As I tweeted, Spaz is clearly outpacing his predecessors in offensive ineptitude. Rettig wasn't good tonight but I still think most of our problems start with the offensive line. But that really hasn't been addressed across two different offensive coordinators. So much for "OLine U."
Because I've seen BC bounce back from 0-2 starts, I am not saying the season is over, but I think we have 9 win talent with 6 win coaching.
I'll have second viewing thoughts and grades late Sunday night.
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Couldn't agree more with your first paragraph there ATL. Just a brutal game to endure. Second for me only to last year's VaTech debacle.
Bill, usually I'm a Spaz supporter, but you're line "we're a 9 win talent with 6 win coaching" hits home. I think Rogers has the capability to take us to the next level. I think Devine as the o-line coach isn't getting us done. Our defense has too many holes to operate at a satisfactory level.
I will watch this team week in and out. I will think we have a chance until they put Marscovetra in. But Spaz, as an HC isn't getting the job done.
When is the last time BC started 0-2? I can't remember a time, and the BCeagles.com archives only go to 1996 - no 0-2 starts going back to then.
Spaz looks like he's pretty much mailed in the entire season. No passion or intelligence whatsoever.
Wow. That was some bad football.
Not even close. And not fun to watch either
ATL,
After the Jags fiasco and the precedent that GDF established with honoring contracts and whatnot, are we "stuck" with spaz until his contract +/- extension is completed?
I just feel bad for the players. No chance to succeed.
BJK, you were at the game. What did you think?
6 win talent? Dude, we're not going bowling. Optimistically, his is a 3-4 win team.
Never mind the coaching, which may be lacking, I don't think Spaz and his staff have done a good job recruiting.
Where is the talent? There were so many playmakers on BC teams of the recent past. I just don't see many of them (aside from Keuchly) on this team.
Without Harris and a functional o-line, this isn't a bowl team.
Block - just got back to the timeshare.
My first thought is that this is too much of an investment in time, money and getting into the stadium from the parking area, etc to subject oneself to such poor performance. It's much easier to turn the channel on the HDTV.
I've been watching this team for quite sometime, and we've been going straight downhill since Crane got hurt against Wake Forest. I don't think we can blame Jagz any longer. This team has Spaziani written all over it. I hope the young players don't get too discouraged.
Spa - my cupboard is bare - ziani is not cutting it as a head coach.
I think it was still a game when we had a 3rd and 1 and didn't make it on two tries.
The sad part is that even though we die hard fans didn't want to believe it - deep down we knew that we had no chance - and that we would be the very first BCS team beaten in UCF's home stadium.
We stink and have fallen a long way since we beat UCF 34 to 7 three years ago. It's a sad state of affairs and GDF will get an earful in NYC.
Just an awful performance. Sad. Rettig can't get anything done by constantly being rushed or sacked. The DL is unable to pressure anything, opposing QB's have all day. Worst of all the entire team looks flat, tired and scared. I had a very difficult time watching this, like never before.
6 win talent and 6 win coaching. 9 win talent? You're delusional. Offensive line is the epitome of overrated. Slow, and not physical.
Rettig is a wanna be gun slinger with a good arm and average accuracy. He is no savior. The WR are below average across the board. Larmond is an average to above average college receiver. Pantale is vastly overrated too.
The defensive tackles are non-entities. That's about the same as the ends who couldn't pressure a pop warner QB.
This team will have it's first losing season since O'Brien was trying to get the house in order. We will get 1 win out of the non-conference schedule (we hope). Best case we go .500 in conference play. That's 5 wins and no bowl eligibility.
This program has slid down hill since a menopausal Gene fired Jags and replaced him with the easiest hire, not the best.
Guys Spaz is a joke but c'mon not one BCS conference team with any academicic restrictions is going to survive losing the The ACC player of the year, their best receiver , an o-lineman, 2 corners, 2 safeties and have 3 D-lineman on the bench. Not happening.
I sat at the 50 yardline last night 10 rows up from the BC bench and all the UCF fans were asking me how come BC doesn't sub on defense? Does BC have nother running back?
Funny thing BC was so much bigger than they were. Should have just been able to pound them.
UCF and its fans = classy experience. There were red bandanas everywhere and much positive interaction between fan groups.
This will be a long year and we'll have to find positive personal interest type stories to keep us going. I thought our players tried hard but...........
It would be easy to quit right now - players and fans. Let's see what happens and stay tight for the team.
Unfortunately, I don't think Spaz is the answer. He needs a strong recruiting effort. I don't remember seeing our O-Line so ineffective.
Anyway - I'm off to enjoy the day and put this on behind me.
You are way optomistic in tour assessment. Admittedly in a friendly bet I had four wins as the ceiling.
You have it right that the Oline is a long term downturn. BC is not developing the Oline talent. Recruiting ehh.
Defensive tackles have been a strength with depth. Gone! DE is like always, not going to scare anyone.
Retig remains a question. Can he be as accurate and have the touch a BC QB must be with the WRs that do not separate.
The answer is as clear as it was in TOB time. Coach Flip needs to go first. After lover boy and the Spazzing he cannot be part of the process. TOB was wise enough to freeze Flip out, the trustees need to wake up and realize TOB had Flip figured out.
Several notes.
1: I don't think our O-line is to blame for Rettig's issues. I've rewatched the UCF game and counted on Rettig's dropbacks. He's just not getting rid of the ball. He's regularly getting 3-5 seconds per dropback. On passing downs, its not an o-line problem from my review.
2: where our o-line is hurting is on rushing downs. Our guards are too slow to pull in off-tackle runs, and we fail to get any push on interior runs.
3: "Bend don't break" relies greatly on the down lineman getting to the QB. As we are incapable of doing that currently, any accurate QB will pick us apart. UCF's QB tore us apart last night.
3: On larger notes, I believe we had a hell of a renaissance during the Ryan era, but I feel that the era was more due to Ryan and the Raji/Brace line than any brilliance by Jags. I continue to believe that BC's best offensive setup recruiting wise was a Wisconsin style offense of strong interior running, with just enough passing to keep the defense honest (similar to what TOB implemented). The UCF game was a game that TOB would have controlled from the kickoff to the whistle. I think we need to think more "Big Ten" style offense than "SEC", as we're more likely to get strong lines than fast skill players on a year-to-year basis.
The "big uglies" were very ugly. Mediocrity is not an option.
You actually believe there is 9-win talent on this team? If Harris and Momah were playing, I could agree with that. But with those 2 out, there are no playmakers on the team. Zero. Just watch teams that win 9 games a year. They have several players with speed that can make big plays. BC does not have that. Now, Spaz should be accountable as he is the guy recruiting this 6-win talent, but I feel it is only fair to cut him a little slack since his playmakers are not on the field due to injuries.
Having Harris and Momah play last night would not have changed the outcome of the game at all. Stop the Spaz apologizing already. All I hear is excuses coming from Spaz and his apologists. This is his third year in charge. He has all his players. And this program is the worst it has been in over a decade. It is time for him to go.
It really all started when Coughlin left. I believe we have had numerous opportunities to hire Randy Edsall from his staff. Would you rather have Edsall or Spaziani right now? Edsall would have provided continuity after we reached such lofty heights with Coughlin. Heck, Whipple probably would have been a great hire.
Its discouraging to know that we are about to take a major step backwards once again.
Rettig has all the tools but doesn't have "it" and will never be great like a Ryan or Peterson.
I wish that this team had nine-win talent. We have the seeds of such talent: Rettig will be very, very good; so too with KPL and Andre Williams; Swiggert has some talent as well; and our defensive backfield, in two years, will be one of the best we've seen at BC.
But we're young, and we've had injuries and departures in key areas. Our best offensive player hasn't been seen on the field in 11 months. Our most effective WR is out for the season after the staff finally figured out how to use him. Our best offensive lineman went down in the 3d quarter last night. Our "starting" defensive backfield now includes only one person who would have started as of four weeks ago (Fletcher), and he was hurt throughout the summer practices. The talent taking the field could be coached to bowl eligibility, but it would take a good coach to accomplish that.
None of the above serves as an excuse for Spaz. Jags took the solid foundation that Tom O'Brien left him, and leveraged Matty to one ACC championship game and BJ Raji and Mark Herzlich to another. Despite that success, the foundation was crumbling as Jag's recruiting essentially left us with nothing for two straight years. Now we have Spaz who has been unable to rebuild the foundation...
And whose coaching skills, or lack thereof, make everything look all that much worse. Our bend-but-don't-break defensive scheme depends on having an offense that can get several first downs each possession to avoid exhausting the defense. Our offensive scheme, to the extent it exists, is a conservative, field-position oriented scheme, that goes 3 and out more often than not...yet we have a defense that gives up field position by design. Nothing works, nothing fits together, and nothing is aggressive. Everything is reactionary and conservative. Did you see UCF on 3d downs last night? They brought pressure, changed up their defensive looks, and had us routinely off balance. BC rushed three or four and dropped back in our patented soft zone. Any wonder about the results?
Somebody said that we make accurate passers look good. Well, Godfrey is NOT an accurate passer...but we sure made him look like one last night. He faced no pressure, was never forced to make a quick decision, and generally had his way with the defense.
Bad coaching can bring programs like Alabama (Shula), Florida State (late Bowden), USC (15 years pre-Carroll), Notre Dame (Davie, Willingham, Weiss), Oklahoma (15 years pre-Stoops), LSU (10 years pre-Saban), Tennessee, Washington (Willingham), UVa (Groh), etc., etc., to their knees. Bad coaching plus bad recruiting makes the problems all the worse. BC will never have the institutional advantages that some of those schools have, so it makes having a good coach all the more important. We won't out-talent anybody; we need to out-execute and out-evaluate.
We don't have that coach in Spaz. It's too bad, because he seems like a nice guy, and rebuilding is always easier with the guy you have than the one you don't (esp. with the village idiot making the hiring decision, but that's another matter entirely). Time to end the Spaz Error.
For those who are interested in listening. Here's an epic example of Spaz deflecting responsibility and throwing our players under the bus in the post-game conference.
http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/1007/1138581.mp3
I was also at the game.
It is a sad state of affairs at BC when we can't get a one yard with 2 straight runs.
Basically, they stuck our d#%ks in the dirt.
I was at the game and had to listen to the guy behind complain that they should be killing us because they were the better team.
I had no comeback.
Also, when we had them 1 and 25 after a personal foul in 2nd quarter, they caught an out for 15 yards in front of our bench that Spaz was going nuts on for a review. Was it a close call?
Does he know we don't keep the timeouts for the second half??
Eagle Manhattan - you owe me big. I just listened to Coach U No talk for ten minutes. What torture. If a coach can't express himself intelligently how can he coach.
Here's one bit of U No's wisdom: "I'd rather be ahead than behind." Another, "We are who we are." More: "Only so much you can do."
Here's a good one: "A little to hard to phantom." Or, "we didn't have enough at bats." Or, 'We don't have the people to make plays." Also he has a "fragile group of guys" with "little room for error."
U No sounds like he's done all he can but the problem is with the players. U No.
Manhattan, thanks for the link to that interview, but listening to that mumbling, rambling blather was almost as painful as watching the debacle itself.
And jrtmurphy, that call was close but the replay clearly showed that the receiver's feet were not down in bounds when he caught the pass. Even the announcers acknowledged that CFU hurried up their next play to beat a call for review. Don't we have someone looking at these replays?!
I can't remember ever feeling this down about BC football. I've tried to be supportive of Spaz, but it's almost impossible to do so now. Sure, we've had big injuries and other issues, but all teams do, and to some degree always will. Yes, Northwestern may be pretty good this year. And yes, CFU is probably a very solid program. But we didn't lose a close one last night because we were overmatched in a single facet of the game. We were embarrassed across the board, and at no time appeared to be competitive.
Spaz has to go. So far the ACC isn't looking all that strong, so even if by some miracle we string together a few wins in conference play, it should not be an argument to keep him on. Win the division, and maybe give him one more year. But anything short of that and he should be gone.
No joke: this is the headline on BCEagles.com right now regarding the game. What assclown in the athletics office actually put this on the website?
"UCF had a big fourth quarter to beat the Golden Eagles 30-3 on Saturday night."
your golden eagles: its spaz-tastic!
BCeagles.com's headline also says "EAGLES STUMBLE AGAINST USF LOSING 30-3". At least they got the score right.
Piling on a bit, but I listened to the interview audio and it is astonishing to me how he is the leader of a major college football team. He is nearly incoherent, inappropriately jokey and nothing short of a total embarrassment. I would rather he just not grant interviews anymore and tell people he lost his voice. He is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE WHO IS DOING DAMAGE TO BC AND ITS PLAYERS !!!
The extension by Gene was either rank cronyism or total incompetence. I think it is reason to fire for cause by the BOT. Things must change beginning immediately.
Glad I didn't listen to the rambling.
Gene DeFilippo - thanks so much for your great job.
What are you going to do for an encore?
Since joining the ACC -
9-3
10-3
11-3
9-5
8-5
7-6
and in 2011 - what do you think? Which way are we going? Why are we in the ACC if we are not going to be competitive?
We have the most wins in the Atlantic Division since we joined in '05 and have never had a losing ACC season...how is that not competitve?
"how is that not competitve?"
LOL, sorry, but pointing out the successes of prior coaches does not make this current team any more competitive. We just got blown out and beaten up in every facet of the game by a C-USA team.
His question was "Why are we in the ACC if we are not going to be competitive?" The game last night against Central Florida is irrelevant to the question. My point was that we have the best record in our division since we joined the conference. So should Florida State, Clemson, Maryland, NC State, and Wake Forest also drop out of the in ACC? If we're not competitive then certainly teams with worse records than us aren't competitive either. The question has nothing to do with the UCF game (horrible) or Spaz (equally horrible). Only a fool could claim we are not competitive in the ACC.
His point was if we are not going to be competitive now or in the future, why bother being in the ACC? With Spaz at the helm, BC will not be competitive.
I wasn't very clear with my comment.
What I'm trying to say is that after a 4-4 record in the league last year, we are on the fast track towards equality with Duke in football - we are on the fast track towards mediocrity and below.
Obviously I hope I am wrong. But here's the latest news - Rogers Takes Leave of Absence for Health Reasons.
How many think we will win at Clemson, at Virginia Tech, at Maryland, FSU, NC State, at Miami? There are potentially 6 losses in the ACC. It will be nice if we can beat Duke and Wake Forest. 2 and 6 in the ACC is not competitive. It looks like this could be a real possibility unless we glue up pretty good.
If we are not competitive in the ACC - Alumni Stadium will be empty!!!!
Go BC
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