I think you have a very weird axe to grind against Diaco and have ever since you were told that he was a bad hire by your Cincinnati friends. A lot has been said about his being too selective about his recruiting measurements, but the guy put together the best four year stretch of defense at ND that I've seen in my lifetime. He also won a Broyles award and took UConn to a bowl game last year. Implying that Diaco, a defensive coordinator, was responsible for injuries the past two years is ludicrous.
Right now "ass-clown" or not, BVG isn't fit to carry Diaco's jock.
No axe. My thing with Diaco was his elitist attitude, which affected the atmosphere around him. I guess you either love that, or you hate it. And I have heard story after story about people Bob pissed off at ND. I don't want to get into details, but someone out their could verify that it includes recruits that we didn't get, players, parents, and other coaches. You just cannot have that in a program like ND.
As far as his defense, and I thought I was clear on this, Bob's bend but don't break, works better with the resources at a UND than it does at a UC, (from a recruiting and personnel standpoint.) So that was most of their problem with him.
And, I don't know why anyone has a problem with BVG, other than he doesn't have the same smooth presentation that a Bobby D, does.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sn_xWCuVgX4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I mean if you watch this, how can you not just love this guy?
I don't get it. I remember on media day when Bobby used to talk about baking recipes or something!
Comparing BVG to Diaco is like apples to oranges. For one, they're two completely opposite philosophies. Diaco was the "Bend, don't break" coach, while BVG has been the more aggressive of the two. Second, while Diaco had to deal with a bit of injuries in 2013,* nothing like BVG has had in 2014 and 2015, it's been downright ugly. Lastly, BVG has had to mostly make due with players that were recruited for Diaco's system, not his own. 15 CAT linebackers didn't translate into great 4-3 DEs. Even some secondary players like KVR seemed to be more effective in Diaco's system than BVG's.
Ultimately this year will probably decide BVG's fate. I'm not sold on him or anything, but he's taken a lot of criticism for things he can't control like injuries. Our defense needs a mostly healthy season to give him a fair assessment.
* The height of the 2013 injury rash was against Navy, when the entire defense was aligned in a two point stance and Navy switched from option blocking to straight-ahead man blocking, and used the entire ND defense as blocking/tackling dummies.
