UConn Huskies head football coach Bob Diaco held his weekly pregame press conference on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bearcats and talked about a myriad of things.
With there being a bye week, Diaco opened things right up to questions. I got things started by asking him about what phase were they in as far as the season goes.
If you remember back to earlier in the season, Diaco had broken down the season into different parts, the future and the present. Now it’s all about the past as in the previous players there. He talked about it being a family and the legacy.
He said they are focused on getting better.
He talked about how the team has a much deeper understanding of what they want to get to, a better understanding how far they’ve come and how far they’ve got to go.
WR Geremy Davis has been fully cleared to participate as has QB Chandler Whitmer.
He said the Cincinnati defense should look familiar as former UConn defensive coordinator Hank Hughes is the DC at Cincy. He said they use four down lineman, lot of quarters coverage and are very attacking group.
They run a spread offense and have heavily featured wide receivers. When they can run, it opens up their passing game.
He said Cincy has a consistent sound special teams. Overall, they are very explosive.
I asked him about Cincy QB Gunner Kiel in regards to Notre Dame. He said he’s not all familiar with him on the field. Kiel got injured and was out for the year. He did say from what he remembers that Kiel has great tangible skills.
He said that there is no grand plan for using Tim Boyle at QB. Boyle will get at least one series and the game flow will dictate the rest.
He stated the final three games aren’t as important as far as winning and losing. It’s important to keep using the opportunities of games and practices to get better.
He said it was a monumental undertaking of rebuilding. It was a tear down and rebuild and they are still in the beginning phase. He reiterated that the team understands where they are at.
He said the team needs, experience, maturity, culture and the lifestyle to be a champion. He said they lack mature intelligence in football situations.
He has no concern about the lack of motivation from seniors. If they aren’t performing like they should as far as effort, he will clean out their lockers himself and throw them off the team.
He said it’s been a very rewarding 11 months on the job. He said it’s been great to watch these guys grow physically, mentally and emotionally. He also said it’s been very educational for the day to day things on what to do, what to not do.
He said his network of coaches has helped him in his first year as a head coach. He said he speaks with Hayden Fry, Gary Darnell and Brian Kelly. He also has a slew of people inside the building he can talk with as well.
He said the most surprising thing about being a head coach is that everyone has a story. He said there’s a 140 in the organization and all of their stories are important. And if they have 5-12 people they care about then there are that many more stories that are important as well.
Diaco was asked about saying there was nothing there when he got to the school. He stated he never said there was nothing, he said it was a giant mess and now it’s a smaller one. He said the players were physically weak and fat, there blood work and nutrient levels were bad.
He said they had the culture of accepting losing. When they first got there it was an us against them mentality.
As far as recruiting goes, he’s interested in getting players that want to go to UConn. He wants individuals that achievement oriented. Then he wants guys who have a love for football. Otherwise it won’t work. After that, they have tangible traits they are looking for. He wants to have a big athletic team to be a good team. To be a great team, they need to get one or two exceptional players.
He said their expectations are to get to the top of the league. He said there should be 25 or less players who that fit the model.
He stated the AAC is an awesome league. He said that Casey Cochran is working with the tight ends now. He said Cochran may want to get into broadcasting now.
He said he felt terrible for Whitmer. He said Whitmer is a great teammate and that the team doesn’t see him as responsible for the loss to Army.
He said he went through the chronology of losing from the end of the game. Then they went through the chronology of every losing moment from the beginning of the game to the end. He said Chandler is resolute in being the best teammate he can be.
We’ll have more on what Diaco said as well some words from Whitmer, Boyle, Ron Johnson, Marquise Vann and Deshon Foxx as the week goes on.
