Bobby Diaco was a beast of a linebacker while at Iowa, finishing his career 7th overall in tackles.  He currently sits 13th with 334 tackles after being passed by some recent Hawkeye greats.  He teamed with Vernon Rollins to become a feared duo wearing the black and gold.  His senior season he was the defensive MVP for the team, as well as being a semi-finalist for the Butkus Award.  After his playing career ended, Diaco became a graduate assistant with the Hawkeyes under Coach Hayden Fry.  He remained in Iowa City for the 1996 and 1997 seasons, but found his first full-time coaching job at Western Illinois in 1999.  He was in charge of running backs and special teams for Western Illinois and while there his team was conference champions in 2000.  The next season Diaco left for a job with Eastern Michigan in 2001, taking over the duties of coaching linebackers while he was there through the 2003 season.  He left in 2004, but remained in-state when he took a job as linebackers coach as well as covering special teams duties for Western Michigan.  In 2005, Diaco left his position and again remained in state, as he was hired by Central Michigan’s head coach, Brian Kelly.  He was in charge of linebackers as well as sharing the defensive coordinator position.  While there for his only season, Diaco led a “worst-to-first” movement in regards to the rushing defense for Central Michigan in the conference.  In 2006, after Coach Kelly left for a new job with Cincinnati, Diaco went to coach the linebackers and special teams under Al Groh at Virginia.  He coached on the Virgina staff for 3 seasons and was promoted to defensive coordinator after the ’08 season, but left before he fully took over the job to take the defensive coordinator position at Cincinnati, under his old boss.  In 2009, Diaco had a tall task ahead of him when he had to replace all but one starter on defense.  The task did not prove too tall however, as the Bearcats finished 3rd in the country in tackles-for-loss.  He was one of the many reasons that the Bearcats went undefeated through the regular season on their way to a Big East Championship.  They were defeated in the Sugar Bowl by the Florida Gators, a loss that came after Coach Kelly left to become the head coach at Notre Dame.  Shortly thereafter, Diaco accepted the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach with the Fighting Irish for the 2010 season. He is still in that position today.