Monday, December 13, 2010

The TOB tree is taking over the ACC

Since I've been tracking this for a while, it is time again to look back on Tom O'Brien's first staff. Now in the 12-team ACC 25% of the conference is coached by TOB's proteges. Now this sort of six degrees game can be played on many coaching staffs, but TOB deserves credit for finding these guys in 1997 and happenstance deserves a little credit for all of them ending up in one conference 13 years later.

Then (1997)

Tom O'Brien.
Relatively unknown coordinator from Virginia set to begin his first head coaching job at Boston College.
Frank Spaziani. TOB's old colleague from Navy and Virginia. Had been in the witness protection program (his own joke) coaching defense in the CFL. TOB brought him back to the States to be his first running backs coach at BC.
Al Golden. BC was Golden's first official college football job. Amazingly TOB named him recruiting coordinator too. (Can you imagine a BCS program naming a totally untested kid recruiting coordinator now?). But Golden had impressed TOB enough while a GA at Virginia to give him such a crucial role at BC.
Mike London. London had a little more experience than Golden, but it wasn't screaming "Big Time" job. He had been a position coach at William & Mary and Richmond before TOB gave him his first DIA job working as BC's defensive line coach.


Now (2010)

Tom O'Brien. After becoming BC's all-time winningest coach, TOB left to be the head coach at NC State.
Frank Spaziani. Spaz moved from RB to the defensive side of the ball in TOB's third year. From there he shaped years of successful BC defenses before becoming the head man himself in 2009.
Al Golden. The ever ambitious Golden left BC to head recruiting at Penn State. Then it was onto UVA before becoming a head coach at Temple and now Miami.
Mike London. Like Goldon, London was certainly ambitious and made stops along the way at Virginia and the NFL. He won a national championship at Richmond and is now at Virginia.


I should also note that in 1997 TOB also gave Michigan State Offensive Coordinator Don Treadwell and former BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski their first BCS level jobs.


I don't know what it says about the ACC or TOB that all these guys got their first big break at the same time. It is also interesting to note that after building his first BC staff with young, aggressive coaches, TOB has stuck with a more mature and loyal staff since.

29 comments:

mod34b said...

Interesting. Imagine if TOB had a little more enthusiasm, a little more personality!

I was happy for TOB this year (except for one particular game!)

RKCCB said...

33% actually if you mention TOB and his former coaches.

ATL_eagle said...

Thanks Michael for pointing out the weird phrasing. I tweaked it accordingly.

Benjamin said...

As if we didn't have any more reason to really not like UConn, and the Big East:
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/16081/you-hear-that-boston-college

Yeah....

Big Jack Krack said...

Early bulletin board fodder from a Nevada fan:

toddschafer wrote:

Are you kidding me? What is Nevada doing playing a team that could get beat by a junior college, in a bowl game? What an embarrassment! Are there no top 20 teams that wanted to play? Please, tell me this is a joke.

12/10/2010 5:12:11 PM

Benjamin said...

Must be a popular day to be bashing on BC. A win over Nevada is looking mighty good at this point.

Big Jack Krack said...

Benjamin - let's beat Nevada and watch Oklahoma take care of business.

Is BC capable of beating Nevada? Yes we are. It's just about a win-win for us and a lose-lose for them.

Having said that, Nevada has sold over 15,000 tickets, and will buy whatever leftovers we have. If they are disappointed to play a 7 and 5 team with perhaps the worst offense in FBS, they are not showing it.

Nevada will show up trying to lay 50 points on us.

Let's shock em'! Go BC. This bowl game is rated one of the tops to watch.

Galvin said...

God I hate UCONN. And now I hate Nevada. Everyone loves to pick on BC. I hope we whoop that pistol offense, and I hope Bob Stoops opens up a can on Edsall.

A33Jim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
A33Jim said...

The Nevada guest blogger on BCI was pretty respectful:

"I know this isn't the bowl game most of you were hoping the Eagles would play in this year, but believe me when I say the majority of my fellow Pack fans welcome the opportunity to play a program like Boston College. It's far and away the best WAC bowl game Nevada could've been sent to under its current circumstances, and we're all thankful as hell it isn't Northern Illinois in Boise or BYU in Albuquerque."

BCDoubleEagle said...

Dear Randy-

You finished in a three-way tie for first place in the smallest, weakest AQ conference. You lost to Rutgers. You were shut out 26-0 by Louisville, which finished 6-6. You lost to Temple... by two touchdowns. You are going to a BCS bowl, but you are not even ranked in the BCS standings (i.e. there are at least 25 other teams more worthy of a top-notch bowl).

Should you really be bragging?

mod10aeagle said...

BC2E: there's only one way you're ever going to enjoy those sour grapes, and that's while watching Oklahoma kick UConn's ass.

Benjamin said...

For the most part and from everything I've read, most Nevada fans are looking forward to the game and are looking forward to a match up with BCS AQ team. I've got my tickets, and I'm definitely looking forward to the game. And the closer it gets to the game, more BC tickets will be picked up by BC fans (hopefully).

BCDoubleEagle said...

mod10-
It's not even sour grapes. At this point it's clear the BCS is a joke, and making a BCS game is not necessarily an accomplishment (again, if an unranked 8-4 team can make a BCS game, then what's so special about BCS games?)

BCDoubleEagle said...

Kuechly named AP all-american

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5919361

mod34b said...

Kuechly 1st team AP All-American, Castonzo 3rd team. See HERE

cwm2005 said...

great news about Kuechly!

The guy really is a heat seeking missile and the All-america recognition is pretty amazing stuff.

Kuechly has been the one consistently fun piece of BC football to watch this year (as long as the other team isn't running a deep seam route down the middle of the field).

i'd even say clark kent is the only reason i kept watching while Nyquill torpedoed BC early on.

mod10aeagle said...

Raise your hand if you'd rather have BC playing in a BCS bowl game this year.

i suck at typinbg wuth my left hand.

dixieagle said...

Of course we'd love to be in a BCS bowl game. But, I'll be happy watching Kuechly terrorize the Wolf Pack. Here's hoping the offense can step up.

BCDoubleEagle said...

mod10-
Obviously I would love to see BC playing in a BCS game but only because that implies that we would have won the ACC.

Playing in a BCS game is not necessarily a great accomplishment in and of itself -- they let unranked 8-4 teams with losses to Rutgers and Temple play in BCS games.

mod10aeagle said...

Honestly, I'm thrilled that BC turned its season around after going 2-5. I don't care about anyone's opinion of the quality of the last five opponents, and I don't care that it's not a BCS bowl game. Although I was tweaking BCEE a bit on that, I agree that it's BS for any 8-4 team to be in a BCS game. It's just so great that Herzy and the other seniors finish with a bowl game after what they've gone through. If Albright can play, that would be just fantastic.

Big Jack Krack said...

A33Jim - I agree with you that Nevada fans are respectful, etc.

I was having some fun trying to promote discussion.

I think this is just about the best outcome we could have short of winning the ACC and playing Stamford in the Orange Bowl.

Playing Nevada this year is a great opportunity for us. I'm very anxious going into this game, playing against just about the top offense in the country and a highly ranked team. Having the jitters can be a positive motivator. BC is respectful of Nevada and there is no animosity whatsoever.

So we are playing for sheer pride with our defense trying to stop their offense, and somehow scoring enough points to win with our conservative offense. We are representing not only our own school, but Boston as well, whether some Bean Towners admit it or not, and we are representing the ACC. This is East Coast football versus West Coast Football - and we want to uphold our end of the bargain.

Go BC - beat the Nevada Wolf Pack.

Big Jack Krack said...

Duh - I have an office in Stamford (CT)among other locations - I meant to say about our destination outcome - playing Stanford not Stamford.

Dan said...

Randy just has his panties in a bunch because he didn't get offered the Miami job which means he will continue to have to be the coach of UConn :*(

mod34b said...

I am surprised Miami picked golden. Thought they would get a bigger name but it also seems Miami admin does not want to go back to the wild 'criminal' era.

Dan said...

Things keep getting better for our LBs. KPL made the Rivals.com Freshmen All-America team

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1164970

Eagle in Brighton said...

ACC $ or a BE tainted BCS berth (in an unranked season no less): ACC $ every time.

Congrats to Kuechly btw. Outstandting season, can't wait to see our LB core one last time v. Nevada's talented offense.

Dan said...

Yea ditto in seeing the LBs playing together. Herzy should finally be heathly, KPL has a full season and essentially another offseason camp under his belt and Keuchly, well he's just Keuchly.

This means Nevada's vaunted offense will be lining up against a linebacking corps consisting of a current, former and future All American. Line them up behind a healthier version of the D-line that yielded the lowest rushing yards in the country and Nevada's OC should be having a lot of heartburn for the next few weeks.

mod34b said...

Well said Dan!