UConn Huskies head coach Bob Diaco held his weekly pregame press conference and obviously the big topic at hand was the fact that Casey Cochran has stepped away from football for good due to concussions.
Diaco opened up his weekly presser by talking about how exciting it is to prepare for the following week after a win especially with the energy from the players and staff being different.
He said he first learned about Casey’s medical issue last Wednesday when the sports performance team told him about it. He said, the doctors, himself, Cochran and his family got together to speak about his past medical history. He said that Friday afternoon a decision hadn’t been made by the Cochran’s but he thought it was trending towards him being done.
He said they had another conversation on Saturday about it. Casey was on the sidelines and in uniform on Saturday because no final decision had been made yet.
He talked about UConn’s concussion protocols. He said they are for all sports. He stated they get a baseline from them before the season and use that in testing when a concussion is suspected. He said no one can play until they are back to normal no matter how long that takes.
He stated Casey is excited about still having a role with the team and is eager to learn how to be a coach.
Diaco stated he never once had a concussion. He talked about his playing days from being an 8-year-old all the way through college and how he never got one.
After the game he went over to Cochran and Diaco said he did that because he didn’t want him to feel alone.
Even though he’s the head coach, the medical staff can only disclose so much to him unless the student-athlete has given authorization to do so.
In the first question about Tim Boyle‘s role, Diaco stated that Boyle will play going forward.
Diaco said that Cochran will travel to home and road games with the team and that he expects him to continue to be a leader going forward.
He said Boyle has not improved in his leadership abilities as it relates to game stuff. He did say he has top notch traits in that he’s fast, he’s big, he can see over line. He has good vision, strong arm, good escapability. He needs to get better in communicating, clock management, all the things that go into being a QB.
Diaco said that Boyle was being recruited by Notre Dame when he was there.
He stated that Boise is a really exciting, unique team. They have a very explosive offensive system as evidence by 63 first half plays and almost 700 yards of total offense. He said they play hard on defense.
He’s concerned with Boise State RB Jay Ajayi because he’s fast and hard to tackle.
He was happy with the improved defensive effort against Stony Brook. The communication was better, tackling was better and overall the team went from eight penalties to three.
After watching the film, he was happy with Chandler Whitmer‘s decisions to run.
He said the team needs to continue to have a winning focus. It’s not all about winning or losing the game. It’s about winning the day, the task, the moment. It’s all part of the process.
He stated that it’s important that Chandler slides when he can. He said he needs to get as many yards as he can then slide.
He said that Andreas Knappe is back and healthy. He’ll battle with Dalton Gifford for the starting right tackle spot.
There is no set plan for how many snaps Boyle will get in the game. They’ll go over his participation on Thursday.
He said Boise QB Grant Hedrick is a dual threat. He’s faster than BYU QB Taysom Hill but not as big. He’s a make you miss type of runner.
He said it will take all three phases of the game to limit the number of plays by Boise.
He was not pleased with the one big drive by Stony Brook but overall things were good. He thought the coverage was good despite the two big catches.
He said the tight ends having no catches was a by product of the game. He said there some near misses and had they caught them that the question wouldn’t have been asked.
He ended by talking about it’s a good thing for the players to understand how Boise plays since it’s similar to BYU. It’s still going to be a challenge though.
We’ll have more coming up over the coming days about reactions from the players on the Cochran news, what they think about Casey being a coach, and a few other things.
