Last week’s 17-14 loss to South Florida didn’t go as planned for UConn, and you don’t need Bob Diaco standing in front of a microphone to understand that.
The first road game for the Huskies came under wet and soggy conditions where Diaco ditched the passing game, and it’s certainly hard to look back on. Plus, no one wants to read more of what could have been in a three-point loss to USF, right?
The first-year head coach met with the media earlier this week to discuss the state of UConn football (1-3, 0-1 AAC) before Saturday’s game against the Temple Owls (2-1, 0-0).
Diaco has seen this opponent before, but as the Notre Dame defensive coordinator. He spoke about a pair of sophomores that his team will prepare for this weekend.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_08KL90BU?list=UUCpTipFQZJNTTpIFx-j-aSg]“The quarterback (P.J. Walker) is a problem in that he’s got a very strong arm and can make all the throws, and also is a big, athletic guy that can run,” Diaco said during Tuesday’s press conference. “So that’s another piece to the preparation this week. And they play hard on defense and special teams. They have a couple guys you really like watching play, you’d like to be teammates with. A guy like Avery Williams, I put the tape on him and I end up just becoming a fan. He plays the game like it should be played.”
Walker, a dual-threat quarterback, won the starting job after Diaco got the chance to play against him last year and hasn’t looked back since.
Since taking over the starting position, Walker was thrown at least one touchdown pass in every game he’s played in, but is also capable of keeping it himself. He ran the ball 19 times against UConn last year for just 32 yards, but was able to punch one in the endzone. The Huskies got the last laugh as they secured their first win of last season with a pick-six off of Walker.
Diaco also talked about the present and the future for his tandem of running backs heading into Week 4 of the season.
“I think if one starts carrying the ball and it’s hard to tackle, we’ll just keep giving them the ball, but it hasn’t been the case,” Diaco said. “So far after the games it’s one guy one week and one guy the next week and one guy the next week. We’ve got three talented freshman backs and Max DeLorenzo is doing a great job in leading the team and leading the offense and being a tough guy for us, no doubt. When you think of Josh Marriner, Arkeel Newsome and Ron Johnson for the next three-plus years, it’s pretty awesome.”
Well if that last sentence doesn’t spell out “rebuilding year”, I don’t know what does.
Four players have rushed the ball for the Huskies this year, excluding freshman Blake Feagles’ one rush attempt in the opener against BYU.
DeLorenzo has gotten the bulkload of carries (39 of 93) throughout the first three weeks, but as I’ve stated before and as Diaco hinted during the presser, this could be a seniority type of deal as DeLorenzo is the lone junior in a backfield of freshman.
Newsome has seen time as a kick returner on special teams, and that’s exactly what he is — special. I expect him to be in on more snaps as the season progresses. He is averaging the most yards per carry (3.9) and has the longest rush of the season (22) of any of the four backs.
Moving on, Diaco cleared the air on what exactly is going on with backup quarterback Tim Boyle and his injury that never was.
“Tim has no injury,” Diaco clarified. “He didn’t have an injury, he has some manageable pain that goes away, it’s not persistent. It was inflamed on Wednesday in a drill, but I’m anticipating him being fine today and participating on Saturday.”
During the broadcast of USF and UConn’s Thursday night game, the ESPN announcers declared Boyle to be injured and not available for the game. This was swiftly taken back by Diaco and he added his own words of encouragement that Boyle could see game time on Saturday.
If I was in fact to go back and ponder last week’s loss in Tampa in this article, I would surely question Diaco’s abandonment of the passing game if indeed Boyle was available. Sure, the elements played a factor during the game played under monsoon conditions, but Whitmer only attempted one pass in the first half and he didn’t seem to be 100 percent on the eye test that night.
I digress.
Diaco may be tricky to figure out when he’s on the podium, but he simply gave away (or ran away) his strategy last week and needs to be less predictable.
Saturday’s contest is a no-question must-win game for the Huskies if they have bowl-eligibility on their agenda. It won’t take Diaco to tell you that.
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