The Virginia Tech game will be a 3 PM ET start on a regional network. Most likely which ever station carried the Clemson game in your market.
The Coaches Hot Seat blog has a long section on BC yet most of it is directed at Gene. They even included an AD's hot seat in honor of our AD (of course Gene is only No. 2 there).
Bruce Feldman calls our season one of the most disappointing. It is a relief to read the national guys calling this season what it is. My fear was that most would just dismiss it as "a fluke under such a great defensive mind in Spaz."
Future Eagle Akeel Lynch had a great weekend. As did NJ commit Dan Crimmins.
Great post here from Heights and Lows on how BC gave up at Clemson. The best line on our rolling over -- "it also was the moment the ass-kicking went from 'perceived' to 'consensual.'"
Other ACC bloggers are shooting holes right through Blaudschun's ACC-Big East article.
Even HD hedging a bit on the Spaz excuse train. She realizes that there are bigger issues and that the fans are unhappy.
Connecticut prospect A.J. Zuttah is hoping for a BC offer.
Interesting post on how style of play is important in marketing college programs in pro cities.
Posts
11 comments:
This is a milestone for me.
I am cancelling my trip to Boston for the FSU and NC State games. (I had arranged to work in RI and CT during that timeframe.) That's two round trip plane tickets, rental car and 10 days of hotel business - plus meals and other entertainment $ not spent because of Frank Spaziani's attitude and that of Napoleon DeFilippo.
While I support the players, I cannot support this team's coaching direction. BC would be hard to watch even if we were winning - the scores would be 18 to 15; 15 to 12, etc. College football is supposed to be fun - and if you're not quite as good as the other team straight up - use a little imagination, a little finesse.
Do we run from different formations? No - the same basic 2 or 3 no matter what the situation is.
I'm not an X and O guy, but how about a No Backs / No Tight End - five wide receiver set every now and then as an example. The O-Line stinks anyway - create something to get a receiver open fast. When you are down 36 to 14 and you're running the belly series - I go nuts. The winning team does that, not the team that is behind by 22 points. While I don't know what I'm talking about compared to formation gurus, etc. - I know that our approach mirrors the HC's personality = no chance to beat a superior opponent.
BC plays boring football. BC plays a style of football that doesn't make any sense and it hasn't since Spaziani became HC.
Spaziani and DeFilippo have sucked the life right out of this program - from recruiting (and retention - taking care of players) - to coaching - to playing to win - to in-game adjustments - to never giving up - to game day experience - to providing an exciting, college-football type product.
It's really sad, because I love BC Football and I am proud of how far we have come only to watch it sink backwards.
Time for me to shut up for awhile.
BJK- I think we all agree with your analysis of the program, but I have more troubling news. I've heard reports that one of our top recruits from last year is planning to transfer after the season. It wouldn't be right to say who, but this will be just another example of Spaz's failures of recruiting and player retention. It doesn't take an expert to realize that the players have turned on Spaz, but I've heard the word "hate" used to describe our head coach. Very troubling to hear that, and Gene is in a very tough spot with Spaz and his contract.
Hello Bob:
Wow - I'd like to find out more about this thing.
It's painful enough to think of every player being frustrated and disagreeing with the HC.
Hate is a whole other deal = major problems.
It would be one thing to have a lean year, but bright future. I don't think we meet that measure in anyone's wildest imagination.
If we thought that we had a top recruiting class (by BC stretch standards = 20 - 35 nationally) coming in and again the year after - well we loyal fans would have something on which to hang our hats.
But unfortunately, it sure seems as though we are going in the opposite direction.
And HATE - wow!
BJK-
I wouldn't put so much stock in anonymous internet rumors.
My sources are very good, but take it for what you want. It doesn't matter who, but I can assure you that players will jump ship after this season. I know of one specific current starter who is 90% sure he's leaving, and if he leaves, I'm guessing it will be labeled as academic or dismissal of team rules. The specifics don't matter, but our roster is going to be even more depleted for next season if don't make drastic changes.
Bob,
He may be a doofus, but hate is a little strong. This is the same guy that inspired BC legend Mark Herzlich to make a phone call to Gene to plead that he hire Spaz to be Head Coach. Do you honestly think one of the greatest players in BC history would stick his neck out for a guy that the players "hate?"
I'm sitting in a hotel room in Wilson, NC looking at the replay of the Clemson game. Only the end of the first half and the second half.
When you realize how many young players we have, I have seen some good things. Of course we know about the bad things.
But we had a 43 yard TD pass called back and the Ellington near fumble or non-called fumble at the goal line picked up by Kuechly for a TD would have made a huge difference. Also ALJ maybe should have had an interception.
BC Football is salvagable - positive energy is needed, but where is it going to come from?
Let's go coaches and recruiters - build this up not down - or take off. Cut-a-chogie.
As for the players - these young guys have some serious thinking to do. Transferring isn't necessarily a wise choice.
When times are tough, the tough get going. Let's go BC - we will overcome somehow!!!!!
Opportunity comes via email:
This morning's inbox contained a survey from BC Alumni Association and Brodeur:
"Boston College is working with Brodeur Partners, based in Boston, Mass., to conduct a survey of alumni to better understand your views about the University. Obtaining a large and representative sample of our alumni is critical to the reliability and success of this research."
You know it was a survey about fundraising, trying to determine what approach will work best; i.e., what will make alumns contribute.
I was frustrated through most of the survey as it was in a rigid format and made only token mention of athletics. However, the last page solicited comments w/o restriction. I entered a long rant about about the disarray of the football program, stressing the financial costs to BC of paying both Jags and Spaz more than $1million a year, all due to GDF's mishandling of the coaching hires/fires.
I ended my response to the survey with #fireSpaz and #fireGDF. I encourage any other alumns selected to take this survey to do the same.
Lenny,
I received the same email today and let BC know how unhappy I am with the state of the AD and the football program in particular. GDF and Spaz must go. I will not contribute to the Flynn Fund in order to pay off GDFs bad decisions.
It doesn't seem to be X's and O's that are the real problem. Everybody's got X's and O's galore. It is philosophy. There appears to a philosphy that we here at BC "do what we do" (whatever that is) and that the thing which is getting in the way of winning is mistakes and lack of proper execution. Any coach can say that and be partially correct, they may even be generally correct, but it almost entirely misses the point.
Ye,s there is something to be said for establising what you want to do, and then going out and executing it, dominating your opponent and doing what you want to do. But it is rare that a college team can do that consistently against all it's peers... there may be only a couple of teams in the whole country that can go out and do that consistently in any given year. For everybody else, you need a more sophisticated approach.
And continuing, more or less, to do what has essentially yielded losses to mostly weaker teams, is not a sophisticated approach.
One possible winning philosophy says to find the enemy's weaknesses and exploit them. Please don't laugh - I know it is absurdly obvious and simplistic and funny, but it actually doesn't seem like we are doing that! Find the opponents weakness in their scheme, in their personnel, in their tendencies, etc. and then run plays at their weaknesses. And if it succeeds, then do it again. And again. And keep doing it until the opponent adjusts to shut it down. Then examine their adjustments, find the new weakesses created and go exploit that. And then alternate as they alternate. Every system has weaknesses. Every scheme has weaknesses. Every squad has weaker players. This isn't rocket science, its football. Find the opponent's weaknesses and go after them RUTHLESSLY.
But if an opponent has success stopping swing passes, try something else. If they are good at stoppping dives inside the tackles, try something else. If they like to crash the box on first down because they know you are going to run, then for God's sake try something else!
BJK is right. The same basic predictable, and stoppable, stuff. The kids do not appear to be having fun, and that is still why they play the game. How do you have fun? You do your damnedest to put the kids in a position to use their skills and take advantage of their opponents weaknesses. And playing predictable, and boring AND losing football really doesn't cut it.
What game ae we saving the kitchen sink for anyway?
ATL pointed it out on Twitter but with so many other issues it's gone by the wayside....
The awful short kick offs with 2 min left in the half. WHAT THE %^&*(!
Our kick coverage is 25X better than our regular defense. Why are we giving teams a short field with PLENTY of time left?
There's plenty of truth to excuses about attrition and injuries and recruiting woes, but this is a perfect example of poor in-game coaching. With all of our other issues, we can't afford to have our coaching staff have no understanding of the game situation. Spaz is contributing to 2011 losses just as much as players, ADs, and old coaches.
Post a Comment