UConn LB Jefferson Ashiru (32) stops Boise State RB Jay Ajayi (27) for a loss in the second quarter at Rentschler Field on September 13, 2014.
Last week, Brian Koonz of the Hearst Connecticut Media Group wrote a story entitled “UConn football player deserved better from Diaco“.
In the article, Koonz spoke with Tayo Ashiru, the father of former UConn LB Jefferson Ashiru who had left the team after seeing his role reduced. The younger Ashiru had lost his starting role to Junior Joseph a few weeks earlier.
Here’s what the elder Ashiru had to say:
“I asked him, `Is this true? Are you tired of football? What is the story?’ I wanted to know what was going on.”
He told me, `No, Daddy. I love football.’ That’s what he told me.
“He said Diaco and the coaches were coming up to him at practice, yelling at him, and asking him, `Do you love football?! Do you love football?!’ He said, `They want to get rid of me.’ When he went back to his room, he told me he cried in a way he had never cried in his life.”
According to Diaco, who talked about it about his press conference on Tuesday, this simply wasn’t true. He said he was “crushed” when he saw the comments in the article and told everyone there what happened in his own words.
As I said to someone last week in a text exchange when I saw the original article, this was going to be a case of he said, they said. It turns out that I was right.
Having been around this football program since Day 1 of the Diaco era, I’ve never seen one thing from him or ever heard him say anything that would make me believe all of what Ashiru told his father.
Anyone who’s been to his press conferences knows he wants players who love the game. So the one thing I can be sure of is that Ashiru was asked that. Could he have embellished the rest? Sure, he could have.
Could Diaco not be telling the truth? It’s possible but I highly doubt it based on what I’ve seen and heard.
The younger Ashiru made a decision to leave that could have been rash. He could have simply finished out the season and found another school to finish up his career at. Or he could have stuck it out and fought to win his job back.
With the culture that Diaco has created there and what we’ve heard about it from the players, it seems to me that Jefferson didn’t believe in what Diaco was trying to do there.
Otherwise, how can you explain him leaving his brothers, the ones he said he loved before the season started?
Watch and/or listen below as Diaco explains his feelings and talks about what happened. UConn senior WR/QB Deshon Foxx talks about his experiences as far being given a chance.
photo credit: ©2014 Ian Bethune
