Sunday, August 07, 2011

Five Things we won't learn with the start of practice

BC begins their fall practice schedule Monday. It's a huge first day and a huge season for BC and Spaz. But for all the storylines in play, there are still some major unknowns that won't be revealed until BC takes the field against Northwestern.


1. Just how tough is the schedule? Everyone agrees that this year's schedule presents more of a change than last year, but no one knows how much more. Every team we face has some question marks. NC State, Clemson and FSU have new QBs. Miami has a new coach. Clemson's coach is on a hot seat. Is Notre Dame finally back? This schedule might be easier than we expect. But this is college football. Perceptions matter. So BC's record will constantly put in context of its "tough schedule." My prediction is that things will even out as they usually do. Two of the teams will surprise and two will probably disappoint. Let's just hope that BC catches them all on their off days.


2. What sort of impact will Kevin Rogers' have? We are already hearing mixed rumblings regarding Rogers's offense. Some say the players are taking to it, while others question the learning curve. Practice will help but we won't know what sort of game Rogers will call and how the players will adapt until the season starts. We are not extremely talented on O, but there are enough pieces that a competent Offensive Coordinator should be able to improve things.


3. How healthy are Harris and Larmond? Both are saying the right things this summer, but camp will be telling. Things get out and if the guys miss practices or look tentative, we will know. And if either are less than 100%, expectations will take a nose dive.


4. Which new players will emerge? This is always the internet fan and blogger's favorite game. We hear and read things and then anoint some young guy or second teamer, the new savior. Sometimes the scrimmages are proving grounds and other times they are red herrings. But the speculation is fun.


5. What is Spaz's future with BC? This clearly won't be answered in camp but after the season we should have a much better idea. I know it seems like I am rooting against Spaz at times. I promise you I am not. I root with passion every week for BC. I just don't think Spaz is the right guy and every season with him as head coach is a wasted opportunity. I hope I am wrong. This is his third season. This is his team. How we perform this year will be a pretty good indicator of how the remainder of the Spaz era plays out.

16 comments:

Erik said...

I couldn't be more excited. I'm ready to get this thing rolling.

Dan said...

I think this was the best excerpt from that article:

"We're going to attempt to put the pedal to the medal here, really challenge our guys so we don't get into a situation, 'Well, we can't do this, we can't do that,'" Rogers said. "We're going to lay it on our guys. If we want to do a lot of things, we've got to be accountable to know what we're doing."

Love it. That and Montel saying Rettig is reading coverage much better and looks like he wants to "hurt defenses."

Im pumped!

Dan said...

Oh boy, time for more coffee, I just commented on a BCI link on here.

Galvin said...

Completely forgive-able. At this time of year, I am literally reading any mention of BC football that I can direct my eyeballs toward. Mix-ups are inevitable.

mod34b said...

new stars? I am hoping Ian White and John Wetzel continue the "O-Line U" tradition and become solid starting lineman opening holes for Montel and Andre, and pass protecting for Rettig.

Love to also see Andre become a viable threat in the backfield along with Montel at the same time. His play at Syracuse was no fluke.

Wouldn't it be nice to see our prized recruit Al Louis Jean become star.

We've not had a DL/DE star in a few years ... DQ will that be you? or will one of the DE step up and really put pressure on the QB with a speedy edge rush?

Last, it has not been on the radar recently, but boy do we need to improve our Special Teams play, starting with kick and punt return. Our coverage needs work too, especially kick-off coverage. We are losing far too many yards in the field position wars due to poor Special Teams play -- C'mon Spaz start thinking like Beamer when it comes to Special Teams -- its 33% of the game!

ObserverCollege said...

Look, we have to trust the staff. Spaz is building a program, brick by brick. Everyone knows that you can't really judge a coach's program until his seventh year at the helm. Spaz is in Year 3. He's just starting to clear out all the deadwood and rot that accumulated during Jagodzinski's 2 years of coaching. If the Eagles do great this year, then obviously Spaz is a genius. But if they do go 2-10 or something, that will just underline how deeply Jags harmed the program.

eagleboston said...

I'm cautiously optimistic. I am confident in the defense and I feel the offense can only go up from the past 2 seasons' dismal performance. Overall, I think we will be improved.

Unfortunately, I think our competition will be much better also so our improvement may not translate into more wins. Northwestern is a very dangerous opening opponent and both Florida State and Notre Dame appear to be back. It will take flawless efforts to win those games. Clemson embarrassed us the last time we were in Death Valley and does anyone expect a drop off with Va Tech? We could not beat Maryland at home last year and they have a top-notch QB. We could easily be a much better team and still lose 6 games this year!

EL MIZ said...

the return of larmond is so huge -- the absence of a viable deep threat last year was glaring. his ability to stretch the field will be huge for montel (no more stuffing 9 ppl in the box), and it will also help everyone else get open.

our excellent defense should be comparable to our excellent D last year. offensively, our QB is the go-to guy from the beginning and getting better, montel is back, our deep threat is back, and we have an offensive coordinator for the first time in 2 years. i have high hopes for this squad.

as for breakout players, i second the ALJ talk -- i was thrilled when he de-committed from the U after they fired shannon -- i think he could be an impact player on defense.

mod34b said...

Observer College --

Your point about Jags is analogous to Bush. It is not Spaz's (Obama's) fault that we have some serious problems now. Spaz (Obama)is doing his best with the cards Jags (Bush) dealt to him. We need to give him some more time and the resources to get the job done. Let's not downgrade Spaz now.

A new coach (President) really does need 5 full seasons before the team can be said to be filled with "his guys." So we can wait until the BC-USC series is over before judging Spaz (BO).

blist said...

Huh mod34b? Give it a rest, no one cares about your lame-ass analogies that in reality, don't mean anything. I may start talking about the uniforms just to annoy you.
Looking forward to seeing if a talented group of guys can make Spaz coach better than he has been.

NEDofSavinHill said...

Observer is correct.It takes time to properly evaluate a leader. look at Gdf he's been an ad 20 years without hiring one good coach but he needs a few more decades before a true assessment could be rendered. This entire season is going to come down to qb play. 6 or 7 years back bc had a solid team. However when Porter started their record was 9-8. The same team led by Peterson was 12-2.Atlanta is on target with the importance of Northwestern We'll learn alot about them in that game. If Spaz can replicate TOB and move them to the 9 or 10 win level he could have an extended career at BC.

EL MIZ said...

that ppl still allow "observer college" to rile them is comical. this guy is a struggling satirist, pay him no mind.

BC has had a winning season and made it to a bowl game in each of spaz's seasons. i expect 9 regular season wins from the team this year given the talent and rogers > tranquill.

mod34b said...

Blist. You fouled mouthed youth! But gotcha! U fell for that one!!!

blist said...

Dude, I don't even know what I fell for! I just don't think we need to talk about political opinions here. Don't we get enough of that everywhere else?

mod34b said...

b-list -- College Observer is a spoof. my comments we a spoof on a spoof.

As for politic's, don't be so-thinned Skinned. Jokes about the most revered, awesome leader ever are still allowed.

Bravesbill said...

For once I actually enjoyed a Mod analogy. It was insightful, witty, and oh so glaringly true.