiring an assistant/coordinator. The only thing Bob Diaco and Kevin Ollie have in common is that they both breathe air. Other than that Diaco isn't qualified to be mentioned in ghe same breath as KO

Stop telling me what a mess things were when you got here & do something to change it. Finishing 2-10 or 3-9 is unacceptable with no clear plan being demostrated. We have now gone a full season where he has shown us nothing about what type of program he will run. What will the offensive system be? What will the defensive system be? He says he want kids that love football. Great! Then stop recruiting kids who just started playing a couple years ago. I f a kid really loves the game he would've started playing in Pop Warner not as a junior in high school because he outgrew the soccer team at his high school.

It's time for this show to stop. I know he's not going anywhere after this season but if things haven't changed by this time next year then he must go

Easy it's Bryant University now.