Bye Week Newsflash Part I
Manuel: "I Want Diaco on Michigan's sideline"
Bob Diaco and Warde Manuel pose for pictures after Diaco was hired in December 2013.
In what will likely be the first of a couple news-related posts during UConn's Week 12 bye, we will once again fire up the annual Bob Diaco coaching rumor mill. Because it simply wouldn't be my dynasty without questioning Diaco's job status.
While Diaco, 67-22 in his seven seasons on the sideline in East Hartford, has kept his allegiance in recent years, he will most certainly get a long hard look from teams far and wide after the masterful job he has done with the UConn football team in 2020. After a pair of largely uninspiring four loss seasons, UConn now sits at 9-1 and #2 in the College Football Playoff rankings with just five weeks remaining until Selection Sunday.
Further, the 47-year-old defensive guru has overcome off the field distractions from senior corner Jake Crowder and newly-benched senior defensive end Sam Rourke to build a solid defense behind budding star Shavlion Wade and consistent veterans Ross Sinclair and Marcus Bradford.
Offensively, Diaco has morphed his long-standing dink and dunk, run first offense into an explosive machine with the dynamic junior Isaac Jackson under center and Heisman frontrunner Luke Williamson, just a third-year sophomore, in the backfield. UConn leads the nation in points per game (45.4) and ranks third in total yards and pass yards (506 and 303 per game, respectively).
With arguably Diaco's greatest job coaching on national display in the Big 12, it didn't take long for him to attract interest from schools with more historical significance this year. The first? His old boss.
At a press conference this week, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel noted how he would love to have Diaco on the sidelines for his Wolverines at some point in time. Manuel was the UConn A.D. from 2012 until his departure for the vacant Michigan job in 2018, and the two had a fantastic relationship during their time at UConn.
Manuel addressed Diaco in a question about the status of Brady Hoke as head coach of the Maize and Blue moving forward. Hoke is in his tenth season with the Wolverines and has compiled an 83-44 record while in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines, who expected to compete for a national title this season, have struggled to a 5-4 record thus far in 2020, including a blowout loss to UConn at home.
Nevertheless, it is believed that Diaco would only leave UConn for two or three jobs in the FBS level. Michigan of course is one because of Manuel, while it is believed that Notre Dame and Iowa would be the others. Iowa is Diaco's alma mater, while Diaco was a Broyles Award Winner in 2012 as defensive coordinator for the Irish. Both head coaching jobs may be opening eventually, as Iowa's Kirk Ferentz has pondered retirement in recent years, while Brian Kelly hasn't produced big-time bowl appearances with Notre Dame, much to the likely chagrin of Irish fans.
Diaco has declined to comment on the matter, but considering all of the job offers he has turned down since 2015, it may be a little too early to worry about the savior leaving the nest just yet.
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NFL's Jaguars moving to London, will change name to Black Knights
In perhaps a totally unrelated piece of news, the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and their odd owner Shad Khan have announced the franchise's move to London in the United Kingdom for the 2021 season. The team will be rebranded as the Black Knights and share residency with Britain's soccer landscape as they will call Wembley Stadium home on a permanent basis. Khan is the owner of Fulham F.C. in London and has long expressed interest in bringing American football to his adopted hometown. The Jags have played one or some games in London for most of the past ten years as part of Commissioner Goodell's evil plot to bring worldwide dominance to his sport.
The Jaguars have been successful over the last two years, with Khan opening the pocketbook to sign high profile free agents J.J. Watt, Dez Bryant and Matt Ryan to transform the team into a Super Bowl contender. The Jags have made the wildcard round each of the last two years, and hired hired coach Marvin Lewis to the head coaching role before last season, losing in the AFC Title Game last year. The Jags are currently 9-3 through Week 13 of the 2020 season.
Lewis is well-known for his failures and follies in the postseason, and if the Jags can't win it all this year, don't be surprised to see Khan look for a head coach who can make an immediate Super Bowl push in London next fall .... perhaps even Coach Diaco, who has turned down NFL head coaching jobs in years past.
This is essentially the first news post from the Madden universe I talked to you guys about last week. We'll be hearing more from that as the offseason approaches!
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One Last CAC reminder, Plus a plan!
I'd just like to send out one last post regarding CAC submissions for the 2021 season... if anyone wants to put your hat in the ring for a Create-A-Coach, I'd love to have it by tomorrow. The submission form should be a couple pages back in this thread.
Additionally.. the initial purpose of CAC was to incorporate coaches from some of the other popular dynasties of the time into mine. Started innocently enough with ksw's Kaelyn Willingham from Tulane and RT's Sam Freday from Bowling Green and the NFL. It blossomed into something completely different... which is awesome! However, I've been thinking about going back to the point of my concept a bit. Which means... don't be surprised to see D. Geezy, Dan Clayton, Rob Roy, J.D. Clark, maybe others up in herre sooner or later. We shall see.
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Originally Posted by whughes |
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Great win against Iowa State. Definitely implementing that "bend, don't break" mentality on defense. Lots of yards given up, but no scores, and that's what really matters. It'll be interesting to see what the committee decides to do if Arkansas State manages to get into the top 4 with them playing a fairly week schedule in the Sun Belt (assuming you didn't move them and I somehow missed it)
As for C Mich and Coach Slackoff, we started 4-2 and now have lost 3 straight. Looks like another season of no bowling for me 
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You're absolutely right. The defense has seen a lot of younger guys thrust into starting roles unexpectedly as the season has progressed (Mandrell, Barnett, Castalanetta in particular), so I suppose we're bound to give up yards. I'm grateful that we have shutdown guys like Wade and Sinclair, and then run stuffers like Altarri Gardner, John Cox and Marcus Bradford who can end drives on the ground and that our scoring defense has been solid thus far. However, I can't help but be a little concerned about the defense moving forward. The competition hasn't been great in the Big 12.. when we get to the postseason (even a top-15 Texas team next week) and start playing the better teams in the nation it's going to be tough to rely on getting a stop every time.
EDIT: Forgot to address Arky State hahah.. in any case yeah they're still in the Sun Belt. They'll be moving up to a different conference for the 2021 season.. I just don't know which one yet. Could be the American, Big 12 or even the SEC.. that conference has been so weak over the years that I think the Red Wolves could be competitive, believe it or not. In any case, I'm not sure what would happen just yet. They'll only play one ranked team by the time the season ends.. a home loss to Auburn. However, Arky State actually led at the half. So much of their placement in the New Year's Six depends on the teams around them.. if there are four other one-loss teams then they'll get the shaft because of their schedule.
But.. I haven't been shy about placing mid-major teams in the playoffs before. I put undefeated Marshall in and they won their semi game in season three..
Don't despair about CMU. The season is not yet over. Sure it's going to be tough, but there's still three games to be played. I've told you that this would finally be your year. We can't let it end at 5-7 again. (Disclaimer that I do not play any CAC games and therefore am not responsible for any and all results achieved by other teams.
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I am always pleased to see new faces drop in.. and it makes me even more excited to see the longtime veterans of this community such as yourself drop in, Helli. You've no doubt inspired my presentation a bit lately and I thank you immensely for that.
While the thread has been alive for 32 months .. truthfully I still think that is a little generous considering this report spent +/- 14 months in dormancy from March '16 to July this year and another two months with inconsistent updates from about November 2015 to January '16.
I sound like a broken record having said it a hundred times in the past month, but I'm enjoying this being back. I'm at a spot in life where I'm enjoying doing this hobby again and am looking forward to playing and updating more after I go off to college in the next few weeks.
Nevertheless I couldn't agree more about the NCAA series cancellation being great for 'chisers .. over the past two or three years I feel like we're seeing this sort of "golden age" of 'chising appearing right in front of our eyes. There are so many legendary/transcendental NCAA dynasties taking shape and still gracing these boards that have been around for years now .. Geezy and Tulane, to Cheese and EMU, LopaKa and Hawai'i, your J.D. Clark career... among countless others. And this is all because we're college ball fans who aren't being constrained by the new release each year, like you've said. I've been fortunate enough to not have this problem in years past, having only jumped to the PS3 generation mere months before the release of the PS4 in 2013.. but I digress..
Thank you as well for your belated congrats on the 2017 Natty. That 2017 season .. I still have vivid memories of each of those games, despite now being two years ago in real time. We were just a team loaded with veterans and on a mission. All the stars lined up, and we won it all! It was much faster than I'd have liked, but oh well. I'm not complaining since we aren't winning every year.
It's nice to see teams like UCLA, Florida rise again to national power statuses.. teams like USC, TCU, Georgia Tech and Minnesota have been perennially good in the dynasty too. UCLA did win two in a row, but have been largely quiet nationally since then. Florida is 0-3 in National Title Games since we started, another storyline in its own right.
We're certainly in a good position this year as part of the Big 12 now (with a much younger team, even more surprisingly), but there's still a couple tough games in front of us. We have a ranked Texas team on the road, a home game against Houston (who always plays us tough), and in a likely Big 12 Title Game either a Texas/OU rematch or an Oklahoma State team that we lost to twice last season.
We'll see what happens. I apologize for writing a book as a response LOL.
Again, thanks much to both of you.