Bob Diaco - New Defensive Coordinator

[Redux]

Disco's a bum

https://twitter.com/dirkchatelain/status/820065410313834496

What the f#*k is he taking about? They're not in a conference.

You're a joke

 

[Huskerfn95]

New to the board, long time lurker but I'm throwing my hat in on this one. I don't know much about Bob and his defense but if it like everyone is saying - I am a lifelong Steelers fan and we run the same defense he does. This year it started out extremely slow but has gotten progressively better through out the year. Heres a highlight video from this year (Renegade is the defensive song for home games when we need a stop, sorry for the music!):



Obviously we need to recruit the players to run the system, it can drive you crazy because of the underneath throws being completed but as long as you have players that can tackle whats in front of them, it works. The key is confusing pressure, changing who is coming and when but always showing that pressure.

 

[lo country]

I will also say this and I don't mean for this to be a "shot" at Bob

But with how abysmal his time at UConn was I don't see him even with success here as D.C. Being able to just jump to another Head Coach gig somewhere. If Bob does well we will probably be able to keep him here for a long time

I agree. Success here as DC doesn't translate to another HC gig.

I give you Craig Bohl. Horrific DC, but great HC, all be it at NDSU. 4 National Championships isn't bad..... He made Wyoming our best win in 2016... Bo......DC of national championship team and not so well at NU.... Then change to Youngstown State and year 2, plays for it all.

Some guys are great as coordinators. Others as HC and vice versa. Hoping he is great with a more narrow scope of responsibility.......

You look at his recruit classes he inherited at ND is similar to Bo at NU (Cally's not as high). Diaco inherited some great classes and his defense reflected the talent. As did Bo in 2009/2010. I am hoping that he can do the same with recruiting at NU that happened his years at ND. Clemson did ok with their non-top 5 classes.

And just because he runs a 3-4, doesn't mean we run that at NU.....at least not next year. Maybe we run that at a base, but then see a lot of nickel, dime etc...... Maybe we get some stud Juco NT, bump the twins to DE, who knows. I just hope, as mentioned above, that this wasn't some hail mary attempt to prolong the inevitable....

 

[famoustitles]

Here's what I liked most - immediate improvement when switching from a 4-3 to 3-4. Hopefully he can do it again

". In his first season at Notre Dame in 2010, Diaco switched defensive schemes from a blitzing 4-3 defense the Irish utilized in 2009 and installed a 3-4 no-crease defense. Diaco's defense became immediately better as the Irish allowed 5.69 fewer points per game and 40.5 fewer yards per game in 2010 than 2009". - from huskers.com

 

[Red Five]

[No message]

 

[Huskers44]

He needs to do better than 30th in total defense in year 1, period.

I'll take scoring defense over that.

 

[MLB 51]

I will also say this and I don't mean for this to be a "shot" at Bob

But with how abysmal his time at UConn was I don't see him even with success here as D.C. Being able to just jump to another Head Coach gig somewhere. If Bob does well we will probably be able to keep him here for a long time

I agree. Success here as DC doesn't translate to another HC gig.

I give you Craig Bohl. Horrific DC, but great HC, all be it at NDSU. 4 National Championships isn't bad..... He made Wyoming our best win in 2016... Bo......DC of national championship team and not so well at NU.... Then change to Youngstown State and year 2, plays for it all.

Some guys are great as coordinators. Others as HC and vice versa. Hoping he is great with a more narrow scope of responsibility.......

You look at his recruit classes he inherited at ND is similar to Bo at NU (Cally's not as high). Diaco inherited some great classes and his defense reflected the talent. As did Bo in 2009/2010. I am hoping that he can do the same with recruiting at NU that happened his years at ND. Clemson did ok with their non-top 5 classes.

And just because he runs a 3-4, doesn't mean we run that at NU.....at least not next year. Maybe we run that at a base, but then see a lot of nickel, dime etc...... Maybe we get some stud Juco NT, bump the twins to DE, who knows. I just hope, as mentioned above, that this wasn't some hail mary attempt to prolong the inevitable....

Bo has always done well with players from previous coaching staffs.

 

[huskertillIdie]

Red pants on game day!

At least he didn't ask for his brown pants!!

 

[famoustitles]

He needs to do better than 30th in total defense in year 1, period.

I'll take scoring defense over that.

Ya but starting in 2017 the team with the most yards not points wins the game

 

[84HuskerLaw]

875,000 is a bargain IF he makes us a lot better. We are spending another 300K a year and hopefully landing a couple 4 star grade recruits more than Banker was getting and maybe a little better defense overall. That is not much of a price to pay for an extra win or two! Maybe this guy helps us win vs. Wiscy this year alone. We'd all consider the 300,000 well spent to 'buy' one more 3-0 or a key stop during the season. I don't think Vince Lombardi would have helped us beat OSU but maybe we hold them to 49 and score another 7 ourselves 49-10 is not pretty but 62-3 is anihilation!

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I don't get why people are caught up in the salary of the assistants, especially the coordinators. Frankly, the assistants are paid the market rate. It's about time NU starts paying the assistant coaches in the top 3 or 4 of the conference. NU has the budget to do so.

 

[Danny Bateman]

As an Eagles fan, I was pumped when we brought in Chip Kelly (lol) and was psyched that he was bringing the 3-4 with him. Only, he brought with him a subpar DC and our defense got progressively worse despite some real talent. I'd caution those who view the 3-4 as some kind of remedy in and of itself. I realize its appeal, but you have to play good defense no matter what scheme you run. Banker's problems weren't 4-3 related, he coached a fundamentally poor, inconsistent defense.

Diaco > Banker, simple as that. Super encouraged he ran a good defense and recruited well at ND. It's a heck of a lot easier to recruit at ND than UConn, for those worried about that. Maybe he can replicate that success here.

Lastly, we finally ponied up for a legit top-line DC. He's absolutely top-tier for what was actually on the market. We've been asking for them to spend for years - I can't believe anyone is disappointed in that.

Really, would anyone prefer we stuck with Banker?

 

[admo]

Cautiously optimistic. Really can't be worse that what we've had. He's done OK but not great. Hopefully a change will be give us a boost.

Unfortunately, I have no idea who is he. Even during ND's great season, I never heard of him. In other words, up until a few days ago, why must I google this guy?

The one thing I briefly get a little excited about is, that I think we desperately need a B1G DC guy on our staff. If you can't beat them, join them. Maybe this is the guy?

How many possible candidates have you really heard of? Isn't that the issue?

Even better- how many DC's for other teams could you name right now without looking them up?

That's a very good point. +1

And to be clear, in no way am I firing shots at the new guy (in case it comes across that way). I'm cautiously optimistic and a little excited so far.

 

[suh_fan93]

Adam Carriker's take on the Diaco hire.

 

[Hayseed]

NOTE: This isn't a rumor. Its a follow up on a report from a Nebraska reporter. Would appreciate this thread remaining on the main board.

Bob has emerged as a leading candidate for our DC job:



So here's the deal. I threw his name out yesterday as someone who would make sense but I REALLY hope this doesn't happen. I've mentioned it a few times on here but Im a UConn graduate and so I have watched every single one of these Diaco era football games at UConn. Among the reasons Diaco was fired at UConn was:

1. We didn't score a TD in over a month. Thats right. A month. From the second half of the game against UCF on October 19 until the second half of Tulane in the last game of the season we did. not. score. a. touchdown.

2. He runs the "bend don't break" defense. It used to drive UConn fans INSANE because we would line up 8-10 yards off the ball (sound familiar?) and very rarely pressed guys or brought pressure. This is not the formula I believe necessary to win.

3. Guy is a control FREAK. I know as a DC this is somewhat okay but he was the definition of a micro-manager. Way way way too involved in every aspect of everyone's coaching decisions.

4. The guy has zero ability to understand game situations. Clock management (end of Navy game this year), fake field goals at absurd times (4th and goal from the 18 down 7-0 to BC in the first quarter, second fake FG against Mizzou last year, etc), lack of ability to get plays and defensive calls into the huddle on time, lack of situational awareness on both sides of the ball in various situations (2 minute, 4 minute, etc)

5. At ND he was a really good coordinator. Won the Broyles award.

6. He is a big "culture" guy. It ultimately was part of the reason he lost his job at UConn

7. Absolutely batsh#t crazy. If you thought Mark Banker was a good quote just wait until Bob Diaco is interviewed by our media. You're going to absolutely lose your mind listening to some of his quotes. Search "Bob Diaco Fish Cake" to start yourselves off.

8. The guy does understand defense though as crazy as he is. He developed Obi Melifonwu and Jamar Summers into phenomenal players for us. The American has some really really high flying offenses and he did a fairly good job at keeping them in check.

9. Won't bring anything to the table as far as special teams go. His philosophy regarding punt returns was to "fair catch them as to not take any unnecessary risks in the return game". We didn't return a punt for something like the first 5 or 6 games of the season last year.

10. He's a decent recruiter and has great ties to New Jersey. Was an All-Big Ten Linebacker at Iowa in his day and is young, energetic, and personable.

11. He wore red pants almost our entire season so I would look forward to seeing if that trend continued at Nebraska.

Summary: I would be fairly disappointed if we hired him as our DC. Despite being a Broyles Award winner and experience at Notre Dame as a DC from what I saw from him at UConn I would be TERRIFIED giving him a large amount of responsibility and money at UConn. My opinion might be jaded from what he did to my Huskies but I believe we can and should do better than him if we want to get to the point of competing regularly for conference titles and NY6 bowls.

This is what's baffling to me, we have the local media propaganda machine going off how he's the greatest thing since sea monkeys, then we have what seems to be a knowledgeable guy who has seen the new coach first hand, describing how he does everything we hate.

​I guess we'll have to just wait and see how it goes??