Tag: purdue hires defensive coordinator

Former Notre Dame DC Reportedly Headed to Purdue

Diaco left Notre Dame to become the head coach at Connecticut in 2014, a job he spent three seasons at going 11-26 in that time.  His trip to the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl (16-10 L vs Marshall) remains the last bowl game Connecticut played in.

I didn’t look at life a week ago and think I was going to be writing about former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco on two separate occasions but here we are.

Diaco and has Louisiana Tech squad shutout Miami (FL) 14-0 on December 26 in the Independence Bowl and four days later he’s headed to coordinate the defense of a historical Notre Dame rival.

Diaco was on Brian Kelly’s coaching staff at Notre Dame from 2010-2013 where he oversaw a defense that was responsible for the Fighting Irish going 12-0 in the 2012 regular season.

Diaco left Notre Dame to become the head coach at Connecticut in 2014, a job he spent three seasons at going 11-26 in that time.  His trip to the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl (16-10 L vs Marshall) remains the last bowl game Connecticut played in.

The Huskies went just 3-9 the following season however and Diaco was fired from the job.

He’s since spent time at Nebraska (2017, Defensive Coordinator), Oklahoma (2018, Linebackers) and Louisiana Tech (2019, Defensive Coordinator).

Diaco won the Broyles Award at Notre Dame in 2012 as the nation’s top assistant coach when the Irish allowed one or fewer touchdowns in eight of their 12 regular season games.

I don’t know how it will ultimately go for Diaco at Purdue.  He’s spent a season in the Big Ten before as Nebraska’s D-C and had a rough go as his Cornhuskers allowed 30 or more points eight times that season.

What I do know is that life just got more interesting for those that cover Purdue football:

“Like Pavlov’s dogs – I walk through the gate and I salivate!”

I’m just mad I didn’t use that for my senior quote.