Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2013-14 season.
It wasn't all that long ago when UConn football was at the top of the old Big East, winning the league and earning a spot opposite Oklahoma on New Year's Day at the 2011 BSC Fiesta Bowl.
Three years later, the program was in a different place. Randy Edsall, who help the Huskies navigate their transition from the Football Championship Subdivision and made them a regionally competitive team with four bowl appearances, abruptly left for a job at Maryland. UConn reacted by losing 23 of its next 36 games.
Interest in the program turned to apathy after early-season losses to Towson and Buffalo and Paul Pasqualoni, the 64-year-old former Syracuse coach who was hired to replace Edsall, was fired after an 0-4 start. Offensive coordinator T.J. Weist replaced Pasqualoni on an interim basis for the rest of the season. UConn finished 3-9, its worst showing since 2001 and gave up an average of 30.3 points. At the bitter end, the Huskies were playing to crowds of less than 20,000 at Rentschler Field.
That didn’t stop successful coaches like, according to reports, Pete Lembo of Ball State and high-profile coordinators like Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster, UCLA defensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman and Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco from showing serious interest in the job.
They realized UConn has a first-class indoor practice facility, a relatively new, attractive 40,000-seat off-campus stadium, good academics and access to enough quality prospects from New England through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to produce a consistent winner in The American.
The Huskies have done it before. They won the Big East in 2010 and defeated Notre Dame in a road game and pounded South Carolina in a bowl game the year before. The myth that you can't recruit to UConn has been dispelled by the fact the Huskies have 21 players on NFL rosters and had five players drafted in 2013 after a 5-7 season.
When UConn AD Warde Manuel hired Diaco, he took a huge step toward resurrecting the program.
In many ways, the personable 40-year old Diaco, from Cedar Grove, N.J, who was Brian Kelly's defensive coordinator for four years, seems like an ideal fit. He won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach in 2012 when he helped the Irish win 12 straight regular-season games and earn a spot in the 2013 BCS National Championship. His 2012 unit ranked second in the FBS in scoring defense-- allowing just 12.77 points per game. Diaco was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award in 2011. This year's 8-4 Notre Dame team was ranked 32nd in scoring defense and 45th in total defense, but it still found a way to shut down rival USC's offense for a second straight season.
Diaco is a tireless, enthusiastic recruiter who has strong ties in the Northeast from his time as an assistant at Virginia and Notre Dame and has built a reputation for developing NFL prospects at every stop. As an assistant at Central Michigan, he coached Dan Bazuin, a second-round NFL draft choice of the Chicago Bears in 2007. At Notre Dame, he helped develop All-America linebacker Manti Te'o, who finished second in the 2012 Heisman balloting, into one of the most dominant defensive players in the country. He also helped turn Notre Dame nose guard Louis Nix and defensive end Stephon Tuitt into future high draft picks.
Diaco wants to be at UConn.
He actively pursued the job and signed a five-year deal that will reportedly pay him handsomely.
Diaco reenergized a suffering fan base during his introductory press conference with his knowledge of the program and his passion for the position.
“I'm absolutely at the place where I want to be,'' he said. "Football is all I've ever known. It is the engine that drives me. It's my passion. It's my life's mission. It's my life's work. We’re going to be on a mission. We’re going to understand things we treasure. We’re going to consistently apply the appropriate pressure every single day. And that’s how we’re going to become a champion, again.”
Unlike Notre Dame or even the Huskies' men's or women's basketball teams, UConn football should not be judged by whether it wins a national title. But school officials think it is realistic to compete for American championships and high-profile bowl games and feel Diaco gives them the best chance to achieve both goals.
In his new role, Diaco will have to show he can get the ball to the playmakers on this team and put points on the scoreboard. But he inherits a program that showed a flicker of promise at the end of a long season when it won its final three games after a 0-9 start. Redshirt freshman quarterback Casey Cochran re-ignited a stagnant, low-scoring offense in the final game of the season, throwing for a school-record 461 yards and four touchdowns as UConn defeated Memphis, 45-10, in East Hartford. Junior wide receiver Geremy Davis caught a school-record 15 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown, becoming UConn's first 1,000-yard receiver since 1998. The Huskies racked up 538 yards of offense. Cochran, who became the first UConn quarterback to throw for 400 yards since Dan Orlovsky in 2004, had 259 yards and three touchdowns in the first half.
Manuel has been through rebuilding before and come out on the other side. His previous job was at Buffalo, where the football program was 12-79 from 1999 to 2006.
“That is rebuilding, OK?” he told the media. “So put it in perspective. Why would I not look at what we have — the facilities, the stadium, the institution, and the fans — and say this is a job that coaches want because they know we have performed and won multiple championships? We’ve been to multiple bowl games; we’ve been to a BCS game.”
Diaco is considered a rising star in the coaching profession and will have a chance to establish his own brand the same way as Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia, Greg Schiano of Rutgers, Edsall, Doug Marrone of Syracuse, Bobby Petrino and Charlie Strong of Louisville and Mark D'Antonio, Brian Kelley and Butch Jones did when they coached in the old Big East. All of them used the league as a springboard to bigger and better things. Three became head coaches in the NFL-- Schiano with Tampa Bay, Petrino with Atlanta and Marrone with Buffalo. Rodriguez was hired away by Michigan. D'Antonio went to Michigan State, Kelly went to Notre Dame and Jones went to Tennessee.
The Big East was labeled as a stepping stone league by more established BCS conferences, but its member schools were always attractive to young, talented coaches.
There is every reason to believe the American can create a similar platform.