Bob Diaco could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves.
We knew this from the moment he was introduced as head coach at UConn.
So when he spoke after the Huskies’ season-opening 35-10 loss to BYU, his positive outlook on things was to be expected.
He wanted to win, sure. Any coach does. But if you are going to drink the Diaco Kool Aid, you have to realize that it’s more than just wins and losses.
“Things are changing and I hope you saw it,” he said after the game. “Everybody’s upset that we didn’t win. But we’re going to. This football team is getting better. It gets better every day. We got better tonight.”
You’ll have to take his word for it, because it was clear from early on that UConn football was in for yet another long night.
The Huskies gave up two touchdowns in 26 seconds early in the first quarter. It was frustrating, but not shocking.
Then, Husky fans probably wanted to get up and leave when BYU quarterback Taysom Hill hit Terenn Houk for a 35-yard touchdown with just over a minute to go in the first half and just a minute after UConn got on the board with a touchdown. But the fans couldn’t have been shocked.
That’s just where this program is right now. That’s the hole that has been dug.
This is not a 10-win team and no one expected it to be. So while the taillights leaving the parking lot in the fourth quarter shined brighter than the stadium lights, Diaco was still focused on the positive.
“You didn’t see 12 or 10 guys on the field,” he said. “You didn’t see delay of games, you didn’t see guys moving or jumping you didn’t see guys out of their stance or walk on or off the field. The foundation is built and it’s strong.”
No doubt he’s saying what needs to be said. And there’s no doubt that you can’t read too much into one game against a clearly better opponent. If the foundation has, in fact, been set, his team is going to need to prove it in the coming weeks.
“At the end of tonight we were a better team than when we started,” Diaco said. “We’ll be better in the next game than we were tonight.”
Constant improvement might not mean a win over Boise State in September or at East Carolina in October. It might not even mean a win over Temple (remember, the Owls humiliated Vanderbilt on Thursday).
But we have to see it somewhere. The Huskies entered the red zone five times on Friday and scored just twice. Then there was the fake field goal on fourth down that ended up being a fruitless attempt to catch BYU off-guard.
“There’s a lot to clean up,” Diaco said.
The first test will be to see if the Huskies can stop beating themselves. If they lose because the other team is simply better, then so be it. That’s going to take more than a season to fix.
They brought the energy today. Diaco praised how they fought until the end, even when the outcome had already been decided. He liked the communication and the support players gave each other.
OK, so the players are buying into the Diaco mantra. That’s the first step.
Next he needs to get the most out of each player. Geremy Davis had his moments on Friday. So did Josh Marriner.
We saw hope on Friday. Next we need to see results.
