The word of the day is retread. Usually when I think of retread coaches, I think of NBA coaches like Frank Vogel or Ty Lue. Sometimes I’ll reference football coaches like Ben McAdoo. Today, we’re looking at one of college footballs famous retreads of the past few years: Bob Diaco.
Diaco’s Resume From 2014-2020
Diaco played linebacker at Iowa and got into coaching following his playing days. He bounced around from Eastern Michigan, Virginia, and made his bones at Notre Dame as the defensive coordinator. From there, Diaco’s career spiraled. In 2014, he took the head coaching job at UConn after the disaster that was Paul Pasqualoni. As a UConn fan, I thought that hiring the high energy defensive coordinator from Notre Dame was great. He ran a great scheme and brought a liveliness to the teams he worked with. Well, the “ra-ra” didn’t work. He went 11-26 in three seasons as the Huskies head coach and made one bowl game losing to Marshall.
I grew to hate Diaco because he neglected to recruit Connecticut and brought nothing to the table in three seasons. But sometimes certain guys aren’t cut out to be head coaches. After his firing at UConn, Diaco landed on his feet with Nebraska as their defensive coordinator. That experiment was short lived as his defense allowed 438.1 yards per game. While it’s never ideal to be a one and done coordinator, some teams still thought Diaco had more left in the tank. This was not the case. He landed in Oklahoma for a season as the outside linebackers coach in 2018. The following season, Diaco was the Louisiana Tech defensive coordinator. His scheme continued to fail as the Bulldogs allowed 381.1 yards per game.
After a year with Louisiana Tech, Diaco landed as Purdue’s defensive coordinator. Again, his abysmal scheme failed and the Boilermakers allowed 401.3 yards per game in 2020. Jeff Brohm fired the young coordinator and he ended up taking a year off from coaching before returning as the New Jersey Generals defensive line coach in the USFL this season.
Diaco’s New Gig
Somehow, Diaco keeps getting chances. Too many chances some would say. His former boss at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly, is bringing Diaco back as a defensive analyst at LSU. He’ll be used to consult on the defensive side of the ball, which to me feels bonkers. He’s been a disaster as a coordinator the past few years and now one of the SECs top programs is bringing him in to help with their defense.